DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
Erie Canal Neighbors Association
HTML https://ecna.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: Perinton/Fairport Canal Community Discussion
*****************************************************
#Post#: 1932--------------------------------------------------
New Fairport Bridge Lighting - An Erie Canal Community choses
Scenery over Public Safety
DIR By: Doug K
Date: January 5, 2022, 9:22 am
---------------------------------------------------------
While the New York Power Authority (NYPA), and it's subsidiary
the New York State Canal Corporation (NYSCC), remain VIRTUALLY
helpless to restore public safety to their Erie Canal Embankment
Dams, they have taken a new direction in the Town of Perinton
and the Village of Fairport.
If you can't "fix it up", do the next best thing, "light it up!"
And what else would anyone expect from a NYS Power Company who
happens to also own a 200 year old waterway?
After all, anything that NYPA can do, to turn on more lights in
Fairport, will eventually put revenue back in their own
pocket... and help support future Canal Operations. All paid for
by taxpayers in the Villages who will pay for those fancy new
lights along the Erie Canal for years to come.
Here's the NYSCC Announcement about Fairport Lighting.
[attachimg=1]
HTML https://www.canals.ny.gov/news/pressrel/2021/20211221-LED_lighting.pdf
Of particular note is this section on the Fairport Bridge
FAIRPORT LIFT BRIDGE
The Fairport Lift Bridge carries Main Street over the Erie Canal
in the Village of Fairport.
It opened in 1913, as part of the expanded Barge Canal, and is
one of 16 lift bridges
constructed over the canal between Fairport in Monroe County and
the City of Lockport
in Niagara County.
The electricity for the lift bridge and the newly installed LED
lighting is supplied by Fairport
Electric, one of NYPA’s municipal electric power customers.
In addition, NYPA designated Fairport as an “EVolve NY Electric
Vehicle Accelerator Community”
and helped to sponsor an EV shuttle that was used by the
community while the lift bridge
underwent a major rehabilitation project that was recently
completed by the State Department
of Transportation (DOT). NYPA and the Canal Corporation
collaborated with DOT to install the
lighting in alignment with their project to reduce impacts on
travelers and residents.
Here's a link to the entire Canal Corporation Video on Facebook:
HTML https://www.facebook.com/nycanals/?ref=stream
Now you would believe that the NYS Canal Corporation should be
working on their Public Safety issue along the Canal, all part
of their newly re-released Canal Integrity Program, after all
they said FOUR years ago that many canal neighbors are living
below "UNSAFE DAMS" that need to be repaired.
HTML https://www.nyscanalintegrity.org/
But their efforts to restore Erie Canal embankment integrity,
and insure that Erie Canal Neighbors & Neighborhoods are safe,
is on hold. Mainly because of a social media group who has
hijacked their public safety program and turned the conversation
to clear-cutting, global warming, and the "environment".
You can read more about that here:
HTML https://ecna.createaforum.com/general-discussion/is-protesting-against-a-ny-state-erie-canal-embankment-safety-program-a-good-ide/msg1927/?topicseen#msg1927
Can you guess where this protest group is located? Where it
traces it's founding roots to?
Why none other than Fairport Village & the Town of Perinton of
course. So we may be seeing what is really MOST important to the
New York Power Authority here.
And it's not the SAFETY of Canal Neighbors after all... it may
just be finding more opportunities to sell "electricity" (from
their own supply of course) to more NYS Municipalities
[attachimg=2]
Just a hunch, But it's probably a foregone conclusion that the
new Brockport Loop Skyway Bridge Project, to link the South Bank
to the North Bank Empire Trail, will probably have an over
abundance of NYPA Lighting in place, with the Village of
Brockport & SUNY College paying the bill. Of course at the
expense of NY Taxpayers who unfortunately are "stuck" because of
where they chose to live.
Maybe the Brockport Loop will be visible from the space
station... only time will tell
HTML https://canalwaytrailtimes.org/2021/04/27/one-year-later-reimagine-the-canals-is-breathing-new-life-into-canalside-communities/
#Post#: 2412--------------------------------------------------
If you light it up, they will come... Is this NYPA's Hidden
Agenda?
DIR By: Doug K
Date: March 29, 2023, 7:37 am
---------------------------------------------------------
The ECNA made this statement more than one year ago...
If you can't "fix it up", do the next best thing, "light it up!"
It appears that we hit this "nail on the head" when we discussed
the new Fairport Lift Bridge "lighting" project. Afterall, what
would anyone expect when a NY State Governor hands the operation
of the Erie Canal System to the New York Power Authority (NYPA)?
It worked with a baseball field in Iowa..right?
"If you light it up, they will come..."
... and if they don't come, NYPA still makes a little profit off
their new electricity customer, Fairport Village Taxpayers &
Little Falls Residents
The New York State Canal Corporation was asked to repair the
numerous canal system safety issues in 2015, with some
structures having missed maintenance for almost 100 years. Many
of those structures are water impounding earthen dams, called
embankments. The Canal Corporation has created a new website to
address these Canal Integrity issues, and even someone with "an
eighth grade education" should be able to understand the
inherent issues with unsafe earthen embankments.
HTML https://www.nyscanalintegrity.org/
When Fairport residents protested these canal safety
initiatives, the owners & caretakers of the canal, NYPA, went
back to the drawing board and came up with the next best plan...
dazzle these Canal Communities with new "iconic" LED lighting.
It's all part of the new Reimagine the Canals program, trying to
"reimagine" a NYS Canal System that actually can make a profit.
HTML https://www.oviinc.com/project/reimagine-the-erie-canals-fairport-2/
The same thing has been done at the Canal Buffalo Harbor, added
lighting along the canal, that's paid for by local communities,
local governments and eventuall all residents paying taxes.
HTML https://architizer.com/projects/erie-canal-harbor/
And now it's time for more lighting, more money going to NYPA's
purse, for lighting and other work in Little Falls, NY.
HTML https://www.nypa.gov/news/press-releases/2022/20220804-iconic-lighting-program
Of course the local community is all for it... the Lock 17 LED
lighting is spectacular. That is until the first bills start
coming in to pay for all of this new hardware and continual
electricity consumption.
HTML https://youtu.be/PkkmMfQ8Hpk
HTML https://mylittlefalls.com/nypa-and-nys-canal-corporation-unveil-latest-installation-of-iconic-lighting-program-in-little-falls/
And it's not going to go away anytime soon... if they can't fix
the canal, NYPA can still work to improve profits on this new
"anchor" product for New York State.
They are lighting up "lighthouses" that are no longer needed for
Canal traffic, NYPA gave Fairport very pretty bridge lighting,
instead of repairing the unsafe canal embankments there. Doesn't
seem like a fair trade for Erie Canal Neighbors that are still
living under those unsafe, and still UNREPAIRED earthen canal
embankments that we are told have "integrity challenges", does
it?
And now Little Falls gets the full NYPA Reimagine treatment...
all while these safety repairs to RESTORE THE INTEGRITY of the
canal system are at a standstill.
Those repairs are meant to make New York State SAFER, by
insuring the Erie Canal system won't unexpectedly breach and
flood some unsuspecting community, causing possible death,
probable property damage, and of course... million dollar
lawsuits against the STATE of New York. Lawsuits that most
certainly would affect canal operations.
But NYPA still pushes its real #1 product , electricity.
HTML https://www.flickr.com/photos/nyscanalcorp/sets/72177720295344470/with/51753848964/
Little Falls, NY is getting the Big 3 when it comes to the
Reimagine the Canals work
1) Installation of LED Lighting everywhere possible.
2) A Pedestrian Bridge across the Erie Canal (similar to the
Brockport Loop)
3) A new "pocket neighborhood" for canal patrons to launch their
watercraft and buy an ice cream.
We have said it before, and we will say it again...NYPA's real
plan appears to be making sure the Erie Canal can be seen from
outer space.
And it all seems to be a "welcome distraction" for NYPA, they
can appease the public with dazzling lights and new ideas all
while ignoring the elephant in the room...
They are NOT actually required to FIX the public safety issues
that now threaten canal neighbors or place many canal
communities in danger of flooding.
They can simply offer pretty lighting now to any community in
danger, and only need to "talk" about repairing a 100 year old
canal system...
And NYPA can hopefully avoid any further ridicule or pressure,
by certain Fairport social media group, for trying to clear and
maintain unsafe canal embankments, all at the same time...
By simply putting on a "light show" on the parts of the Canal
System that are safe, I guess, bridges and locks.
HTML https://ecna.createaforum.com/erie-canal-embankment-integrity-program-(eip)/safety-inspections-done-done-for-100-years!/msg2408/?topicseen#msg2408
*****************************************************
Page 1 of 1