After giving the public just three days notice to comment on an Onondaga Lake restoration plan that took 10 years to compile, the state has scheduled three more public sessions.
You might have to take time off work to get to them, though: None are in the evening.
The 73-page plan was released Monday by the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They had spent a decade studying the effects of industrial pollution of the lake, and proposed 20 projects to help compensate the public for those effects. When the report was released, the only public meeting was scheduled for Thursday. After an article and an editorial by Syracuse.com about the short notice, state officials announced Wednesday there would be three more sessions for the public to learn about, and comment on, the plan.
Dozens of people attended the session Thursday at the Honeywell Visitors Center, on the west shore of the lake. State and federal officials had posters and brochures outlining the projects, which include setting aside more than 1,400 acres of land for recreation, building a fishing pier, and extending hiking and biking trails.
Here is the tentative schedule for the additional sessions:
10 a.m. to noon Thursday, May 11, during the regular meeting of the Onondaga Lake Watershed Partnership. It will be held in Room 203 of the Center of Excellence Building, 727 E. Washington St., Syracuse.
4:15 to 6 p.m. Thursday, May 18, during the regular meeting of the Community Participation Working Group. The group meets at the Honeywell Visitors Center.
7:30 to 8:45 a.m. Friday, May 19, during the regular meeting of FOCUS Greater Syracuse. It will be in the atrium of City Hall Commons, 201 E. Washington St., Syracuse.
Written comments on the plan can be submitted until June 2. You can access the report here:Report