Bridge replacement will divide town

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ELDRED, NY — Officials say the replacement of a box culvert on County Road 21 won’t happen until next summer at the earliest, but these kinds of things have a way of sneaking up on you said county and town officials.

Trying to avoid that occurrence, Highland officials have lately been talking about the upcoming project to replace the culvert, less than 20-feet in width. The issues are two-fold: inconvenience and money.

The inconvenience problem is that CR 21 is the only east-west road in Highland, north of Barryville and south of Bethel. Residents and others using Clark Road as well as the eastern ends of Airport Road and Crawford Road will be forced to detour through Yulan or Barryville to reach Monticello or Orange County.

Aside from the inconvenience, town officials say they also need to plan to have emergency services and ambulances available at either side of town. Councilman Fred Bosch, who is a retired county engineer, also expressed safety concerns about traffic stopping at the bottom of the steep eastbound side.

Then there is the cost. Bosch, who attended a July public informational meeting said a lane-by-lane replacement would keep the road open, but would require three months construction time and cost some $850,000. However, closing a road entirely and dropping a modular replacement in place was expected to require only two to three weeks and cost approximately $680,000.

Ed McAndrew, commissioner of the Sullivan County Division of Public Works, said the project is very much in its initial stages. “We haven’t even begun the design work yet.” The work will be done by a contracted firm and planned to try and create the fewest impacts. “We’re looking at September, after the kids are back in school,” he said.

In other business, at its August 13 meeting, the town board commended Carol Sundholm. Her floral design work recently won Highland a $3,000 award in the annual Sullivan Renaissance competition for the Best Overall Showing of Flowers in a Single Element Garden, while the Greater Barryville Chamber of Commerce won a Judges’ Choice Award for Multiple Element Beautification projects.

The board approved a $2,000 appraisal payment for the three former highway department properties, which amounted to values of $261,500 and authorized a contract with Laberge Engineering to administer the grant funding for the new salt shed.

Additionally, the board formalized an agreement with St. Anthony of Padua and St. Thomas Aquinas Church for the use of the parish hall as a disaster shelter, authorized the assessor to add the cost of property cleanups to the 2020 tax bills of roll entries (10.-1-85 and 15.-1-10.82), heard VFW Commander Peter Carmeci commend his members for their “Poppy Drive” fundraising efforts and noted the Community Health Fair scheduled for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on August 24 at the Eldred High School.

Culvert, bridge, Highland, Edlred,

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