Bike path needs a breakthrough
Denis Byrne, a hiking trail advocate, walks on the proposed bike trail land in Miller Place. Credit: James Carbone
The decade-long impasse over creating a bike path from Port Jefferson to Wading River raises this nagging question: If we can't agree on something as uncontroversial as a space for people to exercise, what can we agree on?
You can't point a finger at any one player and say, "It's all your fault." Each one is responsibly protecting its own interests, obeying its own laws. But the result is endless, exasperating gridlock.
The idea, proposed by private citizens, was to convert a former Long Island Rail Road right-of-way, now used by Long Island Power Authority wires, into a 13-mile trail for bikers and hikers. This has happened elsewhere, as part of a national rails-to-trails movement.
But the idea set off long negotiations between LIPA and Suffolk County, the conduit of federal funding for the path. That seemed to produce agreement. But LIPA has a legal duty to provide power and may need to change the lines in the right-of-way to supply more electricity. Fine, but federal law won't allow funds to flow if the project might be undone in a few years.
There's good will on all sides here, but it hasn't been enough. We need a breakthrough, or access to the funding could vanish. Then, after all the years of trying, yet another proposal for bettering life on the Island will have come to naught.
