By Nathan Mayberg
LOCH SHELDRAKE — April 9, 2004 – It was a day that rained money.
Congressman Maurice Hinchey was at Sullivan County Community College Monday to announce that he secured $1.948 million for Sullivan County through the recently passed Transportation Bill.
However, the bill isn’t officially law yet. The House of Representatives will be meeting with the Senate to work out a compromise between their respective versions of the bill.
New York State is expected to receive approximately $9 billion in transportation money, according to Hinchey.
About $1.5 million of the money for Sullivan County will go towards road repairs, drainage and an additional parking lot at SCCC.
The college received $600,000 last fall from the county for road repairs as well.
SCCC President Mamie Howard Golladay called the current parking at the college insufficient.
The roadways and walkways around the school are in disrepair, she added.
The remaining $400,000 will go towards a new visitor’s center for the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway (Route 97) in Cochecton.
Hinchey called the area "one of the most beautiful parts of this country."
The center will be built near the historic train station in Cochecton.
Larry Richardson – a Town of Cochecton councilman, acting chairman of the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway and treasurer of the Cochecton Preservation Society – believes the train station is the oldest existing station in New York.
The preservation society saved the old station from extinction by moving it up the road from its original site piece by piece.
Hinchey also secured language in the bill that would authorize funding for a proposed train line from Middletown to Fallsburg. Once that is officially approved, the congressman could apply for funding as early as next year.