By DIANE VALDEN
COPAKE—The idea of creating a spur from the Harlem Valley Rail Trail to connect with the hamlet of Copake has been considered as part of a larger “revitalization” plan for more than 10 years.
Copake Town Supervisor Richard Wolf announced at the August Town Board meeting that the town had accepted an anonymous donor’s gift of $25,000 for the express purpose of hiring an engineer to evaluate options for crossing State Route 22 to make that rail trail-hamlet connection happen. The spur is strictly a town initiative and not a project the Harlem Valley Rail Trail is undertaking.
At the September 12 Town Board meeting, the supervisor announced that the Albany engineering firm of Barton and Loguidice, with which the town “has had a lot of good experience,” had been interviewed. The supervisor then called for and received a motion authorizing him to enter into a contract with the firm for the services of project manager. All board members were in favor, Councilman Stosh Gansowski was absent.
In a February 2018 story in The Columbia Paper, “State gives Copake $40K for hamlet…waterfront? Funds intended to spur business development,” Copake Hamlet Revitalization Task Force Chair Roberta Roll announced that the town had received a $40,000 Local Waterfront Revitalization planning grant through the New York Department of State. Ms. Roll had written the successful grant application.
The town was eligible to apply for the grant because, at the town’s request, the State Legislature designated the Roeliff Jansen Kill, the Bash Bish Brook and the Taghkanic Creek, all of which flow through Copake, as inland waterways.
The grant was to fund the creation of a plan for “waterfront and hamlet revitalization to enhance business development, agri-tourism and recreational tourism,” according to a letter Ms. Roll wrote to the Town Board in January 2018.
Job creation, quality of life improvements, natural resource and historic preservation, infrastructure improvement, conservation and sustainability to enhance the town’s revitalization and community stability were all project goals.
A “significant piece” of the project was evaluating the creation of a new pedestrian and bicycle trail linking the Harlem Valley Rail Trail to the hamlet of Copake; other links mentioned are to the Taconic State Park, the Copake Town Park and the Roe Jan Library.
The vision involved a network of bicycle trails that would make Copake “a bicycle destination.”
Sometimes called the Copake Spur, the roughly half-mile trail would connect with the rail trail at Valley View Road, perhaps travel along the Bash Bish Brook, cross State Route 22 and enter the hamlet near the northern County Route 7A access route. It might end somewhere near the old Hub restaurant, just south of the hamlet.
The most challenging obstacle to creation of the spur is crossing Route 22. The Harlem Valley Rail Trail itself faced the same conundrum near Black Grocery Road and ultimately decided to build an overpass spanning Route 22 where an old railroad trestle once stood—but that hasn’t happened yet.
In a phone interview this week, Ms. Roll said that after receipt of the $40,000 grant, the town hired a consultant, Riverstreet Planning and Development, and that a “general” revitalization plan was developed and adopted. The plan does not include a specific design for the spur. That is something the newly-hired engineering firm will do.
Details about the Waterfront Revitalization Plan may be found on the town website (townofcopake.org).
The Copake Revitalization Task Force accomplished much during its years of existence and the town has since decided to broaden the revitalization mission which now falls under the auspices of the Copake Economic Development Development Advisory Committee (CEDAC).
Ms. Roll said that the spur project has been part of every grant application she has written for the town including, in recent years, the Copake Downtown $4.5 million New York Forward Proposals.
According to Supervisor Wolf, current data estimates that 176,000 individuals use the rail trail. “If the town could find a safe and convenient way to bring some of those folks into the hamlet, it would be fabulous for the local economy—helping to revitalize the existing downtown as well as making it more attractive to new businesses.”
To contact Diane Valden email dvalden@columbiapaper.com
