Hein makes a point during his presentation
KINGSTON – More than $10 million will be spent improving Ulster
County’s roads and bridges, as part of an ambitious plan dubbed
“Building a Better Ulster County” by officials in the county
executive’s office.
County Executive Michael Hein spoke Thursday morning in Kingston, before a packed audience at the monthly Ulster County Chamber of Commerce breakfast, explaining the measure approved Tuesday by the legislature. So many people attended, that the parking area became gridlocked, and police were required to direct traffic.
“The greatest generation did something amazing; what they did was built out our nation,” Hein said, but since then, the roads have become neglected.
Now, his administration is going to use appropriate resources to do more
than just repave roads and repair bridges.
“It’s about rethinking the road, making sure we use the kind of technology that make it significantly better,” he told an enthusiast audience. “We can make our roads better. They don’t just have to be the same and newer, they can actually be better.”
Hein said he has been “scrimping and saving and restructuring the government,” so that they could have the money to do the work.
To that end, $3.5 million will be leveraged with state and federal funds to snowball a $10 million infrastructure overhaul.
“This year is the year,” Hein said.
Hein also discussed local tourism, touching upon an agreement with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, to open up extensive trails to the public for the first time in 100 years, along the Ashokan Reservoir.
In addition to $2.5 million in funding from DEP, the agency will also spend another $2 million of its own money on improvements. Furthermore, the DEP has offered to advertise Ulster County to all of its metropolitan customer households.
“It’s advertising we couldn’t possibly buy,” Hein said.
