GLEN SPEY, NY — The county came to the town for Lumberland’s April 12 town board meeting.

Saying he planned to appear in all the county’s municipalities to spread the word, Luis Alvarez, chairman of the Sullivan County Legislature, reprised his March 16 State of the County address, with annotations.

In part, he reported increases in sales tax, room tax and mortgage tax receipts; an increase in deed recordings and a bond refinancing that makes $8.1 million available, producing a 70% increase the county’s fund balance.

The full text of Alvarez’s address as well as a video version are available on the county website at tinyurl.com/kwgf9kv.

District Legislator Nadia Rajsz also spoke, concentrating on Sullivan’s need to improve its residents’ overall health status (61st among 62 state counties), the heroin-opioid epidemic and her advocacy for an increased tobacco purchasing age.

Don Hunt’s award

On May 8 of last year, Highway Department Superintendent Don “Bosco” Hunt saved two boaters from injury or death after their canoe capsized on the Delaware below Cedar Rapids, near Barryville.

Recently, the Upper Delaware Council awarded Hunt a certificate of appreciation for his efforts as part of its annual awards program. Lumberland Supervisor Jenny Mellan presented the award on April 12.

Hunt, then accompanied by his wife Cheryl Hunt, was driving home that Sunday on Route 97 after an errand to return a piece of borrowed equipment, when Cheryl spotted a middle-aged couple in the water out in the river.

Hunt, a long-time Lumberland Fire Department member and at that time former (and now again current) chief immediately stopped the family car, directed Cheryl to call 911, and scrambled down the steep embankment to their assistance.

Lumberland Fire Department President Ann Steimle, who first recounted the story to the town board last May, said Hunt took action without any rescue equipment or backup. The woman shouted her fear that her husband might be suffering a heart attack and losing his grip.

Hunt shouted directions and encouragement, following the canoe downstream along the rugged shore for a quarter-mile as the couple worked toward shore, retrieved the cyanotic man from the water and stayed with the couple until other aid arrived. Both boaters survived the incident.