Complete Trail Plan Needed at Philipse Manor Train Station, Not $1 Million for 200 Feet

Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2017 11:35:47 -0400
From: Daniel Convissor <danielc@panix.com>
To: Ken Wray <kgwray@gmail.com>
Cc: Anthony Giaccio <agiaccio@sleepyhollowny.org>, Denise Scaglione <dscaglione@sleepyhollowny.org>, Glenn Rosenbloom <grosenbloom@sleepyhollowny.org>, John Leavy <jleavy@sleepyhollowny.org>, Rachelle Gebler <rgebler@sleepyhollowny.org>, Sam Gonzalez <sgonzalez@sleepyhollowny.org>, Sandra Spiro <sspiro@sleepyhollowny.org>, Claire Davis <clairedavisnj@yahoo.com>, Amy Kacala <akacala@scenichudson.org>

Hi Ken:

At the 1/17 work session, Fiona discussed a grant proposal for a boardwalk type structure at the Philipse Manor train station. It would run along the top of the hill between the pedestrian overpass stairs to Kelbourne Ave. The project is estimated to cost $1 million.

While this would be a lovely project, instead of spending $1 million to get about 200 feet of path, for likely less than that we can create a complete connection between Kelbourne Ave and the Riverwalk and Edge on Hudson at Kingsland Point Park.

This can be accomplished largely by reorganizing the parking and traffic patterns in the station area. Safe trail access over the Pocantico River and Metro North tracks can be provided by either traffic management techniques on the existing bridges or by building trail bridges. A trail bridge over the river would cost about $200 k.

I urge you and the Board to table the boardwalk proposal, then ask the recently formed Sleepy Hollow/Tarrytown Interconnecting Trails Committee to prioritize studying and grant seeking for how to provide trail access in the station area. The group is expected to meet in the near future. For the record, I've been appointed as a "regional" member of the Committee.

Regardless of how the Board proceeds, investing $1 m in a public project warrants examination of alternatives and public discussion.

If the New NY Bridge's Community Benefits Program has already offered preliminary approval to fund this effort, I'd wager that George Paschalis, et al, would be willing to amend the offer to cover an even longer connection.

Sincerely,

--Dan


More Sleepy Hollow information is available on the web, @DanielConvissor and #SleepyHollowNY