I'm in Penn Yan, not so far from Seneca Falls, so look me up when you move. As far as digging tool, what I IMAGINE the interpretation to be, of a garden spade, is the small (10 inch or so) spade, with the intent being to avoid giant excavations....so I bet your Lesche would be just fine. Just my interpretation though. Also, I grew up outside of Syracuse, and have wondered about detecting some of the areas in Thornden Park, near SU. There are a lot of old parks around there and it may be worth a look to see what the regs on detecting them may be. There's one are in particular in the park that I wonder about, so if you find out its to detect, PM me and I'll share it with you. Good luck!
Scott
PS also wondered about some old sites along the canal.....