Lockport NY

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The LUSJ reported that the Flight of Five Project to restore the north set of canal locks to period operation, has been granted the ability to restore them in phases instead of all at once.

The city is close to securing the state’s permission to restore two in the Flight of Five series of canal locks.

Pending final signoffs by the state Canal Corp. and Department of Transportation, the city will use the remainder of an old federal “earmark” to put Locks 68 and 69 back in working order, David Kinyon, chairman of the volunteer-staffed Lockport Locks Heritage District Committee, said this week.

It’ll happen because the city finally has gained access to $1.7 million, the balance of a federal transportation award obtained for Flight restoration in 2005, by then-U.S. Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds.

Though the money was committed, it sat unspent for years because the city was prohibited from using it until it had pledges in hand to fund a total restoration project...

 A huge score for the project and one that makes a lot of sense. One the wonders of 19th century engineering sits in the middle of our city and we should be good stewards. It is about time we catch up with other projects through out the state restoring long abandoned aqueducts, etc. A lot of those projects are in outlaying areas. Having ours in the middle of DT provides another piece of the puzzle for making a unique interesting vibrant place to live, work and visit.

Who will store the mule?

The LUSJ reported on the progress over at 160 East Ave (Next to LUSJ itself.)

While the improvement is huge for the previously vacant building, the result of the street facade is lacking.

The project passed before the planning board last year. My only comment during the session was the the East Ave frontage designed to look like the back or side of a building. The use of the rear as the main entrance is easily understood since the parking is (thankfully) at the rear of the building.

Just because the front of the building is not main entrance (or even an entrance at all) should not preclude that the front facade of a structure interact visually with the street. The lack of any law based design guidelines in the city create situations like this where by time you get to comment on the project all you can do it suggest something. Something which will most likely be ignored since it is not the law to do so and the project has long been designed.

A simple porch structure, even if non-functional would easily tied the building into the street instead of "ignoring" it.

Kind of related to this project, and the languishing parking ramp project, is this parking ramp design from Miami University in Ohio.

If a parking structure can interact with its frontage, why can't a medical building? And if the parking ramp ever gets replaced, a design such as this would fit nicely along Pine and Main.

The Buffalo News reported that Artpark will start charging admission for its Tuesday concerts (with reduced parking charges) while the Wednesday concerts will remain free (but with the current higher parking charges).

Free concerts at Artpark played a key role in transforming Lewiston from a sleepy village to a bustling regional tourism destination.

But as the bands came, so did the crowds -- so much so that this year, Artpark's popular Tuesday in the Park concerts will, for the first time, require an admission fee. Proceeds from the tickets, which will range from $5 to $25, will be used largely to control crowds.

"The crowds here for really big concerts have been kind of overwhelming," Artpark President George Osborne said Tuesday. "It's just grown to be so big, and we really couldn't find a way to control all the people until this project."

The new Tuesday admission charges -- along with reduced parking fees -- were outlined as Artpark announced plans for a $4 million overhaul of its facilities. The upgrade will include a new elevated stage, fences and ticketed entrances...

The Buffalo News reported that the city has rejected a new county radio tower in Outwater Park.

Niagara County is looking for places to install new emergency radio towers, but the City of Lockport last week rejected a county request to build one in Outwater Park.

The Common Council and Mayor Michael W. Tucker decided at last week’s meeting that they didn’t want a 180-foot radio antenna to be installed next to the Outwater Park water tower, as the county had proposed.

The tower would have been surrounded by a 51-by-41-foot enclosure. “I just didn’t think Outwater Park was an appropriate place,” Tucker said. He called the proposed tower “not very pretty.”...

...“They’re waiting on some final numbers there,” Tucker said. “Outwater Park is not going to happen. We still want to work with them. We still have some options. They could still put their antennas on top of the Spires.”

That’s a nine-story housing complex at Church and Ontario streets, owned by the Lockport Housing Authority....

I can see the reasoning for not wanting to put it in a park. But seeing the monstrous water tower is already there why not just put it on top of the water tower, especially if they are mentioning putting it on top of  The Spires as an option? Outwater has been hurting for a long time. In exchange for the radio tower on top of the water tower request park improvements like new trees etc.

The LUSJ reported that the polling locations for this year's school budget will not change. They are still trying to consolidate in the long term to one location (the high school). It goes to say that doing so will only save $600-$700 dollars. But....

...District officials have cited safety concerns at the schools used as voting sites as the main reason behind reducing the number of them to two...

What are the safety concerns? What documented events in last 100+ years of voting in Lockport school buildings show them to be reasonable to occur and thus necessary to prevent?

Out in industry a Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is used at times. In short you rate chance of occurrence, effects that would result and chances of detecting it. Multiply the three to rank the priority. Something can happen often and be hard to detect but have little effect. Something else can have a disastrous effect but rarely ever happen and/or be easily detected. What "events" are the school district trying to avoid here by making it more of a PIA to vote?

The LUSJ reported that the library budget vote is coming up:

Voting on the Lockport Public Library’s 2012-13 budget will take place from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. April 4 in the community meeting room of the library.

Registered voters of the Lockport City School District are eligible to vote on the proposed $1.5 million budget. The spending plan will need $1.3 million from the tax levy, a $32,127 increase.

The library trustees will hold a public meeting on the budget at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the library’s community meeting room. The trustees and the library director, Beverly Federspiel, will present the proposed budget and answer questions from the public...

The summary flier PDF is here.