Mayor: All-volunteer effort to renovate cabin at Wohseepee park complete

The all-volunteer effort to renovate the dilapidated cabin at Wohseepee Park in Brightwaters is complete, village Mayor John Valdini said.

Valdini launched the initiative in the spring to spruce up the 1,400-square-foot cabin on Windsor Avenue. The work was completed about a month later than the mayor anticipated, but no taxpayer money was used, Valdini said. In total, about $175,000 in upgrades were made to the village-owned cabin, which was built in 1926.

The improvements include two interior bathrooms, an electric fireplace, vinyl floors, an upgraded kitchen and improved ramp for the disabled. A heating-and-cooling system was installed, as were new windows and a seating porch, Valdini said. All that was left to do inon the interior of the cabin was to pickselect decorations, Valdini said.

The project was made possible by more than 150 monetary donations, about 20 donations of materials and about 50 people who volunteered their labor. Valdini, who owns Dukes Corp. in Brightwaters, which does drywall and carpentry, oversaw the project with his son Patrick, who also works there.

“I owe a lot of people favors," Valdini quipped. "I’ll be doing favors the rest of my life.” The village is 1 square mile. Board members in April passed a $2.84 million budget for 2019-20. “The people using the park are very happy with what has happened there," Valdini said. "We have other projects coming up; I see us doing the same thing.