CALLICOON — The Sullivan County Legislature unanimously approved authorization to execute permitting documents for the development of the Callicoon Riverside Park on Thursday, August 21. The move will allow the Sullivan County Division of Planning, Community Development, and Environmental Management to go ahead with plans to revitalize and reopen the park to the public. Since Sullivan County purchased the 38-acre parcel of land in 2022 from the Trust for Public Land, it has remained closed due to safety issues.

Speaking before the Legislature, Planning Commissioner Heather Brown said, “The funding source for this project is both state and federal, so we have to do both state and federal environmental reviews: for federal, that’s the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), and for state, it’s the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR).” She continued, “We’re at the point where those have both been pretty well completed, and we realized that when this was initiated a few years ago now, we never did the authorization for [County Manager] Josh [Potosek] to actually sign off on the finalization of those permits.” 

Brown said that once they have those signatures, they can send the financial and environmental reviews to the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY), which provided an initial grant of $150,000 for the purchasing of the park and a $125,000 grant for construction. Both grants were secured by former Assemblymember Aileen Gunther. An additional funding grant of $317,335.19 was administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.  

Brown said they are still in phase one of the park’s restoration, which entails a comprehensive clean up. She said when the property was purchased, there was glass and other debris left over from campers and also several dilapidated buildings that made the park unsafe. In addition to cleanup of the grounds, phase one will include demolition of the old restrooms, the old pavilion, and filling in any holes left from old septic tanks. 

Management of invasive species will take place because a section of the park is overgrown with knotweed and mudwort. There are also ash trees on the property that have been infected by the Emerald Ash Bore, a persistent pest whose eggs hatch into larvae that bore into the tree to feed. This will eventually kill the tree, so workers must remove any dead branches and potentially the entire infected tree to mitigate any further forest destruction.

Once these initial steps are taken, the Planning Commission will construct an entry way, a parking lot with approximately 25 spaces, and some easy hiking trails. Brown said eventually there will be a new pavilion, however, “We don’t want to overbuild it, it’s a gorgeous space.” The park sits on the bank of the Delaware River and is home to a variety of tree species, including white pine, ash, American butternut, spruce, oak, and maple. Brown said construction efforts will add infrastructure to allow residents and tourists to easily visit the park and be done in a way that is “respectful of the trees.”

Callicoon Riverside Park is a quiet, picturesque park that Planning Commissioner Brown wants to see open to the public as soon as possible, and the Legislature’s vote on August 21 will push forward the restoration efforts so it can be enjoyed once again.