VILLAGE OF FAYETTEVILLE – It was announced during the Fayetteville Village Board’s March 25 meeting that Canal Landing Park will be renamed in honor of former Mayor Mark Olson.
Deputy Mayor Mike Small, recently elected as Olson’s successor as mayor, said the park has been about 30 years in the making, with its evolution spanning the terms of five different mayors.
The park in the lower village is accessible via Limestone Plaza and located right next to the Freedom of Espresso coffee shop on West Genesee Street.
The property was at one point a New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) garage site left abandoned in the early 1970s. A later determination by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) found that the site was contaminated and in need of remedial activity, Small said.
Trustee Dan Kinsella said Mark Olson, who was mayor for 20 years until resigning this winter, was instrumental in preventing the site from staying a “total mess,” adding that he contacted the right people to “get things done.”
“Mark went after it and continued and continued and continued,” Kinsella said.
The park will be renamed Mark A. Olson Park at Canal Landing “in recognition of the dedication, determination and love for the village” that Olson demonstrated during his tenure as mayor, Small stated.
“Mayor Olson put a lot of effort into securing this park and having it become what it is today,” Small went on to say.
In July 2004, soon after he became mayor, Olson submitted an application to the New York State Canal Corporation proposing that the corporation allow the village to acquire the property for purposes of developing a park that would include a children’s playground, a gazebo, shaded picnic areas and trails.
At first, different developers were interested in the site, but with the help of organizations including the Canal Corporation, the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY ESF), NYSDOT and New York State Parks, along with various grants received from state and federal agencies, the park has become a “jewel of the village” and a “true asset” according to Small.
Over the years, the original plan for the park was expanded with the addition of three pedestrian bridges—one over Limestone Creek, which borders the park, and two over the feeder canal connecting to the historic Erie Canal.
“I think this is really appropriate,” Trustee Mark Matt said. “[Olson] worked very hard on this particular project. It’s actually our most active park now in our village, and it’s enjoyed not just by our village residents but by people of the town, county, city of Syracuse, et cetera. It’s really one of those things that actually draws people to our community.”
The renaming of Canal Landing follows the municipality’s trend of naming village sites and streets after its longer-serving officials. That includes the naming of the park in the Brookside neighborhood after Wilbur Coulter, who served as mayor from 1959 to 1969.
In other news
The village board set a public hearing for its tax cap override for right at or around 6 p.m. on Monday, April 22.
The board also moved its meeting originally scheduled for April 8 to April 1 at 5 p.m. That meeting will include the organizational meeting and the swearings-in of newly elected officials before any other orders of business.
The village’s fiscal stress score looks to stay at 3.3, down from last year’s figure of 19.2 and before that a figure of 27.5, indicating a continuation of the “No Designation” label handed down from the state, but to an even greater extent. The village last had a “Moderate Fiscal Stress” level in 2020, Clerk-Treasurer Lorie Corsette said.
“We’re done with our grants, we’ve got all the money we had out there back for the most part, and we’re fiscally in good shape,” Corsette said.
