Peekskill Hollow Road - Rural Road or Urban Highway

[helicopper 1,050]

Efforts are underway to redesignate Peekskill Hollow Road as an "urban minor arterial", increasing the speed limit and changing the character of the winding country road.

Not surprising at all, this is being met with staunch resistance from neighbors of Peekskill Hollow Road and the residents who live along it. Following are some facts about the plan and the opposition to it.

If you live in Putnam County you may want to keep an eye on this - it could happen near you next! If you know PHR, you also know that widening it and straightening it will severely affect homeowners living there and exacerbate the traffic and speed problems already being experienced there.

A hearing on the subject is scheduled for Wednesday, May 6 at the Putnam County Courthouse at 6:30 PM.

Project: Peekskill Hollow Road Design Project for Improvements (CR21) – PIN #: 8757.48 – Final Report released June 2008.

Administrators: Putnam County Department of Highway & Facilities

Funding: by Department of Transportation (DOT), Region Eight, Poughkeepsie, New York

Engineers: Barton & Loguidice located in Albany, New York

A hard copy of the Design Project is available for viewing at the Putnam Valley Library.

The scope of this project includes work at Oregon Corners, Adams Corners, and the Oscawana Lake Road Bridge.

Key Project Points of Interest:

4 foot shoulders on both sides of road; totaling 8 feet of shoulders in width

10.83 foot travel lanes; totaling 21.66 feet in width

Length of project 2.50 miles. From Oscawana Lake Road at Oregon Corners to Church Street at Adams Corners

Bridge (carrying Oscawana Lake Road over Peekskill Hollow Creek) will be rehabilitated and widened – BIN 3345680. Proposed bridge on Oscawana Lake Rd. increases in size to a four lane bridge. This design feature contradicts the design intent of the proposed master plan for Oregon Corners.

Comments: (by way of John Cohen of Friends of P.H.Rd.)

- Initial plan created by the NYS. DOT has project eventually continuing north to Route 301 in Kent.

- Current proposal will impact residential property values, increase in traffic noise, traffic speed, road salt, water run off and destroy the rural character of the road.

- Initial funding for project must be paid for by Putnam County before monies from the State and Federal sources are received.

- The SEQRA review for the project was completed before the latest version of the project design was completed.

Bridge (carrying PHR over Peekskill Hollow Creek) will be addressed by the county under separate contract – BIN 3345650

47 Right-of-Way Acquisitions. All are strip takings to accommodate widening the road.

Project cost is $8 million plus Right-of-Way costs of $500,000

Re-classifying Peekskill Hollow Road as an Urban Minor Arterial by the Federal Highway Administration and not as a rural road

New road speed is designed for 50 mph (80 km/h)

Dear Friends and Neighbors; Please forward this to your interested contacts!

An important meeting on the future of our beautiful Peekskill Hollow Road is coming up on May 6th at 6:30 at the Historic Courthouse in Carmel. Putnam County Legislator Vinnie Tamagna has called a special session to fully air the issues of the PHR project, and deserves support for this. We all need to try to attend and bring a neighbor and continue our emails and calls to the principals involved to voice our opposition to this project and support for Historic Road designation and protection for PHR, modeled after the North Salem “Historic Road Protection Law”(see attachment). We need to turn up the heat on those who continue to support this ill-conceived, destructive proposal, and convince them this project is not in our towns (or county’s) best interests.

We oppose any widening, straightening, or other out of balance grandiose “improvements” that are more appropriate for RT6 than PHR. Four lane bridges are out of scale and unnecessary for the area. The original 1998 request for federal funding laid out the true schemes for higher speeds and more traffic on PHR, and for increased dangerous commercial truck traffic through our neighborhoods. Four lane high capacity bridges only make that reality more likely, and are excessive to our true needs. The 1998 request contained the absurd description of PHR as “a meandering cow path”. We who actually live here like it the way it is!

Necessary maintenance or repairs are clearly part of the longevity of our roads and infrastructure and we support that, but we have seen far more neglect than maintenance from the Putnam County Highway leadership, along with destruction of at least one historic stone bridge, and illegal filling of part of the protected wetland adjacent to Peekskill Hollow Creek at the Oasis Garage, as well as other incompetent acts creating dangerous conditions! When is the last time YOU saw any basic maintenance being done along PHR or on its bridges?

The rural character of PHR is an important and essential element of the identity of Putnam Valley! Property values along PHR and real safety are at stake in this fight. We believe that the so-called “improvements” (widening and straightening) being pushed, will in fact, increase traffic and speeds on PHR, resulting in less safety for the families living along PHR, NOT more!

Even though we are continually assured that the section of PHR from Oregon Corners to Adams Corners will be the only part “renovated”, or that only parts of the “Final Plan” will be implemented, we believe that this is a “foot-in-the-door” ploy, and is in fact only “Phase One” as is stated in the Final Plan. Until that plan is marked “VOID” or is superseded, it is still the plan of record in its entirety! Given the record of deceit and duplicity we have encountered during this 10 year fight, we are justified in doubting the true intentions and goals of the proponents, most all of whom do not live along PHR! The people who actually DO live along PHR overwhelmingly oppose this project, as well as many others who use and enjoy PHR, and the people who are pushing it should finally get that message! The voters will not forget or forgive come November!

Advocates who point to “safety” as the main issue are not backed up by the facts detailed in their own “Final Plan”, which states that PHR is about average in accident rates and almost all are the result of violations or negligence, not road conditions. We have seen other examples of “improvements” (widening and straightening) in Putnam County, notably at Crofts Corners, resulting in great property value/beauty loss, higher speeds and MORE accidents, NOT less!

The claims by those who back this project, that “fixing the road” will make it safer for teen drivers, or make teen accidents a thing of the past, are simplistic and deceptive, IMO. Driver education is the key, and while some young drivers get the point, some never will, regardless of road configuration. A road is a road, and all have parameters that must be adhered to, or ignored at the peril of “accident”. Don’t deceptively or falsely blame our country road for teen “accidents”!

I urge all who care about the future of our road, community and real safety to try to attend this potentially pivotal meeting at the Historic Courthouse on May 6th. @ 6:30, or call the principals to say you cannot attend but support an end to this project and Historic Road Protection! Call and email them anyway! BE SURE TO SIGN THE PETITION! We must show our strength, unity and resolve in our demand that this Zombie Boondoggle be scrapped once and for all!

Speak now or forever after hold your peace! Please forward this to your interested contacts!

Email for Congressman John Hall’s representative, T.J. Rogers is tj.rogers@mail.house.gov phone 845 225 3641 X229

Putnam County Legislator Vinnie Tamagna putcoleg@putnamcountyny.gov 225 8690

Putnam County Legislator Sam Oliverio o.sam@att.net 914 414 5768

Putnam County Legislator Rich Othmer putcoleg@putnamcountyny.gov 225 8690

Putnam Valley Supervisor Bob Tendy bobtendy@aol.com 528 2121

Kent Supervisor Kathy Doherty kdoherty@townofkentny.gov 225 3943 please support preservation law

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

The time is now (again!). The cause is just. We must rally all our supporters from all over the area, not only PHR residents, to show our strength and defeat this idiot, corrupt and destructive Peekskill Hollow Road “improvement” boondoggle! The time spent now making our absolute opposition heard will serve us ten-fold. Many people who live near PHR or who use it and enjoy the peaceful nature of this beautiful residential road also object to making PHR a bypass for Rt6 or Rt9. PHR is OUR road and we hire the county to maintain it, a responsibility the “leadership” has failed miserably to fulfill! They are NOT empowered to forever alter the very nature of our lives, property values or the safety of people living along PHR. If this Project is allowed to proceed, we will all suffer the consequences.

This issue is wider than only PHR; it affects us all in Putnam County, as does the rampant corruption and cronyism we see repeatedly in many areas. The rural residential nature of our road and our towns are being threatened by this scam (and others) that has no justification except for the federal dollars available and the opportunities for corruption and spending! The stated reasons for this project are all specious rubbish as we well know!

Please email/call/talk with all your contacts and neighbors with a personal note of appeal to attend the WEDNESDAY MAY 6 at 6:30 MEETING at the historic COURTHOUSE in CARMEL. Bring your families and friends. If you are further away, call a friend who lives closer, and ask them to show up. Only by a very strong show of force do we stand a chance of defeating the proponents of this scheme to destroy our road and neighborhoods! The only thing some people understand is VOTES, and we must make it perfectly clear, that if you support this scam, or don’t call for its termination, you will NOT get our votes in November! We WILL remember!

We need to command and demand respect in this meeting, and not allow the “authorities” or “experts” to bamboozle us, and use this as a propaganda event while we sit quietly like respectful children! They have deceived us time and time again and the lies and deception must stop now! If they can’t dazzle us with brilliance, they will attempt to baffle us with BS and phony details!

If we don’t stand up for ourselves and the future of our road and neighborhoods NOW, we will surely regret the failure. SEE YOU THERE! V

Please forward this appeal to your relevant contacts. Only in unity do we have strength!

Feedback appreciated. V

http://www.pcnr.com/News/2001/0718/Front_Page/057.html

[SageVigiles 1,194]

Widening a road will cause traffic problems? I dunno Chris. Sounds like the old "NIMBY" routine. People are all for transportation improvements, as long is it isn't where it will effect their land values.

[Tapout 42]

Widening a road will cause traffic problems? I dunno Chris. Sounds like the old "NIMBY" routine. People are all for transportation improvements, as long is it isn't where it will effect their land values.

Sage, what exactly is your point? I live on Peekskill Hollow Road. In the 6 yrs I have lived here, there have been SIX car crashes in front of my house, 4 of which were rollovers. Two of my neighbor's dogs have been killed at the ned of my driveway where it meets with Peekskill Hollow Road. I live in fear every MF-ing day that my young son will be clipped by a psycho thinking PHR is the Autobahn while he rides his bicycle in MY driveway. I want to get him a dog as a pet but can't for fear it'll get killed just like the neighbors' dogs have since we've lived here. I've been passed twice while pulling out of my driveway by lunatics coming around the bend toward my driveway in excess of 60 (in the 40mph zone designated for my road).

So, does this make ME a NIMBY for opposing this PHR construction project? Put yourself in my shoes as a scared parent (and RN) sick of having to come out of my house in the wee hours to save the idiots upside down in their cars in front of my house. Then decide which side of this argument YOU want to be on.

Not in my backyard??? How about in my FRONT yard, Sage? That's where all the MVA's end up and I'm officially SICK OF IT.

Please, everyone in Put Valley, and everyone in the EMS, police and healthcare community, come together and support me and my family Wednesday night to OPPOSE this construction project. It's bad enough living where I do already. Please help me to stop it from becoming WORSE.

Wednesday, May 6th at 6:30pm at the Courthouse in Carmel. I'll see you all there (again, please).

Gratefully,

A PHR Resident

Edited May 4, 2009 by Tapout

[Guest MVFD334]

I dont see how they are gonna widen the road 8 extra feet.. there are way to many spots where u barely have 1 ft on each side. it is an artery and cuts a lot of time when travelin home from Cortland/Mohegan to Kent and Carmel.

[PVFD113 6]

I am not really in favor of the widening aspect BUT I am in favor of the repairs and some reconstruction. There are some spots of the road that are basically falling off in a matter of speaking. This is a hazard for anyone who drives this road and a bigger problem for fire apparatus, and other municipal vehicles. Raising the speed limit is not the answer nor is 8 foot shoulders. Fixing what is there will do just fine. The bridges do need to be replaced and some of the turns widened or straightened but in a more "neighbor friendly" way. I too live off PHR and can agree that the average speed is 15 or so MPH over the posted limit and people do drive it like the autobahn. Maybe some V & T enforcement would help?

[ckroll 101]

All roads need to be maintained, and occasionally improved. That said, 'improving' transit time from Boyds Corners reservoir to the Peekskill train station is ridiculous. The county came up with that as a reason for spending some 8 million on the project. Given the current economic climate, it's a waste of money that verges on criminal. As anyone in emergency services knows, increasing speed has only a small impact on overall transit time. It is 16 miles from Boyds Corners to Peekskill If half the distance is improved, that's 8 miles. 8 miles at 60 mph is 8 minutes, and at 40 mph it's 12 minutes. Millions of dollars to save a few people 4 minutes commute??? Given the traffic tie ups during construction, it will be decades before commuters break even on time spent behind the wheel.

Parts of Peekskill Hollow Road are a speedway. I've had motorcycle groups go past my house so fast I could not tell what color they were. Enforcement of the existing speed limits is nonexistent. If safety were the issue, the money would be spent for more personnel in the PCSO to enforce speed limits... and that would mean more jobs in Putnam, more lives saved and improved.

As for improving roads increasing accidents... absolutely. Absent enforcement, people drive at whatever speed they perceive is safe, or in the case of PHR, fun. Wider roads with wider turns will without any doubt increase the speed traveled on PHR by 10 to 15 miles an hour which takes the head on impact speed up by 20 or 30 mph. The physics of it is that energy increases as the square of velocity so the added miles an hour on impact increase the energy of impact substantially. Not only will there be more accidents, those accidents will be much more likely to kill and maim.

This project isn't just a bad idea, it's evil.

[Guest]

Not to mention that 4 feet of shoulder puts it smack dab in the middle of one posters home! The road used to be dirt and 55mph, it is fine the way it is. Total waste of money. I really hope this does not come to fruition. I could never imagine PHR any different than it is now. I also find it disturbing that this is the first I am hearing about it other than the signs along PHR itself.

[ckroll 101]

Not to mention that 4 feet of shoulder puts it smack dab in the middle of one posters home!

A gross exaggeration. It barely makes it to the refrigerator.

[Tapout 42]

This meeting Wednesday sounds like it's going to be quite heated and contentious... apparently this "improvement plan" has been brewing awhile now, with little to NO public input whatsoever (by design, it sounds like).

From a Lohud blog I didn't even know existed until today:

http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section...ckCurrentPage=2

[helicopper 1,050]

One of the parts of this that offends me the most is the "rights of way acquisitions". They're going to use eminent domain to take away people's driveways, front yards, and property along the road where there is no option to widen the road another way. If one was fortunate enough to have 20 feet between their home and the road, they'll now only have 10.

Some of these homes have colonial era stone walls at the roadside - do you really think Putnam County is going to insure that the esthetic values are retained or will it become a concrete retaining wall for juvenile delinquents to ply their graffitti skills (as they do now at the Taconic overpass and other locations).

In still other areas the Peekskill Hollow/Hollowbrook Creek is immediately adjacent to the roadway. Substantial construction will be required in these areas to widen the roadway as there is no "land" there. Walls will have to be built, fill imported to raise the grade, etc. For what?

Putnam County has done an abominable job maintaining the road. There has been no plan, no organization, and no follow-up. They've installed curbs and storm drains with no consideration of the roadway pitch or bank causing more draining issues than they've fixed. Curbs and storm drains just appear as if from nowhere so if you're forced to the side of the road by someone in the opposing direction driving too fast, bang, you've got a flat tire and bent rim.

People's wells (their drinking water) are already being contaminated by the runoff from this road as is the Peekskill Hollow Creek. Adding eight feet of pavement will only make this condition worse and I think the County has turned a blind eye to this issue as they approved the plan before the environmental impact study was released. Hmm... That's awfully responsible don't you think?

Sage, I don't think this is NIMBYism because the argument isn't against making improvements to the road. The argument is against taking a winding country road and straightening it, widening it, and increasing the speed limit on it when it can not sustain that kind of travel. There are hundreds of driveways, dozens of school bus stops, and intersections galore on this road. Even if they did engineer it perfectly (and when has that every happened), raising the speed limit is only going to cause more problems. It's bad enough that cars do 15-20 (and more) over the existing speed limit but when they come hammering around a curve only to find a stopped schoolbus or someone pulling out of their driveway, it's just plain dangerous.

I was taught that there were three E's to make a road safer or improve traffic flow. Education, Enforcement, and Engineering. If you educate people about driving you'll reduce accidents. If you enforce the law you promote voluntary compliance with the law improving safety and reducing accidents. Finally, when those two inexpensive options fail you engineer out the problem. There is no enforcement on Peekskill Hollow Road and despite letters and phone calls to the Sheriff's Office and State Police the only action taken was by the Town of Kent PD who actually did some enforcement on their stretch of road for a while. There is no police presence in Putnam Valley but that's for another thread. As other posters have said, if this is all in the name of safety do some enforcement and see how that works before you urbanize a country road.

[Tapout 42]

This is why politicians suck and we need a revolution... the more deeply I dig into this PHR project, the more crpp I find: layers upon layers upon layers of the exact sneaky and self-serving garbage that keeps honest and forthright people OUT OF POLITICS!

Turns out the most out-spoken blogger on Lohud is none other than Dawn Powell, the chiropractor girlfriend of a Put Valley politician who currently is or previously was on the town payroll solely due to that relationship. "DrDPowell" is a doctor of chiropractic and not a lawyer, as she purports herself to be on the Lohud forums/blogs.

Ugh. The rollovers will be landing in my living room rather than on my front yard in no time.

http://dawnpowell.wordpress.com

[ckroll 101]

Chris is right. When Mr. Gary came to Putnam Valley to talk about the project years ago, the one thing he made clear was that the trees and the stone walls were gone and gone for good... and the stone chambers and the character of the road, and pretty much everything 30 ft from the center of the existing road.

In practice, there are two times to comment on a project... the first is "Now is not the time, this is merely an informational session." and the second is " Now is not the time the plans have been finalized." The county is doing the best it can to get a project it wants approved and it doesn't want the locals getting in the way. They play the game well and we have to play it just as well.

The current proposal is for the section from Oregon Corners to Adam's Corners a.k.a. PHR and Church St. And that said...... this winter a bright pink strip showed up in the middle of the south bound lane by Tompkins Corners marked CTRL which we all know means center line. And there was a reflective strip for aerial photography. And the boys at county deny there is anything at all going on North of Adam's Corners and yet they are shooting aerial photos for a plan that they obviously already have on the boards.

I've got to ask another question. Twice since I've lived here they have taken PHR down to dirt, ground it up and completely resurfaced and yet they never straightened or improved it. Why now? What has changed? They had the opportunity and they didn't act on it.

[smwells 7]

This project has more holes than swiss cheese. Over the past 15 years I have 'cleaned up' from the people that were doing 20+ over the posted speedlimit and failed to navigate this road. This road is far from 'minor artery'.

If you widen the road 8 feet as planned, you might as well pull up a chair at the dinner table, because you will be inside several houses, not the front yard.

I am all for improved pavement, better drainage and markings, but noway should this road be a 50mph zone!!!, people will never be able to exit thier driveway, and add to the exisiting hazard pulling out from the side roads like Tinkerhill and Bryant Pond Roads, that already have a track record of accidents.

[Tapout 42]

EMT Bravo family... PLEASE turn out for this meeting Wednesday 6:30pm at the County Courthouse in Carmel to OPPOSE the construction project along Peekskill Hollow Road.

I'll only be there in spirit but I will have some, high-spirited and extremely vocal delegates to represent me and all the other PHR residents who do not want to get killed pulling out of our driveways.

Good luck all and please fill me in on all the gory details Thursday morning!!!!!

Gratefully,

Tapout

[Doc 11]

...

I've got to ask another question. Twice since I've lived here they have taken PHR down to dirt, ground it up and completely resurfaced and yet they never straightened or improved it. Why now? What has changed? They had the opportunity and they didn't act on it.

What changed? This promise of federal stimulus money for infrastructure projects, maybe? With a potential cash grab like that, counties are going all out for excuses to get a piece of any federal dough. Free Money!!! Free Money!!! Bring out the bad planning!!!!

Good luck with this, Tapout and all the residents of Peekskill Hollow Rd. Your "leaders" will paint this as progress and growth and will only stop the project if the outcry against it seems strong enough to prevent their victory in the next election and outweighs the other benefits in their minds. In hard economic times government paints itself as the engine for progress and views awards of big project contracts as "job creation" and "economic stimulus" sending us back our tax money through their chosen contractors. It's also a nice opportunity to payback past campaign supporters. That, unfortunately is just the way it is.

I wish it was easier for residents to get informed and stay informed of what's going on around them and then get involved before the state/county/town etc. is beyond the point of public input. The notice requirements are absurd... meetings during the day in bedroom communities, a blotchy photocopy on a random wall of town hall, two or three lines of type hidden in the legal section of the paper and maybe a notice on the public info scroll on public access TV - if that. Then I wish more people took an interest and got up and out to these public meetings. Even then, under the guise of "the greater good" projects get ramrodded through, properties get seized by eminent domain. In the minds eye of a project manager or the politicians the "thousands of drivers who use the road on a daily basis" trump the residents. And if there's an opportunity to claim it's a "safety issue" or "for the children", then there's no solution that's too costly to whomever, wherever and anyone who protests is pegged an evil baby hater, puppy killer, or malcontent. Why speed control engineering methods and stepped up enforcement aren't on the table?

Again, best of luck. If I were a Putnam county resident, I'd be writing letters and making phone calls. If you need bodies at meetings, let me know.

Route 9 through Fishkill was once a rural route, but over decades it "creeped" to a 12 lane mess. What came first? The roads, the commercial development or the people? It still boggles my mind how Putnam county has managed to greatly retain it's rural character. That whole stretch north of Peekskill to just south of the I-84 interchange is like an intermission from "Metro NYC". It's going to be harder to keep it that way.