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A Spotlight on Glenmont Shedding light on its past, present and future SPOTLIGHT EDITORIAL STAFF news@spotlightnews.com GLENMONT — This hamlet on the northeast section of the town of Bethlehem is visited by thousands, either driving through to distant destinations or to shop at the many retail points dotted along U.S. Route 9W. It’s also witnessed increased development, both residential and commercial, in the past two decades. That kind of growth has its consequences, and that’s a subject that will continue to grab headlines into 2019.

The Glenmont zip code covers a lot of territory, and with it a lot of our town’s history. District School No. 1 Cedar Hill was built in 1859 and remained a school for a century before it was closed in 1960.

Photo by Michael Hallisey / Spotlight News

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Rounding things out

Troubled intersection at town’s center will see a roundabout

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project, which was unanimously approved by the Bethlehem Town Board in early May, whose members believed that it would help direct traffic and pedestrians in a much safer manner.

The project not only includes constructing a roundabout, but also installing crosswalks, rectangular rapid-flashing beacons, and either establishing or improving 2,800 feet of sidewalk.

The latter includes the construction of two new stretches of sidewalk; one along Route 9W from the roundabout to Glenmont Elementary School, and another from Route 9W to Vagele Lane.

“Doing nothing is not going to make our lives easier. This is not a situation where we can leave the

intersection as it is and everything is going to be fine,” said Bethlehem Town Supervisor David VanLuven. “It’s an important project because our town is growing and evolving, and we need to do it in a careful and intelligent way.”

Eighty percent of this roughly $4.9 million project, or $3.9 million, is funded through a grant by the Transportation Alternatives Program, and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (TAP-CMAQ) of the state DOT, said Leslie.

The remaining 20 percent or $975,000 would be paid by the town.

Leslie said that construction is anticipated to begin in spring 2020 and could last a full year.

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with Feura Bush and Glenmont roads by 2021 at the latest, in hopes of making it safer for vehicular and pedestrian traffic alike.

That intersection has long

By DIEGO CAGARA been viewed as dangerous & KAITLIN LEMBO and the location of many right-angle and left-turn cagarad@spotlightnews.com head-on crashes. lembok@spotlightnews.com According to Robert GLENMONT — Leslie, the town’s director of Bethlehem’s Planning economic development and Division and engineering planning, that intersection firm Creighton Manning was initially identified are scheduling meetings during the Route 9W Core for the upcoming weeks study that was completed with the Town Supervisor, back in 2010 which state Department of recognized that growth was Transportation, certain occurring in that part of property owners and the Glenmont. He said that as general public, to discuss development rises there, so the $4.9 million Glenmont would traffic and usage of roundabout project. that intersection, resulting A roundabout is planned in more traffic delays. to replace the four-way This resulted in the intersection that currently development of the connects U.S. Route 9W Glenmont roundabout

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Feura Bush and Glenmont roads converge with Route 9 at Bethlehem Center, an intersection the town of Bethlehem had assessed in its previous comprehensive in 2005. Residential and commercial development have factored into increased traffic over the past 15 years, causing issues for local commuters.

Spotlight file photo

would resume after the winter months to complete landscaping and installing both light poles and other decorative enhancements.

For now, “We’re scheduling a meeting with adjacent property owners to meet with them, and speak on the project, and maybe looking to purchase land from them,” explained Leslie. “We’re also anticipating a meeting with the DOT in the next few weeks to discuss the project’s design plans which have to be approved by them.”

While a public meeting is being planned for early January 2019, Leslie warned that there is no set date yet. “It’s to be held at Glenmont Elementary School and we’re looking to hold it in the week of January 14.”

The school was also the site of the very first public meeting and workshop back on June 26 of this year where people could learn more about the project and ask questions.

“It was a great turnout— close to 100 people attended—and we went through the issues that they had,” recalled Leslie.

“We received feedback from the public who wanted the roundabout to address the congestion

“Doing nothing is not going to make our lives easier.

This is not a situation where we can leave the intersection as it is and everything is going to be fine.

It’s an important project because our town is growing and evolving, and we need to do it in a careful and intelligent way.”

— David VanLuven, Bethlehem Town Supervisor there and they were concerned about public pedestrian safety too.”

VanLuven pointed out that the two top things he took away from that meeting were that many people were enthusiastic and supportive of this project, and that they really want the intersection to be safer for pedestrians.

Senior Project Manager Stephan W. Godlewski of Creighton Manning, the Albany-based surveying and engineering firm working on this project, said that such meetings are an example of how “we do our best to proactively communicate with residents and businesses to keep them well informed.”

He addressed a common concern about whether businesses and residents will be negatively affected during the construction timeframe.

“We try and communicate to them when the major disruptions are going to be and the time when there’s less traffic, which is typically in summer when everyone’s on vacation,” he said. “That way, they can update their patrons so they, in turn, can understand and maybe adjust their schedules.”

He added that Creighton Manning is now in the process of meeting with various local businesses there.

VanLuven also highlighted the importance of maintaining communication in that regard. “We want to make sure the changes will be beneficial to the businesses and not make already challenging things worse.

During construction, there’ll probably be traffic detours and lane flaggers.”

He said that businesses

there will still remain open and people need to go shop there. “A fast way to lose a business is when people start shopping online instead of getting out there, despite the construction. You like a local store or restaurant that you want to see stay there? Go and shop and eat there. Residents need to step up and support those businesses.”

Both Leslie and Godlewski confirmed that the project’s design has not yet been finalized.

“We’re looking at design options for both a singlelane roundabout and a double-lane roundabout,” the former said. “We’d be presenting the final design option at the January meeting. Once we finalize that, we move into working out the actual construction schedule.”

The latter said that Creighton Manning is planning to produce and present a document at that meeting that reviews the intersection’s past crashes and indentifies any possible patterns that occurred over a certain time period.

For now, Leslie said that residents who are interested in attending the next public meeting should keep an eye on the town’s website.

Roundabout 101 Opposition to roundabouts often rooted to lack of experience

By DIEGO CAGARA & KAITLIN LEMBO cagarad@spotlightnews.com lembok@spotlightnews.com

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BETHLEHEM — With the Glenmont roundabout project moving forward with construction expected to commence in 2020, let’s understand what a roundabout is, how commuters should navigate through it, and reflect on what local officials and residents alike think about it.

The state Department of Transportation defines a roundabout as “an unsignalized circular intersection engineered to maximize safety and minimize traffic delay.”

A roundabout follows the “yield-at-entry” rule where nearing vehicles must slow down and only enter it when there is a gap within the roundabout’s flowing traffic.

Traffic entering and within the roundabout needs to be slow with a maximum of 30 mph, and its entrances are curved—this design automatically makes drivers lower their speeds. Never stop inside the roundabout unless necessary.

Vehicles already in the roundabout, as well as pedestrians, have the right of way.

Pedestrians need to always stay in their designated crosswalks, never go to the roundabout’s center island, and cross only when there is a gap in vehicular traffic.

Bicyclists should only travel on the roundabout’s actual roads if they are comfortable with the traffic flow there, and travel like a vehicle themselves, yielding to other traffic already in the roundabout. If they’re not

Continues on Page 17

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The First Reformed Dutch Church of Bethlehem, organized in 1763, holds the distrinction of being the oldest church in Bethlehem. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in November 2002.

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Pay the toll, please

Michael Hallisey / Spotlight News

Traveling through Bethlehem Center once took a toll on you

By MICHAEL HALLISEY halliseym@spotlightnews.com GLENMONT — Motorists recognize the busy roadways of today’s Bethlehem Center as Feura Bush Road and U.S. Route 9W. Years before municipal governments adopted the management of our roadways, the most traversed roads were owned by companies, and those roadways would have tollgate.

Bethlehem Center is not the geographic center of the town that shares its name.

It is, however, an intersection that has always been a busy thoroughfare for local residents driving to and from Albany. In that sense, little has changed in more than a century.

A tollgate existed just south of the intersection on present-day Route 9W. According to a register possessed by the Bethlehem Historic Association, a roundtrip through the toll cost 12 cents for a driver and two horses in 1884, or a little more than $3 today.

The practice was commonplace in

Michael Hallisey / Spotlight News Bethlehem. Consider the roadways commonly used today — Delaware Avenue, New Scotland Road, Feura Bush Road, Route 9W — all were once toll roads. The maintenance of such roads was the responsibility of the company stakeholders. The practice of paving roads with asphalt did not occur until after the advent of today’s motor vehicles. In the case of New Scotland Avenue in Slingerlands, travelers crossed a wooden surface, also known as a plank road. It helped prevent ruts developing from wagon wheels going over soft land.

A partial replica of the tollgate that once stood at Bethlehem Center now sits behind the Cedar Hill School, home of the Bethlehem Historic Association.

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Baseball in-laws An old debate in baseball has familial ties to the area

The Capital District’s place in baseball history is often tethered to names in Troy, leaving other storylines behind as cursory tales to be forgotten by the masses.

By MICHAEL HALLISEY Little Leaguers once walked into halliseym@spotlightnews.com Johnny Evers’ sporting goods store to pick out a mitt and ball, aseball’s legacy runs through the Capital some of whom would not be District more so than aware of the Trojan’s own stake the annual parade of in the game’s history. Before the Hall of Famers who choose to fly diminutive middle infielder took into Albany International Airport the field, the Collar City was before driving the 90 minutes to home to a storied ballclub that Cooperstown. shocked New York City fans who thought a bunch of “Haymakers” Long before slow-motion couldn’t play the game as well. replays, Mickey Mantle’s tapeThat storyline takes fans back measure home runs and Babe Ruth’s “Called Shot,” baseball was before the Civil War, and prior to that, few people had a clear a game played on vacant lots by answer as to who and where the everyday people throughout the game was invented. country’s landscape. The game’s popularity inspired one writer At the turn of the last to call it the National Pastime. century, two men had the Finding how it all started, strongest voices that formed however, was a grand debate that the debate as to how the game pitted two men with local ties, was invented. Albert Spalding, one of which a resident son-informer player and sporting goods law of the Glenmont community. manufacturer, believed baseball

B

was America’s game, it started in America and it was created by Americans. His opinion on the game’s origins were made public to refute a contrasting theory from sportswriter and baseball statistician, Henry Chadwick.

Chadwick created the basic statistics in which baseball players are measured. He conceived the batting average for hitters and the earned run average for pitchers. Whereas Spalding chose to envelop the game with the American flag, Chadwick stated the game evolved from “rounders”, an older game brought over from England. Through the course of a commission organized to determine the birth of the game, Ballston Spa native Abner Doubleday and New York City native Alexander Cartwright emerged as possible inventors of the game.

Cartwright was a founding member of the New York

Continues on 16

The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Michael Hallisey / Spotlight News

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Baseball in-laws Knickerbockers Base Ball Club in the 1840s.

Like many young men, Cartwright would play “town ball,” a bat-and-ball game, in the streets of New York City after work. He is said to have documented the basic rules of the game as early as 1845. Prior to his involvement in baseball, Cartwright married Eliza Van Wie in 1842. Van Wie’s family name dates back before baseball, the United States and Albany itself. Eliza was a direct descendant of Hendrick Gerritse Van Wie, who was a Dutch Colonist in Fort Orange in 1664. He built a house on a plot of land along the Hudson River in 1679, known today as Van Wie Point.

Doubleday was part of a military family legacy. His father fought in the War of 1812. His

grandfather fought in the American Revolution as a mounted messenger for George Washington. His great-grandfather was a Minuteman. Doubleday, himself, was a two-star general for the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was proven to be a competent leader in battle, both at Fort Sumter and Gettysburg. Outside his war accolades, Doubleday is credited with inventing the cable train famously used in San Francisco. But, prior to his death in 1893, no one could claim he ever boasted of playing baseball.

The Mills Commission, overseeing the research into baseball’s origins, reached out to anyone with information on the game.

It was a form of crowd sourcing for information.

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city” in 1859. Bonacker’s Island, which was filled and is now a part of the city of Rennselear, would play host to many amateur and professional games.

It is also the site of Major League Baseball’s first walk-off grand slam, a feat accomplished off the bat of Roger Connor, whose Troy team beat Worcester. Troy, In the grand debat over whose home crowds were whether baseball was an notoriously small, would invention of American sometimes play closer to ingenuity or an adaptation Albany to draw larger of an older game brought attendance numbers. over from England, Henry Though Doubleday’s claim to baseball’s Chadwick believed the birthright was dubious — game latter. Chadwick, a and not a battle of his own sportwriter in New York undertaking as he died City, developed statistics several years beforehand to help gauge the value — Cooperstown would become the home to the of individual players. game’s National Museum The Albany Senators, a professional baseball team and Hall of Fame. A baseball field would be that once played in the constructed and named Eastern League, played its in his honor in 1939, the first games at a park named 100th anniversary of his supposed invention of the in his honor. game.

Cartwright, however, Michael Hallisey / Spotlight News would be the only one of be investigated. Abner town ball and rounders, the two who would be Graves, a Denver resident much like what Chadwick enshrined in the Hall of and Cooperstown native, originally claimed. Writer Fame. After baseball, he wrote to the commission in Peter Morris delved into and his family chased gold 1905 to claim Doubleday the subject in his book “But out west in 1849. He settled invented the game as Didn’t We Have Fun.” He in Hawaii, teaching the a schoolboy, and had notes of a similar game rules of baseball all along organized a game in a cow called “Wicket” played as the way before he died in pasture near the shores of early as 1830 in Bristol, 1892. On his bronze plaque Otsego Lake. In his letter, Connecticut. Twenty in Copperstown reads, he recalled the year being years later, the game was Alexander Joy Cartwright “either 1839, 1840 or 1841.” mentioned in newspapers Jr. ‘Father of Modern Day The commission ruled in in Michigan.

Base Ball.’” favor of Doubleday.

Writer Stephen Hirsch Today, baseball noted that the earliest historians believe neither mention of baseball in Spotlight Newspapers Doubleday nor Cartwright the Capital District was Community news invented baseball. Most the mention of an Albany are inclined to believe club playing exhibitions on the game evolved from “the island opposite this

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Roundabout 101 “Traffic flows more freely through roundabouts than at traditional intersections, cutting congestion and commute time. Reduced vehicle idling time means fewer fuel emissions and improved air quality.

Roundabouts eliminate the need for electricitypowered traffic signals, provide a more walkable community, and an aesthetically pleasing landscape.”

— Bryan Viggiani, public information officer for NYSDOT lane. You have to be aware as you approach.”

When asked if students typically have a hard time understanding a roundabout, he said, “No, because new drivers have no preconceived notions towards it. They’re basically a blank canvas so you show them the only way to drive through it. That way, it becomes the only way they would know how to drive there, and it’s the correct way.”

He added that with his more advanced students, he can immediately expose them to the roundabout, whereas brand new ones with zero experience would only be introduced to the

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There are several different designs for roundabouts. The New York state Department of Riverside Drive @ Floral Ave Transportation recently provided Spotlight News with examples as more communities across the state assess their needs for one. Shown is a roundabout in Broome County.

Village of Johnson City, Broome County Photo provided by New York state Department of Transportation

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According to NYSDOT, while roundabouts have been successfully handling traffic across Europe and Australia in recent decades, support for them here in the U.S. has been gradual— there are just a few hundred of them nationwide.

Darrin Tice, a driving instructor with Albany County-based Bell’s Driving, said that roundabouts can be more tricky for elderly and brand-new drivers like high school students, both being on polar opposites age-wise, to navigate. “You do need some sort of education to know how to safely drive through a roundabout,” he said, stating this was the only disadvantage of a roundabout he could think of.

Tice, who regularly teaches driving to Bethlehem Central High School students and offers private lessons across the Albany-SchenectadyDelmar areas, said that he teaches his students about the roundabout to his students by “spending lots of time driving through a set of five roundabouts on [NY-85]. I have them looking left as they approach the roundabout, making sure they look at markings on the road and ensure they enter the roundabout on the proper

roundabout “once they have a solid grasp of the lookingleft-and-right procedure, braking, and acceleration control.”

Bryan Viggiani, a Capital District public information officer for NYSDOT, sent a press release in an email to Spotlight News, “Traffic flows more freely through roundabouts than at traditional intersections, cutting congestion and commute time. Reduced vehicle idling time means fewer fuel emissions and improved air quality.

Roundabouts eliminate the need for electricity-powered traffic signals, provide a more walkable community, and an aesthetically pleasing landscape.”

It also brought up how there are just 21 roundabouts on state roads in the Capital District.

Robert Leslie, the town’s director of economic development and planning, who is among those working on the Glenmont roundabout project, said that roundabouts “are a safety improvement measure that addresses traffic accidents.” He noted that a roundabout is not a 90-degree intersection, unlike a four-way stoplight intersection, which essentially eliminates headon or T-bone crashes— such crashes end with severe injuries and even sometimes death.

Stephan Godlewski, a senior project manager with Albany-based engineering firm Creighton Manning which is also working on

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Roundabout 101 the Glenmont roundabout project, similarly said that a roundabout is geometrically designed to prevent highspeed crashes due to its typically curved entrance and exit lanes.

High-speed crashes are more common in four-way intersections when a vehicle may speed up once the traffic light hits yellow in an effort to beat it; sometimes, that vehicle does not pass the intersection in time and ends up colliding with another vehicle that had just begun to travel because of its own just-turned green light.

Godlewski also said that a roundabout benefits pedestrians since roundabout traffic is slower.

A pedestrian would also have smaller crosswalks, where they cross just one or two lanes at a time. But with a four-way stoplight

intersection for instance, that pedestrian may have to cross four to five lanes in one go and spend more time physically crossing the road.

To gauge public opinion, Spotlight News readers were encouraged to comment on a Nov. 27 Facebook post, for the purpose of this article, on how they feel about roundabouts.

First, the mixed opinions.

“You have 2 types of people that don’t know how to use them,” reader Nate Derucher commented, who added that he personally finds navigating roundabouts easy. “Type one waits too long for a car to drive past them when they had plenty of time to go. Type two never yields

“One has to make too many split-second decisions, confusion reigns over most; it’s a free-for-all despite claims that if one ‘just follows the basic rules,’ they work well.

Give me a four-way traffic signal with a left turn arrow and I’m ok with waiting an extra minute or two.

I prefer the orderly life as opposed to the thrill of being thrown into a vortex.”

— Ellen Hayes, local resident and just drives, cutting off the other driver.”

Reader Suzanne Maloney agreed with Derucher, writing, “Don’t [you] love the people who can’t remember their basic driving rules; like cars in the circle have the right of way; when approaching a circle, slow down to yield to traffic in the circle; and proceed when an opening in traffic occurs. It’s not a raceway, you should not approach a circle at the same rate of speed you were driving at and a blinker means please let me in, not

race me for the spot in the traffic.”

Second, opponents of roundabouts find them confusing and daunting, sticking to the traditional stop light.

“One has to make too many split-second decisions, confusion reigns over most; it’s a free-for-all despite claims that if one ‘just follows the basic rules, they work well,’ ” reader Ellen Hayes commented.

“Give me a four-way traffic signal with a left turn arrow and I’m ok with waiting an extra minute or two. I

“I like them,” reader Ally Blake Aronow commented.

“Especially during high traffic times; I spend a lot less time waiting at the intersection than if there were a light there. I don’t think they are difficult to navigate.”

Cristina Ruotolo Hourigan agreed. “I have no problems with them. I lived in Massachusetts for a while and they are pretty common over there, but are usually bigger than the prefer the orderly life as ones around here and don’t opposed to the thrill of being thrown into a vortex.” have ‘lanes,’ it’s kind of just freeform and every driver Fellow reader Tracey for themselves.”

Marshman agreed, “People Even those with fast cars in roundabouts do not let find them fun, as reader traffic flow off of streets Erin McKinney loves to or out of driveways,” she zip around them. “I think commented. “Traffic gets they’re easy,” she wrote. backed up on side streets For more information and homeowners can’t get about roundabouts, visit out of their driveway.” www.dot.ny.gov/main/ Lastly, the positives, who roundabouts. For a detailed find the roundabout as a guide for vehicular, great way to mitigate traffic pedestrian and bicycle woes and force a large usage at roundabouts, visit number of cars through an www.dot.ny.gov/main/ intersection in record time. roundabouts/guide-users.

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