fundraising efforts will continue thru winter

The busiest amount of activity at Mountain View Park is now over for the 2013 year, which saw another active season and much work put in by the Recreational Park Board this past year.

Once again, the amount of usage by the park, with ball games, soccer, use of all the shelters and Farmers Market building, to name a few, showed Mountain View Park to be one of the most used areas in Albany and Clinton County from early spring through early fall.

Also this year, the Chamber of Commerce sponsored a fireworks display Labor Day weekend, which was held at the park and despite some questionable weather, turned out to be a tremendous success and a great location from many areas to watch the display.

Plans are to, once again, hold the fireworks show on July 4th at the park in 2014.

Perhaps the most important goal the park board worked on and continues to work on during the ‘off-season’ is that of fundraisers to help raise money to purchase much needed new playground equipment.

Various fundraisers, including the Labor Day fireworks, car show and gospel singing, were held and helped raise a couple of thousand dollars for the playground. However, the extremely high cost of new equipment to accommodate several children at once makes the effort an ongoing project.

Just because the park is not in as much use during the late fall and winter months, people can still help out in the goal to raise money for the playground equipment as monetary donations can be made at any time throughout the year, either mailed to the park board treasurer, noting the donation is for the playground, or given to the park director or any park board member.

A separate fund for the sole use for the playground was established by the board this past spring. They are also working with other sources to possibly come up with grant money to help fund the project.

The park board held its final business meeting in October, with its annual Christmas dinner to be held in December. The next business meeting is tentatively scheduled for the last Thursday in February 2014.