GOSHEN – Expansion of the Heritage Trail in Goshen, both to Harriman in the south and Middletown to the north, will begin this year, Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus said.
He said one of the projects should be completed quicker than the other.
“The Harriman one, I believe, will be done in ’17,” Neuhaus said. “The other one has three phases and it also has a lot of federal hoops that we have to jump through. We are reaching out to our federal officials to help cut some of the red tape we have been tied up with because of different federal agencies.”.
One of the factors that is expected to slow down the Middletown leg of
the project is the habitation of Indiana bats. They tend to use trees
for roosting and foraging during the summer months and as an endangered
species, the trees may not be disturbed or cut down because that could
impact the bat population.
The county has already approved funding for the Heritage Trail extensions.
