CALLICOON — The Town of Delaware has been working on some large-scale projects for the past year or so. The projects include a new highway department barn and salt shed and a new wastewater treatment plant.

The new highway structures are located on Route 17B and if you've driven past there recently you will notice a large new building.

“The salt shed is largely up, basically the building is there,” Delaware Engineering Project Engineer Bill Brown said. “We're putting the steel on the roof over the next couple of days, and hopefully by the end of next week we're pretty much wrapped up with the building. Once that's done we can finish up the site work and get everything dressed up.”

Brown said they are currently working through the design process for the main highway garage. They are reviewing the heating and cooling options.

They are also looking to move forward with the wastewater treatment plant project. It was recently announced that the Trust for Public Land purchased around 40 acres of land in Callicoon.

Five of those acres will go toward the town's new plant. Brown said an archeology report was completed, and they reached out to the Upper Delaware Council and the Delaware River Basin Commission. They are now finalizing the engineer's report.

Route 52A closing

A full closure of State Route 52A began yesterday and will continue for approximately four weeks for rehabilitation of the bridge over Jones Creek.

A signed detour route will guide travelers to use State Route 17B and State Route 52 to detour around the closed bridge.

The entire detour route is approximately seven miles long and takes roughly 11 minutes to drive. Signage will be used to inform the public of the closure.

Census response low

The Town of Delaware's response to the U.S. Census is currently at 36.9 percent of households. Starting next month, the U.S. Census Bureau will be sending field enumerators to homes of those that haven't responded.

Sullivan County has traditionally been under-counted and under-represented. Ten years ago, 53 percent of Delaware's households responded to the 2010 Census.

The Census data provides annual allocation of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding.

To fill out the Census, go to 2020census.gov or call 844-330-2020.

Summer movies

outdoors?

Callicoon Theater owner Krissy Smith came to the board to ask about the possibility of screening movies outdoors this summer.

The movie theater has been closed for four months due to the coronavirus pandemic, and there is currently no decision on when movie theaters can open in New York State.

“I don't know if we're going to reopen in 2020 if things keep going the way they're going,” Smith remarked.

She said she could either screen movies at the theater's parking lot, which could fit around 40 people, or do it at the Callicoon Creek Park, which is owned by the town.

The park would afford more space and people could safely social distance. Smith said safety precautions would be taken such as wearing a mask and pre-sale tickets so that no money would be exchanged in person. Once you're with your group away from others, you can take off your mask.

She asked the board for their thoughts. Supervisor Steve Lundgren suggested she look into using the Hortonville Volunteer Fire Company's pavilion, because it is covered in case of rain.

“I think everybody in town would like to do everything we can to help you and the other businesses that are hurting,” Lundgren said.

Smith said she is open to any solution and would look into it.

She added that she wants to be cognizant of neighbors in terms of noise. She said movies would be shown only on Fridays and Saturdays and would end around 9:30 or 10 p.m.