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Two public hearings were held Monday to accept the conveyance of two roads to the Village of Lansing in the Bolton Estates subdivision.  Village Trustees accepted the roads subject to legal requirements to do with warranty and other requirements being met.  This opens the door to the possibility of a new Village park, but the history of Bolton Point complicate matters somewhat.  Poison Ivy Point will be conveyed to the Village, but access to the small promontory is complicated.  The Village and the Bolton Point Water Commission have begun talking about conveying a third road to the Village as a walking trail to the point, but access across the railroad tracks may be difficult to obtain.

"I see this as an initial step," says Mayor Donald Hartill.  "At the end of this episode we may begin to explore access with the railroad what it would cost to have pedestrian access across that track."


The Norfolk Southern Railroad has a patchwork of lakefront access agreements that go back to the construction of the tracks in the late 1800s.  At that time some property owners granted the railroad right of way, while others sold it outright.  In addition to public railroad crossings, many private crossings were created that were specific and conditional.  Hartill says that the railroad's agreement with the Boltons allowed them access for their cattle.

Today that multitude of private agreements have created a legal quagmire because of uncertain terms and lost documents.  The railroad has been aggressive about preventing access across the tracks in this area when it can.

Residents of Lansing's Ladoga Park neighborhood learned that the hard way in 2008 when the railroad closed a private crossing at the north end of the neighborhood.  While it had been used by all the residents of the neighborhood, access was legally allowed to Town Justice William Burin, whose deed granted him the right to cross there.  But over the 30 years Burin lived there the abstract to his property was misplaced, and the railroad insisted the onus to prove he has legal access was on Burin.  To date that crossing is still blocked by the railroad's concrete barriers, despite support from the town, fire district, and New York State Senator Michael Nozzolio.

Hartill says that pedestrian access is likely a matter of money.  There is no point in exploring the possibility unless and until the Village can legally have access down the hill.  Poison Ivy Point is just the the south of the pump station. 

The mostly dirt Bolton Point Road fits the bill for access down the hill.  It starts at the center of the Blackchin Boulevard circle next to a small parking lot, and loops down to the lake where the water commission's pump station is situated.  It is a 'non-maintained' road that is chained closed except when technicians need to transport chemicals and equipment to the station, which is located at the pipe that brings water from the lake up the hill to the water filtration plant on East Shore Drive.

Hartil says that the water commission is willing to consider conveying Bolton Point Road to the Village, and that doing so solves problems for both the village and the water commission.  While part of the conditions of the development are that Bolton Estates would convey land to make a pathway down the hill, Hartill says that it would be unsafe.  Therefore using the road would solve a liability issue for the Village as well as the issue of access.  The water commission would retain the right to use the road, but would no longer have responsibility for maintaining it.


The construction of Blackchin Boulevard was also steeped in some of this legal quagmire.  With the passing of time the responsibility for building the road was in question.  A recent lawsuit decided that the water commission was responsible for building the road which resulted in the municipalities that are part of the commission, including the Village and Town of Lansing, footing the bill.  Because the road was technically built by the water commission rather than the developer, it had to be conveyed separately from Rockcress Lane, which was the sole responsibility of the developer.

Village Planning Board Chairman Ned Hickey says that Poison Ivy Point is aptly named.  But he says that if all the access problems can be solved the Village would probably get rid of the poison ivy, even though there are no plans to use the point as anything other than a natural lake access area.  He notes that the roads are named for a wild flower and a fish.


"It's a rare fish, but the habitat of Cayuga Lake at that particular point where there is a flow point would be a perfect place for that rare fish," he explains.  "They don't exist there, but they called it 'Blackchin' anyway.  Rock cress is a wild flower.  That doesn't exist there either."

If, if, if.  If Bolton Point Road is conveyed to the Village, and if Norfolk Southern is willing to allow pedestrian access Poison Ivy Point could become a popular place for residents to go.

"It's a great spot to swim," says Village Trustee Lynn Leopold.  "On a windy day you face south and there's a nice little cove.  There is a little beach.  It's a very small delta."

But don't expect to see any blackchins.

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