The Catskill Chronicle

Photos are of a set of planters in front of the Serendipity Cafe, run by Sullivan County BOCES,  on Main Street. – Leni Santoro photos

LIBERTY – In addition to its new Community Garden on South Main Street, the village of Liberty is also home to a Sullivan Renaissance Category C project it has entitled Liberty Pride.

The objective of Liberty Pride is to beautify the main commercial corridor throughout the Village of Liberty, from Exit 99 in the North of the Village, through the Main Street and Mill Street corridor, and all the way across Rt. 17 to Sullivan Avenue. The team plans to landscape specific focal areas along that route and enhance existing streetscapes with planting boxes, hanging baskets, and banners.

Under the organizational framework of Liberty ALIVE, Liberty Pride brings together a wide variety of community groups. Participating groups include the Greater Liberty Chamber of Commerce, the Assembly for Liberty’s Investment in Visual Enhancement (ALIVE), the Liberty Community Development Corporation, the Town of Liberty Volunteer Ambulance Corps, the local Girl Scout Troop, the Liberty Presbyterian Church, St. Peter’s Roman Catholic Church, Sullivan County BOCES and representatives from dozens of locally-owned and operated businesses. 

The project consists of four key beautification components:

1 – Planting of the roundabout in the Village of Liberty with perennial flowering shrubs

2 – Banners spanning State Route 52 at the junction of State Route 17 to encourage a free flow between the two areas

3- Flowering hanging baskets, and

4 – New planters with annual flowers. 

In addition, as part of the Category C program from Sullivan Renaissance, visioning will occur to propose ideas for improving the visual aesthetics of the Village of Liberty to attract new business to vacant storefronts.

Now, after months of planning, the first major volunteer opportunity will occur on the weekend of Saturday, June 5, and Sunday, June 6. 

Liberty Pride is calling all volunteers to come out for its first work weekend on Saturday and Sunday, June 5 and 6. The Assembly point is the Town of Liberty Volunteer Ambulance Corps’ building on Mill Street. Start time is 8 a.m. and volunteers are requested to bring shovels, gloves and any other tools that they may find useful for planting. A BOCES team has built new planting boxes; now it is time to get them filled and pretty for the season.

This project is supported with a Category C grant from Sullivan Renaissance. For more information contact Dale VanDenberg at 845-292-5770.