LOCH SHELDRAKE - As the crow flies, SUNY Sullivan and downtown Hurleyville are just a mile away.

And for humans, the next best thing to flying with the birds might be tooling along a bike path or a bike lane.

That's what's in the planning stages between the college and the Center for Dis- covery, which is renovating and renewing the hamlet of Hurleyville.

“We're really excited to be working with the college on this collaboration,” said John Conway.

Conway, who is also an adjunct professor at SUNY Sullivan, is the spokesman for Center for Discovery in Harris, which serves children and adults with severe disabilities, medical frailties and autism spectrum disorders.

“The college needs a college town,” Conway said, “and Hurleyville could benefit from the people at the college, both students and staff.”

SUNY Sullivan's interim college president Jay Quaintance points out that allowing students easy access to the arts that are revving up Hurleyville is just part of the win-win plan.

“We've also wanted to find a way to provide the community with greater access to our own beautiful 405-acre campus,” Quaintance.

Moreover, “Communities with bike paths are healthier and attract people to come and live within them,” Quaintance pointed out.

To begin creating its portion of the bike access-way, the college received a $50,000 grant through the office of state Senator John Bonacic. Now it needs $300,000 more to go ahead, and is seeking funds through the state Department of Transportation. Other options would be private grants and, perhaps, the Town of Fallsburg, Quaintance said. SUNY Sullivan could also receive matching funds through the SUNY system, he added.

“If we can fund it, we can integrate the whole campus into Hurleyville,” Quaintance said.

On the college campus, the bike path would likely run for about three quarters of a mile. It would start from one of the college's parking lots, head to the back of the campus, and curve past the college dorms and a pond.

“We are looking to develop the pond area into a park-like setting,” Quaintance said. “Ideally, we would have a parking area down there by the pond.”

As the bike path continues onto Cooke Drive, it would lead to County Road 140, which eventually becomes Hurleyville's Main Street.

Meantime, the Center for Discovery is working on plans for its lap of the bike access-way, which, hopefully, would be available for walkers as well.

Conway said the Center will hire a bicycle facilities planner to create the most practical route from the college to Hurleyville and expects to have that report completed by the end of this summer.

Creating a bike lane on a shoulder of County Road 104 would be part of the plan.

“We could conceivably be doing this in the fall,” Conway said.

In Hurleyville, the bike fairway would link to the O&W Rail Trail that stretches from Ferndale to South Fallsburg with Hurleyville at its center. The 9.2 mile cinder rail bed abandoned by the Ontario & Western Railway in 1957 winds through fields, forest and wetlands and is well utilized by walkers and nature lovers.

The Town of Fallsburg Parks and Recreation Department has received a grant to pave the trail, Conway noted. Paving will start this spring.

“We are paving it so that all walkers and people in wheelchairs have accessibility,” said Conway. “Our whole approach is about universal access - making it accessible to everyone.”

SUNY Sullivan's Quaintance said the bike project dovetails with “our focus on sustainability, on reducing the carbon footprint.”

“This will be an extension of our philosophy,” he said. “You can get to the college without need of a car.”