Published: October 02, 2008 01:49 am      

CITY OF LOCKPORT: Block club is planting a memorial garden

The kindness of strangers and a family’s desire to honor roots are the seeds of a new, inner-city garden.

United Neighborhood Watch Group, a block club formed by residents of the Waterman Street-to-Park Place area, is finishing late-season work on a city-held plot at 169 Genesee St.

The club spent the summer raising donations — money, supplies and labor — to plant a memorial garden where a house beyond repair was demolished last year. Organizer Gerry DeAngelo said the notion struck a chord with people, and the donations grew as word of her plan spread.

It isn’t necessarily the prospect of posies that got their attention, though.

“A lot of people who called and talked to me, and gave small donations, want to know how to start a block club. That’s what it comes down to,” DeAngelo said.

United Neighborhood formed in 2007 in response to homeowners’ upset with rental property-driven turbulence — many once-fine homes have been cut into apartment houses over the years — and the city’s non-response to it. Organization inspired neighborliness and gave the membership a voice at City Hall; police and city administration’s response to their concerns is much improved over the past year or so, members Robin McCowen and Luisa Smith said.

The garden is established partly in memory of DeAngelo’s husband, Peter, a block club founding member who died earlier this year. Mrs. DeAngelo’s maiden family, Blonkowskis, inhabited Waterman and Genesee streets for decades when the neighborhood was considered one of the city’s finest. A garden, alone, can’t make it so again, she knows, but if it comes to represent the triumph of hope over apathy, it’s a step in the right direction.

In its semi-finished state, DeAngelo said, “A lot of residents are quite happy (with the garden). Not all, but a lot are.”

At this point, the plot is planted with shrubs, assorted perennials, mums for instant color and masses of spring-flowering bulbs. Grass seed is next, then the garden will be put to bed for winter. Next spring, the club hopes to set down trees, a walkway, benches and an archway. Fundraising to acquire the accessories will be ongoing through winter.

The landscape plan was drawn up by DeAngelo’s daughter, artist Veronica Compton. It’s being followed as closely as possible, given that some of the donations were plants not imagined in the blueprint. A woman from Willow Street, whose name nobody ever caught, brought 50 hostas to the lot. The generous gesture won’t be spurned, DeAngelo said.

The club has had significant help from supporters who don’t live all that close to Waterman and Genesee streets. Pine Street homeowner Andrew Chapman, a business owner who earlier donated crowd surveillance equipment to the city for the Canal Concert Series, drove his own heavy equipment to the lot and graded it for the club. DeAngelo said Ontario Street resident Andrew Boskat gave “hours and hours” of his own labor to the project. Three nurseries, Heimiller Greenhouses of Newfane, Lakeside Nursery of Wilson and Lockport Home Depot, gave plants shown in the layout and Ross Rental loaned an auger for pre-planting work.

DeAngelo’s daughter, Amy Walker, had her Olcott bait shop, Slippery Sinker, contribute fencing — and she also got charter captains in this year’s Lake Ontario Counties Derby to ante up in her dad’s memory. DeAngelo said the charter captains know and respect her daughter, and when she asked for $1 donations they gave her $10s and $20s instead; that impromptu fundraiser netted $500 for the garden.

“We’ve had a wonderful response from outside our area,” DeAngelo said.

The club acquired cultivation rights from the city, which has no other plans for the lot in the foreseeable future. Mayor Michael Tucker said it’s a relatively small parcel, not suited for much except splitting between neighbors for extra yard space.

“For the little bit of money we’d get from selling it that way, we’re better off seeing how this goes,” he said. “It’s a great idea and (club members) are working really hard on it. I hope the neighborhood respects and appreciates it.”

Contact reporter Joyce Miles at 439-9222, ext. 6245.