I want to thank our wonderful city staff for their hard work and dedication in securing these funds to rebuild our waterfront. Five months ago, while our community was still trying to determine the full extent of the damage to our city's premier waterfront parks, City Manager Sarah Purdy, City Planning Director Andrea Smith and City Recreation Director Matt Curatolo were hard at work cataloguing the extent of the damage to the City Marina, the Greenbelt, Morrisette Park, the Crescent, the Maple City Trail and Fort La Presentation's new trail system.

In just five months, our community was able to develop a comprehensive program that is paying off with millions of dollars in state and federal funds that will not only provide our community with desperately needed funds to make critical repairs to our waterfront resources, but it should provide us with funding that will prevent future catastrophes along our shoreline.

Over the next few months, we will also be hearing the details of funding opportunities for our waterfront businesses that will help them address damages and prepare for future opportunities.

I think it's important for our community to understand that this was a team effort involving State Senator Patty Ritchie, Assemblyman Mark Walczyk, the St. Lawrence County Industrial Development Agency, the St. Lawrence County Planning Office and the county's Emergency Services Agency.

But make no mistake about it.

Without the hard work of our own staff, we would not be receiving millions of dollars today.

Wayne Ashley

Ogdensburg mayor