SACKETS HARBOR — Fishing, parking and shipbuilding.

Members of the public expressed ideas for improving Market Square Park and the harbor area during a forum Wednesday night.

Market Square Park runs from the Augustus Sackett mansion, now the village's visitor center, and crosses West Main Street to the Sentinel Bandstand and public boat ramps.

The public session was conducted by a class of graduate students in landscape architecture from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse. The Center for Community Design Research at the college assisted.

"Communities have local knowledge. Students, through their graduate experience, have expert knowledge," said Maren C. King, assistant director for the center. "It's important to have both in community design. People care deeply about the places they live."

Sara K. Mills, a master's student at SUNY-ESF, did an internship over the summer, looking at the park.

"It's a unique site," she said. "The community has so much history; the site has so much history."

She conducted archival research on the park during the summer. But she brought in help for the design work.

The students will create designs based on the public's suggestions and present them in about a month. Ms. Mills will take feedback on the designs and make recommendations to the village.

On Wednesday, the handful of people who attended suggested actions, such as creating a better and safer fishing spot so the public won't use the village docks in between the boat launches and north of the bandstand. Other suggestions included moving parking farther away from the boat launches and installing public parking signs in better locations.

The attendees noted information about the downtown area isn't available at the park anymore, since a Seaway Trail map and Plexiglas container of village brochures was taken down this summer. It was replaced by a three-sided Seaway Trail display, but there is no village information available in that display.

One tourism idea was to build a replica of a ship from the War of 1812 period near the boat launches. Others were to install bicycle racks and have canoe or kayak rentals.

Daryl K. Giles, a village resident who serves on the Chamber of Commerce's economic development committee, moved to the village in March.

"I'm interested because it's a part of ownership — owning your town," she said.