Cortland Standard .net

By COLLEEN SIUZDAK
Staff Reporter
csiuzdak@cortlandstandard.net
SCOTT — The town board’s discussions Wednesday about a proposal to open the town park and boat launch to anyone caused concern among residents who attended the meeting.
Residents are concerned that opening the launch will make it hard to monitor the boat traffic in Skaneateles Lake. Besides the boat launch in the town park, there is another boat launch located at the northern end of the lake in Onondaga County.
Andrew R. Fuller Recreational Park falls within a contentious flood zone, created by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2010.
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry students are helping to design the park.
Wyatt Wesner and Mark Nowak, SUNY ESF students, discussed their engineering plans at the meeting. The plans include improving nature trails and recreational spaces, adding access to drinking water and also constructing a bathroom for the area.
The town is developing plans to send to Albany after Sen. James Seward(R-Milford) said in a previous interview with the Cortland Standard he hopes to secure at least $50,000 to give to the town for the park upgrade.
Plans for recreation include adding a “backyard” ice hockey rink, and additional sports fields. A questionnaire was passed around for attendees to give their input.
“We want to make it best for everybody,” Nowak said during thepresentation.
The main concern about the developments, however, include the additions to the park’s boat launch, such asadditional boat slips and a boatcleaning station. These plans caused contention with residents whofeel the park should be for Scott residents only.
They were also concerned about how the town plans to monitor the area, especially if there will be more people using the launch.
“How are we going to monitor this in the future?” asked Nancy Edlund, who owns a cottage on the lake.
Pat Quinn, a town board member, said during the meeting that the town met with the county sheriff’s department to discuss what rules and regulations to implement at the park.
“Now we’ve got the teeth,” Quinn said.
Tony Rusyniak, who owns two properties on the lake, said on his way out of the meeting that the park should be kept to town residents only, avoiding any additional nuisance to people who live on the lake.
“I don’t want to encourage people to come there ... because they really don’t care,” Rusyniak said.
Town attorney Pat Snyder said during the meeting although residents feel the park should stay open to townspeople only, he said excluding other people is not allowed.
He said it is not legal to prohibit people from coming to the park but the town can have a “sliding scale of fees” to use the boat launch.
The town implemented an annual membership fee for the boat launch, setting different rates for those who live in and outside the town of Scott.
Residents said there is already not enough space at the park and adding any structures or parking spaces would not leave enough room for the town residents.
“We’re trying to get some organization here to where people can go down there regardless if it is townspeople or not,” Fitch said.
Many of the residents said a gateto the park would be one of thebest solutions to avoid any late night visitors.
“If there was a gate that said it’s closed at this time, I think that would really help,” said resident CynthiaDumond.
Fitch said after the meeting that he understands the concerns residents may have of increased usage but park development is needed.
He added the town bought the property in 1985 from a local farmer and did not add anything until 2009 when they built the basketball courts.
“The town owns this 22 acres and it’s really not developed to the point of making it attractive and making people ... come down there,” Fitch said. “This was the opportunity to actually get something done.”
The SUNY ESF students will be making the final design presentation to their fellow students and teachers at the college April 22. Fitch said he hopes to hold a special meeting before that for residents to see the final proposed design.