BY ADAM ATKINSONNorth Country This Week

POTSDAM — Village crews are busy cleaning and setting up village parks and the summer recreation program is beginning to take shape at Sandstoner Park.

To get ready for the season, the village has hired a new aquatics director who joins recently appointed summer recreation leader Lina Ikedo-Britton to help run the program.

New aquatics director Molly Pickering will lead the village lifeguards at Sandstoner Beach and work closely with Ikedo-Britton to run the summer recreation program.

Pickering, a volunteer firefighter with the Hannawa Falls Fire Department, has worked as a lifeguard at Sandstoner in the past, as well as other locations.

“I’ve been lifeguarding for nearly a decade, including two summers as a head guard,” she said in a social media post on the village recreation department’s Facebook page. “I’ve worked at Postwood, Parishville, and Pine Street beaches. I’ve always been a swimmer, and swam competitively in high school and have always wanted a job that kept me outdoors.”

The village’s former recreation director Trey Smutz resigned from his post a couple weeks ago after being placed on administrative leave and being investigated by state police for undisclosed reasons. In the wake of his departure, the village was without anyone to run its recreation program for the summer until Ikedo-Britton’s recent hire last month. 

At the April 28th village board meeting, Village Mayor Alexandra Jacobs Wilke said that Village Administrator Isabelle Gates-Shult had met with both Ikedo-Britton and Pickering recently on plans for the summer rec season. 

“They are bringing lots of fresh ideas, enhancements and options for everyone to enjoy,” Wilke said. “These are both really experienced individuals who have spent a lot of time in the field of recreation.”

The mayor told the board at the meeting that paperwork required by the state Department of Health is being finalized and will be submitted to have the summer recreation program at Sandstoner Park be registered as a summer camp.

More information about registration for the program was to be available for families by the end of that week.

“It was our goal in this program to get back to a closer to a full day of programming for children and parents who need to work,” Wilke said reading from Gates-Shult’s report. 

“And also, instead of having the one week on, one week off model, of getting to… I think we're going to get to six weeks in total is the goal. So six weeks in full of summer recreation programming at Pine Street Arena,” the mayor said. “So we're really excited and more information will be published on the website and we'll put out announcements on our recreation Facebook page and in local media as we get closer.”

Meanwhile village Department of Public Works crews are in the process of cleaning up the parks and public spaces and reinstalling summer equipment, like bike racks, benches and picnic tables, where needed, said Village DPW Supervisor Greg Thompson at the board meeting. 

“All the new bicycle racks are distributed throughout downtown and secured in their spots,” Thompson said. “We will be installing a bike rack at the rear entrance of this building by the Police Department entrance and there will be signs going up that state. No more bicycles will be allowed in this building. It's a liability under our insurance. Those bicycles cannot be stored in the lobby areas of the city center.”

“We have four of the eight new picnic tables, which were built by DPW staff in place in Ives Park,” Thompson reported. “Remaining tables will be distributed very soon throughout the remaining parks within the village.”

“We have begun summer preparations at the Pine Street Recreational Facility. The batting cage is up and ready to be used,” Thompson told the board. “Installation of playground equipment and exercise equipment will get underway as soon as the ground dries out enough so that we can get our equipment on there without tearing everything up. As soon as recreation staff is ready, we will also move in and prep the beach area lifeguard chair, etc., as we do every year so that the beach can open on time.”

Work is being done in Garner and Ives park as well Thompson said. In Ives Park, crews have relocated a shed from the airport to the area near the farmer’s market pavilion which will be converted to a boathouse for kayaks and canoes. The shed is destined for a new coat of paint and other appointments before its ready for primetime, village officials have said.

The boathouse is to be officially opened with the Potsdam Paddle canoe and kayak race set for Saturday, May 31 at 10 a.m.

“DPW crews will assist National Grid in an upcoming cleanup of Garner Park scheduled for May 5th,” Thompson said. Village workers were to remove the ground cover in the park and replace it with cardboard and new wood chips. “And so we’re looking forward to that transformation,” Thompson said.