This is a tough one. When someone else own's the property directly behind your house you really can't say much can you. Property rights.
That is true."When we built the house, we signed up for the tracks," she said. "That's one of the reasons we moved here."
But now that the Buffalo-Pittsburgh Railroad has granted a 49-year lease, with five 10-year extensions built in, to the nonprofit Erie Cattaraugus Rail Trail, Artim is rattled. There used to be about two trains a day going down the tracks. Now, she and neighbors are envisioning trail hikers and bikers peering in their windows and backyard swimming pools.
I wonder if there is a trailed literally along the back of Howy's yard."Why does it work in other places?" Erie Cattaraugus Rail Trail board member Howy Holmes said. "There's trails all over, and they work."
How does one open and close a walking path? Do volunteers walk the path during the day and tell people to leave come dusk?But the group hopes to be able to mow the grass and have parts of the trail open by next summer. The trail will be open from dawn until dusk.
How is it making the community stronger? What makes people think others want to take time out of their busy day to talk about crime a walking path might bring? Or issues about trash along the trail?
Crime on the trail has not been a major issue, according to Town Engineer James Jones.
"It's actually made the community stronger, he said. "Neighbors go out and talk to each other."
Now that is BS. Those people were there first and that range is just as important to them as a walking trail is to other people.The trail runs right through most of the archery and trap shooting ranges at the West Falls Conservation Society. The club, with more than 300 members, has been around for more than 70 years, and has a number of programs for youth on its more than 50 acres. But if the trail, which is elevated at that point, is developed without changes, it would mean the end of the club, said president Jack Bouquin.