By Tuesday evening, nine fence posts had appeared by the side of the Clark Path.
A short section of Albany’s riverfront Dave Clark Park is getting a new fence to keep people, especially kids, from tumbling down the bank.
I noticed nine newly installed fence posts, set in concrete footings, for the first time Tuesday night. And as usual, when I asked, Rick Barnett of the Albany Parks and Recreation Department promptly explained what I had seen.
(How promptly? Well, I emailed him late on Tuesday night. The reply arrived at 6:07 a.m.)
“The path slopes slightly towards the river and we were concerned that we would lose a kid on a bike or something off the edge,” Barnett wrote. “We are having University Fence put up 78 feet of 4-foot-tall chain link fencing at a cost of $2,340.”
Anybody going over the edge of the path there, opposite the townhouses at Edgewater Village, likely would be trapped in a thicket of blackberry brambles.
So at the very least, that new low fencing might save somebody from a bunch of painful cuts. (hh)
And here’s the finished job as it looked on Thursday afternoon, March 25.
Sounds like a short term solution. I think that the long term solution will require riverbank reinforcement and drainage improvements.
“The path slopes slightly towards the river and we were concerned that we would lose a kid on a bike or something off the edge,” Barnett wrote.
Maybe if we make kids LEARN how to be safe at an early age, we wouldn’t have so many of them killing people/selves with automobiles when they get older? We put them in helmets, elbow & knee pads so they don’t get hurt when young. When they turn 16, we simply hand them the keys and tell them “be safe”. They haven’t learned to THINK how to be safe!