16 Nov Help Tupper Lake build Flanders Performance Park
TUPPER LAKE — Tupper Lake is looking to turn Flanders Park into a performance park, and it needs help from the community and visitors.
The plan is to build a bandshell on the shore of the scenic Raquette Pond and build a stone plaza in front of the bandshell. Construction will also include a rain garden behind the bandshell that will help with drainage.
The bandshell will be an eye-catching timber structure built to reflect the local lumberjack and logging heritage.
The village has received grant funding from the Department of State Local Waterfront Revitalization Program to begin work on Flanders Park, and the Lions Club has raised funds and donated services. Organizers are hoping for help from the public to give the project a final funding boost and provide matching funds for future grants. Local contractors will donate their services for construction, but organizers are looking to raise another $85,000 for materials for the bandshell.
Supporters are launching a crowdfunding campaign through Woodmen of the World’s fundraising site, Red Basket. Potential donors can go to tupperlake.com/bandshell to find more information on how to donate.
“Our vision is that the bandshell at Flanders Performance Park will be a venue that hosts a robust schedule of concerts, theatrical performances, entertainment acts, educational workshops, events and more,” said Dan McClelland, president of the Lions Club. “The site offers one of the most beautiful vistas in the entire Adirondacks, and the sunsets are magnificent.”
If enough money is raised, organizers also plan to extend the existing Waterfront Walkway along Raquette Pond, connecting it to Cliff Avenue, and install gateway structures at the Mill Street and Cliff Avenue entrances to the park, completing the Flanders Performance Park.
Flanders Park, off Martin Street, is named for Allen B. Flanders, 1890-1949, an early Tupper Lake settler who built the Flanders Lumber Mill on the site where the park now stands.
Flanders Performance Park is the second major park improvement the village has undertaken in partnership with the Department of State Local Waterfront Program. Little Loggers Playground, adjacent to Flanders, was constructed in 2014.
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