River council awards grants for managing growth

NARROWSBURG, NY — The Upper Delaware Council (UDC) has awarded $16,300 in technical assistance grants for five projects that will further goals and address needs identified in the River Management Plan, which provides guidelines for development within the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River.

This round of grants brings the cumulative amount of funding through the UDC to its member municipalities to $559,292. In all, 158 projects have been funded through the technical assistance grant program since 1988.

Combined requests by the five applicants this year totaled $51,300. The New York towns of Lumberland, Tusten and Fremont and the Pennsylvania townships of Lackawaxen and Shohola prevailed after the available $25,000 funding pool was dispersed. The full council’s vote came at the UDC’s September 1 meeting.

Technical assistance grants are available for research, planning and studies conducted by the UDC’s eight member New York towns, three Pennsylvania townships and the encompassing river corridor counties. They can provide seed money for a municipality to embark on a project without having to dip into local tax dollars.

The 2005 recipients are:

• The Town of Lumberland: awarded $4,300 to create a local history syllabus with text and imagery that will be offered to Eldred Central School teachers of grades five through eight, as a learning tool to educate students about Lumberland’s historic and cultural heritage. Lumberland Town Historian Frank V. Schwarz will direct the project.

• The Town of Tusten: awarded $4,000 to review and update the town’s comprehensive plan, which serves as a blueprint for future changes in zoning laws. The plan was last amended in 1998. Tusten Supervisor Ben Johnson told The River Reporter in June that he plans to set up a citizens’ advisory council to steer the project with local input on zoning, land use and floodplain laws. The committee will work with representatives of the town, its planning and zoning boards and the Sullivan County Division of Planning and Community Development. The grant will enable the town to publish any new ordinances that result from this project.

• The Town of Fremont: awarded $2,000 to produce a town-wide soil limitations mapping project to assist the planning and zoning boards in their decisions on various development proposals. The town will contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in consultation with the Sullivan County Soil & Water Conservation Service.

• Lackawaxen Township: awarded $4,000 to help formulate a new comprehensive plan that will provide a vision and blueprint for future growth of the township, replacing the 1975 plan that was last amended in 1995. The township plans to contract with Chazen Engineering & Land Surveying Co., P.C., based in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

• Shohola Township: awarded $2,000 to develop a well-siting and construction ordinance, and wellhead protection standards to include in the township’s zoning laws. The township will contract with Carson Helfrich of Community Planning and Management, LLC, based in Paupack, PA, as its project consultant.

For more information on the Upper Delaware Council’s grant program, contact UDC Senior Resource Specialist David B. Soete at 845/252-3022 or udcsoete@hvc.rr.com.