Floating Dock Plan Mulled For Waterliet WaterFront

Reprinted From : http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=724829

Rowing facility in plan for river Watervliet officials consider proposal that would include bringing crews to park

By JIMMY VIELKIND, Staff writer First published: Monday, September 29, 2008

WATERVLIET -- City officials are floating a proposal to bring rowing crews to Hudson Shores Park. In a letter to regulators, the city proposed installing floating docks and possibly building a structure to store boats and equipment along the waterfront near the Congress Street bridge.

"It's our waterfront in the city, and we've been trying to think of ways to get people there," Mayor Mike Manning said recently. Using some leftover grant money, Manning commissioned a feasibility study by Clough, Harbor & Associates.

The study "identified rowing as a vehicle to allow better utilization of the park and its water resources by the public, while minimizing potential environmental impacts as compared to other water-dependent uses," says the letter, which was sent to the state Department of Environmental Conservation and Office of General Services as well as the Army Corps of Engineers, which has jurisdiction over the Hudson River sea wall.

A DEC spokesman said regulators were still evaluating whether the proposal would require any specific permit. Manning said he received a letter last week from the Corps of Engineers citing eight areas of concern, all of which he believed could be resolved.

"We feel we could start for this spring," he said. "It's needed. It fits in. We can build a facility that is in between the existing facilities in Albany and Saratoga."

There are about a dozen local rowing crews that practice in the Hudson and Mohawk rivers, Saratoga Lake and Fish Creek. Most are affiliated with colleges and high schools.

Several miles south of Watervliet's proposed site, the Albany Rowing Center on Saturday hosted their annual Head of the Hudson Regatta. More than 20 teams from around the state competed in a slew of categories, packing the lot under the I-787 overpass with trailers and sleek racing shells.

ARC keeps its equipment in the city-owned shed beneath the highway and uses floating docks immediately adjacent to the boat launch. Mike Gilbert, the program director, said about 200 people from three organizations -- including the Shaker High School crew team -- use the site now.

"Rowing in this area is growing leaps and bounds, so it seemed like it was bound to happen," Gilbert said. "The best thing about here is we have infinite space under cover. It's the only place where you can have a regatta and have the shells covered."

But at the same time, he said, the current facility doesn't have indoor storage space for all of the club's shells -- which can cost up to $30,000. And there's the noise of traffic.

Manning said officials are having conversations with several area rowing clubs, as well as Watervliet school district officials, to see who would be interested in a new dock facility.

"People are willing to come up from Albany," Manning said, but nothing has been set in stone. "If you build it, they will come."

Jimmy Vielkind can be reached at 454-5043 or by e-mail at jvielkind@timesunion.com.