NARROWSBURG, NY — The Tusten Town Board discussed updates on a range of projects at its Tuesday, March 14 meeting. 

Councilperson Jane Luchsinger informed the board she would attend a pre-construction meeting for the rehabilitation of culverts on Little Lake Erie at the end of the month. The culverts, also referred to as the Little Lake Erie Bridge, first received funds for their repair in January of 2017; the funding and construction of the project has since undergone extensive delays. 

Delaware Engineering, the company behind an in-progress update to Tusten’s water system, invited Luchsinger to a meeting with New York State Senator Peter Oberacker, she told the town board. She told Oberacker the town needed more funding for that project. 

The board approved the town to apply for a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) under a program called the Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund. The grant will fund a recreation and open space plan for Tusten, building on an open space inventory completed in 2011. 

An open space plan will help Tusten have a say in the Boy Scouts property, said town supervisor Ben Johnson. The Boy Scouts of America is in the process of selling around 9,400 acres of the Ten Mile River Scout Reservation, most of it in Tusten. The conservation fund is the initial purchaser of the parcel, and it plans to pass the land to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) in the future. If the town has a plan for using its open space, it can be a larger stakeholder in conversations about what happens with the property when the DEC comes in. 

It won’t just help with the Boy Scouts property, but will serve as a “blueprint for the future” for the entire town, said Luchsinger. 

The town is pursuing a NFWF grant in the amount of $75,000, with an additional $75,000 match to come from other sources of funding including in-kind services and other grants. 

Planning board member Mike Farrell, speaking during the meeting’s public comment period, asked the board if it has a fall-back, less-expensive alternative to the $150,000 open space plan project, if the town didn’t receive the grant funding it sought. 

The board didn’t—it would have to speak with planner Peter Manning (the town’s consultant on this and similar projects), but to Johnson’s knowledge, it would be a pretty involved project, he said.