By Nick Mattera
Niagara Gazette
LEWISTON —
The Town of Lewiston will use a combination of Niagara River Greenway funding and a congressional appropriation from U.S Representative Louise Slaughter to construct a walking and bicycle trail from Mohawk Street in the Village of Lewiston to Devil’s Hole State Park.
Construction will begin shortly on the Lewiston pathway scenic project, which will be the continuation of a nearly 7-mile path which currently stretches from Youngstown to the Village of Lewiston, stopping abruptly along Mohawk Street under the overpass for the Robert Moses Parkway.
“We are going to continue building the trail from (there) all the way to the town line at Devil’s Hole (State Park),” Town Supervisor Steven L. Reiter said. “We will use the money we received several years ago, utilize our town employees and get going as soon as possible.”
Reiter said the trail would run through the village, past Academy Park, up to the Lewiston plateau, where it would then cross the northbound section of the Robert Moses Parkway and run along the southbound section which Reiter said offers better views.
Last year, the town obtained $210,000 from the Niagara River Greenway Commission to go with $1.8 million in funding secured by Slaughter nearly nine years ago for the project. Reiter said permitting and planning issues with the state Department of Transportation and the New York Power Authority have delayed the project until now.
“I think the current town board and myself have moved aggressively to utilize our portion of the greenway funds to improve the quality of life in Lewiston and this trail or path is just another example of that,” Reiter said. “We are creating things to do not just for visitors to our area, but for our town residents as well.”
The pathway is designed to be consistent with the regional bicycle and pedestrian master plan for Western New York and will create a “recreation pathway” from Youngstown to Niagara Falls as the path continues along the gorge rim into the city center.
According to the project narrative, the pathway is important to residents because it will increase public access to Niagara Gorge vistas, state parks including Joseph Davis, Niagara Reservation, Artpark, Fourmile Creek and Old Fort Niagara as well a multiple communities along the route including DeVeaux, Niagara University and Lewiston.
Reiter said one interesting thing the town would like to incorporate with the trail in an effort to capture visitors to the communities attention is the installation of bike rental stations. These facilities, which Reiter said would be strategically placed at three or four locations along the path, will allow visitors to use a debit or credit card and have access to a bike for the day.
“They just swipe their card and can take a ride to Youngstown and see Fort Niagara, enjoy the Village of Lewiston, or ride up to Niagara Falls, it gives them another reason to spend more time in Lewiston,” he said.
He said the rentals are all done electronically and would not require an attendant.
Parkway removal activists expressed concerns over the project when it was first discussed saying it was in their opinion the scenic pathway would some day conflict with any opportunity to remove the parkway entirely. They called for alternative routes that may better incorporate natural features and did not run along the Robert Moses.
“It’s unfortunate that the Town of Lewiston feels it necessary to ram the construction of this trail through merely because they have the funding to do so,” Bob Baxter, conservation chair for the Niagara Heritage Partnership, said Wednesday night. “It was a lousy plan when it was introduced to the public at the public hearing and the public told them so. It’s still lousy. Moreover, it flies in the face of the Niagara River Greenway-funded study now under way. They couldn’t wait a few months for study results? They did the same thing with the dog park, though the commission asked them to wait on that.
“This suggests they don’t care about the region, only their own plans, no matter how ill advised.”
Reiter said the project can certainly be done under budget and in a timely manner.
