Erie Canal Harbor supporters dodge rain but not recognition
Persistent rain and a slight chill in the air Tuesday couldn’t dampen the enthusiasm of local preservationists celebrating the realization of Erie Canal Harbor and their roles in seeing that Buffalo’s canal history was preserved.
The annual meeting of the Campaign for Greater Buffalo Tuesday was supposed to take place on the newly reconstructed Central Wharf but was forced indoors, a few blocks away in an Ohio Street bar. There, Timothy A. Tielman — the campaign’s executive director — regaled about two dozen attendees as he reminisced about the struggle to preserve the Canal District in 1993, then buried under asphalt.
Tielman and the Campaign for Greater Buffalo also marked the occasion by handing out awards to about a dozen members, including two lawyers, a geologist, public officials, two local columnists and some average citizens who played a role in the battle.
“There’s going to be a ribbon- cutting in July, [and] I’m going to make a wild prediction that they’re not going to invite anybody in this room,” Tielman joked.
Among those honored with the group’s citizenship award were attorneys Richard Berger and Francis Amendola, both of whom worked pro bono on a federal lawsuit that stopped what he characterized as the destruction of the Canal terminus.
“Everything starts with people coming forward and saying ‘I’ve got to right a wrong,’ ” Tielman said.
Others honored included husband-and-wife team Ross Giese and Patricia Costanzo, both geology professors at the University at Buffalo, who debunked claims by state officials that stone walls of the historic Commercial Slip at the western terminus of the canal would have to stay buried or the rocks making up the wall would explode.
Buffalo News columnist Donn Esmonde received the group’s public service award for a series of columns he wrote advocating not only the reclamation of Buffalo’s Erie Canal heritage but public access to the waterfront.
“I think everybody here, and vast numbers of people who could not be here tonight, were all instrumental in making this happen,” Esmonde said.
“And I want everybody, for just one second, to just imagine what the landscape of this community and our canal district would be like if there was not a Tim Tielman,” Esmonde added.
ArtVoice, a local weekly, also was honored for publishing a series of articles on the history of the Canal District. Former Erie County Executive Joel Giambra, former Deputy County Executive Bruce Fisher and former County Commissioner of Environment and Planning Laurence Rubin did not attend, but also were honored.
