Dorchester Park opens new accessible playground and boat launch

(WHITNEY POINT) -- Wednesday, county leaders gathered together at Dorchester Park to announce the opening of the new playground and boat launch. Broome County’s Department of Parks, Recreation, and Youth Services said they want to make sure all residents enjoy their summer this year by including more accessible utilities.

Stephanie Brewer, senior planner for the Broome County Planning Department said this project was a team effort among many Broome County leaders and without them this would not be possible. She also said the idea came about after conducting a community survey where residents voiced their need for more accessible facilities.

“We worked together with parks to identify Dorchester park as one of our top locations, you know its in the northern part of Broome County where you know their aren’t as many accessible facilities, so that’s kind of the start of the project” said Brewer.

Jason Garnar Broome County Executive said its important for everyone to be included in all kinds of activities, and now that they have installed accessible aspects from new playground equipment to a boat launch, this summer is sure to have something for everyone.

“I think that its really important that as a municipality we do everything that we can to allow everybody in the county to be included in all different types of activities whether that’s parks or anything else” said Garnar.

The county leader said the new amenities are not only for people with disabilities they also provide more stability for the elderly, making the parks more age friendly also thanked the state for providing them with the funds to make this possible.

“Local tax players didn’t have to pay for any of this, this is a result of us being wise with our money and getting funded by the state to do it, it was all state grants which i think is good for local tax payers as well” said Garnar.