MAMAKATING — Town Supervisor Michael Robbins provided a number of updates per his Supervisor’s Report session.

For one of his updates, he said that the VFW Veteran Flags are going to start going up. He said the Town has three to put up right now, and that at least 26 are planned to go up in the Village of Wurtsboro.

“We’re getting started, hopefully they will all be up by Memorial Day for Veterans,” said Robbins.

He said this is something the Town is working on for the beginning of May. He then mentioned that the Wurtsboro Board of Trade is doing a Village historical event where they are painting murals on old buildings.

There will also be a tie-in with the D&H Canal project in which there will be a big mural showing what the canal used to look like.

“When the murals start going up, take a look at them. It’s all Sullivan Street” said Robbins.

Robbins also noted that the pool is being worked on. One of the preparation stages involved the inserting of the new liner, which was put in the day prior.

According to Robbins, they reportedly still have one or two problems that will be fixed. He estimated that it should be ready for Memorial Day Weekend.

Regarding the Police Barracks next door, Robbins said the grant was passed and “everything’s good to go” for the station.

He said Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther gave the Town a grant of $125,000 to help with the Barracks. He also mentioned the Partnership Grant from Sullivan 180. 

The intention of this grant is to help with the beautification of Pat Moore Park in Wurtsboro. This grant is for $2,000.

Speaking of the park, he also mentioned that a grant was given for the pickleball courts in the park.

Robbins mentioned that one half was going to be for tennis, and the other half for pickleball courts. This grant was also from Sullivan 180 and is also $2,000.

Public Comment

During the session, local Resident and President of Yankee Lake Elizabeth Zambuto.

For a side-note, she spoke regarding the little bridge on Yankee Lake Road, and that it has a problem.

“When you guys sent the sweeper, I was right behind him,” explained Zambuto, “He [reportedly] swept a lot of that tar asphalt into the Pine Kill [stream]”.

She said that since “those chunks and the sweeper, now the other chunks are coming”.

She noted that she sees the bridge 10 times a day.

She suggested that [Highway Superintendent] Thomas Morrow could do something.

She stated that she was aware that tar shouldn’t have been laid down on top of the wood.

Michael Robbins responded that Tom and himself have talked about the bridge that same day, as Robbins confirmed he got an email. He said that Tom is working on it.

Morrow spoke some time later on to confirm that he is working on funds to get a new bridge.

“It’s just a money thing,” explained Morrow. “We have to get the money in place... there’s a whole lot of moving parts but definitely that bridge is in our sight.”

Morrow also commended the large amount of people concerned for the issue regarding the Bloomingburg sewage disposal issue. This was a topic heavily discussed before he spoke.

He understands that is is a touchy subject and has been for well more than a decade.

“If I could offer one word: if this had been the case in 2002 and there was sewage spilling out into the Kill and this Board did anything but immediately support the Village in getting a grant, free money to fix it, I think we’d be here saying the same thing,” said Morrow, “so I just kindly remind everybody on the Board and everybody in the public. We’re now here concerned about this because of what was done years ago, and what is going to continue to happen.”

He speculated that perhaps what the Board was trying to do was ensure that dangerous water wasn’t moving past the Village, and down the stream, to people’s back yards and houses.