Hi Everyone!
Sue Swanson and Councilor Gary Rosen want to bring you up to date on the Coes Pond area initiatives and what we all can and must do to energize and accelerate everyone’s efforts. We ask you to forward this email (and future ones) to your mailing lists so all those who want to help out will know that their involvement is welcome and needed.
1) Please join us on Friday, August 1 when Ed McKeon and others will lead us on an interesting, informative and eye-opening walk around Coes Pond. Folks will meet at the new park’s parking lot (the former Coes Knife property) at 5:00 PM. The walk will be about 1 mile around and, of course, a mile back. Because the owner of the former Big D/Price Chopper property has been towing cars at $140/tow, DO NOT ever park there.
2) We have decided that the best way to make the most progress on the various Coes area initiatives, is to form three main committees, each of which will be charged with it’s own set of responsibilities. Of course, there will be some overlap among committees.
Please review the brief descriptions of the committees and choose which one(s) you’d like to serve on. Then let Sue and I know what committee(s) you are interested in serving on.
We’ll assign temporary chairs to each committee (later they’ll choose their own). The initial meeting date, time and location of each committee will be determined by those chairs. The three committees will function independently of each other. We’ll hold a large joint meeting in the fall at which committee chairs and members will report on their goals and progress.
At the moment, the three “P” committees will be:
Park Committee – This committee will discuss, plan and advise on the construction. of Coes Reservoir’s Inclusive Park and Playground (at the former Coes Knife property)
Pond Committee – This committee will deal with the Mill St. Beach (including parking, bathhouse, dredging, signage, swimming, kayaking, etc.) and all water quality issues associated with Coes and neighboring water bodies, dam. etc.
Publicity and PR – This committee will deal with all publicity, public relations, education, fundraising, politicking and lobbying at the local, state and federal levels. One of it’s goals will be to bring this beach back to it’s former glory for the summer of 2015.
The City Manager and I met at the Mill St. Beach two weeks ago and the lifeguards on duty told us how much positive difference it made to the beach goers after the Parks Dept. had cut quite a bit of brush and growth away from the water line where folks enter the water.
So much needs to be done but, working together, we can do it. With our successful efforts, this beach and bathhouse once again will be a wonderful place for families to go next year.
Please let us know whether you plan to attend the August 1 walk and/or join a committee. And please forward this email to others who might be interested.
Thanks!
Sue Swanson’s email: [email protected]
Gary Rosen’s email: [email protected]
