The Catskill Chronicle

Photos by Leni Santoro

PARKSVILLE, NY – The New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) is holding a public meeting to discuss improvements in and around the hamlet of Parksville. These improvements are the second phase of the  larger NYS Route 17/I-86 Parksville project currently under construction in the area. The public meeting will be held on October 21 at 7 p.m. at the NYSDOT field office (formerly the Dead End Cafe) located at 6 Main Street, Parksville.

As part of the project development process for the NYS Route 17 Parksville upgrade project, NYSDOT committed to make a variety of landscaping and enhancement improvements, which were necessary to satisfy requirements set forth by various state and federal agencies and the community. Many of these improvements will be included under Phase I; however, some work was split from the larger project to be done as a second phase. Phase II was split from Phase I to allow more time to meet with stakeholders and to open bidding to potential contractors specializing in streetscape, landscape and trail work.

In 2009 students from Cornell University met with Parksville residents to talk about a vision for the future of Parksville.

Phase II will include landscape and trail improvements and provide fishing access along the Little Beaverkill. As part of Phase II, NYSDOT also committed to seek public input from the community to help establish the vision of Parksville and identify specific enhancements that complement this vision. That process began with a public workshop held on February 17, 2010. From that workshop, the Department developed a variety of landscaping and enhancement options that are consistent with the vision of Parksville that was identified at the workshop and that satisfy the requirements of the Parksville Project as agreed upon by other state and federal agencies.

The public meeting will begin with a presentation of the alternatives that have been developed based on previous commitments and on the  priorities identified by community members at the workshop and in previous outreach. The presentation will be followed by a question and comment session, during which meeting attendees will be encouraged to share their ideas. 

After the question and comment session, there will also be time for meeting attendees to discuss their ideas, concerns or questions with project team members one-on-one or in small groups. NYSDOT will use input provided at this public information meeting, along with other project information, to select and refine the preferred alternative which will then be presented to the public at a subsequent meeting.