The Death of Another Democratic Idea!

Can you picture the setting? A small tavern, candles lit all around, a small casket with a little strip of paper laying inside. There is a large crowd full of Democrats all in tears, drinks in everyone’s hand and the liquor is flowing graciously. Yes, what I have just described is an Irish Wake being held for the Hamburg Bike Path proposed by the Hamburg Democratic Party.

I can see the tears and the eulogy being retorted by Joan Kesner. Jim Ostrowski, Founder of Free Buffalo and resident professor of the Irish Wake is standing tall as he instructs those Dems on the proper ceremonies associated with the wake. But in the end the only thing people will remember is the death of the Hamburg Bike Path.

Tom Best is being quoted as saying “the people of Hoover Beach neighborhood have spoken loudly that they don’t want a bike path!” He also retorts that “I have had serious concerns about all aspects of that proposal and safety was paramount.”

Tom has told Hamburg First that this bike path proposal would have caused the path to cross RT. 5 and their was no way to insure the safety of bikers on that road. He also was upset that the Dems wanted the town to float $100,000 that wasn’t funded out of grants. “This just didn’t add up to a proper way to go in this town and I’m against it” said Best.

Well one thing is for sure, Joan Kesner isn’t going to be happy over the death of her precious bike path. I had to laugh at the comment by Joe Killian. For those of you who don’t know Joe, he is the president of the Hamburg Taxpayers Association but he conveniently leaves out that he works at the Erie County Water Authority and was appointed by…. guess who…. the Democrats! Big surprise he always supports the dems on any issue they put forth. LOL!!!

  

Prospects for Hamburg bike path dim

By Elmer Ploetz NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 03/10/08 6:51 AM

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After five years of planning and the securing of a $243,000 state grant, the Town of Hamburg’s bike path through Hoover Beach has hit a dead end.

“As far as I’m concerned, the bike path is a dead issue,” said Hamburg Councilman Tom Best Sr. “It’s going to stop right where it is.”

Best said he believes he has support on the Town Board to drop the bike path plan based on objections from Hoover Beach residents and cost overruns on the project.

Best said he viewed the idea of a bike path extending from Buffalo to Evangola State Park or beyond as “a pipe dream” at this point.

“We’re certainly not going to connect with Evans,” he said, “and there will be no bike path connecting with Penn Dixie.”

The plan had called for the bike path to extend across Route 5 to the Penn Dixie fossil site of the Hamburg Natural History Society.

Councilwoman Joan Kesner said she’s still holding out hope the project can survive. The town received the state grant in 2004 but ran into delays — among them red tape that at one point required the town to show deeds proving the state actually owned Route 5.

The project went to bid last fall and came in $100,000 over budget, she said. The board must decide whether it wants to approve the additional spending.

Kesner said none of the board members want to force a bike path into a community that doesn’t want one, and members of the Hoover Beach residents association voted last month not to support it. But, she said, there had been no opposition to the plans until that point.

“We went before the Hoover Beach association before we did anything,” she said. “They were thrilled about the parking lot we put in. . . . At that time, we asked if we could have a representative from that neighborhood for our committee.”

The representative, Robert Michienzi, said he still supports the bike path, along with many other residents, but had not been able to be active on the committee because of health and other concerns over the past couple of years.

“The kind of opposition [residents] brought up at [last month’s] meeting was a very big surprise for me,” he said.

Hoover Beach association President Florence Kern said residents never saw plans for the bike path until last month. Kern called on the board to kill the project.

Joe Kilian, a taxpayer activist who was involved with building support for the bike path, said that with a parking lot already constructed as a trailhead and a bike path already coming from Woodlawn Beach State Park, bikers will already be coming into the Hoover Beach neighborhood, whether a specified path is built or not.

Kesner said, “The community already has half the bike path there. This is the link that will connect it. Businesses are excited about it, and not one inch of it is on private property. But we’re going to have to sit down and review it again. It’s at a standstill right now until we can sort through all the issues on the table.”

Best said, “If we could build the thing with no additional cost, and the people went for it, I’d be in support of a bicycle path. But not in the wrong area.”