LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY — Question: Who is eligible to participate in Cochecton’s extraordinarily popular Youth Commission program? Answer: Any child whose legal residence is in the Town of Cochecton.

It was that question, asked repeatedly both by residents of Cochecton, including Cochecton Town Board member Larry Richardson, and residents of nearby towns and states that brought Cochecton Youth Commission (CYC) board chair Sue Rodriguez to the June 10 meeting of the town board.

Richardson had asked specifically if out-of-town children visiting their grandparents in Cochecton could participate in advertised events and outings. Rodriguez said that in theory they could, but added that most events and outings require participant registration, with a deadline weeks or months in advance of the event. She went on to say that advance registration facilitates ticket purchase, transportation and lodging reservations and allows for provision of adequate adult supervision.

Richardson noted that CYC funding is provided by the county and that it would seem reasonable to expect that all children residing legally within the county should be eligible to participate in any town’s youth program. To which Rodriguez said that the program is funded in part by a grant from the New York State Office of Children and Family Services through sponsorship by the Sullivan County Youth Program. But it also depends on fundraising events and donations. Per Rodriguez, most of the towns in Sullivan County have their own youth programs and each has been designed to put the character and needs of its own young people first and foremost.

That doesn’t mean that the children (and parents) of Tusten and Delaware are not welcome to join their friends in Cochecton for local events like movies and bowling, at a discounted price. But long-distance travel events and overnight outings are a different story. Because public funds are involved, accurate and detailed bookkeeping is mandated by law. Rodriguez held up several massive binders documenting expenses for 2015 events alone.

Those events include snowboarding at Villa Roma; hockey and football games at West Point; Museum Village (for a Civil War re-enactment); Backyard Biology with a National Park Service ranger; Aquatopia, an indoor water park; Fort Delaware; Moonlit Movies at Bethel Woods; A Night at the Museum at Bethel Woods; the Wayne County Fair; movies at Cinema 6 in Honesdale; and pizza making at Angelina’s on the Hill.

Rodriguez, a Liberty elementary school teacher with 10 years’ teaching experience, said that all events are intended to provide age-appropriate social, educational and recreational opportunities for the town’s young people. She also mentioned that sports instruction, like snowboarding, is provided to those children who need it. Since January 2015, Cochecton’s program has served 100 young people. In recent years, the number of children served has averaged between 100 and 125.

For more information about CYC, visit www.townofco chectonny.org/boards/youthboard, or the group’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/Old-Cochecton-Youth-Commission/121171849187.

Two other business items were addressed at the meeting. By unanimous vote, the board approved establishment of a litter and dumping task force to be headed by Jerry Yavarkovsky and called “Keep Cochecton Clean.” Also, fire district liaison Anna Story discussed how recent headlines of misappropriated funds in Rockland County had spurred Sullivan County fire districts to put their own accounting practices under the microscope. She said, “Since Sullivan County District Attorney (and Town of Cochecton resident) Jim Farrell is responsible for our district’s books, there should be no problem.