COLLAR CITY CLEANUP
Residents pick up area around Burden Pond
Some Collar City residents spent part of their Saturday cleaning up the area around Burden Pond in South Troy.
From 9 a.m. until noon, volunteers filled the area inside Burden Pond Environmental Park for a cleanup day.
The volunteers were able to help restore the historic Burden Pond Conservation Area thanks to the city providing a $1,000 grant through the Neighborhood Improvement Program to support volunteer beautification efforts led by Kathy Fomak and current city Councilman John Donohue.
The grant helped pay for the supplies and plants, but volunteers had to perform the manual labor with things like clearing brush, planting flowers and picking up debris and litter around the conservation area.
This year, the clean-up day was mainly organized by District 6 Troy City Council Democratic candidate TJ Kennedy.
“The park has always kind of been maintained by some community members and by Chris O’Connell, who was a former business owner that passed away,” said Kennedy. “Just through basically budget cuts, the parks and trails over time kind of fell into disrepair.”
Kennedy said that he wanted to help clean the area around the pond and to trim many bushes and trees that were blocking the views of the pond.
“I’ve talked to a lot people and they don’t even know that this is here,” said Kennedy.
Other volunteers, like resident Jim Mounteer, wanted to give back to the community they live in.
“I don’t live too far from this pond, this is the first year that I actually explored all the way back to the trails here, which is something that I’ve been interested in for a long time and when I saw this happening here today, I wanted to do my part and help out,” explained Mounteer. “In the past people have devoted a lot of energy into the trails and over the years they have kind of been let go, so we need to try to get back to that.”
Grants are available to neighborhood- based organizations and homeowner associations, as well as other neighborhood groups, with partnerships encouraged. Last year’s projects included gateway initiatives, improvements to memorials, neighborhood landscaping projects, graffiti removal, neighborhood banners and other projects.