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Volunteers, onlookers gather for log bench project at Upper Nyack park - 17 November, 2009
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The Journal News
Akiko Matsuda
November 16, 2009
UPPER NYACK — Volunteers gathered Sunday to help revitalize Nyack Beach State Park by building log benches.
Tim Englert, development specialist for the Palisades Interstate Park Commission, said about 200 people participated in the event, Trim-A-Trail, at the park.
The event was originally planned for Saturday but was rescheduled to Sunday because of the weather.
Working with volunteers, Englert carefully shaped a piece of locust log with a chain saw.
Englert, who is an artist and came up with the original design of the benches, known as Knickerbocker Bench, said all logs used for the benches came from the park.
"We are taking the trees that were already down, and we are beautifying them," Englert said. "We are making them functional in a new way, and we are putting them back on the trail."
Earlier Sunday, Boy Scouts and members of other community groups, such as Keep Rockland Beautiful, helped clear six areas on the 4.75-mile trail along the Hudson River.
Englert said newly built benches would be placed at those locations, giving hikers better places to sit down.
Englert, however, said the project was not about benches, but about volunteers and revitalization of the parks.
"So many people that were here today have never been up here," Englert said.
"This is a way for us to get the public re-engaged in the parks."
Barbara O'Brien of South Nyack came to the park with her 8-year-old son, Christopher, to watch the benches being made.
"It's been a wonderful experience," O'Brien said. "It's a beautiful day to enjoy this."
With her husband, Helen McKenna of West Nyack also stopped by the park to see what the project was all about.
"I think it's very interesting," McKenna said of the bench project. "I think they are beautiful benches that they made."
Rich and Betty Belingeri of Nyack were having a picnic as they watched the work being done.
"We are doing cookout. We love it here. Kids can play football," Betty Belingeri said.
"Now we've got the entertainment," Belingeri said of the bench project. "Kids are loving it, too. It's a great learning experience for them."
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