Niagara Falls, N.Y. (WBEN) - Niagara Falls State Park is receiving a number of improvements to the area to improve safety and provide a better viewing experience with the aid of a federal grant awarded to the park.
Congressman Brian Higgins, Niagara Falls Mayor Rob Restaino and NYS Parks Niagara Region Director Mark Mistretta announced Friday afternoon $2.5 million awarded to the state park from the National Park Service through the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
"Niagara Falls is a destination like none other, drawing million of visitors around the world every year," said Congressman Higgins. "This major investment creates new opportunities for up-close views of this grand natural wonder and builds on the great progress made in recent years to enhance the park experience."
The award will help assist in a number of improvements, including work around the Niagara Falls Observation Tower, such as an extended stairway trail from the Crow's Nest to the Prospect Point observation area. The improvements will give visitors access to the falls, improved safety features and additional scenic views of the mighty Niagara Falls.
"This project really aligns nicely with one of our commissioners priorities, which is to enhance the visitor experience and everything we do focuses on that. This project fits in so nicely. One of the beautiful things about the falls is as opposed to our counters across, from Canada, they offer a beautiful panoramic view and on our side, we get the total immersion. You get to feel the park experience, you get wet, you can taste it, you can touch it. This project that we're talking about today, that Congressman Higgins outlined, is just another great opportunity to do that," says NYS Parks Niagara Region Director Mark Mistretta.
In July 2020, Congress approved the bipartisan Great American Outdoors Act, which permanently and fully funded the Land and Water Conservation Fund at $900 million annually.
The Niagara Falls State Park team is currently in the design process, there will be a public information meeting in early November, where the park will share more with the public, according to Mistretta.
"I think that every time we are able to create or increase the experience or the volume of tourists and locals who come down here, that's always going to bode well for us in the local economy. Whether it's sales tax or whether there are other opportunities for us to have longer hotel stays. So I think every little piece that we can put together always makes for a better opportunity for our local economy," said Niagara Falls Mayor Rob Restaino.
The timeline?
"We're in design. We plan on carrying that through to the winter and then the hope is to find the balance of the funding and put it out to bid in the spring and with luck. We're going to start construction this coming summer, 2023," Mistretta says.
