BETHEL — After the Town of Bethel acquired the land which was later called ‘The Forest Preserve at Smallwood,' they knew they would be able to mine their own sand and save the town money in the process.

“This year was a good year for making sand,” said Bethel Town Supervisor Dan Sturm. “The sand we use to get was gray and grainy and would get stuck in our trucks. This stuff is good and pure,” added Sturm.

“It cost us $25,000 to make and mine, where if we bought it, it would have cost us $125,000,” said Sturm.

Previously, a developer who owned the land wanted to build 200 homes in the area. After a fight in the court system, residents and the town were able to preserve natural resources that the 180-plus acre property holds.

After the developer failed to pay the taxes and the property went up for auction, the Town of Bethel bought the property for $60,000 in 2011.

The town invested around $110,000 in order to create an environmental easement to preserve the natural beauty in certain sections of the property and to get sand bores to find out how much sand was there.

According to Sturm, the town was able to get back $25,000 in grant money from the Delaware Highlands Conservancy for the easement, and even more money after part of the property that was not under easement was sold - about 40 acres - for $99,000, which helped cover the remaining investment.

The Conservancy worked with the Bethel Local Development Corporation and the Town of Bethel to protect this community treasure.

The county granted Bethel approval to make sand under a few conditions, such as obtaining permits to mine sand from the Dept. of Environmental Conservation.

Another stipulation was that the county will pay less money, 14 percent less, to the Town of Bethel for snow and ice removal on the 10 miles of county roads that run through Bethel.

Many towns in Sullivan County that take care of county roads and get money from the county for doing so. Since Bethel would have their own sand supply, it eliminates the need to buy from an outside vendor.

Furthermore, Bethel is only allowed to mine sand for one month so as not to disturb the noise quality in the area.

During the process of making sand, the town rents equipment from Gary Myers Excavation Inc. from Smallwood. The equipment separates the sand from the rocks.

Once all the sand is cleaned, it is then transported to the Bethel Transfer Station and stored for when it is needed. Myers then comes in to take away the leftover rock from the sand mine and converts it to gravel.

The sand mine, according to Sturm, could have a life of about 50 years.

“It can happen one day that we mine so much sand that we can hold off for a year or two of mining,” said Sturm.

There are possibilities for the land after the mine is no longer producing. Since the property is under an easement, Sturm hopes that one day the location can be turned into a pond with possible water recreation activities for residents.