GOSHEN – Orange County’s plans to develop a 10-mile-long Schunnemunk trail in the Salisbury Mills area have taken the first steps as the county has begun plans to purchase the land from the Open Space Institute, conduct the state’s required environmental quality review, and design the project.
County Planning Commissioner Alan Sorensen said the total project will cost about $2.8 million with most of the funding coming from federal grants and a small portion from the county.
Sorensen said this would be another portion of what could be, in the long term, a countywide trail.
“The confluence of that trail with the Heritage Trail at Camp LaGuardia, so it really provides many benefits. It will create a bikeway system that will enable people to travel from Salisbury Mills all the way up to Middletown, from Middletown along the Heritage Trail all the way down to Monroe,” he said.
To the east of the future Schunnemunk Trail, Sorensen said a trail could eventually connect to the Newburgh waterfront of the Hudson River.
