Saratoga County today transferred more than 60 acres of land to the Town of Clifton Park to preserve a popular park and trail network.
“It’s official! From the county to the town.”
That’s Saratoga County Board of Supervisors Chair Ed Kinowski. On Thursday morning, a signing ceremony was held at Kinns Road Park in Clifton Park, transferring the 63 acres from the county to the town.
The park is popular among hikers and dog walkers. It will now be preserved by the town.
The effort to preserve the property goes back to 2015, says former County Board Chair and Saratoga Springs Supervisor Matthew Veitch.
“The town residents came to the county, they appealed to me, the supervisor worked with me, and we worked together to basically come to an agreement.”
In 2016, the town and county entered an agreement that allowed the town to manage the park. In order to transfer the land to the town, home rule legislation sponsored by Senator Jim Tedisco and Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh was passed by the state legislature and signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo last year.
The preservation comes just after the town purchased 37 acres from the Shenendehowa School District earlier this year, a project that was the subject of two public referendums.
Town Supervisor Phil Barrett said that since the year 2000, the town has preserved more than 1,000 acres.
“We’re consistently keeping our pipeline filled with trails and parks networks because it brings value to the town. It’s incredibly important to our town and something we made a commitment to expand.”
The town and county partnered with Washington Saratoga Warren Hamilton Essex BOCES to perform forestry maintenance on the property.
Dennis Flynn, environmental conservation/forestry instructor at the F. Donald Myers Center in Saratoga Springs, says students with the Shenendehowa School District have gotten involved.
“We’ve removed trees, we’ve done some trail maintenance on the park, just to make it more suitable, aesthetically pleasing for the people that are here actually using the park,’ said Flynn.
Officials say the park and its trails complement the Saratoga County Farmland and Open Space Program, which has preserved more than 4,000 acres in the county.
