Let’s hear it for the visitors’ center

Upper Delaware Scenic Byway, Inc. (UDSB), the non-profit organization of nine voting municipal members located within all three counties (Delaware, Sullivan and Orange) traversed by New York State Route 97 and its non-voting affiliates, wishes to reiterate support for development of the proposed Upper Delaware Scenic Byway Visitor Center in partnership with the County of Sullivan.

U.S. Congressman Maurice D. Hinchey, Jr., New York State Senator John J. Bonacic and the Sullivan County Legislature have exhibited their foresight and commitment to bolster the river valley region by securing $910,000—of which all except a $150,000 match will be subsidized through grants—for the construction of an approximately 3,000-square-foot visitor center along the state-designated UDSB Route 97 corridor in the Town of Cochecton.

This is the first facility of what the UDSB’s 2002 Final Enhancement Concept Plan envisioned as “a network of visitor information services.” Specific locations “to provide interpretive material about the Upper Delaware River Valley resources” are recommended in various scopes for: the Cochecton Station site at the byway’s geographic center; Port Jervis (Orange County) and Hancock (Delaware County) as the byway’s gateway communities; the National Park Service’s Mongaup Visitor Center; and kiosks in each of the participating Route 97 communities.

Annually, the National Park Service tallies approximately 250,000 visitors to the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River Valley.

The New York State Department of Transportation, from the latest posted traffic report (2003), records an annual average of 20,719 vehicles per day traveling in both directions on Route 97 within its Sullivan County borders (49.18 miles). Route 97 through Orange County sees 20,314 vehicles per day from the City of Port Jervis line to the Sullivan County line. Route 97 through Delaware County sees 5,539 vehicles per day from the Sullivan County line to the Route 17/I-86 intersection. On average, the daily count on Route 97 or entering the state highway is more than 46,572.

The Cochecton Preservation Society, which currently owns the property designated for the visitor center, has worked diligently to restore the Erie Railroad Station and to secure a listing on the National Registry of Historical Places. Since any alteration of the building could threaten that listing, the UDSB Visitor Center is proposed as a free-standing structure that will be designed to literally focus on the restored station/museum and serve as its aesthetic complement. It will be a location from which other tourism-related businesses and sites can be promoted.

Sullivan County Commissioner of Community and Economic Development Susan Jaffe wrote in a recent “Visioning the Upper Delaware” column published in The River Reporter, “The Sullivan County Legislature has placed economic development as one of the county’s top priorities.” She further stated that “we must be prepared to make the investments to achieve our common goals.”

The proposed visitor center facilitates that objective as an economic development tool that will benefit the county, the full UDSB membership and the Upper Delaware River Valley region.

Anyone with questions about plans for the visitor center is encouraged to attend our public meetings held on the fourth Monday of every month at 7:00 p.m. at the Upper Delaware Council office in Narrowsburg or to visit our informative website at upperdelawarescenicbyway.org.

(Larry H. Richardson is chairman of the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway, headquartered in Narrowsburg, NY.)