Are you a Chatham resident? Do you visit or shop in Chatham? Do you know that the NYSDOTi is planning to rip up the Village of Chatham in it's next "improvement" project? In particular, did you know that the Circle is in danger?
Our charming, harmless traffic circle is going to be turned into a Roundabout similar to the one in Valatie - complete with bump-outs, "splitter" islands, curbs, signs and a whole lot of paint.
According to the Context Sensitive Solutions website:
The project is in harmony with the community, and it preserves environmental, scenic, aesthetic, historic, and natural resource values of the area, i.e., exhibits context sensitive design.
This website is dedicated to education in the area of context sensitive solutionsi.
Meeting Announcement
February 27, 2006
RE: Routes 66 and 295
Transportation Improvement Project
Dear Citizen Advisory Committee Member,
A third Working Sub-Committee Meeting has been scheduled for March, 13, 2006. The Working Sub-Committee will meet at 10am at Tracey Hall. At the March 13 meeting the NYSDOTi Design Team will continue to work with the Working Sub-Committee on Streetscape Design for Main Street and Route 295.
It seems whenever I talk to someone in Chatham about the upcoming changes the DOTi intends for our Circle, I am met with surprise, revulsion, and sometimes disbelief. Just last week, in fact, I was told that the changes were to be very small, as far as the party had been told (allegedly from a CACi member). In fact, the changes to our historic Circle are nothing short of the tearing out of the simple nature of our village.
In researching the past activities of the NYSDOTi, I have come across another instance of the DOTi claiming "the public has been properly informed", when in fact they have not been.
Here is a link to a Village Voice article from 1998, describing what seems to be a very familiar NYSDOTi habit. Here is a taste of the article:
