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Byway highlights local attractions
82-mile road runs through Ulster, Orange county communities
Thursday, September 28, 2006
By Alice Hunt
Poughkeepsie Journal
NEW PALTZ — A passion for the natural beauty of the Shawangunk Mountains has grown into an organized effort to preserve open space and the history of the area, while developing recreation and tourism.
The Shawangunk Mountains Scenic Byway, a network of 82 miles of roads through Ulster and Orange counties, stretches from New Paltz in the east to Ellenville in the west, from Rosendale in the north all the way to Bullville in the Town of Wallkill.
The byway, a designation recognized by the state, brings the governments in the Shawangunk region together to highlight their greatest assets — farmland, recreation, historic sites and tourism, Shawangunk Mountain Regional Partnership Executive Director Al Wegener said.
"It's one of the few projects where economic development and preservation work hand in hand," said Wegener, at a celebration for the byway held Wednesday on the Wallkill View Farm property.
In the late 1990s, the Mohonk Preserve conducted a study that estimated half a million tourists brought about $10 million to the area for mountain-related recreation and tourism, Mohonk Preserve Executive Director Glenn Hoagland said.
The byway allows better promotion of the region, showing tourists all that is available in the area, he said.
Wegener, a landscape consultant, has been the force behind the project for almost a decade. He became involved after he took his bicycle out for a spin in his native New Paltz.
"I was riding my bike on Route 44/55 and I nearly went off the pavement. I realized we don't have any shoulder to the road, and that's how I got started," he said.
Now the route has an official name, federal and state funding is available to repair the roads, Wegener added. About $100,000 has already been set aside for open space preservation for land within the byways loop, he said.
Plans for the byway include signage, for which a $40,000 state grant has been secured, and brochures highlighting the various museums, farms, historical sites and recreation areas along the route, Wegener said.
Communities came together
Although the designation took almost a decade to get, partnership members said it's the first step in bringing the communities of the 'Gunks together.
"One of the best parts of this project has been meeting the other supervisors," Shawangunk Supervisor John Valk said. He was chairman of the steering committee in charge of planning the byway.
For his town, the byway is an opportunity for recognition as a tourist-friendly area.
"It really puts us on the map," Valk said.
New Paltz Regional Chamber of Commerce President Joyce Minard said she's thrilled to see this project finally off the ground.
"The people that live here know what we have, but now we're going to show the rest of the world. They're going to know why we choose to live here," she said.
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