The County Parks Department will enter the new year with two major projects simmering: developing the first-ever master plan for Powder Mills Park in Pittsford-Perinton, and making as-of-yet unspecified improvements to Greece Canal Park.

The department is choosing a consultant to lead the master plan process. From there, the department will host a public input session. Parks advocates stress that Powder Mills has a number of important plant and animal species and ecosystems that should be inventoried and protected.

The county has $2 million to spend on improvements to Greece Canal Park. Officials held a public input meeting last week and the suggestions will be priced out and presented for further discussion.

Suggestions included habitat protection, sports fields, connecting and building trails, addressing persistently wet trails, and protecting park boundaries from encroaching development.

A number of speakers suggested adding an entrance off of Manitou Road to ease access for park users coming from the west. The 661-acre park's only entrance is from Elmgrove Road. But speakers also worried that a Manitou entrance might get unwanted use as a cut-through between Manitou and Elmgrove. A new road could also harm natural areas of the park.

Dick Spade, a parks advocate and Greece resident, says one effective and less-costly idea is to build the entrance, have it quickly empty into a parking lot, and then connect the lot to the rest of the park via trails.