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Wallkill Valley Times, Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Shawangunk to seek funding
to extend rail trail
By TED REMSNYDER
The rail trail in Shawangunk has been
a hit with locals and tourists alike, and
the town may have a chance to expand
the route north if the state approves
a $10,000 grant for the project. Dave
Haldeman, chairman of Shawangunk’s
Environmental Management Council,
announced at the Aug. 9 Town Board
meeting that the municipality will
apply for funding from the Greenway
Conservancy Trail Grant Program. A
part of the state’s Hudson River Valley
Greenway initiative, the program is
doling out $250,000 this year statewide to
design and construct trails.
The potential expansion would elongate
the trail from its current length of a little
less than three miles to a five-mile path.
The existing trail runs from Shawangunk
to Walden and back. “We want to connect
with Gardiner potentially, but the grant
would be to go from the police station to
Birch Road,” Town Supervisor John Valk
said. “That’s all town-owned property.”
The trail may have to be widened a bit,
and Valk noted that the $10,000 grant
would only cover the cost of equipment
and fuel and that getting the labor done
would be the tricky part of the project.
The town would like to extend the trail
past the Wallkill Correctional Facility, and
an upcoming shift in the prison’s security
level may finally open up that possibility.
“We’ve been trying to get through the
prison, but they’re always concerned
about safety,” Valk said. “They’re afraid
somebody on the trail is going to toss
contraband to the inmates. The Wallkill
Correctional Facility is a minimum
security prison, but now they’re fencing
it in and it will be a moderate security jail.
So the inmates in there will be secured
and they won’t be out in the fields. So we
have a better opportunity for the state to
allow us to go through there and connect.
That’s been a goal for 15 years and we
haven’t given up on that.” (See related
story on page 36).
If the town could expand the trail, it
could cater to residents looking to expand
their horizons past the current nature
path. “The trail is so busy, and some
people don’t need a paved trail and they
might decide to use that,” Valk said of
the possible extension. “It’s a little more
rural up there and it would appeal to
some people.”
Paving is underway on a two-mile
stretch of the Oregon Trail after the board
approved a plan at its July 14 meeting to
spend $285,000 on the refurbishment of
the road. A scary incident took place
on July 28 when a Highway Department
truck flipped over on Oregon as a crew
was working on the road. The piston on
the truck broke and the vehicle tipped
over with the driver in it. The man was
not injured as a result of the accident. “It
could have been more serious,” Valk said
at the meeting. “The truck was dumping a
load and had an equipment malfunction.”
The town is waiting to get an estimate
from its insurance company on how much
it will recoup, but since the vehicle was
a dozen years old Shawangunk might
get a maximum of $50,000 back. That
would only cover a quarter of the cost
of replacing the truck, so the town is
investigating the possibility of getting
state funding to make up some or all of
the difference.
At Thursday’s meeting, the board
unanimously voted to approve the
appointment of Paolo Chiaepepta to be
the town’s part time Dog Control Officer.
Chiaepepta, who holds the same parttime post in Gardiner, will begin work on
September 1. The town launched a search
for candidates for the job when Darlene
Devlin left the department last month,
and Shawangunk is seeking an additional
person to help out with the position. “We
are still looking for a second person as a
backup, but the gentleman we hired lives
in the middle of town, so it worked out
nice,” Valk said.
The board also approved a plan on
August 11 to purchase a speaker system
for the Town Hall meeting room from
Hudson Valley Audio Visual in Modena
at a cost of $9,980. The town has acquired
a grant from the court system to procure
the speakers, with the stipulation that the
project had to be done by October. Three
different bids for the speaker system were
submitted to the town, with the most
impressive offer coming from the Modena
company, which sent two representatives
to a board meeting in July to hold a
demonstration of their speaker setup for
the panel. As part of the new system, a
half dozen microphones will be deployed
on the dais at the head of the meeting
room, so those in audience can hear
the officials more clearly during board
meetings.
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