REGION — The Upper Delaware Council (UDC) met virtually on January 6, due to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in Sullivan County. It was still able to elect its suite of officers for 2022, having held an electronic vote for the positions.

Highland representative Andrew Boyar was elected as the UDC’s 2022 chairperson, succeeding Damascus representative Jeff Dexter in the role. Shohola representative Aaron Robinson is the new UDC vice-chairperson, and Berlin representative Alan Henry was chosen as the secretary-treasurer.

Boyar has a long history with the UDC, having been appointed as Highland’s first representative when the town joined the organization in 1990. Since then he has served as Highland’s representative or alternate for 19 non-consecutive years, serving as the UDC’s vice-chairperson in 2013 and as its chairperson in 2014.

Boyar has also been active in local politics, having served as Town of Highland Supervisor from 1981 to 1994 and from 2010 to 2015. He has advocated for recycling in the region and serves as the president of the Upper Delaware chapter of Trout Unlimited.

In accepting the role of chairperson on January 6, Boyar thanked his colleagues at the UDC and acknowledged the difficult position that the organization is in.

The group there had the collective brainpower to figure out ways to communicate with each other and work during the pandemic, said Boyar.

He also urged members of the organization to read the Crane report, a report from consultant Michael Crane on the UDC’s fiscal sustainability that recommended drastic changes to the nonprofit’s structure to avoid a slow death from lack of funding.

The organization needed to consider the report seriously, he said, asking how it could squeeze in that big-ticket item while fulfilling its day-to-day responsibilities. Later in the meeting, the board discussed setting a time within the next few weeks for a fiscal sustainability meeting to discuss the report.

Boyar said that he knew the UDC could meet its challenges.