Granville Then & Now – August 6, 2020

Mettowee River revitalization would benefit Granville

By Erik Pekar, Town Historian

The new mural presently being painted on the buildings of the Telescope factory complex along Church Street is already a remarkable sight to see. What had been bare white walls are being painted as sections of the mural, a few of which have been completed so far. 

The first and perhaps the most encompassing of all the sections is one facing people going north on Church Street, a friendly greeting welcoming travelers and residents alike to Granville. 

The other sections will be scenes relating to Telescope's history in the years since coming to Granville in 1921. As with the "Welcome to Granville" mural painted last year on a Main Street building wall, the mural painter is Jordan Flower. If the "Welcome" mural is any indication of how the Telescope mural will turn out, it will be of great quality and will certainly be something to behold.

+++

The Mettowee River gas plant site remediation project, which has been worked on under the supervision of the state DEC since early last year, is practically complete. The construction equipment has been removed from the site, the Little League fields that were affected by the rerouting of the river have been restored, and the Mettowee River is back in its regular course. This project had been talked about at the state level since at least the late 2000s. In Granville, some wondered whether the project would do any good, either for Granville or for the goals of the project.

Granville has gained something from the remediation project: a revitalized section of the Mettowee River. The riverbanks have been cleared, remade to slope gradually to the river, and new trees and growth have been planted. This was done to aid in the prevention of erosion on the river.

Talk of revitalizing the Mettowee River is not new. It was the subject of choice for a meeting of some Granville area residents in the fall of 1981, as recounted in the October 8 issue.

This group believed that "the care and use of the Mettowee River as a natural resource is of major importance to the community" and were concerned about the state of the river.

At one of their meetings, this group walked on several parts of the river bank. They found the Mettowee neglected: it had "changed its course in many places... has silted and graveled in the river bed, making the river shallow and virtually unusable for fishing, boating and swimming." 

On the matter of dams, the Church Street dam was partly reconstructed in the 1950s as concrete, and the other concrete half never finished; its wooden section was breached in the mid-1970s and never repaired. The Middle Granville dam decayed, "... [crumbling] slowly at first and then quickly as the dam weakened." Farmland soil had been carried away during the spring floods.

The group had a vision of what a revitalized Mettowee River could mean for Granville, and had several ideas that each went toward realizing this vision:

• Removal of silt and gravel from the river beds
• Development of anti-erosion projects
• Restoration of the natural species of fish in abundant quantities
• Development of gardens and lawns in appropriate areas
• Construction of bike, walking and jogging paths along the river's edge
• Development of picnic areas
• Development of swimming and boating facilities
• Development of pools for fire districts
• Completing and restoration of existing dams

The group described their vision of what the Mettowee River could become as "exciting and [our vision] generates commitment of a better community wherein the people will truly care about their river and will give support to activities and projects that will enhance its beauty and life."

To date, very few of the group's ideas, if any at all, have come to fruition. The village made efforts in the late 2000s towards plans in line with the ideas above, as part of a Mettowee River Revitalization Plan, which included walkways near the Slate Valley Museum and a “riverfront park” east of Church Street in the vicinity of the old pump road. These plans made it to presentations in 2010 but were tabled before any work began due to lack of grant funding in the years immediately following the Recession.

Revitalizing the Mettowee River is still a good idea, and why wouldn’t it be? The river would be more usable by residents for recreation, beautification projects would improve the appearance, and the anti-erosion projects would further protect the river and the riverbanks. Such ideas would take time, effort, and money to make happen, but if the revitalization of the Mettowee River could happen, the river could become another destination for the Granville community to take pride in.