Public hearings will address recreation rules in watershed

MARGARETVILLE, N.Y. » Public hearings are scheduled for next week on proposed changes to New York City Department of Environmental Protection rules for recreation on land surrounding the city’s upstate reservoirs, as well as on other cityowned properties in its watershed.

The hearings, both starting at 6 p.m., will be held July 24 in the Putnam County Bureau of Emergency Services office, 112 Old Route 6, Carmel; and July 26 in the Margaretville Telephone Co. building, 61 Academy St., in Margaretville.

The proposed changes would:

• Expand the recreational boating season from May 1 to Nov. 1. This would add about a month to the start of the season and two weeks to the end of the season.

• Increase the length of fishing permits from two years to four years.

• Require recreational boats be secured to hitching posts, racks or stanchions, when possible.

• Clarify language to indicate that kayaks with pedals or sails are not allowed on reservoirs.

• Prohibit the transfer of boat ownership within closed boat storage areas.

• Clarify language that state hunting, including for waterfowl, is not allowed within 500 feet of a reservoir.

• Allow fishing permit holders to use electric ice augers with rechargeable batteries.

• Add a “special event area” designation that would allow the city to waive its access permit requirements for special onetime event, ,such as family fishing days and reservoir clean-ups.

• Give the city the ability

to create special programs to reduce or manage deer populations.

• Prohibit smoking, including the use of e-cigarettes, on city-owned property.

• Allow service dogs but prohibiting horses on cityowned property.

Written comments can be sent, through Aug. 1, to nycrules@dep.nyc.gov or Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Legal Affairs, 59-17 Junction Blvd., 19th Floor, Flushing, N.Y. 11373.