The Rotary Club of Lockport has received a $15,000 grant from the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor and New York State Canal Corporation to put toward its construction of a large pavilion off Market Street near the Adam Street lift bridge.
Rotarian Steve Cotten said the grant, announced Monday, is a “pleasant surprise.” When the club applied in early February, the members understood that “there are no guarantees.”
“This puts us within striking distance of our goal of $35,000,” Cotten said.
The kit to build the 20-by-40-foot pavilion costs approximately $32,000, and the club plans to add landscaping and install engraved paver bricks, which it has been selling as a fundraiser for the project.
The Rotary Club has been working with the City of Lockport on a series of improvements in Market Street parks.
“It’s been a collaboration between the city and the Lockport Rotary, and we’re glad they got the grant to build their pavilion,” Brian Smith, CEO of Greater Lockport Development Corporation, said. “It’s really a part of a bigger project on the south side of the canal.”
While the club undertakes development of Rotary Pavilion on the Erie Canal, the city is updating the comfort station by the Adam Street lift bridge as part of “Lockport Lowertown Loop Phase 1” development. That’s focused on improving the trails that loop the neighborhoods on either side of the canal. The city got a $150,000 matching grant from Canal Corporation in 2022 to finance phase 1. Both endeavors are scheduled to be finished this year.
Shane Mahar, spokesperson for Canal Corporation, said the grants to municipalities and non-profits like the Rotary Club are a means of underwriting Erie Canal tourism development.
“We wanted to give local communities more resources and so we pooled money between the two agencies (Canal Corp. and the heritage corridor) to promote infrastructure, like a pavilion or a kayak launch, canal tourism and at the end of the day bring folk to canal communities,” Mahar said.