Lawmakers eye removing section of railroad track in city of Kingston

KINGSTON, N.Y. » Ulster County lawmakers will vote later this month to remove a section of railroad track running through the city of Kingston, despite an effort by some legislators to delay action on the plan.

Ulster County Legislature Chairman Ken Ronk said he has filed a petition to discharge the measure from the Legislature’s Energy and Environment Committee, where it was defeated recently.

The resolution would declare the removal of a 0.35mile section of track between Elmendorf Street and the I-587 overpass without environmental harm and authorize the county to remove the rails and ties.

Ronk, R-Wallkill, said the stretch of track targeted for removal under the resolution has already been identified in a county policy adopted unanimously by the Legislature for conversion to a pedestrian trail.

The trail, to be known as the Midtown linear park, will run along the former Ulster & Delaware rail corridor between Cornell Street and Kingston Plaza.

Ulster County Executive Michael Hein has said the park will not only create a recreational trail, but also provide a route for people who don’t have vehicles to reach Kingston’s major supermarket, Hannaford, in Kingston Plaza.

During an Energy and Environment Commit-

tee meeting held Thursday, Sept. 6, Deputy Planning Commissioner Chris White said the area along that stretch of track has become a blight and increasingly dangerous for both the homeless population that has made the area their home as well as police who must respond to emergencies.

In November 2017, the body of Anthony Garro was found along the along the county-owned rail corridor beneath a bridge on Elmendorf Street, just off Broadway, in Midtown.

Seth Lyons, 20, of Ulster Park, has been charged with murder in Garro’s death. He is scheduled to stand trial beginning Sept. 17.

White said the city of Kingston has asked the county to make the area

more accessible to patrol vehicles.

“Right now, if we were to have somebody patrol there, they’d have to get out and patrol on foot,” White said, adding that the area is littered with hypodermic needles left by drug users who frequent the area.

White said the county intends to take up the rails and railroad ties and grade the area, which will make it possible for patrol vehicles to access the area.

Legislator Manna Jo Greene though said the county should consider covering the tracks rather than removing them. She said the county should also consider that the Catskill Mountain Railroad, which currently operates on a stretch of the track between the Kingston Plaza and West Hurley, has commissioned a study to determine whether the line could be used for freight transportation.

“I think this needs to go to the full (Trail Rail Advisory Committee) for discussion,” said Greene, D-Rosendale.

Legislator Joseph Maloney, D-Saugerties, also called for the measure to go to the advisory committee, which, he said, could look into what will happen to the homeless people who live along the corridor.

Ronk, though, said the issue of what is done with that section of track has been settled by a legislative resolution.

“Anybody who thinks they’re going to run freight on the rail line is unabashedly out of their mind,” he said, adding “the people who want to bring this to the Trail Rail Advisory Committee are the people who want to continue to litigate something that has been settled since 2015.”

The Legislature is expected to vote on the measure at its Thursday, Sept. 20 meeting.