Black Bridge proposal spans the arts
An artist’s rendering of how the Black Bridge could look next year. Susan Campriello/Hudson-Catskill Newspapers
Village plans for safer, more attractive walks
The Daily Mail
Aug. 25, 2009

CATSKILL — Catskill’s walkways could become safer and more beautiful since the Village Board announced Monday the creation of a crosswalk and its support for an art project centering on a footbridge in the Village.

Catskill Village Department of Public Works Superintendent Lewis O’Connor confirmed with Allen Street resident Jessie Able that a crosswalk would be painted at the junction of Allen Street and Route 23B, next to Ace of Burgers.

“It is still going to happen,” O’Connor told Able, adding that the work would be done in the next few weeks.

The project could be completed within a day, he said.

Able’s husband, Brian Kehoe, approached the Board about the crosswalk and the lack of sidewalks on Allen Street in May, when he read a letter that illustrated the dangers their family and others faced while walking on the block. Shortly after, Able said, Catskill Village President Vincent Seeley met with the family to discuss the safety issues on Allen Street. And more recently, she said, Trustee Joseph Kozloski and O’Connor told Kehoe that a crosswalk was coming.

O’Connor said Monday he was unsure the final costs for paint and crosswalk signs that would be installed at the intersection.

Able also appeared in front of the Board to help friend and local artist Dina Bursztyn, of Open Studio, present a beautification project for the footbridge known as the Black Bridge that spans the Catskill Creek.

The pair said the idea was born from they enjoyment of the bridge and hope that it can be made into something beautiful through the introduction of plantings and other artistic touches.

“It would be great to have [the bridge] as a tourist destination,” Bursztyn said, adding that a beautified bridge would be nice for the children who cross it on their way to and from the middle and high schools on West Main Street.

Bursztyn created a ceramic and glass sundial for Dutchmen’s Landing park a few years ago.

She said other local artists, professionals and possibly school children will be active in the bridge project. In the future, she hopes other organizations, including the Catskill Community Center, the Catskill Garden Club, the Washington Irving Senior and the Catskill Community Garden, will be involved, as well in this and future projects.

She plans to plant decorative creeping vines that would crawl along the structure’s beams, to make and hang whirligigs from upper beams as well as to stencil birds and butterflies on the bridge’s floor next year. The garden club could hang plants on the structure as well, she said.

Then the rest of the bridge could be painted, she said, adding that she could appear again in front of the board once plans for that aspect of the project was planned. More research on how the project could be completed safely, she said, was needed.

Over the years, there has been talk about embarking on projects to rehabilitate or beautify the bridge, which carries beneath it a water and sewer pipe.

“If it looks like people are taking care of it interest in [the bridge] will grow,” Jessie Able said.

Bursztyn said she planned on funding the project through the Greene County Center for the Arts and other avenues.

Catskill Village President Vincent Seeley said research into whether existing paint on the bridge needed mitigation was necessary before the artistic embellishments could be made.

“From my perspective, I think it is a great project,” Seeley said. Village Trustees in attendance Angelo Amato, Patrick McCulloch and Joseph Kozloski agreed.