An open house at the new Brockport Village Hall, 127 Main Street, is planned for Wednesday, April 11 from 2 to 5 p.m.
Brockport Mayor Margaret Blackman made the announcement during her report at the February 5 regular meeting of the Brockport Village Board.
The village purchased the new building last October from Lifetime Assistance and the move from 49 State Street was made from January 9 through 11.
Mayor Blackman has said the move was necessary because of the growing needs of the Village Court. She had originally planned to host an open house for residents in February, but said it was decided to wait until additional updates were made to the building and the weather is better.
The mayor also updated the community on the status of the Canal Corp’s vegetation management project along the Erie Canal, which she said is now known as the “embankment management project.”
On February 1, the mayor sent a statement to a meeting of “Stop the Canal Clear Cutting” held at the Seymour Library in Brockport. Communities on the east side of Rochester have been fighting continuation of the project into their towns and villages and the Towns of Pittsford, Brighton and Perinton filed a lawsuit February 6 against the State Power Authority and the Canal Corporation saying they want to make sure no environmental laws are being violated. Town leaders on the east side would also like to see work stopped until the lawsuit is settled.
Mayor Blackman stated that the Village of Brockport concurs with the Canal Corp that trees do not belong along canal embankments and represent a threat to the breach of the embankment.
“We have 70 properties in close proximity to the canal embankment, some as little as 35 or 40 feet away. We have had leaks in at least three locations on the canal embankment in recent years, two of them homeowners’ properties, one of them in a village park,” the Mayor wrote in her February 1 statement.
However, the village has kept in contact with the Canal Corp, the mayor said, and is focusing its efforts on the safety of village homeowners and remediating the loss of privacy from clear cutting on properties adjacent to the canal.
She announced February 5 that the Canal Corp has tentatively scheduled a meeting in Brockport on February 27 at 6 p.m. at the Brockport Middle School Auditorium to hear concerns from village residents.
The meeting is one of the demands the Village of Brockport is making of the Canal Corp moving forward. Other demands include that invitations be sent for the public meeting to all 70 property owners and that the meeting be advertised in the local media; that the arborist hired for the east side be available to consult with homeowners in Brockport about appropriate plantings to provide privacy along property lines; that the Canal Corp assume the cost of those plantings; that the Canal Corp work with the village to identify and develop several public access points to the canal path; and that the Canal Corp engage the expertise of a local nursery when options for low growing vegetation on the cleared embankment is discussed.
Mayor Blackman also reported during the February 5 Village Board meeting that negotiations have begun between the village and the police union. The current contract is up at the end of May. She said village treasurer Dan Hendricks is leading the negotiations and that she and Trustee Katherine Kristansen are also involved in the negotiation process.
Village Board members also approved Mayor Blackman writing a formal letter to accept an offer from the captain of the canal schooner Lois McClure to visit Brockport from August 17 to 19. Deputy Mayor William Andrews reported to the board that the schooner’s captain had contacted him to make the offer and that the Lois McClure – which is a full-scale replica of an 1862 canal schooner – would be joined by the Corning Glassworks museum barge for the August visit.
