Onondaga Creek’s future subject of March 20 meeting open to the public

Onondaga Creek’s future subject of March 20 meeting open to the publicMarch 19, 2007Kevin Morrowkdmorrow@syr.edu

Members of the University community are invited to attend the Onondaga Creek Stakeholder meeting, a free breakfast and open discussion about the future of Onondaga Creek, on Tuesday, March 20, from 7:30-9 a.m. at the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science and Technology (MOST), 500 S. Franklin St. in downtown Syracuse.

Parking is available in the Trolley Lot behind the MOST. Doors open at 7:30 a.m. for viewing exhibits and mingling. The discussion begins at 8 a.m. with a brief introduction to the Onondaga Creek Revitalization Plan project, followed by group conversation.

The goal of the OCRP project, sponsored by the Onondaga Lake Partnership and supported by funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is to develop a community-based revitalization plan for Onondaga Creek, which flows from Tully through the city of Syracuse to Onondaga Lake and has more than 10,000 homes and businesses within a half mile of its banks.

The March 20 breakfast gathering is one of several “stakeholder” meetings in which representatives for organizations and businesses that have a stake in what happens in Onondaga Creek’s watershed are asked to come together to discuss the future of the creek to aid the project’s working group in its planning process.

In addition to questions about goals and concerns, attendees will be asked to consider the following questions:

• How will creek corridor revitalization help the community?

• What organizations or individuals will be helpful partners in creek revitalization?

• How will creek corridor revitalization help you and your organization?

• Who will help promote your interests in the revitalization of the Onondaga Creek corridor?

For more information on the project, visit http://www.esf.edu/onondagacreek.