Category: Home page

As you have probably noticed, the Forest Home Walkway Improvement Project finally got started in the first week of May. This path was established in 1911 by George Warren, who lived in the house that is now 127 Warren Road, to ease his commute between his farm and Cornell where he was on the faculty of the new agricultural college. The early history was described in 1976 by Martha Hertel, daughter of George Warren, in The Path. In the early 1980s, the path was given to the Town of Ithaca, by Martha and her siblings.

The primary objectives of the current project are:

  • Safer and more comfortable walking, with steps on the steepest section and a more robust railing alongside the entire upper and lower sections of the trail
  • A graded compacted surface that is comfortable to walk on and more resistant to heavy rain.
  • New systems for drainage, intended both to divert water off the path surface and to avoid damage to and by adjoining properties at the lower end.

On the lower section, as well as installing pre-cast concrete steps, two important features are not visible, because they are below the ground.

  • immediately to the left (as in photo below) of the path, a drainage pipe with perforations on its top has been installed to take the water down to the existing catch basin near the bottom of the Walkway. The drainage swale behind 200 FHD, now also feeds into that pipe.
  • immediately to the right of the path concrete pillars have been embedded, ready for the new metal railing to be installed.

These photos were taken by David Muller as he walked home on May 23. The path surface has been worked on starting from the bottom. The swale beside the upper section will apparently have grass planted in the fabric mesh that has been laid.

The engineering drawings are at https://fhia.org/wp-content/uploads/Highlights/Forest-Home-Walkway-Contract-Drawings_April-2021.pdf

The contract was awarded after approval by the Town Board on December 29, 2021. See https://fhia.org/wp-content/uploads/Highlights/WalkwayImprovementsContractApproval_Dec2021.pdf

One feature of the improved walkway will be a metal railing alongside the entire trail except the flattish central section. On June 2nd, the contractors brought all the railing sections to the site to adjust the welded joints with a blow torch so that they will fit on to the embedded concrete bases.

These pictures were taken by Caroline Arms on June 2nd, 2022. At the end of the day, they railing sections were loaded back on to the truck and taken back to the workshop.

At the bottom of the walkway there will be a concrete pad that connects to the crosswalk at the bottom of Pleasant Grove Road. The shuttering for the pad was put in place on June 1st and filled on June 3rd.

These pictures were taken by Caroline Arms, the first on June 1st and the other two on June 3rd.

On June 14th, Kris Merschrod took photos as he walked down from Warren Road to the central flatter section and back up. Notice the connection to a new section of pedestrian path on the west side of Warren Road. The central flat section is now protected from the erosion that happens everywhere on the hillside by precast concrete blocks.

These photos were taken by Kris Merschrod on June 14th as he walked down from Warren Road and back up.

Many thanks to those who have already picked up trash along Forest Home roads or committed to do so.

Neighbor Charlie Trautmann is organizing work parties to repair the trail alongside the creek near the footbridge at Flat Rock. Here is his description:

  1. Sat April 23 (rain date Sat April 30) – Volunteer work day to re-gravel the trail across the bridge and carry precut lumber 200 yd across the bridge to where it’s needed. We’ll need lots of strong willing workers with gloves and shovels, plus any wheelbarrows would be welcome. Any amount of time volunteered would be helpful!
  2. Sun April 24 and Tues-Wed Apr 26-27 – Volunteer work days, as needed, to assemble 150 feet of boardwalk. We’ll need a few relatively skilled people – cordless drivers and batteries would be helpful.

Charlie adds: We need people to staff a sign-in table, hand out drinks and band-aids, walk with the public who come by, tell workers where to put stuff they are carrying, where to go, etc., so no skill level is too small to be helpful!!!

Contact Charlie directly at 607-227-1910 or ctrautmann@sciencenter.org

Please save Saturday, April 16 for the annual Forest Home Improvement Association spring roadside cleanup. We will meet in the park at 10 a.m. There will be garbage bags, gloves if you need them, and a few mechanical picker-uppers. We will divvy up the road assignments as we arrive. As an added incentive, volunteers may keep any $100 bills they find!

The FHIA is also looking for volunteers to help maintain the park. Tasks include weeding, watering the flower box, communicating with the Town’s park department, etc. A special need will be for someone to plant and maintain a small triangle of land near the down hill walkway sign after the path is rebuilt, hopefully this spring. The FHIA will pay for the native plants and materials.

Clump of snowdrops in Forest Home Park. March 2022
Clump of snowdrops in Forest Home Park. March 2022. [Connie Stirling-Engman]

See previous post Spring Cleanup — Tentative Date for information about some invasive plants that might already be showing up at the roadsides or in your yard.

The Town of Ithaca Spring Brush Pickup begins on Monday April 18th. See http://www.town.ithaca.ny.us/Quick-News/springbrushpickup

Spring is really on the way. Some snowdrops and winter aconites were showing before the latest fall of snow. What this means is that it’s time to set a date for the neighborhood Spring Cleanup, when FHIA encourages residents to volunteer to pick up the trash that has accumulated by the sides of our streets over the winter or participate in other activities to keep the neighborhood looking attractive. Watch for details from foresthomenews@gmail.com.

Snowdrops and winter aconites, February 23, 2022

Meanwhile, you may want to keep an eye out for Garlic Mustard or Hairy Bittercress. These aggressively invasive plants overwinter without dying back and you may notice them soon. Below are some useful documents FHIA has circulated in the past about dealing with them.

Garlic Mustard: Identification, Resources, Recipes
http://fhia.org/wp-content/uploads/Misc/GarlicMustard_2021-04-15.pdf

Hairy Bittercress: Identification and Resources
http://fhia.org/wp-content/uploads/Misc/HairyBittercress_2021-04-15.pdf

Welcome to 2022. You may notice that the website looks different. Because of changes to the underlying software, we had to rebuild the site. We used the opportunity to make the site work better on mobile devices.

As far as we know, all the content has been restored, but we are still working on the format. If you see any problems, please send email to William.Arms@cornell.edu.

Happy New Year to everybody in Forest Home.  Let us hope the the new year will allow FHIA to hold a full program of events, so that we can renew old friendships and greet newcomers to the neighborhood.

Meanwhile, here is a picture of winter in Forest Home.

Gorge in winter, near Lover’s Leap (Wendy Petti)

This is one of many fine photographs in the Fall and Winter section of the Pictures part of this website.  If you have recent photographs to add to the collection, please send them to foresthomenews@gmail.com.

The Town of Ithaca has announced that vacuuming of leaf heaps is almost complete but will continue until the whole town has been visited once. This may run into Thanksgiving week. 

For the rest of the month of November, the crews will be picking up paper-bagged leaves starting each Monday, possibly extending through the week to encompass the entire Town. Use biodegradable paper leaf bags. Please fold over openings of bags to close; do not staple or tape. Place bags at edge of street.

Leaf collection in the Town of Ithaca will start at 7:00AM on Monday, November 8th, 2021 and will continue throughout the week until finished. Leaves should be at the curb by 7:00 a.m. on the first day of collection. Leaves may be raked to the shoulder of the road or bagged in biodegradable paper leaf bags (30 gallon bags are available at many stores in the area). Other debris such as pine needles, dead flowers, garden waste, grass clippings, etc., cannot be vacuumed and should be placed in bags. Please fill bags and place on road shoulder, folding over openings of bags to close —- do not staple or tape. No plastic bags will be picked up.

The Town’s crews will go around the entire Town once with the leaf vacuum. For the rest of the month of November, the crews will begin picking up paper-bagged leaves each Monday, which could extend through early week to encompass the entire Town.

After the usual association business, President’s Report, Treasurer’s Report, etc., there will be a demonstration by Lars Washburn and his sister Katrina Mackey of the high-end radio their grandfather bought in the mid-1930s, which has recently been restored to functionality. Lars lives in the house on Judd Falls Road that his grandparents moved into in July 1929.  The radio is a McMurdo Masterpiece V.  Much more intricate than other radios from this era, it would have been that decade’s equivalent of today’s high-end home theater setups.

McMurdo Masterpiece V radio in 112 Judd Falls Road in the 1930s.

Lars says, “I can demonstrate the radio from my grandmother’s chair in my Forest Home living room, situated as photographed in the attached 1930s picture.”

He will have an HD camera and separate microphones on hand to distribute the sound and images via Zoom.

The Public Works Department will be picking up brush, limbs, and branches starting Monday, October 18th, and will continue throughout the Town until finished. All yard waste must be at the roadside by 7 a.m. on the first day of collection. There will be no second collection and no callbacks.

Leaf collection will begin at 7 a.m. on Monday, November 8th, 2021 and will continue throughout the week until finished.

For detailed guidance, see Town of Ithaca September 2021 Newsletter