Third time’s a charm
Central Connection gets another forum
The idea of Central Connection is to combine three separate entities — the city of Dunkirk, the village of Fredonia and the State University of New York at Fredonia — and pool their resources into one united community effort. The name come from the long “corridor,” as this project refers it to, that is Central Avenue.
At the meeting were Steve Rees of Revitalize Dunkirk, Fredonia Mayor Athanasia Landis, Dunkirk Mayor Willie Rosas and SUNY Fredonia President Dr. Virginia Horvath.
Rosas and Landis spoke about their vision for the area — the “area” being the Dunkirk Pier, Barker Common and everything in between.
“When I first took office, one of the first things that happened was I became involved in this project here thanks to the Fredonia University president, Virginia Horvath, and Mayor Landis and I came in and we met and we talked about all kinds of different things that we could do together to try to bring the two communities together and utilize the college as a catalyst to bring the communities together,” said Rosas. “… So this project, the Central Avenue Corridor and the connection we’re trying to make, takes a lot of energy.”
“This is one area. As one area, it has pretty much everything. We have the waterfront, we have the history, we have culture, we have the university, we have beautiful nature,” Landis followed up. “We have pretty much everything that can attract people here, to come and bring their businesses, and their families. This is the only way we will progress economically and bring some economic development to the area.”
“Discussing consolidations and shared services and all of that is really good; however, … people are not going to come because of (the consolidations). People are going to come because you have to offer them all the other things — you have to offer them the waterfront, you have to offer them a nice downtown,” said Landis.
Horvath then discussed the ideas behind the Central Connection brand.
The group has applied for — and was awarded — technical assistance grants, by engaging a stakeholder group, meeting with mayors and their staffs, developing a brand for Central Connection, selecting a project in each community, targeting funding sources, developing project concept designs and budgets, and completing a “roadmap” for future development of the Central Connection concept.
On the Dunkirk end, the city wanted to look into improvements to the Dunkirk Pier, such as repurposing the parking, adding seating and planting around the edges to redefine the space, and more.
At the Fredonia end, the village wanted to consider improvements to the Barker Common area, such as plantings and a short wall to define the edge of the park, and new pavement treatment for Temple Street between the two parks.
So what’s next? For Central Connection, that would be completing the consolidated funding application, working together with county and local partners to fund corridor-wide projects, pursuing planning funding for the reconstruction of Central Avenue and the Lake Shore Drive intersection, and start thinking about projects for the next round of the CFA and other grant projects.
The point of the meeting, however, was to get input from those who utilize these areas the most — the residents. After splitting off into discussion groups, the many attendees rattled off a number of ideas and potential roadblocks for corridor improvements.
Among those ideas were:
¯ Fixing the trolley for community transportation and engagement
¯ Youth engagement — getting involved with the elementary, middle and high schools
¯ Creating a mural for Central Avenue
¯ A recreation center or gathering place of sorts for local children
¯ Using Adam’s Art Gallery for gatherings
¯ Adding bike trails, jogging trails, sharrows, bike lanes, etc.
¯ Include the town of Dunkirk in consolidation talks.
¯ The underpass — make it more welcoming and safer, to make people on the “Fredonia side” want to cross the invisible border
¯ Make an app that alerts you when you’re in Dunkirk/Fredonia and makes you aware of all of the available amenities
¯ Utilize the fairgrounds more for events, gatherings and bringing the community together
Some of the negatives included:
¯ Many eyesores in the city and village
¯ The downtrodden state of the Adams Art Gallery
¯ Poor streets, sidewalks and markings
¯ Not enough knowledge about the other communities and what there is to offer
While it’s great to have the ideas rolling in, it cannot be denied that in order to accomplish it all, the point here is unity: communities need to work together as neighbors rather than living by an invisible border and thinking that different names means different priorities. In the end, everyone just wants their community to thrive — so why not thrive together?
“Each community has unique assets,” said Assemblyman Andy Goodell, R-Jamestown. “…It seems to me that if we want to prosper … we need to focus on what we have in common. Over and over I hear the same things … people … don’t necessarily know what’s going on in the other community. It seems to me we have such great assets — the challenge is, how do we maximize both?”
COMMENTS