The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Rail Trail ground breaking July 17
ONEIDA, N.Y. » The Oneida Rail Trail is breaking ground soon to start construction of the 3.9 mile section.
“It’s been 280 days since we opened bids,” Ward 2 Councilor Mike Bowe said Tuesday. “It should have been done by now, but we’re signing the change order we decided to do in January.”
Oneida Ward 4, 5,and 6 Supervisor Joe Magliocca was in attendance and said the Oneida Rail Trail Committee found out early last week that CCI Companies, the contractor for the grant funded portions of the Rail Trail, have a hard start date of July 17 for the Oneida Rail Trail.
“It’s coming fast, so Madison County Planning and Park Department have put together a letter that we’re going to be distributing to business owners in Oneida and there will be an informational meeting about the construction on July 9 at 6:30 p.m. at the Oneida Rec Center,” Magliocca said. “The purpose of the meeting is to informour business neighbors on the construc- tion timeline and how it might affect them. The project manager of CCI will be there to talk and answer any questions.”
Downtown Oneida improvements will include complete resurfacing of Oneida Street, an added 10-foot-wide multi-use path, new landscaping, new sidewalks, curbing and a pedestrian plaza for City Center.
Magliocca said “business open during construction” signs have been made and will be on all four ends of Oneida Street to let patrons know the business are still
open to patrons.
Magliocca said the transformational change will have a short duration, but be beneficial for the city.
“Success follows success,” Magliocca said. “This is well over a million dollars of grants coming into the city of Oneida and the city is making improvements at something like 25 cents on the dollar that the city couldn’t do dollar for dollar. Success follows success and with these investments; we can use this for leverage to get more grants for downtown.”
“It’s been a long time coming, but we’re getting there,” Magliocca said. “I want to thank the new city engineer, Eric Schuler, for working with Recreation Director Luke Griff at the Park Department. Eric stepped into the middle a lot of projects and this one is near and dear to me.”
A ground breaking celebration will be held on July 16 at 2 p.m. at Clinch Park.