Trails and Rails

I've recently received a lot of information about an Bethlehem and Albany Rail trail. As anyone I have talked to about this knows - I am a big supporter of the concept. A converted rail trail is a great idea for exercise and even bike commuting. Coupled with improvements to the mass transportation system it could really help to take a lot of cars off the road. That's good for the environment and for consumer's pocketbooks - both of which have to be something we think about all the time.

Unfortunately, as with other things in this world making it happen is not as easy as saying, "lets do it." In truth, there is a lot of work that will need to be done to:

• plan for the best method of environmentally sensitive paving,
• explore options for helping to maintain safety and security of foot and bike traffic and
• come to an understanding of how to effectively secure a trail that might cross several government jurisdictions.

And there will also be the issue of figuring out who will own the trail - the County or the town.

It will take some time to work out these details, but we will get them done. I committed to making it happen and it will. I have spoken to some of my colleagues on the Town Board and they agree with me on this.

Trials and Tribulations in Mass Transit

As many of you already know, I have been an advocate for mass transportation for some time. It is something I talked about when I was running and on a couple of blog postings at my own site. I have been because mass transit just makes sense - it saves us from spending money on foriegn-produced oil, it helps saves the environment, takes congestion-causing cars off the road and it actually makes for a nice commute. Some of my best friends have been people I met on a bus.

For about two years I tried to ride the bus at least four time (there and back again) a week for my commute to Albany. What I found then was spotty service and a driver workforce as upset about the situation as the commuters. I had recently heard that things were getting better and had even met with Ray Mulleady the Executive Director of Capital District Transit Authority (CDTA) to talk about their future plans and what we could do to improve service. It was a great conversation and I think laid a piece of ground work for our future plans here in Bethlehem. Mr. Mulleady said that there really is a “new” CDTA that is being developed. I believe him when he says that. That’s why I always ask whenever a new project is in front of the town board, whether it is mass transit accessible and with few exception the answer has been yes. That is a testament to CDTA and to our town’s great planning staff. It has to be a partnership to make it all work right.

So, when I read this article, I was disappointed. According to the article, new riders face steep learning curves in picking up mass transit and schedules are not as tight as they should be. Anecdotally, I have begun to hear from commuters that they think we need to improve the system.

I will be getting in touch with CDTA to see if we can bring them in to town hall to talk with the public about the present, past and future of CDTA in the coming weeks. I’d love to hear your thoughts on mass transit in the Capitla District. Please email me at mark@markhennessey.com

This was first posted on the TU Bethlehem blog located here:

Bethlehem Grange Hall

My son is attending a Computer Explorers camp (he calls it Lego Camp) at the Bethlehem Grange Community Center located at Route 396 in Selkirk. I just dropped him off there. Which gives me an opportunity to talk about the Bethlehem Grange.

The Bethlehem Grange is a wonderful, old style building with a gathering hall/dining room, greeting room and kitchen area. If you have never visited it is a great place to catch a meal as well and they have open dinners several times a year. The next one is on October 4th.

The Bethlehem Grange is an offshoot of the he National Grange. It serves the southeastern corner of Albany County, New York which encompasses the communities of Selkirk, South Bethlehem, Glenmont, Beckers Corners. The Bethlehem Grange is a great organization and one that I highly recommend. Membership forms are available at the Grange Community Center.

The National Grange is the nation's oldest national agricultural organization, with grassroots units across 37 states. It has over 300,000 members who provide service to agriculture and rural areas on a all sorts of issues, including: economic development, education, family endeavors, and legislation designed to assure a strong and viable Rural America.

It was formed in the years following the American Civil War as a populist movement to improve the economic and social position of the nation's farm population.

First in a Series

This will be the first post that I have thrown up at the site in a while, so apologies for that. You get really busy with other things and become unable to do some of things you enjoy doing. Nevertheless we're accomplishing a lot and moving forward on several fronts. Around this time of the year, many of us politicians are visiting with town residents and getting petitions signed. I just finished work on this today and I have to admit, given the temperature and humidity today, people were just great. One lady gave a glass of lemonade, which I appreciated deeply.

Having said that, we on the town board have been moving forward on completing projects that are in progress including Vista (had a meeting the other day on this), the rail trail and other efforts. It is sometimes frustrating, but perseverance and effort is something we have to keep on doing.