4th St. kayak launch progresses, but criticism lingers
Not everyone in the village is pleased with the project
The Daily Mail
Apr. 10, 2009

ATHENS — Mayor Andrea Smallwood expressed optimism to the Village Board Wednesday night that the Fourth Street kayak and canoe launch will be operational before summer.

“It looks nice, it’s looking good,” she said.

She said, however, that not everybody in the Village is pleased with the two-year project.

Smallwood has heard from irate Athens residents who have had trouble putting their boats in the river at Fourth Street since the project began.

She said the launch was not designed for large boats, motorized boats or jet skis.

“We felt the project was perfect for small craft and kayaks,” she said. “We have the State launch for larger vessels that people can use.”

That launch, off Route 385 near the Murderers Kill, is roughly one mile up the river from Fourth Street.

According to a work schedule provided by Smallwood, paving of a 13-spot parking lot adjacent to the launch will begin later this month.

Athens Boat Yard LLC deeded land for the lot to the Village last year.

Landscape work will commence once the lot is finished, the schedule shows.

Chris Pfister, who worked on the project as a village trustee and has volunteered to remain as the project’s clerk of the works, said that work on the 30-foot retaining wall was completed earlier this week. He expected the patio to be finished Thursday.

Pfister said he will meet with a kayak group to discuss the configurations of an access ramp and the actual floating slip.

He said he was happy about the progress of the project in light of the constant worry that state grant money might not be available.

Pfister said he has been approached by residents who question whether the project violates a chapter of the Athens Code regarding blocking river access at Fourth Street.

“No boat, ship, canoe, sailboat or other type of vessel, vehicle or any other thing shall be left or deposited on that portion of Fourth Street lying easterly of the easterly line of Water Street so as to interfere with the free movement of vessels, craft or trailers into and out of the waters of the Hudson River adjoining said Fourth Street,” Section 2 of Chapter 13 of the Athens Code reads.

Vessels cannot be tied up or stopped in the river off of Fourth Street, the section reads, unless they are retrieving or discharging passengers or are not interfering with river access for longer than two hours.

During a comment period in February 2007, the Planning Board had made the recommendation that the Village Board may want to visit the issue of amending the Code, which was adopted in 1962, Athens Planning Board Chairman Mark Levenway said.

Smallwood said that portions of the Village Code may be revisited after the Board hears the Zoning Review Committee proposals as well as comments from the public.

“If this needs to be addressed, it will be addressed,” she said.