Black Diamond Trail

Update! Parks and Cornell ASCE Student Chapter

3 April 2009

Dear BDTEN!

A very encouraging meeting took place this week.

On Monday, March 30, Finger Lakes Park Director Tim Joseph and FL Parks Engineer Jeff McDonald met with Cornell Engineering Prof. Anthony Ingraffea and Nicole Dufalla, an engineering student. Their purpose was to explore possibilities for involving the volunteer talent and labor of Cornell’s ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) Student Chapter on the Black Diamond Trail design/construction.

Here’s the gist:

Plan A: Fernando deAragon, director of Ithaca-Tompkins County Transportation Council, said that we should know by July how much and when stimulus $$ will fall to Tompkins County. Soon after that, our regional municipal mayors and supervisors will decide whether or not there will be $$ freed up to  design/construct the two bridges needed to complete the Black Diamond Trail corridor between Cass Park and Trumansburg.

Plan B: If the BDT does NOT receive any $$ or not enough $$ as a result of stimulus $$ added to the public coffers, there is now a hopeful Plan B in place – a collaboration between Finger Lakes Parks and the ASCE Student Chapter to help get the bridge work started.  This is a major step forward, and we applaud Parks under the direction of Tim Joseph for opening the door to this collaboration in particular, and to this kind of collaboration in general. Furthermore, Tim has encouraged BDTEN to stay involved, another positive sign.

BDTEN members will be called into action soon! When it comes time for our elected leaders to make $$ allocations, we need to let them know how many of us want the BDT. Start preparing your arguments. Stay tuned. We’ll let you know when that’s happening. In the meantime, keep walking on the trail!

Present at the March 30, 2009, meeting of FL Parks and Cornell Engineers:
-Tim Joseph, director, FL Regional Office of Parks
-Jeff McDonald, manager, FL Regional Capital Facilities
-Fernando de Aragon, director, Ithaca-Tompkins County Transportation Council
-Engineering Prof. Anthony Ingraffea, faculty advisor to Cornell’s ASCE student chapter
-Nicole Dufalla, engineering student representative of ASCE chapter
-Commissioner Carol Reeves, FL commissioner who “adopted” the BDT
-Marvin Pritts, BDTEN representative
-Jan Zeserson, BDTEN representative

Report posted by Jan Z.