NEWS ARTICLE: BUFFALO NEWS MARTIN HOUSE GETS MORE STATE FUNDS (06/06) Leaders of the Darwin Martin House restoration regard Bernadette Castro, state commissioner of parks, recreation and historic preservation, as an old friend and partner. As one of Gov. George E. Pataki's original Cabinet members, she has had a say in the project longer than some of them have. Castro, who is likely to follow Pataki out the door when he leaves office at the end of this year, let her affection shine through Monday as she announced another $350,000 grant for the landmark Martin House during a news conference on the veranda of Frank Lloyd Wright's Jewett Parkway masterpiece. "One of my first visits after I was confirmed in '95 was to the Darwin Martin House," she said, recalling how her preservation office agonizingly followed the restoration group's far-ranging, eventually successful, search for a kiln to duplicate the complex's original Roman gold brickwork. "Oh, the torture that went on!" she said, drawing laughs from board and staff members. Coming back 11 years later to tour the pergola and carriage house, rebuilt from that custom-fired brick, was a sentimental journey, Castro said. Robert J. Kresse, a founder and chairman of the restoration corporation, lauded the "public-private partnership" between his group and the Pataki administration, terming the latest grant "extremely important" in pushing the $35 million project toward completion. "We're near the finish line," he said. Assembly Majority Leader Paul A. Tokasz, D-Cheektowaga, said historic preservation will be "a cornerstone" of Pataki's legacy. The Martin House grant was among five totaling $750,000 that Castro doled out from the state environmental protection kitty. She announced grants of $100,000 to the Town of Orchard Park to buy 53 acres along Bussendorfer Road to expand Brush Mountain Park; $100,000 to the City of Lockport to renovate Outwater Memorial Park; $50,000 for the expansion and renovation of Boston's town park; and $49,870 to the Town of Cheektowaga to rehab Dingens Park. Castro, who will return July 14 to receive an award from the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, was followed to the podium by Pataki's newest Cabinet member, Secretary of State Christopher Jacobs. He had two grants of his own to announce, also from environmental protection funds: $77,000 to the Town of Porter to update land-use regulations to comply with the Niagara River Greenway plan; and $25,000 to the City of Tonawanda to design a new park area along Young Street next to Ellicott Creek and a Niagara River overlook in Niawanda Park. # # #