Updated 10/18/2012 07:41 PM
Slate Valley Museum gets help from Six Flags Great Escape
The Slate Valley Museum in Granville was nearly washed away by Tropical Storm Irene last August. Thursday, the museum received some additional support with the final chapter of their outdoor clean up from Project 6 of Six Flags Great Escape. Our Brooke Selby was there as the group jumped in with plenty of helping hands.
To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
GRANVILLE, N.Y. -- Tropical Storm Irene destroyed most of the Slate Valley Museum in August of 2011, engulfing their entire property in more than two feet of water.
According to Executive Director Kate Weller, “The museum was totally flooded, the grounds were literally ripped from the banks, so we lost not only pieces of the museum itself, but also our whole landscape."
For the last 15 years, the Slate Valley Museum has chronicled the geology and history of slate and the quarrying community in New York and Vermont and the damage caused by Irene hasn't stopped it. Weller said they are up and running.
“We've been working on this throughout our recovery process," Weller said.
The majority of the damage Irene did to the museum was on the grounds. Thursday, more than 70 volunteers gathered to give the land and facade some extra TLC as part of Six Flags Great Escape fourth annual day of service to the community.
Rebecca Close said Six Flags Great Excape Project 6 is “Doing about 300 feet of walk way that will take you all the way across the bridge to the rail trail, all the way to the bridge to the Pember Museum. We're doing a lot of custom landscaping, we're doing a custom slate fountain right out front, residing, painting and cleaning. We'll be here all day and until we finish these projects.”
One thing will be different about the museum when the rebuild is complete, volunteers will add a rain garden to the museum’s landscape in the event that this will ever happen again.
The Director of Landscaping for the group, Bill Lee, said, “Inside of the gardens will be plantings that will help actually beautify, it so it's not just like a drainage ditch which sometimes you see."
The museum is close to completing the restoration, thanks to several groups of volunteers from the community. They plan for clean up to be officially completed by late next week.
The museum continues to be open to the public Tuesday through Saturday as the beautification process progresses.