Battle between rail and trail goes on

KINGSTON, N.Y. >> Ulster County officials expect to begin work this fall on an 11.5-mile pedestrian trail around the Ashokan Reservoir, but are still getting resistance from a handful of county lawmakers who voted against accepting a $2.3 million state Department of Environmental Conservation grant for the work.

The funding was authorized 16-6 at a county Legislature meeting last week.

Legislator David Donaldson, D-Kingston, was among the lawmakers opposed because the trail project will require removing tracks that Catskill Mountain Railroad supporters have wanted to use. He contends the public should have been given a referendum opportunity to vote on the project.

“It’s not on the ballot because...the powers that be know very it will not pass,” he said.

Disputes include whether state and federal transportation regulations would allow tracks to be returned to the corridor in the event a new use is found. Supporters contend legal opinions support the contention that tracks could be returned to the trail.

“Two years ago, we had a rail banking lawyer come and speak to (lawmakers),” county Legislator Carl Belfiglio said. “They spoke about the fact that we could rip up any section of tracks, still have the right-of-way and, because of the rail banking law, we could at some time or another rebuild the railroad.”

Following the session, Deputy County Executive Kenneth Crannell said in a telephone interview that engineering plans

for the trail still must be approved by county lawmakers.

“Right now, we’re in design of a Shokan trail and we have to come back to the Legislature for final approval of the design,” he said. “We hope to be there in the next couple of months or so. We we’re doing right now is ... (accumulating) various grants over the last couple of months.”

Other funding toward the trail has included $1.33 million from state the Department of Environmental Conservation,

$2.5 million from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, and $500,000 from the state Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation.

“In the vision that ... County Executive (Michael Hein) laid out, we would go from the Walkway Over the Hudson to the Catskills,” Crannell said. “This is the very last piece of it. The Ashokan trail is where all of that ends.”

Work in the fall is scheduled to include converting into trail portions of a former rail bed at Basin Road and going around the reservoir’s north shore and ending at state Route 28A in Boiceville.