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Onondaga Lake waterfront amphitheater will be second to none, Legislature chairman says

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The sun sets over Onondaga Lake. State and county officials are proposed a lakefront amphitheater on the western shores as part of a proposed $30 million investment from New York.
(Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracu)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Gov. Andrew Cuomo's $30 million proposal for Onondaga Lake includes plans for a waterfront amphitheater that would draw music and entertainment acts now skipping Central New York in favor of venues at Saratoga and Darien Lake, according to Onondaga County Legislature Chairman Ryan McMahon.

"The goal here would be a performing arts center that is second to none in New York state," McMahon said Friday afternoon. "We're not shooting for the same old acts that we can get every year."

McMahon said he didn't know whether the long-term goal would be to use the amphitheater as a replacement for the Grandstand at the nearby New York State Fairgrounds. That, McMahon said, is up to Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

But McMahon did say the plans for the western side of Onondaga Lake are much bigger than an entertainment venue and will involve more than the $30 million Cuomo proposed this week in his 2014-15 state budget.

The total investment is meant to revitalize the lakefront and the communities of Solvay and Geddes, areas that have never recovered from decades of ongoing pollution, closing factories and the long-awaited cleanup of the lake itself, McMahon said.

"The community on the western side of the lake has never recovered to the degree they have on the eastern side of the lake," McMahon said.

McMahon, like other local officials, declined to give many details Friday about the proposal - including the size of the venue or the total amount of public investment. He said more information should come next week, perhaps Wednesday, when Cuomo himself comes to unveil the full proposal.

A call to Cuomo's office was not returned this afternoon.

But county officials are ready to jumpstart the project. McMahon has put forward a resolution for county lawmakers to consider next week that would spend $500,000 of county hotel tax money on a preliminary study. That work would help decide the exact size and location of the amphitheater and other parts of the project, he said.

Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney pitched the lake project to Cuomo a week ago, as the governor was putting the final touches in his $142.1 billion budget proposal.

She's been reluctant to offer details of the project in the wake of a flurry of reaction about a proposed $500 million stadium complex for Syracuse University athletics that fell apart in the first few days of the year. That project stalled because Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner had questions about the complex, which Mahoney and others wanted to build off-campus at Kennedy Square. Miner this week said she was putting together a task force to further study the possibility of the SU arena.

Mahoney did say that the county's expected $2.5 million in casino gaming revenue from the state would go toward the overall lakefront project.

Local officials have been talking about putting an amphitheater on the lake for at least two decades. It was a key part of a $100,000 master plan, paid for in part with public money, that came out in 1992.

The dream never happened, according to Bob Geraci, who worked for Onondaga County's Department of Parks at the time. No solid plans - or revenue sources - were ever confirmed for the idea.

Two years later, Wayne Gallagher, the fair director at the time, announced he was negotiating with a private producer for a 20,000-seat amphitheater to replace the Grandstand. That vision, too, faded.

This time, Cuomo has earmarked $30 million in his state budget for development at Onondaga Lake. The money would be borrowed. The New York State Legislature is required to approve a state budget by March 31.

McMahon denied he or other local officials were trying to keep the project a secret. "We're kind of dying here to let you guys know things," he said. "This project is going to fit in just perfectly. It's exciting."

Other public officials, who haven't been briefed on the project, want details as well.

"Clearly, we talked in general, in concept, about the rebuilding and the Inner Harbor kind of approach for the lake," county Legislator Linda Ervin, the Democratic floor leader, said Friday. "But nothing specific had been talked about until now. The development of that side makes sense. We just don't know what it means."

Manny Falcone, the supervisor in Geddes, was waiting for answers, too.

"I'm not opposed to whatever they want to do," he said. "I haven't been called or anything. When the governor comes in, he's going to outline what he's going to do."