Byway group will reflect local government concerns

By DAVID HULSE

NARROWSBURG, NY — The local planners assembling the mechanics to administer the new Upper Delaware Scenic Byway are going to be conservative in deciding who will run the operation and what its goals will be.

The panel approved a draft set of bylaws at their January 27 meeting.

The board is going to invite non-voting members from the public and local organizations to participate, but byway management concerns will be those of local governments involved, members decided Monday.

Tusten delegate Elaine Giguere of the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance had suggested that more not-for-profit organizational-minded people be involved. Giguere argued that the byway is a not-for-profit, without staff or long-term funding and that a not-for-profit board of directors’ main function is fundraising. Other people, outside government, probably would be more comfortable doing that, she said.

But Cochecton’s Larry Richardson said the town governments had to retain control of the board or face the same kind of rumors of lost local controls and resentment which the National Park Service faced in the 1980s.

“There are still people out there ready to resurrect the bonfires and the fears. I hear and see it,” he said.

Richardson said he preferred to think of the byway panel as quasi-governmental, rather than a not-for-profit.

“We only did the not-for-profit to get grant money,” he said.

Giguere said the byway’s principal concerns would likely be tourism marketing and people in that area of expertise should be involved; but Richardson countered saying that the towns did not see the byway as a tourism and marketing mechanism, but as a place where zoning and other regional planning issues could be addressed.

The panel did agree to add language providing for non-voting member participation in byway subcommittees and they also added language allowing the continuation of Sullivan County Planning Department participation.

The draft now goes to Cochecton attorney John Keating for his review and finalization.

The byway group is scheduled to meet again at 7:00 p.m. on February 24 at the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance building on Main Street in Narrowsburg.