Scenic route is scenic. Photo of New York State Route 28 by Flickr user Doug Kerr; published under Creative Commons license.
On Tuesday, March 12, the town board of Olive voted 3-2 to approve a resolution in support of a plan to get a 50-mile stretch of Route 28 designated by New York State as a scenic byway.
The scenic byway plan is being promoted by the Central Catskills Collaborative, a group representing six local towns and villages along Route 28 in Delaware and Ulster Counties. The plan was released in September 2011, and revised in April 2012 in response to worries from some municipalities that it would impact local town home rule or the rights of landowners along Route 28. The group is seeking official scenic byway designation for Route 28 from the New York State Department of Transportation, in the hopes of getting funding for increased visitor signage and tourism promotion along the route.
Olive's vote follows closely on the heels of a simillar vote in the neighboring town of Shandaken, whose scenic byway resolution also passed 3-2.
According to Olive town clerk Sylvia Rozzelle, town board member Peter Friedel made a motion to table the resolution, which was seconded by Donald VanBuren. The motion failed. Town supervisor Berndt Leifeld then made a motion to pass the resolution, which both Linda Burkhardt and Bruce LaMonda voted in favor of.
Olive is the last municipality to vote on the scenic byway plan. The towns of Shandaken, Middletown and Andes have approved it, along with the Middletown villages of Margaretville and Fleischmanns. The town of Hurley, which lies on the eastern edge of the proposed byway and was added to the Central Catskills Collaborative after the group's founding, voted against adopting the byway plan in June of 2012.
Below: The Town of Olive's adopted Route 28 scenic byway resolution.
Olive: #4 of 2013, Scenic Byway Adoption by Watershed Post
