I attended the Hamburg Town Board meeting on Monday night. It was pretty much uneventful until public comment opened up, then all hell broke loose. The ruckus was about the Hamburg Bike Path that is being nixed by the conservative members of the Hamburg Town Council. It all started when Hamburg Taxpayers Association Chairman Joe Killian stood up and begged for the Town Council to approve the project.
Joe was visibly upset that this board wouldn’t approve one hundred grand in additional funds to complete this project, leaving state funds in limbo to be returned to the state for their use. He even went as far as to get hundreds of signatures from area residents in support of the project.
What was brought out was the fact that he couldn’t get many signatures at all from the residents of the Hoover Beach neighborhood where this path was to invade. Fact of the matter is that Hoover Beach residents had a meeting where more than 60 residents showed up and only four of those residents voted yes for the bike path. More that fifty voted it down!
Of course Joan Kesner and Joe Killian had a couple dozen residents show up to throw a fit, they even had the gall to put some Frontier High School kids into the crowd to try and pull the heart strings of the Town Council. Joan Kesner was very visably upset and almost on the verge of tears as this project goes down the drain. She made no bones about how long and hard she worked to get this done and she was willing to sit down with anyone to make the deal acceptable to everyone.
The problem she is facing is that the path has to cut through Hoover Beach! There is no other way around it for the path to be safe enough for bikers to ride. The residents of Hoover Beach spoke out very loudly they didn’t want it. I think they have the right to say no to these kinds of projects in their neighborhood. We finally have a Town council that listens to the residents and does what they want, not just what the politicians want.
Tom Best was called out on the matter but he stood firm. Kevin Smardz was called out and responded that if this ever gets to a vote then his position would be heard but he wasn’t going to be baited into an argument Monday night on a moot point.
So as it stands right now the project is dead. On to the next issues of interest. I’ll keep you informed.
Who the heck does Tom Best think he is, this could hurt Joan Kesner Political future. He’s a new person on the board and should simply listen to the veteran lawmakers. Where is the respect?
Hamburg is no place for bikes I’d like to see more paths in the village, up until recently the Village was making some great progress. In the last couple years that has fallen apart….let’s keep projects like bike paths in the village where they belong, It’s time we kept the Town business as simply that….BUSINESS
If I was Ms. Kenser, I would be in tears too. The stupidity of her to wait 5 years to start the project is insane. Why didn’t she start when her party had the majority? In corporate America if something took that long to start the company would be bankrupt. In regards to the 100,000 or 20% over budget is also unbelieveable. I also suspect that the cost they are estimating will increase because of the commodity costs are increasing. So if they granted her that money, How much will are taxes increase next year???? This is the first year spending will be under control in Hamburg.