Community Development Block Grant-Ogden

Monroe County Legislature President Dennis Pelletier (R/C-Ogden) announced a Community Development Block Grant to provide residents of the Town of Ogden with an Outdoor Water Sports Program, with adaptive recreational equipment for persons with disabilities. Specifically the grant is given for the purpose of buying an outrigger canoe and sailboat with adaptive features for people with disabilities as well as equipment to help them get in and out of the watercraft.

This grant comes at a time when the Ogden Department of Parks and Recreation is also planning a project to provide public access to the canal in the form of a boat launch for motorized craft and car-top boats. This would involve a launch site and boathouse for storage, modeling the Genesee Waterways, but on a smaller scale.

Glenn Boetcher, director of Parks and Recreation in Ogden, says this is a bit of the "cart before the horse." The recreational facility is already being planned, but the adaptive equipment will be given before that. If the Town of Ogden does not find the necessary piece of property, they may have to look for a storage place for the adaptive craft, until such property is found. "We need to find a way," he says, "to make it all work together on a timeline.

According to Glenn Boetcher, the town is looking for a site to implement this project. There is already a program of this type in Pittsford, which includes a boathouse and rowing program, as well as the program of the Genesee Waterways. "We are trying to hop in as the west side of the county to provide this," Boetcher said. "We wanted to be the one." The idea is to have a master plan to grant public access to the canal and storage and rental of boating equipment and combine this with the grant from the county.

The pending issue is where to locate this program. One proposed area is the Widewaters site off Trimmer Road. The land is owned by New York State. However, according to Boetcher, there are some "possible glitches with that site."

Another seemingly possible area is Pineway Ponds Park, but Boetcher says that is a not viable site. The watercraft would have to be carried across a two-lane road, and they are large and cumbersome.

The time frame for this proposed plan is about one year. The grant will be accepted by August 1 and then the equipment could be purchased within a year from then, by about July 2003.
If anyone has a piece of land that would be appropriate for such a program, they should contact the town, Boetcher says.

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development funds the Community Development Block Grant, which Monroe County has received since 1973. Funds are used for projects to benefit lower income families, the elderly and residents with disabilities. In total, the program will provide over $3 million to our local towns and villages this year.

The Monroe County Legislature approved the submission of the CDBG proposals and the acceptance of the program funds on June 11.

Note: The Ogden grant includes improvements to the entrance at the Ogden Senior Center. The grant total for both projects is $36,000.