Willowemoc, Beaverkill work still on hold

Needed repairs delay Riverwalk project

By Nathaniel DePaul | For Manor Ink

Livingston Manor, NY – The Town of Rockland’s plan to stabilize the streambank along the Main Street side of the Willowemoc River in preparation for the upcoming Riverwalk project has hit upon a stumbling block.

In a conversation with Town Supervisor Rob Eggleton, he pointed to a lack of funds in the town’s budget as the main reason things cannot proceed as planned.

“We’re looking to get it done, but it’s getting so late in the year,” Eggleton said. “We had all the data, all the costs engineered, but that was four years ago now. Costs are up since then.”

Originally, the town’s plan was to complete the flood abatement project on the Little Beaverkill at the same time as the streambank stabilization on the Willowemoc, but the slow interaction between several levels of government made that unfeasible. So, the town decided to go ahead with the stabilization project on its own.

And it seemed as if everything was falling into place for this project to go ahead last year.

Various sources of funding

A 50/50 match-grant from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in the amount of $230,000 (meaning the Town of Rockland would need to put up $115,000 of their own toward the project) made the undertaking seem feasible.

This spring, the town purchased the property formerly known as Renaissance Park in order to facilitate the Riverwalk project and make it into a true municipal park for residents and visitors to the town to enjoy.

And, the four businesses – the Catskill Art Society, Madison’s, Morgan Outdoors, and two vacant buildings belonging to the owner of the Catskill Brewery – whose properties border the river gave their blessing for the project to go ahead.

Both Cornell Cooperative Extension and Sullivan County were willing to put in funds toward the town’s share of the grant contribution as well.

However, after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, all plans were halted and the project was put on hold indefinitely. Now funding for the project is the main concern preventing streambank stabilization from going forward, and the DEC grant will expire after this year, as, according to Eggleton, the state government declined to give the town an extension on the grant due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation.

Despite delays, work can be done

Furthermore, due to DEC rules pertaining to environmental regulations involving waterways, the project would need to be completed by September, as no work can be done in the stream after that point this calendar year.

“July and August are the best time to do the project because the river is low,” Eggleton explained. “But the funding for it isn’t there at the moment.”

However, even if this grant expires, Eggleton is still confident that the project can be done, as the promised funds from both the county and CCE are still on the table, in addition to around $400,000 recently granted to the town from the state government, although the streambank stabilization is not the only project for which that money is slated.

“We have streambank along the Beaverkill, just south of Prince Hall, that is washing out,” said Eggleton. “The road is washing out as well. That carries a price tag of almost half a million.”

While that grant is an all-purpose grant and can be used for both projects, and Eggleton hoped that the town wouldn’t have to spend the entire thing on the Beaverkill project, the urgency of the washed out road might supersede the streambank stabilization, albeit temporarily.

Nathaniel DePaul, a former Manor Ink staff member, is the managing editor of the University at Albany’s Albany Student Press.