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Main Streets' needs debated MAHOPAC – Enhancing, preserving and protecting Putnam County's downtowns require teamwork and an effort that extends to areas outside the county's Main Streets. That was the message that county officials, residents and others heard yesterday at the sixth annual Main Street Conference. About 80 people attended the morning-long conference at the Mahopac Golf Course. "The concept of Main Street goes much beyond the physical attributes in our hamlets and villages," said Michelle Powers, principal planner with the county Planning Department, a conference sponsor. "We need to balance sound economic development with preservation of our resources." The conference was also sponsored by Preserve Putnam County, the Southeast Museum and Mahopac National Bank. Topics included the county's Greenway Planning Program, a cornerstone park scheduled for downtown Carmel and grants available for preservation efforts. Strategies for marketing Main Streets to a broader market were also discussed. "A downtown does not exist in a vacuum. It is part of a larger community," said James Nixon, a Brewster architect and member of the Coalition for a Better Brewster. Nixon said 350,000 people live within a 15-mile radius of Brewster's Main Street. Two years ago, County Executive Robert Bondi made Main Street revitalization a goal during his State of the County address. Since then, a new Town Hall and a recreation center in Patterson are coming closer to reality. In Putnam Valley, residents and merchants are working to spruce up Oregon Corners, a section of Peekskill Hollow and Oscawana Lake roads, where a medical center and a municipal parking lot are in the works. Refurbishment of the Brewster train station and senior-citizens housing are planned for the village's downtown. Sidewalks are scheduled for Carmel's hamlet area. Revitalization, Bondi said yesterday morning, is a team effort. As an example of that, he offered The Cornerstone Park — a $280,000 project that will make a former gas station at Route 52 and Fair Street in Carmel into a park and community museum. The work is being done with Preserve Putnam County, a private, non-profit organization formed by the Whipples of Kent, on land donated by the Spain family of Mahopac. At the end of the program, George Whipple presented Southeast resident Eleanor Fitchen with the 2001 Preserve Putnam Preservation Award. Whipple called Fitchen, founder of the Landmarks Preservation Society, the "fairy godmother of preservation in Putnam County" for her work in saving the Old Southeast Church from demolition and helping to renovate the Putnam County Courthouse in Carmel and the Walter Brewster House. A little foresight, said Fitchen, 88, can focus preservation efforts. "Through the years we just kept trying to think of the changes that were going to happen before they happened," Fitchen said. |
