Walkers and riders to benefit from NYS grant

By Joseph Jawitz | Manor Ink

Jeffersonville, NY – We are once again entering a familiar part of the winter season, with mild rainfall amid snow storms and high winds. It’s when we’re unpleasantly reminded to weatherproof our homes. The county’s DPW trucks are trimming the last few trees on the route you take to work in the morning fog. The ideal of cloistered village life sheltered in rolling hills comes not without its weathered walkability and safety hazards. But a Climate Smart Communities Grant from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation could change that.

Sullivan County was one of 25 municipalities to receive the green grant from the state. Deputy Planning Commissioner Heather Brown was determined to have the $100,000 grant come here. The county’s motor vehicle-related mortality rate is “nearly triple that of the entire state,” according to their press release in January.

“The state says we’re not going to take care of our roads if the sidewalks aren’t ADA compliant,” said Jeffersonville mayor Bill Chellis. Chellis is an attorney and farmer who resides in the hamlet and who, after being elected in 2021, has advocated for improvement of the town’s walking and biking infrastructure. His village roots add gravity to an issue long overdue, that of proper walkways for pedestrians.

Because the sidewalks belong to the adjacent property owners, the town has had a hard time raising money to clear them of snow in the winter months. Instead, Chellis proposes using some of the grant money for creating safe school routes between Sullivan West Central School in Lake Huntington and town. “The school would like to encourage more foot traffic among even the elementary students,” he said.

The old reservoir in Jeffersonville also has potential for walking trails. Chellis wants to connect the school to the town, with a spur to a recreation site at the now-abandoned body of water. “If I had my druthers in the village, our kids would all be free range,” he said.

The grant money could improve not just walkability, but safety. “There is no reason that the kids in this village can’t go down to the archery range, get a piece of pizza, run around and do 13-and-14-year-old kid stuff, be responsible and learn to be free people.” By supporting schools, we could encourage other villages lacking walkways to learn more about this 50/50 matching grant.

The county’s environmental and tourism spending has historically been used for the O&W Rail Trail. But this excludes many towns such as Jeffersonville and North Branch, hamlets that are unable to take advantage of retired rail systems. “The rail trails have been huge in terms of bringing in tourism. That’s the number one thing right now that draws tourist dollars,” Chellis explained. “But residents want a liveable, walkable village. We might want to pay attention to the conditions that pedestrians deal with in our communities. Imagine a sidewalk in front of the Rockland town hall, on Parksville’s Main Street, or even in the summertime along the crowded shoulders of dangerously twisting county routes.”