STONE RIDGE – It's now possible to walk or ride from Hurley to Rochester along the O&W Rail Trail in Marbletown. The final piece of the puzzle — a bridge over Kripplebush Creek — was completed at about 3 p.m. Tuesday afternoon according to Carl Pezzino, chairman of the town's trails committee. He reported the news to the Marbletown town council later that night at its August 19 meeting.

Pezzino waxed nostalgic about putting together a plan to complete the trails five years ago with council member Brooke Pickering-Cole, who was then supervisor. A tremendous amount of coordination was required, particularly for the two bridges — this and the one over Rest Plaus Road, which was installed some months ago. While the Rest Plaus bridge was prefabricated, the one for Kripplebush Creek had to be built on site. The steel was provided by Ulster County, and much of the money came from Central Hudson as payment for an easement negotiation worked out in the 1990s. That money had never been collected, and it took supervisor Michael Warren's extensive legwork to convince the utility that the money was still owed to the town. Completion of the bridge at a cost of under $14,000 depended on the county and Central Hudson, but also on donations in kind by local businesses, Warren and Pezzino both said. Peak Engineering created the plans at a fraction of what it actually cost, and Ed Garland Excavation went "above and beyond" in site preparation work. Both the neighboring property owner and Central Hudson, which holds an easement there, were very flexible in allowing equipment and materials to pass through as the work progressed.

Warren said that the next major Marbletown-related trail project is looking at connecting with the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail, so that both of Marbletown's new bridges and the recently-reopened trestle in Rosendale could be crossed in a single trip. Warren has begun meeting with Rosendale Supervisor Jeanne Walsh and County Legislator Manna Jo Greene to research likely grants for that project.

The supervisor also reported on the recent work of the Coalition of Lower Esopus Communities (CLEC), which was created to better express mutual problems to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, which uses the creek to help manage its reservoir system, sometimes resulting in extreme erosion and flooding, and the chocolate-milk brown color of the creek one year. Permits to allow New York City to avoid building a $9 billion filtration plant are up for reconsideration by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, and CLEC has used that as an opportunity to discuss local issues. The first step in the lengthy permitting process is developing a scope for the environmental impact statement. The scoping document, once finalized, will serve as a checklist for what needs to be covered in the draft EIS, and CLEC submitted comments explaining why issues related to the lower Esopus are relevant.

According to Warren, comments submitted by elected officials are given more weight, so the coalition's comments could sway the scope in favor of the beleaguered Esopus.

In other business, a group of residents of Quarryville Road in Cottekill attended the meeting to express concerns about a group home for disabled men planned for their neighborhood. They expressed frustration that the supervisor did not advise them when he received notice of the plans, and additionally had questions about medical emergencies, aquifers, and safety in their road. Warren explained that New York State law requires towns to consider group homes like any single-family residence, rather than zoning them differently, and that the town's attorney advised him against even notifying anyone because it could be considered interfering with a real estate contract and open the town up to a lawsuit if the deal fell through.

Similar situations crop up from time to time when these homes are built or bought to serve the severely disabled. Neighbors are frequently surprised that, in the eyes of the law, a group home is evaluated in exactly the same way as, for example, one being purchased by a large family that has several disabled children. In short, who the residents will be and whether or not they require constant care or could have a higher incidence of medical emergencies are not areas the town — or the neighbors — can have any say in.

The Quarryville Road neighbors were clearly frustrated by these facts, and Warren suggested they speak with their state representatives if they have concerns about that law.