WHITE LAKE, NY — The beautification group Sullivan Renaissance announced this year that, come August, five municipalities will be in the running for a $100,000 grant secured by Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther. The five competitors are the towns of Liberty, Fallsburg, Bethel, Thompson and the Village of Monticello.

The five entities received Sullivan Renaissance Municipal Partnership Grants each worth $15,000 on March 5, and in turn each has promised to enforce specific areas intended to beautify and improve the health of the municipality.

According to a Renaissance press release: “The five municipalities chosen will utilize a combination of public funding, government grants and in-kind donations of goods and services totaling nearly $1 million to address care of public spaces, enhancing gateways, code enforcement and building healthy communities to compete for the $100,000 capital grant.”

At the Town of Bethel meeting on March 9, Supervisor Dan Sturm alerted those in attendance that he is taking this seriously, and he wants his town to take away the prize. He said, “I think there are going to be great changes in Sullivan County, and we want to look our best. We’re going to be cleaning our roadways, we are going to be doing our gardens and our public spaces, we’re going to have walking programs. We’re going to do some work to the outside of the highway barn. We’re going to do the outside of the Justice Court; that’s out for bid now.

“We’re going to be cleaning Route 17B and Route 55, for the first time ever, pending approval from the Department of Transportation. We’re going to be looking up and down 17B, creating an inventory, and going after some of the properties that have dilapidated structures on them. We’ve already started that; that is our commitment.”

As if to underscore the point, the very next item of business was to consider granting approval for the town engineer to assess the condition of a dilapidated house with a collapsed roof at 1196 State Route 17B. The motion was approved, and if the past is any indication, the building will soon be removed, and the cost of the operation will be added to the property owner’s task levy.

With regard to the clean-up and exercise effort, Sturm said the town would be looking to involve a great many volunteers in various aspects of the effort. He said, “We want to win this money. I believe that the Town of Bethel can do this.”