Advertisement. Advertise with us

COLUMN

Press Ahead With Railyards,

Or Oneonta, DRI In Doubt

Editor’s Note:  This is a comment on the DGEIS on the redevelopment of Oneonta’s D&H railyards, after the plan was pummeled at a March 5 public hearing at Foothills.  Al Colone is founding president of Oneonta’s former National Soccer Hall of Fame.

By AL COLONE • for Hometown Oneonta & The Freeman’s Journal

Dear Mayor Herzig and Common Council members:

The 270 acres of the former D&H railyards are the most important real estate within the boundaries of the City of Oneonta.  I’ve often said the land in question and its relationship to the city is analogous to the core of an apple; and since the 1960s a gradually rotting core.

I believe that unless and until something meaningful happens there the rot will persist, having a dire impact on the rest of the fruit: Oneonta, its City center, its neighborhoods and its allied assets.

What happens there will determine the future of our community and the surrounding area. Will development there bring growth and much-needed prosperity, or will Oneonta continue to flounder, sadly without fulfillment of its incredible potential?

Please accept this email letter as a formal comment in support of your ongoing processing of the Generic Environmental Impact Statement.

I urge the Council to approve the GEIS review of the IDA’s 90 acres of the yards, as prepared by Delaware Engineering, understanding that this action is a very preliminary and necessary first step in any future development.

I believe it’s very premature to try and confirm or finalize a development-site plan and/or an energy program, knowing those important determinations are really in the hands of others: committed private developers and state agencies.

It’s outside financial resources that will answer those issues.  Nothing will happen in a major capital way on the 90 acres for several years, unless you have a major private investor in your back pocket, or anticipating a $40-million grant from New York State, or some combination.

For the what it’s worth department, here’s my advice on an incremental strategy going forward:

• Have the IDA apply for $651,450 grant to clear and seed the 50 non-wetlands acres of the IDA’s 90 acres, improve the existing Roundhouse Road with cul-de-sacs at each site entrance, name and install “project” signage in appropriate high-visibility locations. There are some very creative rail-themed names that could be considered!

• Immediately put a recruiter on the road to evaluate potential capital prospects, to define and refine  development concepts, and to sign prospect commitments towards future capital construction and operations at the former rail-yard site.  For the record; I continue to believe food, beverage and innovation have the greatest economic growth potential for both the railyards and DRI zone.

• Other action towards addressing future private site development.

Good luck in moving the railyards’ projects forward:  The economic future of the community and area is in your hands.  Best wishes!

 

Posted

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Related Articles

SCOLINOS: It’s All We Need To Know: Home Plate 17 Inches Wide

COLUMN VIEW FROM THE GAME It’s All We Need To Know: Home Plate 17 Inches Wide Editor’s Note:  Tim Mead, incoming Baseball Hall of Fame president, cited John Scolinos, baseball coach at his alma mater, Cal Poly Pomona, as a lifelong inspiration, particularly Scolinos’ famous speech “17 Inches.” Chris Sperry, who published sperrybaseballlife.com, heard Scolinos deliver a version in 1996 at the American Baseball Coaches Association in Nashville, and wrote this reminiscence in 1916 in his “Baseball Thoughts” column. By CHRIS SPERRY • from www.sperrybaseballlife.com In 1996, Coach Scolinos was 78 years old and five years retired from a college coaching…

Sports Can Resume, Superintendents Told

CLICK HERE FOR MEMO TO SCHOOLS Sports Can Resume, Superintendents Told COOPERSTOWN – In a memo released Friday evening, county Public Health Director Heidi Bond advised local school superintendents that sports can resume as early as Monday. “Effective Feb. 1, participants in higher-risk sports may participate in individual or distanced group training and organized no/low-contact group training,” Bond wrote, “…including competitions and tournaments, if permitted by local health authorities.”…

Killer Ricky Knapp Dies In Prison

Killer Knapp Dies In Prison; Guilty In SUNY Coed’s Death ONEONTA – Ricky Knapp, the man convicted of the 1977 death of SUNY Oneonta student, has died in Mohawk Correctional Facility, according to prison records. Knapp, 66, died March 8, having served 40 years of a 25-to-life sentence for a 1978 manslaughter conviction in the death of 18-year-old Linda Velzy, a SUNY student from Long Island. According to reports, Velzy was last seen Dec. 9 1977, hitchhiking in downtown Oneonta.…