Only in North Tonawanda: Tale of two ends of Northeast Ave.
Oliver Street actually doesn’t look bad if it weren’t for trash, litter and too conspicuous and generally always overflowing garbage totes at some rental properties.
The few facades between Schenck and Wheatfield that got attention with the grant program do look “nice” on the outside.
Oliver still looks like the Oliver of old. It just doesn’t have small business owners residing in their buildings with their families. That is what made it what most of us remember it as.
Also gone are Buffalo Bolt, Auto Wheel Coaster, Bennett Lumber, the Main Street, River Road and Tonawanda Island industries and their combined thousands of employees to patronize the bars, restaurants, diners, small shops and service businesses on Oliver.
Privately owned resident-occupied homes and buildings converted from storefronts to residences look fine on the outside and are generally taken care of inside and out. Oliver isn’t going to look like Wurlitzer Park neighborhoods. Those from the west end of NT wouldn’t want them to! It’s not Wurlitzer Park. It’s Oliver Street, with all the character and charm of its history and current residents.
From the Town of Wheatfield border where it’s Ward Road to Walck Road/9th Avenue, it’s pretty well maintained, with just an occasional rental property like 970 Oliver spoiling the view. Except for the section with a number of properties owned by the planning board member who got most of the grant funding for façade renovations, some ignored sections, like from 1st to 9th Avenues and from Mechanic to Schenck, could use some of those grants.
A few places seriously in need of attention include the old Hungarian Orthodox Church at First Avenue, the old Mirror Room at 728, the Rainbow Sports building, the house at 341 that had a bad fire and is still boarded up, the Bestaste Mini Market at 653 Oliver. There are more than a dozen vacant storefronts that could use business occupants. The block on the east side of Oliver between Walck and 8th is sitting vacant, waiting for a business to replace Twin-Ton Auto Sales before it deteriorates.
NT has known for at least most of the last decade that non-resident property owners with drug-addicted and alcoholic tenants with no respect for their neighbors are a serious problem. Perhaps in 2016, they can make a plan to remediate that problem.
Mayor Pappas re-appointed Joseph Sikora, Robert Frank, Anthony DiBernardo, Mark Anastasi, Mark Lemke, Edward Smolinski, and Arthur Vater to the Traffic Safety Committee for a two-year term beginning January 1. They have all been on that committee for the last two years at least. There is also a DPW Advisor on the committee.
The Committee should tour both legs of Northeast Avenue. None of them live there.
The north leg, from where Carr Street joins 19th Avenue, has six apartment buildings and three single family homes. On 19th between Carr and Payne, there are four apartment buildings and three private residences, the Gibbons Court apartment complex with two entrance drives, and two entrance drives into Bishop Gibbons Apartments, which fronts on Payne. Most access is from 19th. There’s also the busy Walgreens’ parking lot entrance/exit on 19th.
There’s NO stop sign for those exiting the south leg of Northeast onto either 19th or Carr. There’s NO stop sign for traffic going west on 19th into the south leg of Northeast nor for those turning left onto Carr.
Fortunately, there is a stop sign at the 19th/Northeast end of Carr.
The south leg of Northeast is actually a street that begins at 17th Avenue in the middle of the block and runs in a semi-circle over to Gilmore Avenue. Cut off from the other end of Northeast by a large stretch of vacant lots for whatever reason, this park-like south leg has houses on each corner of 17th, one house on the west side, several vacant lots reputedly owned by the homeowner of the first house, two more houses, five garages from homes on 17th, and an apartment building. They have a stop sign at both the exit onto 17th where it is still Northeast and on the Gilmore end where it also joins 17th.
If the south leg has two stop signs for that small number of occupants and vehicles, why can’t the Committee figure out there are hundreds of seniors, youngsters, dogs, motorcycles, cars, trucks, occasional RVs and boats, and the vehicles coming and going from the Walgreens parking lot, on that north leg of Northeast?
The corner of Northeast where it runs into 19th should have a stop sign for vehicles heading west onto Northeast and one on Northeast heading east onto 19th at Carr.
