Townships may join UDC

By TOM KANE

RIVER VALLEY - Damascus Township is considering joining the Upper Delaware Council (UDC). The neighboring township of Berlin may also do the same.

“We’ve been talking to the Berlin Township supervisors who we heard were considering joining,” said Damascus Township Supervisor Chairman Jeff Dexter. “We are considering it. We feel that we need to hear from our residents about it. If they want it, I think they need to come to us and ask.”

The supervisor chairman of Berlin Township, Paul Henry, revealed in March that Berlin officials are also considering membership in the UDC.

The UDC was established in 1988 as a partnership of land, water and people working together to conserve the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River, a Congressionally-designated component of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System since 1978. Voting members of the not-for-profit corporation are New York and Pennsylvania and 11 local governments (Hancock, Fremont, Delaware, Cochecton, Tusten, Highland, Lumberland and Deerpark in New York, and Lackawaxen, Shohola, and Westfall in Pennsylvania). The Delaware River Basin Commission is a non-voting member. The UDC operates under a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service as the oversight body responsible for the coordinated implementation of the River Management Plan.

For years, Damascus citizens who usually attended the board’s monthly meetings were very vocal against joining the UDC. Their opinions usually carried the day. Not any more.

“I think the National Park Service (NPS) has done a wonderful job preserving the river corridor,” said one veteran attendee at the board’s meeting on June 16.

“Things have changed for the better,” said another. “I think we should look into joining them again.”

Thirty years ago, citizens were fearful that joining the council would mean that the township would give up home rule and effectively argued against participating.

That has changed now.

“There are grants the participating towns get to do planning and such things that could be a boon to us if we joined,” an attendee said.

A survey that was taken among township residents on the occasion of the new comprehensive plan had asked if citizens wanted to join the UDC. Nearly 70 percent responded that they were in favor of it.

There was no opposition to the idea expressed at the June 16 meeting.

“We’re not going to do anything until we hear from residents,” Dexter said.