by Kristina Gabalski
Brockport Mayor Connie Castaneda has proposed naming the Barry Street Park/Playground in honor of village resident John Lessord.
The mayor read her proposal into the record during the January 24 regular meeting of the Brockport Village Board.
Castaneda described the efforts of Lessord, who moved to Lyman Street in the 1960s, to clean up contamination of a creek that runs by his home.
Lessord initially noticed unusual colors in the creek water and notified the village. After a pumping station was built by a nearby factory, the problem cleared up. Then, in the 1990s, Lessord noticed foul odors coming from the creek and after notifying authorities eventually ended up contacting environmental attorney Erin Brockovich. A lawsuit led polluters to take some measures to clean up the contamination, the Mayor said.
Lessord and his son then continued their investigation into the extent of the pollution. “After studying many maps of the area, and using a metal detector, they were able to locate a lost manhole,” Mayor Castaneda said. “They called the village to inspect it. After the village inspection, it was determined that the water in the manhole contained pollutants and that the pollution had extended to Oxford Street and across the canal to East Avenue.
“As a result of this man’s vigilance, hard work and determination, the pollution was discovered and remediation is ongoing even today,” the Mayor said.
Lessord’s long-time efforts were instrumental in the village acquiring $64,000 to spend on the restoration of the Barry Street playground, the mayor said. She described additional ways Lessord has served the Brockport community, including serving with the volunteer fire department for 26 years, as fire chief for two years, as assistant fire chief for four years, as a volunteer at Nativity Church for 14 years and as a volunteer with Little League Soccer for four years.
“I propose to name the Barry Street Park/Playground in his honor, to show our gratitude for the many services he has provided to our community,” she said.
The mayor said she hoped the village board would consider her proposal at the next regular meeting, February 14.
The topic of creating a naming policy for venues/buildings is on the agenda for the next village board work session February 7.
Trustee Carol Hannan told the Suburban News and Hamlin-Clarkson Herald that the mayor’s suggestion was a complete surprise to her.
“I think it would have been much more appropriate for her to bring the subject up at a workshop first, rather than announce a particular person to honor, not knowing how any of the other board members felt about the subject,” Hannan said. “We all knew about the re-naming suggestion for the Utica Street playground before it became public.”
Hannan says she believes that before the board considers re-naming any other buildings or village entities, trustees should get input from the parks committee, the museum committee and past/present historians to establish written guidelines.
“Other municipalities have done that,” Hannan said, “they’ve established a standardized process.”
The village has a number of parks that already have names with special significance. Harvester Park, which the village website notes is located on what was the site of the oldest reaper factory in the world; Sagawa Park was presented to the village in memory of Dr. Hidetaka Sagawa, a former president of Lakeside Memorial medical staff and chief of surgery. Corbett Park is located on land once owned by the Corbett family, Hannan says, “the newly designated Monika Andrews Park – a novel idea which she conceptualized and saw through to completion; the police department building, which is named for a former long-time chief and we have some streets named after people/families.”
“Certainly in this community, where service is and has been important to so many residents, honoring every deserving individual is probably impossible,” Hannan adds, “which is why we should put a policy in place before we make any decision on this or any other specific proposals.”
