For a moment there, it looked as though the City of Albany was making progress in opening up, for public use, sections of the Vine Street right-of-way alongside the Santiam Canal.
It was something you don’t see very often: Albany’s Eighth Avenue Canal was dry, or almost dry, instead of carrying its usual minimal flow.
It’s a shame what has happened to one of Albany’s canals, the one that runs down Thurston Street from Seventh Avenue to the Willamette River.
Some day in the future, people may be able to walk, ride or even drive along both sides of the Santiam Canal between Fourth Avenue and 12th in Albany. Now they can’t because five segments of the right of way of Vine Street, which flanks the canal on both sides, are blocked.
The city map of Albany tax lots shows a continuous line of public right of way on both sides of the Santiam Canal from Third Avenue to 12th. But that’s not what you see on the ground.
Vine Street in Albany lines both sides of the Albany-Santiam Canal. Over many years, some property owners have taken over the street right-of-way on one or the other side of the canal, and now the city wants to give them licenses to keep doing so.
Checking on Albany hydro: Sales slump
Every time the bike and I climb up the steep Third Avenue Bridge from Bryant Way, I look off to my right to see if the Albany hydropower generator is turning. Lately it has been still, not moving at all.
Tags: Albany hydro, hydropower, Santiam Canal, Santiam River, Vine Street plant