CHENANGO COUNTY – One of Chenango’s two state parks is included on the list of 41 New York parks and 14 historic sites slated for closure as a result of Governor David Paterson’s efforts to reduce spending and close the state’s $8.2 billion deficit.

According to a statement issued Friday by the governor and the state’s parks commissioner, New Berlin’s 250-acre Hunt’s Pond State Park is one of eight parks to be closed in New York’s Central Region.

“These actions are not recommended lightly, but they are necessary to address our state’s extraordinary fiscal difficulties,” reported Commissioner Carol Ash, who explained that the closures and reductions were needed in order for the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to meet its “savings target.”

Also slated for closure in the Central Region are Chittenango Falls and Helen McNitt State Parks in Madison County; Oquaga Creek State Park in Broome County; Clark Reservation and Old Erie Canal State Parks in Onondaga County; Pixley Falls State Park in Oneida County; and Robert Riddell State Park in Delaware County. In addition, services would also be reduced at Oswego County’s Selkirk Shores State Park under the plan, and three of the region’s seven historic sites would be closed.