Lewiston Beautification, Garden Club teaming on $43,000 waterfront park renovation

By Joshua Maloni

GM/Managing Editor

The waterfront park at Lewiston Landing – in between the Griffon Gastropub and The Silo Restaurant – is in line for a $43,000 makeover, courtesy of the Lewiston Beautification Committee and Garden Club. By next spring, the North Water Street green space will have new fencing, picnic tables and swings.

“I'm here tonight as a bearer of some good news,” Beautification Committee member Tasia Fitzpatrick told the Village Board of Trustees at Monday’s work session. She said donations, most notably by residents Fran and Marie Williams, graciously funded the project.

“We're not asking for money. We're telling you we have money, and this is how we'd like to spend it – and hoping you would agree with that and would allow us to move forward.”

“I don't know why anybody would say, ‘No,’ ” Trustee Nick Conde quipped, as trustees laughed. The board soon voted to approve the proposal.

Fitzpatrick said the Beautification Committee was looking for “a new project” and “areas we can improve.”

“One of the areas we think that could use some help – and I hope you’d all agree – is Lewiston Landing,” she said, noting the Niagara River view is marred by “the era of the wooden benches, the wooden garbage cans, the wooden swings – that's something we don't want anymore. We want to replace as much as we can – and the wooden fence.

“We put together, from our Beautification team, an idea that we would love to have a new fence down there to match The Silo. We would love to have new garbage cans – metal, to match what's on Center Street. We'd love to have new picnic tables – black metal to match what we're doing in all the other areas on Center Street. We would like new swings. We would like new benches.”

Last year, “We put wrap-around metal planters on all the lamp posts and filled those with flowers, and we redid the light pole itself. We had the great discussion over the Christmas tree that still survives, but is kind of trimmed at the bottom.

“That's really a gem of a location for us.”

The fence would be designed so as to not obscure a view of the water. It would stretch from the base of The Silo down past the Freedom Crossing Monument and to the foot of the Griffon.

“And then, of course, things that are really not quite as exciting, but things like garbage cans, which we purchased six this year to put on Center Street, to get rid of the wooden ones,” Fitzpatrick said. “We would have nice new garbage cans down there, as well, that would look nice and clean and sleek. And then the same way, we would have the picnic tables that match the ones that we're putting over in the new pavilion, handicap-accessible, and actually in talking with our friends in the DPW, they would secure them to the ground, putting them on cement pads. They would also remove the brick that's under the cement pads where the swings are right now, which are very wonky. We thought of putting pots there at some point. You couldn't even put anything on them. Those would all become cement.”

She added, “The benches would be metal. The swings, we're looking at that POLYWOOD. And the frames themselves, we met with Larry (Wills) down there before he retired, and he said they’ll last another 100 years. Our plan is to stain them black, so then they'll look black with everything else.”

Fitzpatrick said, “Really, it would become a complete transformation.

“And then, of course, we would continue our gardening efforts, and weeding and adding more flowers, and it would just, we would hope, be even more enjoyable than it is there now.”

Mayor Anne Welch said, “It's great. I appreciate you girls and guys taking that on, because, obviously, Lewiston Landing hasn’t been done in 20-some years, probably, and the old wooden structures and fence, we get complaints from people sitting on the benches or the swings, saying there’s splinters. So, this is great that you and the Garden Club have stepped up to do this for us, at no cost to the village.”

“The Lewiston Garden Club, founded in 1927, has a long history of improving the Village of Lewiston through projects and hard work,” Treasurer Doreen Albee said following the meeting. “This year, the club contributed $2,000 towards seasonal pots on Center Street and now $5,000 towards hardscape improvement at Lewiston Landing. New swings and tables at the landing will provide a better experience for both residents and visitors.”

Fitzpatrick said renovation work could begin before spring 2025, but won’t start any later than that – with an anticipated project completion within that same season.

Deputy Mayor Vic Eydt asked Fitzpatrick about existing park benches that were purchased and named in honor of people.

“We're going to go through those one by one; hopefully, go back to the people that donated them, and say, ‘Hey, we're redoing the whole place. Would you like to upgrade to the metal one?’ Hoping they'll say, ‘Yes.’ If they don't, we're hoping we could say, ‘Could we move your wooden bench someplace else?’ ”

The Beatification Committee recently decorated Center Street with pumpkins and garland. The group will soon begin adding holiday décor to the thoroughfare.

Eydt said, “I want to commend you for the work that you guys have been doing” around the village. “It looks great.”

The existing park at Lewiston Landing.

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In other news

Also at Monday’s meeting, trustees approved:

•A motion made by iRun WNY Inc. to host the 2025 Niagara Falls USA Marathon and Half Marathon on Saturday, April 26; and the Historic Lewiston 5K on Friday, April 25.

•The revised Lewiston Fire Co. No. 1 length of service award program plan. A resolution reads, in part:

WHEREAS, the Board of Trustees has recently retained Firefly Admin Inc. as third-party administrator to assist them with the administration of the LOSAP, and Firefly Admin Inc. has reviewed the benefits provided by the LOSAP and the current documentation; and

WHEREAS, Firefly Admin Inc. has observed that the current documentation does not adequately reflect the administrative procedures and benefits provided by the LOSAP, and recommends that a new plan document be adopted by the board; and

WHEREAS, a new plan document has been drafted by Firefly Admin Inc.; and

WHEREAS, the fire department has reviewed the plan document drafted by Firefly Admin Inc. and reported to the village that it matches the administrative procedures and provided by the LOSAP, and recommends that the Village Board adopt the plan document.

Welch was authorized to execute the plan document on behalf of the village.

•An investment resolution that permits Treasurer Stephanie Longwell to participate in the New York Cooperative Liquid Assets Securities System program, under the terms of the NYCLASS municipal cooperation agreement, to spend portions of its available investment funds in cooperation with other corporations and/or districts pursuant to the same agreement.

Longwell noted that, under this program, the village can put money in and take money out at will and without penalty.

Welch called it a “good deal to do some investing,” and said, “the interest is very good.”

•A motion to make an out-of-cycle payment to Sicoli Construction Services in the amount of $100,885.25 for pay application No. 2. This is for construction of the new Lewiston Landing north staircase.

Finally

A public hearing on the proposed Lewiston Police Department contract – as created by the Town and Village of Lewiston – is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 18, at the Red Brick Municipal Building, 145 N. Fourth St.