FOCUS on Our Lake
Back in 1998 cleaning up and developing Onondaga Lake as a resource to our community was one of the goals identified in the communitywide visioning sessions. But it’s unlikely that anyone then would have expected lakeside trails to be the background for a megastar’s music video. Now you can watch Sheryl Crow skating along the lake trails during her 2017 concert visit at the amphitheater.
FOCUS has done three studies of the lake since 1998, and each has demonstrated the community’s continued interest in the lake and its restoration.
Results of the third FOCUS report on Onondaga Lake and the community survey in 2016-2017 shape the topic for our August FOCUS Forum. The forum will provide a view of the lake in the report and out the windows of the Skydeck at Destiny USA. Join the discussion. It’s open to all at noon, Aug. 17, 2018.
You can read our other FOCUS reports and learn about our free public forums at www.focussyracuse.org.
Getting to the point where the lake draws increasing numbers of visitors has been a long process begun in the 1980s, and it continues today as government and business implement the 2017 Natural Resource Damage Assessment Restoration Plan. In 2017 Honeywell announced that it had completed capping of the lake bottom and two decades of work toward the lake cleanup as it continued efforts with wetland restoration and funded monitoring and other programs.
Progress at the lake is just one of the 20 highlights and a glimpse of how far we have come since the 1998 community vision sessions set 87 goals. See what can be done and has been done, not necessarily by FOCUS, but by Forging Our Community’s United Strength. You can learn more about the 87 Goals and the 20 highlighted goals here.