Panel okays $25 G’s for annual river TAG grants

By DAVID HULSE

NARROWSBURG, NY — The Upper Delaware Council (UDC) announced last week the awarding of $25,301 in Technical Assistance Grants (TAG) to participating municipalities in the Upper Delaware river management panel.

Eight of the UDC’s 11 New York and Pennsylvania member towns applied for funding, submitting a total of 10 projects. All of them were funded, although their combined $33,350 in requests was trimmed down to the panel’s annual $25,000 funding pool, which was supplemented to meet the award figure, Project Review Committee Chair Harold Roeder announced on September 2.

The National Park Service funds the annual grant pool through UDC.

Wayne County, PA’s four riverfront townships of Berlin, Buckingham, Damascus and Manchester would be eligible to participate if those townships joined the council. Wayne County was a stronghold for opponents of the NPS presence in the river valley in the 1980’s and the Wayne townships have maintained their non-participating roles.

The latest grant round brings the cumulative amount to $542,992 that the UDC has provided for its member towns and their counties since its creation in 1988. In all, 153 projects have been funded through the TAG program.

Member municipalities and their parent counties had until July 31 to submit applications that cover research, planning and administrative projects. So-called bricks and mortar projects are not eligible. Grants do not require local match money. Representatives for each applicant were invited to appear before a special meeting of the Project Review Committee on August 10 to explain their proposals and answer questions. The full council’s final vote came at their monthly meeting last week.

2004 TAG grant awards

• Town of Cochecton, NY: $2,643, to update boundary definitions of zoning districts using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) capabilities of the Sullivan County Division of Planning.

• Town of Deerpark, NY: $1,000, to print bound, color copies of the town’s new Zoning Law for public distribution upon request.

• Town of Deerpark, NY: $796, to update and print the Town of Deerpark informational brochure and map.

• Town of Delaware, NY: $3,986, to review and update the Comprehensive Plan to serve as a foundation for the town’s land use policies.

• Town of Fremont, NY: $1,104, to develop a GIS-based tax parcel mapping system for the town to connect with Sullivan County’s GIS system.

• Town of Highland, NY: $2,625, to develop a town web site to promote historical, cultural, recreational, and economic aspects of the town as well as to make available copies of local laws, ordinances and the town’s Comprehensive Plan to the on-line public.

• Town of Lumberland, NY: $4,831, to prepare minor zoning law revisions and a supplement to the town’s Comprehensive Plan, and to conduct two training sessions on the administration of land use regulations that will be open to all NY and PA Upper Delaware communities.

• Town of Lumberland: $3,136, to prepare a digitally enhanced compilation of historical marker sites and assess them according to their topic, condition and accessibility.

• Shohola Township, PA: $2,131, to create a plan to develop a historic walking trail at Rohman Park to preserve and interpret a number of historic resources, including a portion of the Shohola Glen amusement park and switchback railroad.

• Town of Tusten, NY: $3,049, to survey and prepare a restoration plan for the Lake Erie dam and spillway in the hamlet of Narrowsburg.