Delaware applauds flood funding; Discusses River Management Plan

Anya Tikka
Posted 8/21/12

HORTONVILLE, NY — River issues came up several times during the Town of Delaware council meeting on September 10.

Supervisor Ed Sykes praised the role of the lawmakers who took part actively in …

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Delaware applauds flood funding; Discusses River Management Plan

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HORTONVILLE, NY — River issues came up several times during the Town of Delaware council meeting on September 10.

Supervisor Ed Sykes praised the role of the lawmakers who took part actively in securing a $2.8 million grant approved by Gov. Andrew Cuomo for flood relief for the towns in western Sullivan County hit by the flash flooding of July.

Sykes said the specifics had not been revealed, but his assumption is the grant is to be divided among the affected towns, and Town of Delaware wants to make sure it gets its fair share. He praised the role of several lawmakers in making this happen, including Sen. John Bonacic, Sullivan County Legislature Chairman Scott Samuelson and Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, who worked hard to secure it, he said.

Other river-related funds are available to the town through the Upper Delaware River Council (UDC), said council member Harold Roeder, who’s the town’s representative to the UDC: 2014 Technical Assistance Grants (TAG) intended to assist towns that are members of the UDC in complying with the River Management Plan, and UDC’s 2015 program, for which $30,000 is budgeted. Roeder said, “We could apply for these grants. There are 13 available; several towns had two. After a long meeting, we decided we had about $30,000 to spend. We will find out at the next meeting how we did. I’m not allowed to tell you about it, but I’m smiling.”

Roeder continued, “Kris Heister, the new superintendent of the National Park Service (NPS) here, is doing studies, and trying to find some outstanding values and views along the Delaware River. Their purpose is for each town to identify those views to see if they can preserve them. This we want to do, we want to help them. There’s some duality. Some people are saying if you own a nice property on top of the hill with a beautiful view, they’re suggesting they’re just zoning it away for use, so you can’t develop it. That’s not a good thing.”

“A lot of the towns are concerned over this,” Roeder continued, “just willy-nilly going up and down, picking a spot, let’s zone it for the people floating down the river, that’s not such a good thing. Let’s see where it goes.”

“NPS itself went down to Bradford [County, PA], went all over the river, a three-day thing, They gathered data about views, compressor stations as well as drilling sites. But I don’t know what the end result of it is; it hasn’t been reported yet,” he added.

The possibility of changing the River Management Plan itself was raised by Sykes, and Roeder said it’s a very touchy issue, since the plan goes back decades, but that basically the relationships between the NPS and the towns are good. He said the existing River Management Plan has served as a model throughout the United States, but it may be in need of revision. However, he said it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars because of the number of studies that would need to be done and be approved by the federal government.

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