Lewiston Supervisor Steve Reiter points to the lower Niagara River at Jospeh Davis State Park. Town crews cleared decades-old brush along the banks that had made the river inaccessible to parkgoers.
Lewiston Town Supervisor Steve Reiter has what he believes is a logical and fruitful mission both for the town and for the state: To renovate the long-neglected Joseph Davis State Park, located in Lewiston, to restore and develop the 357-acre waterfront park along the lower Niagara River to its highest and best use.
Lewiston Supervisor Steve Reiter points to the lower Niagara River at Jospeh Davis State Park. Town crews cleared decades-old brush along the banks that had made the river inaccessible to parkgoers.
In order to accomplish this, Mr. Reiter feels he needs the cooperation of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to make this park what it once was intended to be.
Specifically, Mr. Reiter wants the state to enter into a lease with the Town of Lewiston, or more particularly with what is called an LDC (Local Development Corporation), which would be a not-for-profit corporation controlled by the town and strictly for the public benefit.
Mr. Reiter says the town, through the LDC, needs a lease that would grant the LDC the exclusive right to maintain and operate the park for 40 years. Mr. Reiter says the long term is necessary, since the town will invest millions into the park to fix it up, to create new recreational activities and to operate the park.
Currently, the town is in the second year of a 10-year lease with State Parks, an exploratory one that allows the town to operate the park and determine future possibilities. There is an "escape" clause in the current lease that allows the town to cancel, and return management and maintenance to the state with a 30-day notice.
In their first year, the town cleaned up much of the neglected, dirty and overgrown portions of the 357-acre park.
For the first time in years, after the clearing of vines, overgrown brush and a plethora of poison ivy, park visitors could access what was the nearly invisible and now stunning 1,200 feet of river frontage the park possesses.
Both the present lease and the one Supervisor Reiter, a Republican, and his four-man town board of Republicans want approved require no payment from the town to State Parks or vice versa, but only that the town assume full responsibility for maintaining the park, controlling its operations, and if it earns any profit from user fees, concerts, concessions, etc., to reinvest the profits back into the park.
Mr. Reiter wants to go further than just maintain and operate the park.
He, along with the board, wants to borrow, through municipal bonds, about $5.7 million against future payments of New York Power Authority Settlement Greenway money designated for Lewiston, to make a total transformation of the entire park.
The Greenway money, paid to the town at annual installments of about $450,000 per year, would pay off the bonds including interest, Mr. Reiter explained. The improvement of the park would be a wise use of Greenway money, he and the board members contend, and would not be at the town taxpayers' expense.
Before they invest much of their future Greenway money, Mr. Reiter and the town board have declared they must get the 40-year commitment from State Parks, so that their large-scale investment of the town's Greenway money into the park and its facilities is properly maintained and protected for years to come.
After all, it would be a shame, they say, to fix Joseph Davis Park into the jewel that it could be, then let the state neglect it again.
"If we don't get a 40-year lease, we're going to walk," Mr. Reiter said.
He has approached State Parks in recent months, and for a time felt he was getting the runaround, being bounced from Mark Thomas, Western District Director of State Parks, to Albany bureaucrats, then back again to the regional office.
During a recent tour of the park, Mr. Reiter told the Niagara Falls Reporter, "Nobody (at the state level) seems to be able to make a decision. I feel like I'm chasing my tail, and the town board feels the same way.
"The state should be taking care of this park, not the Town of Lewiston. But the state has failed miserably."
The park has not only been neglected for about 30 years, but was one of several state parks mentioned for possible closure in recent years.
Things may be headed in the right direction, after all. Last week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office contacted the town and asked the supervisor to send an official letter of support for the proposal.
State Sen. George Maziarz (R) and State Assemblyman John Ceretto (R) set up a meeting this week with State Parks
Commissioner Rose Harvey to discuss the proposal.
Sen. Maziarz, a supporter of the plan, said he's pushing to facilitate an agreement between the town with Commissioner Harvey and Lewiston.
"I think it's a great project," Sen. Maziarz said.
Meanwhile, bulldozers and other town equipment are already spread across the state's property in preparation for what town officials hope will be a busy season for park users.
Even though the town will maintain and operate the park, it will be open for the use of everyone, regardless of residency, like any state park. Mr. Reiter, who says about 50 percent of the park is woodlands, guaranteed that the woodland area will be preserved. There will be no timbering or cutting of the forested area.
Town work crews have spruced up the open spaces considerably.
Photos from a year ago -- before the town moved in -- show broken-down shacks filled with junk, overgrown foliage, garbage and trash everywhere.
Today the non-wooded areas look well-manicured, and the town has already made the park a major project, cleaning up the concession stand, adding signature gardens, planning for a concert area, a fish hatchery and trout stream, a boat launch into the Niagara River, and larger fishing docks.
"The state can't afford to do it. The Town of Lewiston has the (Greenway) money," Mr. Reiter said. "We could do a bang-up job, and not only would it be an asset for Lewiston, it would be a regional asset."
It seems also that more people are using the park than in the past.
"We've proved ourselves," Mr. Reiter said. "We've maintained the park. We've re-established the (woodland) trails. We've opened up the riverbank. Now, for the first time in a long time, you can actually drive down here and see the river."
Assemblyman Ceretto agreed.
"Joseph Davis is a park that has been underutilized and almost abandoned for years," he said. "Supervisor Reiter and the Lewiston Town Board have a vision and have the funding to redevelop this park. ... We have a great opportunity here."
Sen. Maziarz also explained the reason he supports the project.
"The state hasn't done anything with Joe Davis State Park, and here you've got the town that's willing to take it over and willing to invest in the infrastructure improvements," Sen. Maziarz said. "If the town is willing to do it, then you're going to take a park that's inactive, and clearly not very well cared for, and let them do it. I think it's in the state's best interest.
"I've been working very closely with the town, and the stumbling block appears to be the length of the lease. The Town of Lewiston is not going to put millions of dollars into something that only gives them use of the park for 10 years. I don't blame them, particularly when the state hasn't taken care of the park in probably 30 years."
Meantime, as the town board hopes for cooperation, many of the needed improvements could be done this year, but possibly won't be.
"Every time we go and talk to (Parks) about what we're trying to do, it always seems like it's the first time they've heard it," Mr. Reiter said, voicing a complaint that must sound familiar to anyone
who ever had to deal with a giant bureaucracy. "Give me someone I can talk to that can make a decision," the supervisor said. "I talk to administrators and bureaucrats who just don't want to do stuff.
"As far as I'm concerned, it will be a home run for us, and hopefully a home run for the state."
E-mail Ron Churchill at ronchurchill@yahoo.com.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | April 17 2012 |