PORT BYRON - Standing at the edge of a dead-end road less than a mile from downtown Port Byron, you can almost take yourself back to the heyday of the Erie Canal. It requires a little imagination and the ability to block out the loud engines and whoosh of cars from the New York State Thruway, but it's possible.

Of course, you'd have to pretend that the now dry canal in front of you is flooded with barges, and that the rundown structure at your side looks as it did in the late 1890s, with green shutters and a fresh coat of yellow paint.

In its prime, the Erie House was a saloon and boarding home, catering to those traveling the canal only a few feet away from its front yard. It is the last remaining intact mercantile building on the historical canal system, according to Cayuga County Planning Director David Miller.

Today, the house remains, but its condition is rapidly deteriorating, with peeling white paint, overgrown shrubbery and boarded-up windows. Though a portion of Lock 52 still stands

nearby, the canal itself is long gone, instead replaced by a gully of dry brush.

“It's terrible - I don't bring people down here anymore,” village historian Penny Helzer said as she surveyed the house. “The longer this sits, the longer it's going to decay.”

Since 1995, local and state officials have been working on plans for a park that many hope will turn this eyesore into a tourist attraction. Among other things, the Port Byron Old Erie Canal Heritage Park would include the restoration of Lock 52 and the Erie House, walkways with interpretative exhibits, a visitor center and museum dedicated to the state's canal system.

Despite many roadblocks - previous estimates had slated the park to open for business in 2005 - organizers are confident the village will see a groundbreaking sometime this year.

“This project has been a perseverance project,” said Jim Kent, project manager and a principal of Kent Environmental Planning and Design in Auburn. “It feels to (village residents) like nothing's happening, but there has been a tremendous amount of effort.”

Kent, who has been working on the park off and on since the State Council on Waterways first conceived the idea, predicted the $7-million first phase of the approximately 15-acre park will begin later this year, barring cash flow problems.

Funding and government bureaucracy have been the main hurdles for the project to overcome, he added, noting that some funding has not come through while other grants are only released a portion at a time.

All monies designated at this point are federal transportation dollars, with the Canal Society of New York State, the nonprofit now heading up the park, matching 20 percent.

Because of the way the funding is coming in, the society has had to push back the first phase of construction, which Kent said will likely include a parking lot, renovation of the Erie House and the building of a ramp from the thruway's eastbound lane between the Weedsport exit and the Port Byron rest area.

This latter part proved particularly challenging. It took almost a decade of work by people at several different agencies to obtain access from the thruway.

“That's never been done in North America before,” Kent said of gaining direct access from a federal interstate highway, something the Federal Highway Administration granted in June 2004. “We've been told that it's the first time it's ever been approved - and it's the last time it's ever been approved.”

Miller noted that in the original concept for the thruway, there had been a proposal to include some sort of access to Lock 52.

“I think that's why they even talked to us,” he added.

The county planning department is excited about the park for a number of reasons, Miller continued, among them the educational opportunities it offers local residents.

“It really is not only teaching about the canal as an important element of New York state history, but it's the heritage of that community,” Miller said.

The park will link with the Canalway Trail System that is already underway, he said, and will be an anchor for other canal projects, such as Four Canals State Historic Park in Montezuma, now being developed.

He and Deputy Planning Director Trish Riter are also looking forward to the potential economic gains of the park; both view it as something that could revitalize the downtown area.

A marketing study has shown that 25 to 30 percent of park visitors will use local roads, and Port Byron is currently undergoing a $200,000 Main Street revitalization program to rehabilitate the buildings downtown and fund streetscape improvements in hopes of attracting new business opportunities to the area.

“It's a monumental undertaking, but it's really going to put Cayuga County on the map,” Riter said of the park.

Michele Beilman, executive director of the Canal Society, the organization that will run the facility, sees it as something that will draw both local residents and those passing by on the thruway. Kent estimates the site could attract 30,000 people a year but cautions that that number could easily be double because, as Miller puts it, the facility is “tying into the state's artery.”

As of now, there is no set completion date for the site, a fact that is a source of frustration for Helzer, the village historian.

Port Byron residents aren't upset, but they're discouraged, she said, noting that construction was supposed to have already been completed on a project that hasn't even started yet.

“It's going to take a lot of restoration to fix this thing up,” Helzer said of the Erie House and canal. “If it had started a couple of years ago, it probably wouldn't be as bad as it (is) now.”

Helzer believes that the Canal Society's plans are too grandiose, that perhaps it should have just concentrated on fixing up the Erie House and the nearby mule barn and blacksmith shop, rather than building an entire complex.

Kent understands any discouragement but notes the progress the Canal Society and the numerous agencies involved have made in the last few years. In addition to earning approval from the Federal Highway Administration, the project has also gone through a full environmental review and the design documents for the first phase have all been completed.

“This is by far the most complicated project I've ever worked on,” Kent confessed. “I worked on Clinton Square (in Syracuse) - that was a huge undertaking. This one makes it look like a puppy.”

Beilman, too, expressed her understanding of residents' concerns. Once construction begins and there is something tangible, many of those concerns will likely be alleviated, she said, noting the facility will be state of the art.

The Canal Society is just as eager as Port Byron residents to restore their history and honor their heritage, she continued, but it's all a matter of managing the funds and coordinating the many pieces with all of the different players.

“We have been ready to go,” Beilman said. “We're ready for the hard hats and the muddy, messy site.”

Staff writer Linda Ober can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or linda.ober@lee.net