Crews last week were working on repairs of the retaining wall on Lakefront Boulevard.
The Lakefront Bouelvard retaining wall repairs should be done by early June, Dunkirk Department of Public Works Director Randy Woodbury told the city Common Council Tuesday.
He said he had just walked the site with the engineer and contractor. “We walked the whole area, it’s going well,” he said. While there are “a couple extra blocks that need to be replaced,” Woodbury stressed that there is money for that in the project budget.
The work is expected to cost about $950,000. It will be paid for with the help of federal and state emergency grants, as the October 2019 storm that initially damaged the wall was declared a disaster by the federal government. The wall was further damaged by storms last autumn. Lakefront Boulevard has been closed since the 2019 storm, except for a short section near the Steger high rise apartments.
Paul VanDenVouver says the administration is working on distractions.
Dunkirk’s top council member says the administration of Mayor Wilfred Rosas is playing the role of a “magician who distracts the audience with his right hand, while hiding the ball with his left” when it comes to the removal of a tree done by city workers on private property.
Paul VanDenVouver, councilman at-large, in a statement to the OBSERVER says he and council are looking for answers, not excuses after he released an eight-page report by council attorney Dan Gard that alleges there was work done in 2019 by city Department of Public Works employees over three days in August on private property at 10 Finch St. Gard’s recommendation in the report of the “large, unjustifiable and unconstitutional gift of municipal resources to a private individual” was to refer this matter to the appropriate enforcement agencies, recommending both the state comptroller’s office as well as the FBI’s Public Corrupt
mstafford@observertoday.com
A field at Pangolin Park will be fixed soon, DPW chief Randy Woodbury says.
OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford
Chautauqua County employees recently did significant rutting damage to the Pangolin Street Park, but city of Dunkirk Public Works Director Randy Woodbury downplayed it Thursday in a phone interview.
Woodbury explained that the county workers were using a roller to tamp down the ball fields at nearby Wright Park, under a shared services agreement with the city.
“I think they thought it was a good idea to do this one too,” he said. “But I’m disappointed… (the roller) got stuck in the mud.” The Pangolin Street fields were not on their schedule, he said.
mstafford@observertoday.com
OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford
This historic monument is targeted for a move closer to the city pier.
In May 1851, Dunkirk was largely isolated from the world. The only way to get out of town was on a boat at the harbor, or on dirt roads almost impassable with mud in wet weather and full of ankle- and axle- breaking buggy ruts in dry times.
Then the railroad came, and everything changed. On May 15, 1851, a train of the New York and Erie Railroad inaugurated the local rail line, ushering in decades of industrial growth.
A monument for that event sits almost unnoticed in a small lot at the corner of Main and Ruggles streets. Now, the Dunkirk Historical Society wants it at a much more visible location: In the median next to the Boardwalk sign on the pier, facing Lake Shore Drive.
May 6, 2021
Submitted photo
This picture of wood from a tree cut in 2019 was included in a report made public by Common Council.
Dunkirk’s top council member says the administration of Mayor Wilfred Rosas is playing the role of a “magician who distracts the audience with his right hand, while hiding the ball with his left” when it comes to the removal of a tree done by city workers on private property.
Paul VanDenVouver, councilman at-large, in a statement to the OBSERVER says he and council are looking for answers, not excuses after he released an eight-page report by council attorney Dan Gard that alleges there was work done in 2019 by city Department of Public Works employees over three days in August on private property. Gard’s recommendation in the report of the “large, unjustifiable and unconstitutional gift of municipal resources to a private individual” was to refer this matter to the appropriate enforcement agencies, recommending both the state comptroller’