State OKs $30K grant for upgrades near trail

The state has approved a $30,000 grant for Kingston to improve the area near the Hasbrouck/Delaware tunnel segment of the Kingston Point Rail Trail.

The funding, announced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office, is part of $254,000 in matching grants as part of the 2016 Greenway Conservancy Trail Grant Program.

The Kingston Common Council earlier this month approved an application for a $40,000 Greenway grant for construction of a staircase to connect the Kingston Point Rail Trail to street level where a tunnel passes under the intersection of Delaware and Hasbrouck avenues. On Thursday, city officials did not return three calls from a reporter seeking clarification about whether the

the funding announced by Cuomo’s office was in response to that request.

In the grant application, the city said the staircase would be part of a small park, estimated to cost about $104,000 to create, that also would include picnic tables, lighting and a parking area.

“It will be a pocket park in a neighborhood where the nearest park is [0.75 miles] or farther away on challenging terrain or through dangerous infrastructure [that is] not a walkable distance for children, the elderly or people with disabilities,” the application stated.

Also included in the Greenway trail grant allocations are:

• $20,000 for the town of Red Hook, for a connecting trail between Tivoli, Bard College and the village and town of Red Hook.

• $15,000 for the town of Saugerties, for a connecting trail between Eve’s Point and the Bristol Beach Connecting Trail.

• $14,800 for the Winnakee Land Trust for a trails project that includes Thomas Thompson-Sally Mazzarella Park in Rhinebeck, as well as $4,000 for a trail head pavilion at the park.

• $10,000 for the town of Rosendale to develop signage for the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail/Rosendale Wayfinding Project.

• $7,500 for the town

of Hyde Park to produce a map and a user guide for trails.

• $7,500 for the Columbia Land Conservancy for interpretive signs at the Greenport Conservation Area.

• $7,000 for the Poughkeepsie Alliance, for the Waterfront Connectivity Project.

• $5,000 for the Walkway Over the Hudson to produce a map showing nearby attractions.

• $4,900 to Scenic Hudson, for the installation of interpretive signs at the Esopus Meadows Preserve and Black Creek Preserve.

• $5,000 for the Mohonk Preserve to install interpretive signs.

• $2,000 for the town of Marbletown to produce an O&W Rail Trail map and brochure.