The Friends
are proud to announce that we have secured the following capacity
building grants that will greatly help us in strengthening our
organization for the benefit of Connetquot River State Park Preserve:
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FOC Newsletter, Chairman’s Letter, Spring 2008
The mill restoration is temporarily stalled.
Therefore, on April 3rd, Richard Remmer, Gil Bergen
and I met
with Ron Foley, Regional Director and Scott Fish,
Chief Engineer, both of L.I. State Parks, to discuss
N. Y. State
Parks’ schedule for continuing work on the mill,
which was suspended while State employees finish a
project at
Robert Moses State Park. Mr. Foley and Mr. Fish
expect the work to resume at the end of May. They
are also
waiting for final pricing and delivery of the
cypress to replace damaged beams. The logistics of
replacing these
beams are still being worked out, although N.Y.
State intends to do that work with State employees
who are familiar
with post and beam construction. It remains unclear
how much of the current work (replacing beams,
shingles, roof
and windows) will be paid by N.Y. State Parks’
operating budget. Another important piece to the
mill project is the
redesign of the dam and spillway to include a sluice
way to power the mill. N.Y. State Parks has started
on the
specifications for that project and has made
inquiries regarding permits with the N.Y. Department
of Environmental
Conservation, but the project is still in its
infancy.
We also discussed the problems we are encountering
in collecting the $50,000 grant that Assemblywoman
Ginny Fields has secured for the Friends toward the
mill restoration. Scott Fish advised us that he is
still working
with Ways and Means to free up the grant. The holdup
remains a problem because the money can only be sent
to to
the Friends if and when the Friends control the mill
site through a lease, which we are in the process of
negotiating.
I will keep you apprised of our progress. We remain
hopeful that the money the Friends raised and the
$50,000
grant can be reserved to make the mill operational.
Additionally, we have advised Mr. Foley and Mr. Fish
of our work on the Ice House and have promised to
keep them informed as the estimates and design work
come in. Mr. Foley was optimistic that N.Y. State
Parks
might find funding if the work were to be defined in
a Historic Structures Report.
Also at this meeting we brought Mr. Foley up to date
on our Veterans Highway stream protection project.
We all agreed that the best plan is to continue
encouraging the Department of Transportation to
restudy the problem
from every possible angle.
On March 6, 2008, we lost a good Friend, Betty Kuss,
who passed away. She was instrumental in the
establishment of the Friends. She also collected and
donated numerous Southside Sportsmen’s Club historic
articles
and documents that will be displayed at the park.
She will be missed. Bob Giffen will be writing an
article in the
next issue of this newsletter in honor of Betty.
I would like to welcome our new treasurer, Marianne Kinane. I would also like to thank Bob Hoover for
his many years of service as Treasurer. Bob will
remain as a member of the Friends’ Board of
Trustees.
Spring has begun to blossom in many ways at the
park. Come and enjoy.
Sincerely,
Bob Labuski
