New York Governor George Pataki, in this August, 2000 photo (top) and then Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge pictured in October 2001 both made $15 million contributions to help fund regional performing arts centers. The Mountain Laurel Performing Arts Center in Pike County plans to open this Memorial Day, while environmental approvals have cleared the way for a 2003 ground breaking of Alan Gerry’s Bethel project in Sullivan County.

With a new Sullivan West High School to open in September and Eldred’s ongoing efforts to win state approvals for renovations of the pictured MacKenzie School and the Eldred High School, 2003 will be pivotal for both students and district taxpayers.

Workers will be occupied with construction at the Sullivan County Landfill in Monticello, as the county legislature’s November decision advanced $2 million for a 38-acre expansion of the landfill, which provides $4.7 million annually to county coffers through imported waste from Rockland County.

Traffic flow in the river valley could get complicated during the early portion of the 2003 construction season as Pennsylvania plans to begin replacement of the Barryville-Shohola interstate bridge, below, while the National Park Service will close and repair the Roebling Bridge (above) at Lackawaxen for a month or more before Memorial Day.

New signs like this one are scheduled to appear alongside existing Route 97 highway markers by Memorial Day, as the new scenic byway begins its first season in 2003.

Monticello’s Route 42 traffic, pictured right, will no doubt increase in 2003 as the pictured Kiamesha shopping area grows with the addition of a Home Depot store.

Sullivan County and the Eldred Central School District have joined with the Town of Lumberland to defend against an ongoing certiorari tax-assessment appeal by the Mirant Corporation on its Mongaup River hydroelectric facilities. The court decision could impact some 20 percent, or $33 million, in the town’s tax base.

TRR file photos by David Hulse (Click for full image)