Wrecking ball for Blue Victorian? Jeff residents speak out

Posted 9/30/09

The owner asked how many people in the audience would be willing to help save her building known as the Blue Victorian. About 35 of the 50 people in the room raised their hands.

The meeting …

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Wrecking ball for Blue Victorian? Jeff residents speak out

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The owner asked how many people in the audience would be willing to help save her building known as the Blue Victorian. About 35 of the 50 people in the room raised their hands.

The meeting was called by the New York Department of Transportation (DOT) to get public input on their plan to replace the bridge over Laundry Creek, which joins Callicoon Creek just beyond the bridge on State Route 52 next to the Blue Victorian.

The bridge is on a state watch list that requires special monitoring and inspections by state officials when a flood watch is issued, which, according to materials provided by DOT, has happened ten times over the past six years. Such treatment is expensive, and the bridge is also considered to be vulnerable to flooding.

The DOT plan to address these issues, presented at the meeting, includes demolishing the Blue Victorian as well as a bowling alley across the creek. Of the eight people offering public comment at the meeting, seven called for changing the plan and to save the Blue Victorian.

Susan Braun, who with her husband owns the building, said she learned at seminars about reviving Main Streets that one of the core principals is that the beginning of a business district should have an “icon” to welcome people to the town. She said the Blue Victorian is that icon, “it’s a welcome to visitors, it’s part of our history.”

Other speakers picked up on that theme. Randy Harris, a village trustee, said, “We keep tearing things down, we’re losing our tax base.” He added that it’s a part of the history of the village, and “I would suggest moving it.”

Cindy Herbert, the historian for the Town of Delaware, said, “There has to be an alternative to tearing down our buildings. Maybe there’s a way to shift the [DOT] project over just a little bit to save the Blue Victorian.

Kathryn Scott, who once worked at the Blue Victorian after it was renovated by Greg Brooks, said “Jeffersonville can’t afford to lose the Blue Victorian. It will be like a nail in the coffin. This place is a ghost town now, what’s going to happen when it’s gone? Losing the Blue Victorian at this stage of the game, we might as well close up shop and leave town.”

The plan calls for enlarging the opening under the bridge to allow more water and debris to flow through during flooding events, and expanding the length of the bridge deck and lifting the road surface by 1.7 feet.

One speaker, Helen Mullally, suggested that replacing the bridge with a bigger one would not change the larger problem. She said, “You could dig out a hell of a lot cheaper 1.7 feet of gravel and crap that has accumulated over the last 45 years … dredge out Lake Jeff, do other things that are more constructive than destructive.”

On social media over the past week or so, various residents have said that saving the Blue Victorian and the bowling alley was not worth the effort. But those who shared that view did not speak up at the meeting.

Should the owner, Braun, manage to save the building her plan is to have it continue to operate as an antiques shop and art gallery. Part of the building is supported by wooden pillars after a flood last year wiped out part of the building’s foundation. But the fate of the building and the DOT plan is not clear at this point.

Because the Blue Victorian is eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the DOT plan is subject to review by the New York's State Historic Preservation Office, and they have not yet weighed in on the matter.

It’s also not known if the public comment will cause DOT to consider an alternative as it did in the case of the bridge over the Panther Rock Creek in Youngsville, four miles up State Route 52, when the public spoke forcefully against the DOT plan in that region.

At the meeting, DOT officials said the current plan calls for the design to be finalized this fall, with construction beginning on 2017, which will require the temporary installation of a traffic light while the new bridge is constructed one lane at a time.

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