REGIONAL – For decades now, everyone from hikers to town supervisors have been dreaming of completing the O&W Rail Trail from Ellenville to Kingston, and then of pushing south from Ellenville and through Wurtsboro, where it could connect with more trails into Sullivan County.

Piece by piece, segments of private lands where the old Ontario & Western rail lines, or earlier canal path, ran have been acquired and opened, similar to other efforts around the state now pegged for becoming part of a vast New York Empire Trail system. And in late June, the Open Space Institute announced the acquisition of property that will protect twelve miles of the trail running between Route 44-55 and Ellenville.

This goes with the donation of a permanent easement for the trail over the property at Eastern Correctional by the state prison system last year, a deal that was negotiated over several years and offers an important precedent for other trails that need to pass through prison areas.

Carl Pezzino, chair of the O&W Coalition of Municipal Organizations, which meets once a month, confirms that view, and said this week that nothing remains to stop the trail now from "being put into a high degree of quality."

But before we get too excited, it is not finished... and Pezzino cautioned that it will take time and considerable effort before the dream is finally realized.

"A considerable amount of work is necessary to refurbish the old rail bed," the Open Space Institute noted in a recent press release. "Segments have been started (including the segment running north from Ellenville to the prison lands), but the rail bed is not currently passable and there are several years of work that must be completed."

There also remain issues in the town of Rochester gap. The trail north of town is pretty much complete all the way up to Hurley. In Rochester, though, there is a two mile gap between Lucas Turnpike and Rochester town hall in Accord that needs to be filled to complete the trail. And ultimately, the trail needs to be brought right into Kingston, setting up a connection with both the Ashokan Reservoir trail, and the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail, probably with a stretch of Washington Avenue between them (the Wallkill rail trail currently stops at Rockwell Lane, south of Golden Hill Medical Center).

Chris White, at Ulster County Planning, zeroed in on this during a phone interview.

"It's a 1.8 mile link to bring it from Hurley to Washington Avenue. It will be a federally-funded transportation project, and we're hoping to go into construction on that next year," he said last week. "We need to see it as part of a bigger scheme. The Empire State Trail is looking to see how to connect up into Kingston and we would want to connect that to the O&W. That would make Kingston a rail trail hub. Kingston is now a 'node' on the Empire State Trail, which will run all the way from New York City to the Canadian border and out to Lake Erie."

Governor Cuomo and the legislature have pledged $200 million to realize the Empire State Trail dream of a 750 mile bike and hike trail criss-crossing the state. Ulster County Executive Mike Hein has persuaded the Empire Trail committee to swing the trail over the Hudson into Ulster and up to Kingston. Hence the importance of connecting the O&W with everything else in Kingston.

Meanwhile, coming back down to our local level, the trail south of Ellenville is also drawing attention. OSI noted in recent correspondence that, "We are evaluating the corridor between Ellenville and Spring Glen and will make a decision on whether to move ahead after talking to the county and local landowners."

And recall that the Institute donated four miles of the rail bed to the Town of Mamakating last September, which opens up the possibility of extending the trail into Sullivan County in the next few years. Which again makes the Rochester gap the last piece of the puzzle.

Richard Travers, president of the Rondout Valley Business Association, has long been clear about the importance of the trail.

"The work being done now is simply fabulous. One of the strongest potential drivers for the economy of the Rondout Valley is completion of the O&W trail to Ellenville," he said recently. "If it goes on south beyond Ellenville, well... that's wonderful. The rail trail is absolutely necessary; eco-tourism is a major part of the future economy of Ulster County and the rail trail is a vital part of that."

Finally bringing it on home, Ellenville village manager Joe Stoeckeler noted that the connector from the current trail head by the waste water plant in Ellenville over to the Berme Road Park will be moving forward, too.

"We need a revised easement from the Ellenville School District. It's been mapped and flagged and a referendum must be held, which might be in September or October," he said, hinting at future connections up onto the Shawangunk ridge line. "Then improvements can be made. The trailhead was paved already with money from the Ellenville million."

On your marks...