June board meeting to focus on parking concerns
Village of Cold Spring trustees Aaron Freimark and Eliza Starbuck support having the southern end of the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail begin at Dockside Park, diverging from the views of the village’s mayor and two other elected officials.
At the Wednesday (May 8) meeting of the Village Board, Freimark read a letter he and Starbuck sent earlier that day to Meagan Fitzgerald, deputy commissioner for New York state parks, and Linda Cooper, regional director, endorsing “a multi-use, accessible trail that begins at Dockside Park.”
Three weeks ago, those same state officials received a letter — this one signed by Cold Spring Mayor Kathleen Foley, Philipstown Supervisor John Van Tassel and Nelsonville Mayor Chris Winward — opposing any portion of the 7.5-mile trail in the village.
Like those officials, Freimark and Starbuck acknowledged their position does not reflect the views of every trustee or village resident. They said “we speak for a sizable group of constituents” who support the Fjord Trail, “even though their voices have sometimes been drowned out in the contention over this issue.”
They also said that although the trail will create traffic and pedestrian-safety problems on Fair Street and Route 9D that need to be addressed, the HHFT planning process to date “makes us confident that the Fjord Trail will provide crucial benefits to the residents of Cold Spring and the surrounding areas.”
Freimark and Starbuck go on to suggest that HHFT planners work with the village and the state Department of Transportation to extend sidewalks to Little Stony Point, improve crosswalk safety and reduce the speed limit on Route 9D. They also ask that plans to add more parking north of the village be reconsidered because in their view it will increase traffic on Route 9D.
The letter was read into the record but not discussed.
Main Street parking
Starbuck acknowledged a letter to the village board last week by the Cold Spring Chamber of Commerce Main Street Committee and signed by more than 30 merchants requesting revisions to metered parking rules that went into effect in early April. Business owners asked for a reduction in $4 per hour parking fee, an increase in the time limit from the current three hours and permits that would allow their employees to park in areas restricted to residents.
“I’m really grateful to the merchants for communicating in such a respectful manner,” Starbuck said, adding that 15 of the letter’s signatories are village residents and 21 are chamber members.
Foley said the board’s June 5 meeting will be a single-topic session dealing with the merchants’ letter. “We are open to hearing concerns,” she said. “We will assess, as we said we would … but we need to have the conversation first.”
Freimark called for “recognition that the parking plan was in development over a very long period of time, with a lot of public comment,” adding that any changes must happen through a process.
In other business …
■ The meeting began on a somber note: a moment’s silence to honor residents Stephanie Doucette and Cory Cates, who each died May 6.
■ The Tree Advisory Board has launched its Grand Tree Contest, which runs through May 31. Residents can nominate a village tree they consider notable for its size, age, quirkiness, beauty, rarity, etc. Trees can be nominated at coldspringtree.weebly.com. Winners will receive framed awards.
■ Trustee Laura Bozzi reported that the village food-scrap program will begin next month. Residents can drop off scraps on Tuesdays on Kemble Avenue, adjacent to the free village parking area.
■ The board accepted two resignations: Jeff Vidakovich, who began as building department clerk in 2015 and has served as village clerk since June 2017, and Terence Comiskey, who has been a Cold Spring police officer for 24 years.
■ Officer-in-Charge Matt Jackson reported that the Police Department responded to 123 calls in April, including 51 traffic stops that resulted in 31 citations and one arrest.
■ The Cold Spring Fire Co. answered 13 calls in April, including six mutual aids to other local fire companies, two activated fire alarms, two motor vehicle accidents, one mountain incident, one aid to local EMS and one assist to the Philipstown Volunteer Ambulance Corps for a forcible entry.
■ The Justice Court received $3,275 in fines, forfeited bail and civil penalties in April. It also took in $5,070 from tickets during the first month of metered parking on Main Street and enforcement within the residents-only parking areas.
■ The mayor was authorized to sign applications to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s Clean Energy Communities Program for two grants totaling $107,500. The grants would fund an electric pickup truck for the Water and Wastewater Department, two electric-vehicle charging stations, a heat pump for part of Village Hall and electric landscaping equipment for the Roads and Facilities Department.
■ The board approved emergency drain repairs at 62 Fair St.
Bravo to Aaron Freimark and Eliza Starbuck. I struggle to see who in town won’t use the trail when it is built. Even relatively small improvements like the West Point Foundry Preserve have brought the community together and provided a safe place for children and grandparents to appreciate our beautiful surroundings.
I wish that this project was named accurately. To set the record straight, this is not a trail. If one reads the definition of a trail in a dictionary, this project does not fit the description. Call it what it is; perhaps “linear park” is more accurate.
True environmentalists would champion any alternative to cars. Much of the shoreline is not natural and was built by humans to support Metro-North; are you sitting down in the bushes by the tracks and river on weekends? This project has a large environmental component that will make the riverfront stronger and accessible for all ages. If nothing is done it will be an environ-mental disaster. Are we willing to cough up more taxes to fix the shoreline?
We keep hearing about the problems the Fjord Trail may bring to Cold Spring if connected to Dockside, but aren’t the “mobs” of “insurgents” going to come anyway? Won’t they continue to walk down Fair Street and Route 9D? Cold Spring taxpayers, rather than the state, are going to pay to manage these crowds and the toilets and garbage. I support the Fjord Trail and appreciate our leaders’ thoughtful analysis of its impact on village, but what is the impact if we don’t have solutions and only complaints? Be careful what you wish for. [via Instagram]
It’s insanity to oppose, in the name of “environmentalism,” such an amazing alternative that encourages walking, biking and train-taking. If it were up to me, I’d remove all the parking. [via Instagram]
I love this, but it’s not about “begin” anymore. The word begin was used when the project began 17 years ago. The iterative plan has changed and will most likely change again after the Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) and public hearings.
The HHFT is proposing six entry points so visitors can access the trails and river safely from Dutchess Manor, Notch Trail, Long Dock Park, Breakneck, Little Stony Point or Dockside Park. Those trail-bound visitors who return year after year and know their own way to the state park may still choose to take a train and arrive in the Village of Cold Spring and walk, but that leads to many people at one time on Fair Street and connecting neighborhood streets.
Our goal is to change that by providing two safe exits from the village: Fair Street and the Community Bypass Trail (Shoreline Trail). [via Instagram]
Ramirez is the community and visitor relations manager for HHFT.
With the Fjord Trail, history matters as much as the future. I see the proposed Fjord Trail as a large bandage that will heal a wounded riverfront that has not been pristine for hundreds of years.
It was a parade of filthy industrial operations 100 years ago — operations that permanently wounded the natural shoreline. Metal and other dangerous remnants remain. Since then, General Electric, which spilled out PCBs until 1977, climate change and Holtec have added menace.
If you want to know what we have to gain in having a Fjord Trail, it’s a healing of the riverbank: Just for the pictorials, watch HHFT’s “New Short Video” (about 6 minutes) at hhft.org. You will see — especially when presenter Kate Orff of SCAPE speaks and shows what was on the riverbanks (at 4 minutes) — vast blocks of industrial works, including car and munitions factories, multiple rail lines, mills and plants.
Orff speaks of reconnecting and “retrofit[ting] blocked landscapes” and about the way the railroad has cut people off from the river already, while being an essential part of the story of the Hudson Valley, and thus must be a partner now, too.
The young and fit might bushwhack their way through brush and across train tracks and dangerous mountain passes and roads to reach the Hudson. The rest of the community, including small children, the disabled, older residents, cannot. Shouldn’t they all have access? Not to mention the original tribes who settled here.
Tourists are a by-product to the beauty here, and our narrow roads and flooding lands need remediation in any case. So road widening and parking are a future ‘must.’ Ever been to the Adirondacks? NYS Parks handles that area with incredible sensitivity and success, including road and parking access.
Incidentally, I support the Fjord Trail beginning at Dockside Park. If no more parking is added to Cold Spring, that entry can be made accessible only to people already on foot, whether they live locally OR have walked from public train transport. The Dockside start will keep people off the narrow, residential streets by funneling them over the water/closer to the riverside of the tracks.