Monday, August 20, 2012 92 Thousand And It's Yours Island on the Mohawk River up for sale. WGY News
Most people who fantasize about owning an island conjure up an image of the ocean. But, if you're not that picky about the location, you can have your own island, in the Mohawk River . The Gazette reports Mel Pennacchia is putting Glenotia Island, named after Scotia and Glenville, up for sale, for just under 92 thousand dollars. There's not much there now, but the island used to teem with activity in the early part of the 20th Century. It once had a swimming area, and track meets were held there. The island, one of four visable from the Western Gateway Bridge, was also home to a two story pavilion on stilts where dances and clambakes were held into the 20's.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The island disappears occasionally during wet weather.
In last week’s announcement of the proposed sale of the Isle of the Mohawks, and the Aug. 24 editorial listing possible uses for the island, we have an opportunity. The opportunity, though, is not simply to find a use for the island. Instead, the opportunity is to come up with a plan for the island and the entire riverfront. Thirty years ago, a group in Beloit, Wisc. decided the river would be the basis for the revitalization of the city by creating Lake Beloit in the area between two bridges over the Rock River. Twenty years ago, I introduced the idea of Lake Schenectady, in which I envisioned a bike path that went along the Mohawk, past the Union College boathouse and Stockade; over the Western Gateway Bridge to Scotia; along the Scotia side of the Mohawk to Freemans Bridge; over Freemans Bridge to Schenectady; and past a revitalized, attractive ALCO site. Last year, during the mayoral campaign, I fl oated the idea again. Pieces of the Lake Schenectady plan are slowly taking hold, and the Isle of the Mohawks fits into that plan. However, let’s make sure we have a plan, not a series of independent decisions that may, or may not, make sense. Sometimes it is better to take ideas from elsewhere, rather than to try to reinvent the wheel. Lake Beloit worked in Wisconsin. It can work here.
ROGER HULL Schenectady The writer was the Alliance Party candidate for mayor last November and served as president of Beloit College in the 1980s.
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