More on how the Sandra L. Frankel Nature Park came to be

Posted by [email protected] | Jul 2, 2016 | Cultural Life | 0 |

The Brickyard Trail in the Sandra L. Frankel Nature Park 6/29/16

Sandra Frankel 6/29/16 from Ghosts MIGHT walk the beautiful Brickyard Trail in Brighton.

As we reported, Wednesday June 29th was a special day in Brighton. A large crowd gathered for the Ribbon Cutting and Dedication of the Sandra L. Frankel Nature Park and its Brickyard Trail.

from the June 29th Dedication program see The ground breaking of the Brickyard Trail in Brighton and “Memories of the Crab Apple battles”

At the event, someone mentioned that planning for the Park had actually begun in the late 1980s (that I did not know).

For some more history, Sandy filled me in on the Barge Canal Five and the subsequent process by which the park came to be.

A group called the Barge Canal Five began advocating for open space preservation in the late 80s and as a result of their efforts, Supervisor Don Connors and the town board put a referendum on the ballot to purchase the Farash parcel as well as another parcel on Westfall Road. The referendum failed; people thought that the purchase price was too high.

Sandra’s friends came from all over for the Dedication. Rudolph Harris and Theresa Bowick were there on behalf of Conkey Cruisers. from Ghosts MIGHT walk the beautiful Brickyard Trail in Brighton.

As she has always embraced and advocated for preservation of the limited open space left in Brighton, Sandy never gave up on the project.

When Sandra and her running mates were elected to town government in 1992 (she would serve until 2012), the town partnered with the community to create a new plan, working closely with local conservationists to ensure the park would be environmentally sensitive. And today we see the fruits of their careful labor.

As Sandra emphasizes, the current town administration deserves much credit for the design and construction of the park we now enjoy:

Sandra Frankel with Brighton Town Supervisor William Moehle before Sandy’s remarks. Channel 13 covered the event. [Photo: David Kramer]
Bill Moehle who was our town attorney for 18 years and is now my successor, along with his town board, has continued that vision [first set forth by the Barge Canal Five] by putting the final piece of the our park plan into place with the development of the new park and trail.

Below is Sandra Frankel’s speech:

MORE ON THE DEDICATION AND THE BRICKYARD TRAIL

Ghosts MIGHT walk the beautiful Brickyard Trail in Brighton.

The ground breaking of the Brickyard Trail in Brighton and “Memories of the Crab Apple battles”

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About The Author

[email protected]

Welcome to Talker of the Town! My name is David Kramer. I have a Ph.D in English and teach at Keuka College. I am a former and still active Fellow at the Nazareth College Center for Public History and a Storyteller in Residence at the SmallMatters Institute. Over the years, I have taught at Monroe Community College, the Rochester Institute of Technology and St. John Fisher College. I have published numerous Guest Essays, Letters, Book Reviews and Opinion pieces in The New York Times, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Buffalo News, the Rochester Patriot, the Providence Journal, the Providence Business News, the Brown Alumni Magazine, the New London Day, the Boston Herald, the Messenger Post Newspapers, the Wedge, the Empty Closet, the CITY, Lake Affect Magazine and Brighton Connections. My poetry appears in The Criterion: An International Journal in English and Rundenalia and my academic writing in War, Literature and the Arts and Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Starting in February 2013, I wrote for three Democratic and Chronicle blogs, "Make City Schools Better," "Unite Rochester," and the "Editorial Board." When my tenure at the D & C ended, I wanted to continue conversations first begun there. And start new ones. So we created this new space, Talker of the Town, where all are invited to join. I don’t like to say these posts are “mine.” Very few of them are the sole product of my sometimes overheated imagination. Instead, I call them partnerships and collaborations. Or as they say in education, “peer group work.” Talker of the Town might better be Talkers of the Town. The blog won’t thrive without your leads, text, pictures, ideas, facebook shares, tweets, comments and criticisms.