NARROWSBURG, NY — The Upper Delaware Council (UDC) approved $28,928 in 2015 local Technical Assistance (TAG) grants on October 2.

The grants will fund 11 projects designed to help fulfill goals of the Upper Delaware’s river management plan.

With $30,000 to distribute, combined requests submitted by the August 22 deadline totaled $49,438.

The UDC Project Review Committee recommendations, were accepted by the full council at its October 2 monthly meeting. The UDC’s (federal) fiscal year begins on October 1.

Approved 2015 grant recipients:

Town of Delaware—$6,670 to complete three phases of codification for all its local laws and ordinances

Town of Fremont—$4,018 to acquire and install a building and code enforcement software program with training provided

Town of Fremont—$1,134 to print and distribute The Echo newsletter as published by the Basket Historical Society of the Upper Delaware Valley

Town of Highland—$542 to create soil maps and update the town’s zoning maps to include an overlay of the river corridor.

Town of Highland—$1,500 to upgrade the town’s website and draft a written social-media policy

Town of Lumberland—$2,800 to create topographic maps, and to acquire and install complaint-tracking software for the code enforcement office

Town of Tusten—$552 to create topographic maps with parcel boundary lines and the river corridor boundary

Sullivan County—$3,000 to contract with the Delaware Highlands Conservancy for an eagle educational and interpretive initiative

Damascus Township—$2,500 to revise the township communications ordinance

Berlin Township—$2,312 to prepare and publish a construction manual for sanitary sewers and appurtenances, and to print new sign and subdivision ordinances

Shohola Township—$3,900 to graphically design and produce history-related kiosk panels

The latest grant round brings to $774,322 the cumulative amount that the UDC has provided to its member municipalities since 1988. In all, 230 projects have been funded through the TAG program.

Grants are available for research, planning and studies conducted by the UDC’s eight member New York towns (Hancock, Fremont, Delaware, Cochecton, Tusten, Lumberland, Highland, and Deerpark), five Pennsylvania townships (Damascus, Berlin, Lackawaxen, Shohola, and Westfall), and their encompassing five river-corridor counties. They can provide seed money for a municipality to embark on a project without having to dip into local tax dollars. Multiple applications are allowed.