NARROWSBURG,NEW YORK – The Upper Delaware Council (UDC) approved $13,000 in Fiscal Year 2025 Technical Assistance Grants (TAG), bringing the cumulative amount awarded since 1988 to $959,463 to fund 267 municipal projects in the Upper Delaware River Valley.

The UDC’s fiscal year covers October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025.

The Council granted $9,740 to the Town of Tusten; $3,000 to the Town of Deerpark; and $260 to Berlin Township.

The Town of Tusten, NY will finalize its Open Space and Recreation Plan.

During Phase 1, which was also supported by a FY 2024 UDC grant, GIS mapping and a natural resources inventory project confirmed that over 50% of Tusten’s land mass is undeveloped.

This in-depth document is being created with public input through a community survey and series of meetings to serve as a blueprint to consult for future development decisions to properly balance open space, wetlands, and animal habitat, as well as recreational opportunities.

The Town of Tusten’s Conservation Advisory Council, representatives from MJ Engineering & Land Surveying, and planning consultant Peter Manning are leading the effort. The final draft Open Space and Recreation Plan will be presented to the Tusten Town Board for approval. The entire project is expected to cost $150,000, for which the town received a $75,000 Delaware Watershed Conservation Fund grant administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

The Town of Deerpark, NY will update its 2011 brochure, “A Map of the Town of Deerpark, Gateway to the Upper Delaware National Scenic and Recreational River.”

The trifold, color brochure provides a map of roads, highways, waterways, and hamlets; descriptions of key natural and historical interest points; museums, parks, and cemeteries; river accesses; wildlife management areas; the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River and Upper Delaware Scenic Byway corridors; safety tips; and Town of Deerpark information.

Total project cost is $3,578.25 to pay for mapping services from the Orange County GIS Division, graphic design by Media Solstice in cooperation with Town of Deerpark staff and its historian, and printing 7,500 copies. A UDC grant supported the 2011 brochure as well.

Berlin Township, PA will commission a new set of tax maps to be publicly available in the municipal office at the Berlin Township Community Hall in Beach Lake.

The Wayne County Assessment Office will provide 52 tax maps at a cost of $260 to add to an existing hanging filing system for consultation of land parcel boundaries to assist with locating specific properties and their relationship to the river corridor boundary, and the township’s issuance of building permits.

The three applications were submitted by an August 23 deadline and reviewed at a September 10 special meeting of the UDC’s Project Review Committee, before the full Council voted on a TAG resolution at the October 3 monthly meeting.

They have until August 22, 2025 to complete their projects, with a mid-term progress report due by February 21.

The UDC annually allocates a share of its federal allocation from the National Park Service to support projects that meet the goals and objectives of the 1986 River Management Plan for the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River by its 13 member municipalities and their river valley counties in New York State and Pennsylvania.

The 2024 requests through this competitive program totaled $30,838.25; however, the UDC has had flat federal funding for 36 years with no anticipated operational aid provided by NY or PA.

Please visit the Technical Assistance Grants page at www.upperdelawarecouncil.org to see guidelines and a directory of completed projects.

Contact UDC Resources and Land Use Specialist Kerry Engelhardt at (845) 252-3022 or kerry@upperdelawarecouncil.org for more information.