August 18, 2005
Work on Varna railbed
The Comprehensive Plan definitely gives priority to the old railbeds for use as trails, with a vision of connection Dryden Lake to Dryden (done), Dryden to Freeville (in progress), Freeville to Varna, and Varna to the East Ithaca Recreation way.
I hadn't heard of anything happening presently on the western end of this, so I was surprised to see heavy equipment working on the railbed between Route 13 and Varna. The bed's been widened, the beaver pond next to it removed, and ditching put in.
Looking toward Route 13 from the rail bed.
Former beaver pond, now dried up.
I asked at last week's Town Board meeting what was happening - are they leaping ahead with trail development? Highway Superintendent Jack Bush wasn't there, but engineer Dave Putnam said that they'd been doing work on the water lines under the railbed, and had to do the work to the bed itself to get to the water lines.
Posted by simon at August 18, 2005 8:32 AM in Varna , trailsNote on photos