COMMENTARY
Bruce Andriatch: At The Ridge, furthering a lifelong story
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Everybody has a Chestnut Ridge story. Maybe you spent snowy Sundays climbing the icy steps of the old toboggan chutes, loudly debating who was going to be on the back end with his legs on top of everyone else’s, knowing that the person was guaranteed an early exit.
Maybe you laid down a blanket on Fourth of July nights and—simply by turning your head—watched four fireworks displays at the same time.
Maybe you learned to ski there on a very gentle slope when you were 15, but maybe you weren’t paying super-close attention to what you were being taught. Maybe years later, when you tried to teach your girlfriend how to ski on the same hill, for some reason you kept yelling, “Keep your skis parallel!”—which sent her screaming toward the highway like she had been shot out of a cannon.
And maybe she decided to marry you, anyway, but to this day, she still wonders what you were thinking.
John Bailey has heard them all. Now he would like to help create some new stories from The Ridge.
Bailey is a board member of the Chestnut Ridge Conservancy, a newly formed group that aims to work with Erie County to improve the park, restore some of its grandeur and make sure that it no longer falls whim to whatever fiscal calamity happens to be afflicting government at that moment.
The group got together this month in the park’s casino, talking about a future for the park that will rival its past.
“Over and over again, what people said was, ‘When I was a kid,’ which belied the ages of the people in the room,” he said. “In the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s, Chestnut Ridge was much more of a magnet, much more of an icon and much more constantly used than it is now. It’s an asset that is underutilized.”
The jewel of Erie County parks has been victimized by politics and county financial problems, notably the chaos that followed the red and green budget mess of 2004. The county now has a plan in place to address some of what Bailey calls the “structural deterioration” of the park over the years, but it will need money to get the job done.
Enter the Chestnut Ridge Conservancy. As a nonprofit entity, it has access to grants and other funding that the county doesn’t. The conservancy also hopes to work closely with people who use the park so they “can generate ideas a little more readily than the county bureaucracy, which almost by definition is to administer the park as opposed to dreaming up new things that can be done in the park.”
At more than 1,200 acres in Orchard Park, Chestnut Ridge is believed to be one of the nation’s largest county parks. It’s probably most widely known as a sledding hot spot and a magnet for serious long-distance runners, but it also has been home to an equestrian ring and trails for snowmobiling and cross-country skiing. Part of the conservancy’s mission is to help determine whether to revisit those uses or find others, all the while maintaining its natural beauty.
“It’s a beautiful place, and you want to preserve that, . . . [but] it’s a public place, and you want to make it as accessible as possible to as many people as possible without upsetting the natural balance of what is there,” Bailey said.
Bailey does not want his conservancy to mirror the Olmsted Parks Conservancy, which effectively began operating the Olmsted Parks under an agreement with the City of Buffalo. He sees the Chestnut Ridge version as more of a partnership, one that supports the county’s efforts.
Western New York is rich with parkland but short on cash. Public-private partnerships such as this one could be the answer to preserving a precious resource.
And if it works in Orchard Park, a few more chapters can be added to the Chestnut Ridge story.
bandriatch@buffnews.com
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