NORWICH — The Greenway Conservancy, a local community group hoping to purchase the stone quarry in Norwich and open it to the public soon, was joined by local business volunteers last week to clean up the future park.

The conservancy began working to buy the property in March and have been working on cleaning up and maintaining the trails, and improving access for the public.

“The stone quarry property has long been a popular outdoor recreation destination for residents around Norwich as well as an important aesthetic resource that provides a scenic backdrop to the City of Norwich and a spectacular view of the city from the quarry face,” said Conservancy volunteer Sharon Pelosi. “The Guinn and Quincy family have owned the property for many years and allowed it to be used for recreation on an informal basis.”
Priscilla Nicotra, daughter of the late Anna Mae Quincy said, “The Guinn/Quincy families have always enjoyed the beauty of this land and we are hopeful that some day in the near future this property will be considered a public park for all to enjoy.”
"The woman that owned it passed away and we were worried about it not being there for people to access," Greenway Conservancy Vice Chairperson Chris Olds explained. "We have a contract to purchase the property so we can conserve it and make it a public space or a public green space so people can legally access and go up and enjoy the view, and go on the trails."

"I'd say we're about 70 percent of the way to our purchasing price of 200 thousand," said Olds. "But we're still in the midst of fundraising."

On Friday, several General Electric (GE) employees spent the morning volunteering to help the Greenway Conservancy perform maintenance on the trails.

GE's Senior HR Manager, Charles Spicer, said the company gives their employees eight hours a year to participate in volunteer work, and allows them to choose what they would like to do.

"We allow our folks eight hours a year to go out and do volunteer work," said Spicer. "Individual teams get to determine what that looks like and when, and then we provide the time to go out and do that."

This year, GE employee Joe Cole said he took the lead and proposed his volunteer group help the Greenway Conservancy.

"I actually saw a Facebook post about it, and I wasn't sure what it was," Cole explained. "I actually went to their page and saw that they were trying to buy the quarry, and I thought it was a great idea to make it public for the use of everyone."

Cole explained that the group will mowing, removing debris and trash, and putting up signs along the trails.

"We're going to be mowing the trails that are along the greenway. And the greenway is a network of trails next to the Chenango River that reaches between Borden Ave and all the way down to Smith Ford," said Cole. "We're doing trimming and trash removal, and installing signs along the trail."

Olds said the Greenway Conservancy is thrilled to have the group coming out to assist in the cleanup.

"Well it's absolutely fantastic, it's a huge opportunity for us to get work done," said Olds. "We have a lot of trail to maintain, so to have an organization like GE come in and do this has been fantastic. I'm sure we'll get a lot done."

GE HR Manager Stacy Schafer said they are happy to help, as GE is a huge supporter of volunteer work, and getting involved in the community.

"In a corporate responsibility they speak very highly of and are supportive of volunteering," said Schafer. "Every department has the opportunity to do a group activity around volunteer time."

Spicer agrees, and said both the company and the employees enjoy helping out. He also said he hopes this shows both the community and prospective employees what GE is all about.

"We're going out there cause this is a good thing to do, our employees love it, we think this is a good thing in our community. And GE is very supportive about community projects," said Spicer. "At the end of the day, if people look at us out there doing this stuff and say, hey we want to work at GE- by all means."

When finished, Olds said the quarry will be geared toward providing a space for residents to do outdoor activities, like hiking, biking, and snowshoeing.

"Basically it's gonna be any kind of people-powered activity, so hiking, mountain biking, you know, snowshoeing, skiing, things of that sort is really what it's gonna be focused towards. And there's a network of trails up there already, we're just marking them, maintaining them, things of that sort," said Olds.

"It's an awesome place, and to have it formally be a public space, you know it's just gonna be great," he continued. "There's gonna be a lot of things we're gonna try to do up there."

The quarry has already hosted a few outdoor activities, said Olds, including a kids mountain bike race and a sunrise eclipse hike.

Cole said that he is glad his group was able to assist with the project, and he is also excited for the impact the volunteer efforts will have.

"This is what I pushed for for how we spent our volunteer day," said Cole. "I just want to say that I'm really happy we got to volunteer for this. We all look forward to it, we're all excited to do it, and hope that it makes a big impact on the trail. And I can't wait to see people use it, and I look forward to their successful efforts with the quarry."

For more information on the Greenway Conservancy and their efforts to revamp the stone quarry, check out their website www.chenangogreenway.org.

CORRECTION: It was originally reported that employees from General Electric (GE) volunteered to help clear trails and provide maintenance to property in the City of Norwich. The property is a network of trails located next to the Chenango River but employees did not volunteer at the stone quarry, as was previously reported, as it has not yet been purchased by the Greenway Conservancy.