But Oneida County Chief Planner, Ms. Breiten, makes a good point:
“This whole thing started because there is currently a lot of public-held property within the corridor, along the river and the canal, and it just seemed logical to try to link these publicly owned lands,” Breiten said.That's what we like to see -- LOGIC in our government's workings. And linking existing publicly owned lands along the river and canal seems to be one way of making the whole greater than the sum of its parts.
As readers of this blog know from some of my photos, there is a lot of beauty along the river and canal. I regularly bike from Utica to Oriskany and have gone from Oriskany to Rome. The bikeway is a great asset that people are just starting to become aware of and use.
A greatly under utilized (non-utilized is more accurate) area is the eastern end in Utica at the canal entrance to Utica Harbor. The lock looks non-functional. Maybe it can be fixed? The harbor proper holds potential for waterfront development and boat useage. Down valley villages have done a marvelous job with their harbors. Utica, the largest city on the canal between Syracuse and Schenectady, logically should have the largest harbor development. There is a lot of public land just ready to be used. And there should be money available to clean up a lot of the contaminated old riverfront sites.
A disappointment on the western end is the trail ending on a heavily traveled highway just short of Rome proper. It is just begging for a pedestrian/bike-friendly connection into downtown and the fort, with some clear signage.
Another disappointment is the lack of a connection from the canal trail to the Oriskany Battlefield and Monument. It would seem to be a natural destination.
Of course (and I hate to say it but it seems to be true) the O-D is pushing a New Hartford agenda again by wanting trails in the Sauquoit Creek Basin. While that would be nice, NH has already gotten a lot of County largess . . . and it can well afford to implement its own trail system. While the 840 trail is "OK," it does not have the scenic or historic potential to attract a regional clientèle like the Mohawk River trail system does (which will eventually stretch from Albany to Buffalo). It would be wasteful to spend county money on far flung projects that would attract limited interest.
Lets focus on the Erie Canal - Mohawk River areas first -- Utica, Rome, and Oriskany -- and make better use of the public lands we find there.
2 comments:
I agree. The Mohawk river basin is an excellent venue to have an walking and bicycle nature trail. I also agree that the trail needs to include some of the historic places that this region has to offer.
This Central New York area has so many historic venues accentuated by picturesque nature and wildlife trails that it would be criminal not to share them with other Americans. One existing trail runs through Oriskany. In addition to the historic Oriskany Battlefield and monument, the Oriskany park on State Route 69 is just yards from the trail. This park has a fighter jet on display from the former USS Oriskany Aircraft Carrier that was decommissioned in 1976. This park also the home of the USS Oriskany museum. In Rome, the trail could be extended to include the Griffiss Business Park. The park was a former SAC (Strategic Air Command) U.S. Air Force Base that housed several B52 bombers during the height of the Cold War. There is one of these huge aircrafts on display in the park. Rome also has the reconstructed historic Fort Stanwix. This fort was the state of the art fortress during the American Revolutionary War. Fort Stanwix actually enabled the patriots to withstand a twenty one day British Redcoat siege. Another reconstructed historic site is the Erie Canal Village also located in Rome.
This area MUST learn how to promote these historic sites and nature trails. I receive mailings, telephone and email solicitations daily promoting several other areas of the United States and Canada to visit. This is not to mention that all of the periodicals and magazines I subscribe to have advertisements promoting historic and vacation spots to visit across the country. I often wonder why I have never gotten one piece of promotional mail from a Central New York attraction? I also wonder why the seemingly plethora of tax dollar supported economic development agencies fail to promote this area? What good is having these pristine attractions if we fail to promote them? It is as if the historic sites in this area are being branded as some sort of TOP SECRET location. Perhaps the Mohawk Valley and Central New York region should be renamed to AREA 52!
The Observer Dispatch NEEDS to start reporting OBJECTIVELY and not with any far reaching initiatives that involves the AFFLUENT Town of New Hartford.
Everything is New Hartford, New Hartford, and New Hartford.
When does this b/s stop?
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