GEDDES -- The future plans to Onondaga Lake were put into focus Thursday night, as Honeywell unveiled its plans to revitalize the area along the Geddes shoreline.
Honeywell officials say they'd like to start planting trees and grass along the lake starting in the Spring of 2011. That's one year before dredging begins on the bottom of Onondaga Lake -- a process that is scheduled to take four years. Honeywell says it wants to spruce up the area so the construction work doesn't create an eye sore. The company said it took the public's ideas into consideration and tried to incorporate those ideas into the plans it released Thursday.
"I think a lot of the public's comments were heard and incorporated into the plan," said Dereth Glance, of the Citizen's Campaign for the Environment. "It gives us more details to chew on and to think about."
And while many people at the Lakeland Fire House were happy with Honeywell's future plans, others raised questions -- concerned the company is too concerned about beauty.
"There's major remediation issues here," said Don Hughes, an environmental scientist at SUNY Cortland. "They're talking about what kinds of grass and trees and baths and all kind of stuff -- about what it's going to look like at the end of the process, but the process is just getting underway."
Honeywell officials stress they are committed to doing their part in the clean up effort on Onondaga Lake. They say the beautification of the shoreline is just one aspect to the clean up. They say planting trees and putting in bike paths in benches will coincide nicely with the eventually clean up of the lake. That way, in 2016 when dredging is scheduled to be completed, people can finally enjoy the lake.
