MONTICELLO, NY — Sullivan County officials thought it would be a good idea to advertise some of what the county has to offer on a billboard on Route 17. State Sen. John Bonacic was able to help that plan move forward with an award of $100,000 through the Dormitory Authority of State of New York (DASNY).

But it turns out that finding a spot for a billboard on Route 17 near where people enter Sullivan from Orange is a bit trickier that one might expect. At a county meeting at the government center on April 5, deputy county manager Dan Depew said that working with the New York State Department of Transportation, he discovered that the parcels the county currently owns on Route 17 were not usable for purposes of a billboard.

He said that he is still exploring some properties along the highway, including a small triangular lot on the Orange County side of the Shawangunk Kill. He explained that the border between the two counties is the Shawungunk Kill, but in some places the kill is not in the same place as it used to be; thus this lot is in Sullivan County.

Depew said, “And there’s another little piece of property, and we’re working to find out if anyone owns it. Also we may have found one piece of property in Sullivan County, that’s not owned by anyone and doesn’t have an SBL [section, block, lot]. We’re looking at all these things, but it’s looking pretty bleak.”

Not wanting to lose the funding, Depew began to research a mobile video billboard. He said he did some research and “found that we could use the money to purchase a mobile digital billboard; this would be on a trailer.” It would be eight by eight feet tall, or 12 feet tall, and both options would be 20 feet long. He said it would be a high-definition display, “and it could be moved around to various locations to promote events going on in the county, public safety, welcome to the county….”

He said it could also be placed on Route 17 with permission from the property owner, assuming it could be placed far enough away from the highway that it would be beyond the reach of the New York State Department of Transportation.

Legislator Nadia Rajsz asked, “So where do you envision moving this around to?”

Depew responded, “So, I think of the Delaware,” which elicited quite a bit of laughter because the river snakes along her district’s border.

Several lawmakers expressed support for the project.