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ROTTERDAM
Town considers creating park on Route 5S
$5,000 study approved
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

   Town officials are again considering a park on 78 acres of vacant land off Route 5S that was donated to Rotterdam by Schenectady International decades ago.
   Board members narrowly approved this week a $5,000 study of the land to investigate the feasibility of a passive-use park on the property. The study, to be conducted by Griggs-Lang Consulting Geologists Inc. of Troy, will present possible ideas for the park and determine any limitations presented by the land’s deed restrictions.
   “We need to answer the question of what we can and cannot do on the property, knowing there are restrictions on the deed,” Supervisor Steven Tommasone said Friday.
   Located south of Schenectady International and west of the historic Mabee Farm along a stretch of the old Erie Canal towpath, the property now contains two large bodies of water referred to as East Pond and West Pond. From the 1940s until the late 1970s, the land was used as a sand and gravel mine.
   Formerly owned by Bonded Concrete, the land was subject to decade-long litigation with Schenectady International — now called the SI Group — which owns a plant adjacent to the property. At the time, the chemical company feared Bonded Concrete’s mining operation could taint wells that supplied water to the Schenectady International plant.
   Ultimately, the companies reached a settlement and Schenectady International purchased the land. The property was subsequently deeded to the town with some limitations to its use.
   During the early ’90s, former Supervisor James Constantino pushed for an ambitious park project on the land. Plans for the area included a public beach on West Pond, more than 100 individual picnic areas, two basketball courts, two tennis courts and softball fields.
   But the estimated $500,000 to $900,000 cost of the park proved to be prohibitive for the town. The plans were eventually scrapped.
   “It was too much for the area,” said Tommasone, who was opposed to the former project.
   Tommasone said the latest study will help determine the restrictions the town would face in establishing the park. He said any project there is likely to involve some degree of reclamation of the land.
   “We want to be very careful of what we want to do there,” he said.
   Board members voted along party lines for the study, with Democrats Dianne Marco and Robert Godlewski opposed. Godlewski said the town should first review the study conducted during the 1990s.
   “Give our staff time to see this report to see if it gives us what we need before spending $5,000,” he said. “We have a document with background information and it would behoove us all to read it.”
   Members of the Republican majority argued that the study would need updating because many state Environmental Quality Review Act rules have since changed. Board member John Mertz said the old study would provide useful background for the new study, but isn’t useful on its own.
   “It might be helpful for background, but certainly it’s prudent for the town to update the study,” he said.

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Located south of Schenectady International and west of the historic Mabee Farm along a stretch of the old Erie Canal towpath, the property now contains two large bodies of water referred to as East Pond and West Pond. From the 1940s until the late 1970s, the land was used as a sand and gravel mine.

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Hey, look at it this way, if we make 1 big, centralized park, then we don't have to have all these other parks around and it will give us more room for MFRH!