BARRYVILLE — A name change for the historic Highland Courthouse was approved by the town board to become the Aileen Gunther Justice Courthouse in honor of the retired New York Assemblywoman.

“I’m so thrilled, it’s such an honor,” retired Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther said from her home in Forestburgh yesterday morning. “I’m grateful to those who decided to make the name change and also want to thank all those who put their trust in me for twenty years.

“I tried to do justice to my job while I was in office,” she said. “It’s an awesome honor.”

The vote to officially give the courthouse the new name occurred on January 14 at the Town Board meeting, where Town Supervisor John Pizzolato praised the work of Gunther, who enabled the SAM grant to be awarded to the town for $345,000 for town projects. The Courthouse, located at 4 Schoolhouse Road, Barryville, will be receiving $250,000 of the grant.

Repairs to the building are set to include eradicating the basement’s pest problem and replacing the roof. Two bids to do the repairs were received by the town, and was awarded to Shadow Architect, P.C. of Barryville.

Over her two-decade long career in Albany as the representative of the 101st Assembly District, Gunther’s track record resulted in the return of over hundreds of thousands of dollars to communities around Sullivan County.