U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo helped break ground yesterday for a new visitors center at T. Spencer Knight Park and the Southside Canal Front Park in Newark.

The event included perfect weather and a crowd of dignitaries, politicians, village, town and county officials, and curious onlookers. The two projects have been on the back burner in Newark for several years, awaiting funding and the unraveling of government red tape.

Cuomo was joined by Newark Mayor Fred Pirelli, members of the Wayne County Board of Supervisors, local business leaders and officials. Newark has received nearly four million dollars in the form of loans and grants since 1997 to fund Canal Corridor projects.

HUD's Canal Corridor Initiative was designed to put federal resources to work as part of a long term and coordinated commitment to transform the Corridor in to a major tourism destination that would spin off other forms of economic activity in the area. The Erie Canal, completed in 1825, originally was a major link between the Northeast and Midwest United States. Railroads however, and later modern highways, as well as the St. Lawrence Seaway ended the canal's role as a commercial waterway.

The Canal Corridor Initiative involves cities, villages and towns within the area bounded from Albany to Buffalo and from Ogdensburg to Kingston.

A report released on Monday by HUD quotes a Cornell University study, indicating that the Canal Corridor Initiative is generating new economic activity well beyond expectations.

Pictured are HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo, longtime Newark Housing Authority attorney Anthony DeStaffen, and Michael Tonovitz, Executive Director of the Housing Authority.

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