Contrary to what I reported on Sept. 17, the city of Albany says it could still build walkways or “esplanades” along the Santiam Canal even though it told the federal government it had no plans for and did not allow recreational uses along the canal.
Albany has told the federal government it has no intention of opening trails or allowing any other recreational use along the 18-mile Albany-Santiam Canal, no matter what it might say in its Town Center Plan or the downtown urban renewal program. And that is just one of the many issues — and a minor one […]
A boat, they say, is mostly a hole in the water into which to pour money. At times the Santiam Canal must seem like that to the city of Albany.
In Texas and maybe elsewhere, they say that whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting over. Let’s hope a fight can be avoided in the lingering, water-related dispute between the cities of Albany and Lebanon. The impasse is holding up Lebanon’s plans to build a new treatment plant.
If you walk up the Calapooia River bridge from Albany’s Bryant Park — on the upstream side without a sidewalk, taking your life in your hands in case a big pickup comes by — look down to your right and you can see the turbine shaft of the city’s hydropower plant spinning again. It’s another […]
An Albany tidbit from the public works front: What’s that pipe doing in the Santiam Canal? It’s about to the carry as much of the canal water as it can, but that’s only temporary. The snapshot was taken Tuesday afternoon after a contractor had laid the 48-inch-diameter pipe from just above 12th Avenue to just […]
How to solve fight over canal
Albany and Lebanon are in danger of slipping into an un-neighborly fight over the Santiam-Albany Canal. Albany’s latest overture is not likely to help, and already the spat is costing Lebanon more money — on studies and options on land for a new intake — than it should have to spend. For my recommendation for […]
Tags: Albany, Lebanon, Santiam Canal