Two Grand Island residents give opposing views on Supervisor McMurray’s bike path

Two readers have offered their opposing views of a state plan to create a bike path on Grand Island that is supported by Grand Island Supervisor Nate McMurray.

Kris writes:

Nate McMurray’s campaign for Grand Island Supervisor was about keeping our beautiful, quiet Island rural and to stop the tourist homes from attracting “transients” and now the idea is to attract millions of people to stop here to use the West River waterfront? Where there is no beach to swim at, no boat launches, (not one public boat launch on Grand Island!), and the Canadian border is so close to GI it would not exactly be the ideal place for utilizing the waterfront. The W. River Parkway is underutilized, but the parallel road (30 mph speed limit) is already barely used for bikers – there’s nothing but homes! Not even a place to stop for a hot dog and a cola. This has become more than just a bike path plan! And it certainly doesn’t support Mr. McMurray’s original campaign plan of keeping Grand Island a rural, quiet community. As quoted in this article it’s currently “a quiet place where 20,000 or so residents find respite from the urban environs to the North and South”, and we’d like it to stay that way.

Liz writes:

I don’t see anything in this article that talks about the several hundred homes facing the river that would be very much impacted by thousands of tourists between them and their current river view. We don’t want to live in an atmosphere like Niawanda Park. Let Nate and Delaware North go back to Yosemite. No to cabins in front of my home, no to parking lots in front of my home and no to thousands of tourist in front of my home.