Groups plan last canal "sweep"

The Town of Sweden's Adopt-A-Trail committee will close the 2002 canal season with a cleanup "sweep" along the towpath on Saturday, October 26, according to Bill Andrews, committee chair. Members of the eight volunteer groups on the committee will meet at Harvester Park in the Village of Brockport at 9 a.m. They will be joined by SUNY Brockport students who are participating as part of the Make-A-Difference Day program. Other volunteers are invited to join the effort by meeting at the rendezvous.

The Brockport Garden Club, the Brockport History Club, the Brockport Middle School Retirees, the Brockport High School Girls' Swim Team, the First Presbyterian Church of Brockport, and the Brockport Federal Credit Union have been policing the towpath at least monthly during the season, removing trash and calling more serious maintenance matters to the attention of the NYS Canal Corporation. They have spent an aggregate total of some 167 hours at that task this year.

The "sweep" this year will be somewhat truncated by the construction work being performed on the towpath by the Canal Corporation. The pathway from Gallup Road to the Smith Street bridge is being repaired, paved with stone dust, and landscaped. The parking lot at the Main Street bridge is being enlarged, a park bench and decorative plantings added.