Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Mark Frost, Chronicle Editor
The following idea was hatched by Rich Cirino, the former Glens Falls wine merchant in the Wood Theater who resides now in Lake George.
When he mentioned it in passing, I thought, Wow!
The idea is: Create a roundabout in downtown Glens Falls where South, Broad and School Streets come together.
This is exactly the area that the City of Glens Falls won a $10-million New York State development grant to revitalize.
Don’t piddle this money on small potato moves across town or on an already dwindling farmers market building that risks being not much more than an extravagant three-season shed.
A roundabout will make a long-dormant neighborhood a major destination.
Broad Street — which comes direct from Northway Exit 18 — is wide and inviting. It would be a new entry into downtown Glens Falls.
It’s a block from Glens Falls Hospital and a Hudson Headwaters Health Network practice. Hudson Avenue, the other main entry is a stone’s throw away.
Rich advises, make School Street two-way instead of one-way as it is now, heading north from Hudson to South.
That way, Rich says, people entering the roundabout could easily exit onto Hudson if they wanted to.
Rich’s real excitement is that the roundabout would allow the two blocks of South Street east to Glen to close for street festivals whenever desired.
It could even be a semi-permanent attraction like Church Street Marketplace in Burlington, Vermont. Rich notes that cars could still proceed across Elm Street north and south.
South Street is already starting to redevelop.
Raul’s Mexican Grill will be moving from the Centennial Circle roundabout to 72 South Street because its owner Russ Porreca bought the former Dizzy Chicken building for $170,000.
He told The Chronicle’s Zander Frost in October, “I built this corner in 2007. I’ll build that corner three years from now.”
Give him a head start. Put a roundabout right next to him on South Street.
There are vacant buildings and underused buildings, some eyesores along the way. As South Street redevelops, that’s not a negative, it’s opportunity.
Entrepreneurs like Saratoga’s Sonny Bonacio jumping in.
At the far end of South Street you’ve already got the Kaidas family’s Empire Theatre development with the new restaurant Flight having just opened, Chris Patten’s redeveloped American Hotel building with apartments, other businesses and the restaurant Craft on 9, JP Bruno’s and other taverns, and, the anchor, Glens Falls National Bank.
The whole idea of the $10-million grant is to catapult this area into a being a magnet of activity that draws customers and business.
I’m so afraid Glens Falls is going to pee away these 10 million bucks on stuff that doesn’t really matter.
Here’s a genuine BIG IDEA. Turn the Broad-South-School intersection into a roundabout. Turn Glens Falls around!
Another opportunity: Turn the empty former Rite-Aid into a food market!
Chronicle editor Mark Frost writes: Just as it was Rich Cirino who hatched the idea of turning this intersection into a roundabout, it was Tom O’Neill, who owns and redeveloped the Union Square building at the right edge of this photo, who told me the former Rite-Aid building would be perfect for a grocery store — or, bodega, as he phrased it. With more and more people moving downtown, the need will arise. Isn’t this location ideal?
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