Students from City Honors cut the ribbon on the new Wilkeson Pointe park on Buffalo's Outer Harbor Friday. Features of the new $3.3 million park along Furhmann Boulevard include a sand beach, trails, a gazebo, volleyball courts, wind sculptures, and a dock for a water taxi. The land previously housed the Lake Erie ice boom.
The students received the honor because they won a naming contest held among Buffalo Schools. City Honors 8th grader Victoria Faltisco says the park next to the Times Beach Nature Preserve is named for Samuel Wilkeson of the Buffalo Harbor Company.
"He was in charge of the construction of the harbor and he improved it to make it so that Buffalo could be the ending point for the Erie Canal. He was also the fifth mayor of Buffalo from 1836 to 1837," Faltisco says.
Faltisco says she has enjoyed the space in the past and now expects to frequent the park more often.
"During the summer, my family came down here to bike ride. Now that this is added, too, it's really nice that we can come down even more," she says.
Park funding was provided by the Niagara Power Project relicensing settlement.
