County to take over Cochecton Train Station

Commits $150,000 for scenic byway visitor center

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — Sullivan County lawmakers voted on July 12 for the county to become the project manager on the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway Visitor Center, which is proposed to be built at the site of the Cochecton Train Station.

The $1 million project will be primarily funded by a $600,000 federal grant secured by Congressman Maurice Hinchey. For the grant to be awarded, a municipal government must commit $150,000, which county lawmakers have agreed to do. Senator John Bonacic has provided state funds of $250,000.

As part of the process, the Cochecton Train Station, which was dismantled in 1993 from its original location next to Cochecton Mills and rebuilt and restored by the Cochecton Preservation Society on a five-acre parcel off of Route 97, will be turned over to the county. According to Laurie Ramie, the grants coordinator for the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway Committee, the train station and the visitor center will be owned and operated by the county in a similar fashion as they operate the Fort Delaware Museum of Colonial History in Narrowsburg.

Tom Cawley, an assistant county attorney, said the details of the agreement between the society and the county remain to be fully worked out, but he did not foresee any major obstacles. Ramie said the target date for finishing the visitor center is sometime in 2009. Route 97 was added to the state’s scenic byway system in 2002. The federal legislation providing the bulk of the funds was passed in August 2005.

Don Downs, a retired architect and member of the byway committee, has been active with initial discussions about the visitor center’s design. He said the committee has a desire to have the railroad station, thought to be the oldest surviving station in New York State, stand out as the focal point of the attraction, with the visitor center being placed above the station and tucked into the hill, perhaps with a lot of glass to enable visitors to look out at the station.

He said the committee is also investigating the use of green technology, using perhaps geothermal heating and cooling, and solar panels for energy. He said likely a new committee would be formed between the Sullivan County Visitors Association, the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway, the county and the Cochecton Preservation Society to oversee construction of the facility, and requests for proposals may go out to architects in the next few months.

In addition to restrooms and tourist literature, the visitor center may contain space for the byway committee and the preservation society, while the train station will maintain railroad exhibits.