The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
READY FOR WORK
Committee gearing up for construction of 3.9 mile segment in Downtown Oneida
Construction of the grant-funded portion of the Oneida Rail Trail is closer than ever.
With a Summer 2017 target date set for construction of the 3.9 mile section of the Rail Trail that runs through the heart of the City of Oneida, members from the Oneida Rail Trail presented an update on the progress of the trail and what city residents can expect to see this summer at City Hall on Tuesday, March 28.
The presentation covered the Trail in its 11.3 mile entirety, but with deadlines dictating the use of $1.6 million in grant funding secured through the New York State Department of Transportation pressing, organizers are focusing efforts on the 3.9 mile section of the trail for which the grant money is designated.
City of Oneida Parks and Recreation Director Luke Griff led the Tuesday night presentation, with Scott Ingmire and Jamie Kowalczk of the Madison County Planning Department, and Joe Magliocca of the Oneida Improvement Committee, providing input as well.
Following the presentation,
there were two clear takeaways. Firstly, Rail Trail organizers are focusing most, if not all, of their resources on the completion of the 3.9 mile grant-funded section of the Trail that runs from Erie Canalway Trail in Wampsville through the Oneida City Center in 2017. Secondly, organizers are trying to inject as much character back into the designs for high-volume and high-visibility portions of the Trail in the heart of the City of Oneida downtown after original plans were “scaled back on a couple of different occasions.”
“We’re in a time crunch,” Magliocca said. “We have three to five weeks to fine tune and bring personality back to community spaces.”
The most prominent of these community spaces includes the pedestrian plaza planned along Clinch Park. There, Kowalczk explained, developers envision a gateway-like structure welcoming Rail Trail travelers to the heart of the City of Oneida near the Oneida and Main Street intersection. The gateway would lead to a roughly 60 by 70 foot plaza, replete with an informational kiosk, planters and bike racks. Organizers are also considering the feasibility of adding various types of decorative lighting to give the plaza a festive atmosphere.
“With the plaza, we thought of how the downtown is used now,” Kowalczk said. “Hopefully, it’s a plaza that can facilitate a bunch of different uses.”
In order to add more eye catching features and spruce up some of the community space, organizers are investigating various sections along the trail money had been designated for what they consider unnecessary sidewalk repairs.
As part of the grant funded portion of the ORT, Oneida Street is looking at a notable facelift as plans are currently laid out. Designers are proposing a pair of bump-outs on the western side of Oneida Street where it connects with Broad Street to shorten the distance across the street for pedestrians and bicycle users. In addition to the bump-outs, a two-way bicycle path will be installed on the north side of Oneida Street along with sidewalk modifications.
The biggest change city residents and visitors will notice of Oneida Street under the proposed plans will be a change from angled to parallel parking on the north side of the street, closest to City Hall.
The proposed bumpouts on the west end of Oneida Street raised the concern of some councilors who questioned the decision to take away parking spots from the Oneida Owl’s Club, but Griff and Kowalczk referred to a traffic study of five downtown parking areas closest to City Hall - Main Street, Oneida Street (West), Oneida Street (East), Freighthouse Alley, and City Hall - redone by the Madison County Planning Department and City of Oneida Engineer Jon Rauscher. According to the parking study, “ample parking opportunity was observed within these five lots serving City Center; in fact, the majority of the time excess parking is available. Overall, the most underutilized lots are Oneida Street (east) and Freighthouse Alley while the mosted used lots are Oneida Street (west) and the Main Street lot. However, even the most used lots were observed to provide abundant parking opportunity within City Center.”
The parking study also posits that average occu- pancies of the five lots study ranged from 9 to 40 percent. Per the request of the council, the parking study was sent to councilors for further review following the meeting.
In regards to other unfinished portions of the ORT, there have been preliminary discussions of connecting the portion of the trail that runs south along the eastern boundary of the city through the Flats back into theNY Ontario & Western Railbed at some point, but ORT orgnanizers are waiting on the outcome of the FEMA Buyout.
“Once we get down into the Flats, we haven’t done much work,” Griff said, referencing the pending de- molition of Flood of 2013 Buyout properties. “Until things are sorted out down there, it’s a waiting game. There is a nice opportunity to have a great little loop inside the Flats area.”
In the mean time, organizers are focusing on the portion of the Rail Trail that would crossover Broad
Street and Main Street via Shattuck Avenue.
“That’s the next section, other than the grant section, we have been focusing on,” Griff said. “By connecting the trail to two community parks that get a lot of use, then we’re getting somewhere.”
Currently, there is an established crosswalk at the Shattuck Avenue and Main Street intersection; however, a crosswalk is needed at the Shattuck and Broad Street intersection. Once that segment of the trail is completed with the installation of crosswalks and trail markers, the ORT would connect Allen Park on Broad Street with the Du Ross Conservancy and the NY Ontario and Western Railroad. Current de- signs show the ORT coming to a ‘T’ at the Du Ross Conservancy where a left-hand turn north will send ORT travelers toward the City of Oneida loop and the city center, or a right-hand turn south will take trail riders toward historic areas such as the Oneida Community Mansion House trail system and the former site of the Oneida Castle Depot where the NYO &W and West Shore Division Railroads met. The depot itself is no longer there, but the rail bridge over Oneida Creek still exists.
The ORT is currently in negotiations with Community Bank, Rite Aid, and the Oneida Indian Nation regarding the ORT’s path toward the Mansion House. Community Bank owns the property where the West Shore Rail Bridge transverses Oneida Creek, and the ORT is working to include this plot in the trail so visitors can get up close and personal with the historic landmark.
“It’s quite a unique bridge,” Magliocca said. “We would like to get people over and under it.”
Organizer’s are also focusing on the Lenox Avenue spur of the Rail Trail, where the trail will run into the proposed sidewalk reconstruction planned by the NYS DOT in a separate project. There will be a trailhead entrance with signage and perhaps a small kiosk or informational stand by Little Caesar’s where the Lenox Avenue spur of the ORT begins to link back up with the New York Central railbed before continuing on the backside of the Oneida City Center apartment complex where a small ORT welcome center and bike racks are already in place at the Stoneleigh Housing development.
“There’s a great many people that can’t imagine the city without the Rec Department,” Magliocca said in conclusion, referencing the initial opposition to the decision to have the City of Oneida Recreation Department operate out of the old Armory. “The Rail Trail is going to be that some day.”