NARROWSBURG, NY — The first former National Park Service (NPS) employee to hold the gavel of the Upper Delaware Council (UDC) was installed when Al Henry, of Berlin Township assumed the UDC chair on February 5.

Known for his candor, the 60-year-old native of Beach Lake, PA is beginning his third year as Berlin’s UDC delegate.

Henry was employed by the NPS for 32 years, prior to his retirement in 2009 as chief ranger at the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River.

He spent all but two years of his NPS career working in the Upper Delaware unit, where he was responsible for setting up the law enforcement program starting in the fall of 1979 and helped the river’s first superintendent, John Hutzky, to establish the Congressionally-designated federal presence in the five-county, bi-state region.

Henry earned a bachelor’s degree in recreation and parks from Penn State in 1976 and studied outdoor education at the University of Northern Colorado.

Al and his wife of 31 years, Karen Carlson, are the parents of Dr. Alana Rickard, who is in her final year of pediatric residency at Geisinger in Danville, PA and Dylan Henry, an attorney practicing general law in King of Prussia, PA.

Magisterial District Justice Ronald J. Edwards last Thursday administered the oaths of office to Henry, UDC Vice-Chair Susan Sullivan of Tusten and Secretary-Treasurer Jeff Dexter of Damascus Township.

In other business, Tim Dugan of the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources announced that newly installed Gov. Tom Wolf has “strengthened” the state’s moratorium on new gas leases in the state forests.

Reservoir and funding levels are low, Steve Tambini, executive director of the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) reported.

Lower reservoir levels were attributed to cold weather, which has prevented snow pack melt. Tambini said river ice has also put Upper Delaware monitoring gauges out of service.

Funding was related to the federal budget, which again omitted funding for DRBC. The interstate agency, which was created by Congress, has received federal funding in only one year since 1996. Tambini said four-state budgeting has not yet been resolved.

Park Superintendent Kris Heister announced that the Upper Delaware this year is budgeted to receive $1.3 million for capital improvements, which she said will include repairs and improvements at park offices and features. Some $500,000 will fund access road paving, pier re-pointing and ice breaker repairs, “if the money holds up.”

Additionally, she announced that employees of the 70 commercial-use license holders are included among those employees to receive a new $10.10 per hour federal minimum wage.

While she said she was “fully aware that the new minimum will be a burden” for river related businesses, she said NPS was “not responsible for enforcing or interpreting” President Obama’s Executive Order 13658. She directed those inquiries to the U.S. Dept. of Labor.