Monday, July 19, 2010

Save the trees, damn the bike path

So the illustrious town Select Board voted last night to oppose a waiver from, you know, the state on widening--but mainly repairing/rehabilitating--the Norowottuck rail trail which produces flat tires way quicker than those industrious beavers build dams.

Years ago the state built the bike path using recycled glass. Except they forgot to grind up the glass. Did not take long for shards to work their way up threw a thin layer of asphalt and wreak havoc on tires that require air pressure. Gotta wonder if it was the same engineering firm that designed the $10 million Umass heating plant that never threw a BTU of heat.

Finally, they want to make amends and do the job right. And since it is kind of a sunk cost getting construction equipment into out-of-the-way areas, they figured why not expand the width of the bike path by 25% creating a safer travel experience for more people.

Not in the People's Republic of Amherst. Losing trees is just too much to bear. So we will have more delays, more expenditure of tax money and eventually the job will get done--beavers and trees notwithstanding.

As usual the 45 minute meeting with this item the only one on the agenda was almost entirely one-sided, although Princess Stephanie did allow 45 seconds for another viewpoint. Hardly fair and balanced.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Folks in Amherst may, in fact, be gods.


Is there a shrine where I might pray to them?

Larry Kelley said...

Yeah, Town Hall--right under the UN flag.

Anonymous said...

Now Amherst was formless and void. Darkness over the families of farmers. The gods' spirit drooling over the waters of amethyst brook...

And the gods said, "Let this be ours," and it was theirs. They said their light was good. And they separated their light from the darkness. They called their light "DAY", and the darkness they called "night". And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Anonymous said...

Bike trail needs to be widened! It's a hazardous mix of pedestrians and bicycles that needs more width for safety.

Anonymous said...

"Amherst Regional School Committee to embark on 'retreat'

By NICK GRABBE
Staff Writer

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

AMHERST - The Regional School Committee, which has had stormy meetings over the past year, will go on a retreat this week to learn about self-improvement."


Looks like Hajji and company are at it again.

Emasculated, servant viper he.

Catherine, crush this club.

~Crush~ it.

Anonymous said...

We have enough trees in Amherst. There is this town-wide mentality of leaving them be at all cost and not wanting to cut them back for any reason, even if it makes perfect sense to do so. I wonder if my home owners insurance will pay up when one of the many trees in my back yard crashes onto my deck in a storm and damages the house...Amherst has become a joke. We don't see it but everyone else does.

Anonymous said...

Larry, how about that Ron Bohonowicz, eh?


No dirt on those hands... not a friggan speck...


tick

tock

tick

tock...


(Yours truly)

Anonymous said...

What a pity, though I myself only walk on the path, so no flat tires for me. Almost makes you hate the trees.

Anonymous said...

What moron decided to use glass in the construction of the bike path in the first place?

What a waste of public funds!

Kat said...

Know this is an old post. But I've been walking on the Hadley path for awhile now, and noticed a lot of the glass coming up. Shame as I just got a puppy and would love to walk with him there but don't want him getting glass in his paws. Stupid of them to make it out of glass!