By CHRIS CONROY

BETHEL - While entrepreneurs may be flocking to Bethel, Eagle Institute Director Lori McKean is not so sure about the final location of the Eagle Institute's permanent interpretative center.

"Bethel is only one possible location," Eagle Institute director Lori McKean said in an October 9 phone interview. According to McKean, Bethel is only one of several locations being looked at for the Eagle Institute's education center. "There may be multiple winter field offices...we have programs in the Hudson Valley as well." McKean says the feasibility study will hopefully point to the best location for the permanent building.

"Bethel has been extremely supportive of projects like this," McKean said when asked why the grant application was handed over to the town. "We are interested in economic development for the region," she said, not just one town or location.

"The basis for the town applying for these grants," said Bethel Supervisor Allan Scott, "is that the [final projects] will be built in the town."

At the September 28 Bethel Town Board meeting, applications for two REAP-funded feasibility studies were submitted by the board. One would look into the feasibility of constructing a dairy processing plant and tourist center under the management of Yasgur Farms Dairy. The other seeks to define the costs and benefits of a year-round educational center for the Eagle Institute.

Supported at the board meeting by Jonathan Drapkin, Executive Director of the Gerry Foundation and former Sullivan County Manager, the Eagle Institute proposal came to Scott's attention just a few weeks ago.

The dairy processing plant, according to Scott, has been in the works for a while. While representatives from Yasgur Farms Dairy could not be reached at press time, Scott said the idea of the company building a dairy processing plant in Bethel goes back about one year. "It came out of one of the early REAP meetings," he said.