Lockport NY

The Buffalo News reported on a new study pertaining to the full restoration of the northern Flight of Five.

Restoring the 19th century Erie Canal locks to working order would bring in enough tourists to make an annual $17 million economic impact on Niagara County, a new study says.

The study by Camoin Associates of Saratoga Springs was commissioned in hopes its results could be used to convince someone to give the City of Lockport the roughly $7 million needed for the restoration of the Flight of Five, as the original stairstep set of five locks are called.

One key target audience is the New York Power Authority. Its president and chief executive officer, Richard M. Kessel, toured the locks May 20 and was asked for $6 million by Mayor Michael W. Tucker.

Kessel said Friday he hadn’t seen the Camoin study yet, but he said, “I think it’s a great project. It is certainly under serious consideration as part of a Niagara County package we’re putting together.”...

The numbers are substantial even if assumed to be only half. A 19th century engineering marvel is worthy of full stewardship. Seeing that it is located right in the middle of our city opens even more opportunity to create a special place for not just the visitors, but those of us who actually live here. We need a plan so their inertia can feed off each other in our aim to create somehwere special to live and visit. The infrastructure is here.

It's always a pleasent surprise seeing all the different license plates parked on the Pine St bridge during the summer.

Hello.

When the Union Sun & Journal forms closed, I decided to take up MJ's open offer when he started this blog, that he was always open for more posters.  So, here I am.

So let me give you a quick introduction.  I've lived in Lockport all my life (some 30+ years), and within the past few years, I've been lucky enough to work in Lockport as well.  I have also lived in a few different sections of the city.  I grew up during the days of a vibrant active Lockport Mall, and an empty field where WalMart is now. There have been a LOT of changes to Lockport throughout my life.  Sadly, most of them have been in rather recent history.  Sadly, because it took a long time for someone to try to bring Lockport out from under the rock that we had hidden ourselves in.  So it's been rather exciting times for a lifer like myself.

As a matter of fact, what caused me to finally register to the US&J forum was so I could be one of the few supporters (at least on that forum) of the Flight of Five project.  Having lived along the canal in the 'touristy' section of town, it's amazing to see how many people come to visit the canal, and any money spent to encourage people to come, and anything we can do to make sure they spend more time, is money well spent.

Enough with my babbling, thanks for putting up with me, and thanks to MJ for getting this all started.

Erik.

Buffalo News had an Update on the Flight of Five project today.

“The stars are in misalignment. The stock market is in the tank, and the state budget is nowhere,” Welsby said. “Perhaps for that $1.8 million we can restore two complete locks. We can work our way up. In the meantime, we don’t give up our hunt for money.” The current investment woes hurt the availability of money for foundations, just as Flight of Five decision makers were planning a push to solicit grants from Erie County foundations. Toward that end, the city hired Full Circle Productions for 7,500 to produce a seven-minute promotional video, which was shown at Monday’s meeting.

This tiered approach makes sense to me. Even two locks would work well in defining the lower approach to the locks and showcasing how the older manual locks worked. I'd think locking through all 5 would be tedious and time consuming for a tourist anyways. This also puts off having to immediately deal with the flat concrete access bridge over the top lock.


I'll also try to see if it is possible to get a copy of the video or get a link to it if it ends up posted elsewhere. I'll have to ask later though since the delegation is of to Albany today:

The recommendation from Welsby’s engineering firm, Wendel Duchscherer, to limit the project comes as a city delegation drives to Albany today to meet with officials of the State Canal Corp. to try to settle a wide range of issues that have impeded the project, the city’s top tourism development priority.

The delegation includes Mayor Michael W. Tucker, Corporation Counsel John J. Ottaviano, City Treasurer Michael E. White, Welsby and David R. Kinyon, chairman of the Flight of Five Committee. One of the issues to be debated is a legal tangle over whether the city needs a long-term lease to gain access to the state property for the restoration work, or whether a short-term permit will do.

Original post here:Flight of Five 2011 Opening?

Buffalo News: Editorial

Buffalo News Article 1 and Article 2.

There will be elements that might bother purists —a wa - ter wheel, for
instance, and recreated canal locks that serve an important practical function
but were not used at this end of the canal — but there are elements of delight
as well. The Liberty Pole is back....

My question here may be a little premature since the plan is preliminary, but why are they discussing placing recreated canal locks in Buffalo's inner harbor? Especially when 30 mins north here in Lockport you have the real deal in two operating electrical locks and a push to restore the old northern Flight of Five locks? If this was private investment I would say good luck. But having a very heavy public investment, would it not make more sense to put some of the state money toward the Flight of Five restoration and then cross promote both places and the region as a whole?

WNY's cultural/tourism push has been based on having the "real deal" to offer. A prime example of which is the $50 mil Darwin Martin House restoration and another is the unearthing of the Commercial Slip on the site in discussion. Why are we then putting money into "fake" pseudo-historical artifacts when we already possess one of the marvels of early 19th century American engineering? It is smart of Buffalo to use its historical place as the Western Terminus of the old Erie Canal. It would be even smarter for all relevant portions of Erie and Niagara county to use their portion of the Erie Canal history as part of a team instead of trying to tell the whole story them self.

And as a side note: the image above has me wondering if there is anywhere to rent canoes or kayaks along the canal in Lockport? Locking thru in one of them is a fun and unique experience while just paddling along the canal is nice and relaxing in itself.

Older topic here: Flight of Five 2011 Opening?

"Although questions about funding and construction access to the Erie Canal
locks have yet to be settled, program manager Peter J. Welsby last week offered
a new timetable showing a June 2011 opening for the Flight of Five project.
Welsby, of the Wendel Duchscherer engineering firm, said arrangements have
been made with the state Canal Corp. for enough access to carry out a pilot
project next May, restoring masonry and railings near the bottom of the five
19th century lock..."

Of all the projects going on, this is one of the most exciting to me personally. It's a blessing and a great responsibility to have one of the great engineering feats of the 19th century still in tact right in the middle of our downtown. Over the years I have been pleasantly surprised by the number of vehicles with out of state license plates parked around the locks on any given day.

I'd guess there are many out there who pry question the value of spending a large sum of money on a project like this. Most would submit that the money would be better spent elsewhere, etc. But here we have one of the most notable structures on one of the most notable human works in the early history of the United States. this should create the ability to secure funding on all levels. (the economy will return someday ;)

Other areas on the canal are in process of rebuilding their portion of our history:

Camillus is in process of restoring the Nine Mile Creek Aqueduct to working status
http://www.eriecanalcamillus.com/aqueduct.htm
City of Buffalo commercial Slip unearthed and functioning as docking:
http://buffalowaterfront.com/Erie_Canal_Harbor_Officially_Opens.php

Lockport has the advantage of still having their notable structure still on the functioning canal system and dead center of DT businesses/other activities for actual spin off through interaction. Park once and walk to numerous other places. Add to it a new :hidden parking structure with surface park and overlook, possible "Upper Marina", great start/end point for the wine loop etc and we will have a critical mass to build up visitors and residents. We should be proud of what we have from those before us and do our best to preserve and use it to our best benefit.

For more year round interest: I wonder if we could do something similar to Ottawa who turns their DT locks into the "world's longest ice skating rink"?
http://www.ottawa-information-guide.com/rideau-canal.html
Ottawa is on my list of "have to visit" weekend road trips.

While poking around I came across this site, which is wonderfully laid out for Lockport Tourism.
http://lockportontheeriecanal.com/welcome-erie-canal-lockport.html. A really really nice layout. Send it to everyone you know and post it everywhere ;)

The article also stated:

For $7,500, Full Circle Studios is producing a five-to seven- minute video to be
shown next month to the foundation and perhaps to other funding sources later
on.

Will check to see if this video gets posted somewhere and if not I will see if I can get my hands on it to post.

How do you feel about this project?