WAWARSING – Cragsmoor residents cheered as the Wawarsing town board approved the passage of a new local law prohibiting vehicles from parking on Sam's Point Road and Laurel Mountain Road during the August 20 meeting.

"It's a start," Supervisor Leonard Distel said.

The law, which prohibits parking in both directions for the entirety of Laurel Mountain Road and on Sam's Point Road from the intersection of Laurel Mountain to the entrance of Sam's Point Preserve at 400 Sam's Point Road in Cragsmoor, will serve to mitigate a growing public and traffic safety hazard.

"We all want safe roads. It's getting horrifically dangerous on Sam's Point Road," one resident stood up and said before asking if any progress had been made with NYDOT on reducing the speed limit on Sam's Point.

The current speed on the state road is 55 mph, and while the board has requested NYDOT to reduce speed to 35 or 40 mph, they have not received a reply.

"We have to wait for DOT to come back but the bottom line is they really need to expand the size of the parking lot," Distel said, noting that the cause of much of the problem stems from parking overflow at Sam's Point Preserve.

According to the NYS Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation website, the 5,000 acre park — while a popular destination within the larger Minnewaska State Park system — has a small parking facility to protect the visitor experience as well as the unique ecosystem. According to Sam's Point park director and Wawarsing's Environmental Conservation Commission chairman Hank Alicandri, park personnel often have to turn cars away when the lot is full.

Most weekends, Alicandri said, the park turns away 55 cars, and at times, up to 160. Park personnel, he continued, give out maps to other local hiking hot spots including Berme Road Park and trails off Route 44/55, and inform drivers not to park along the roads leading to the park.

But some do. Or, as many pointed out during the meeting, drivers get mad and tear off down the mountain at elevated speeds.

There are options, residents suggested, to alleviate the problem... including the installation of a "lot full" sign along Route 52 and a turn-around space for vehicles, an app to be added to Google maps that would say the same, or as the supervisor suggested, developing a larger parking area within the village and offering shuttle service up the mountain. Also raised were ideas for the development of a reservation system where travelers can call in to reserve a parking space, if the lot is full, and spend time in the village shops and restaurants until their spot is available.

It's a process, Distel said, noting how hard it is to appease everyone.

"We're lucky that more accidents haven't happened," he said, noting that while adopting a law to prohibit the improperly parked vehicles may help, and signage may deter some from parking, the town is not in the business of law enforcement and does not have the manpower to enforce the law to the magnitude it should be and will have to rely on state and county policing agencies for that.

"We have to figure out ways to get things done," councilman Dan Johnson added, pointing out that the law will allow town highway supervisor Tony Paes to install "lots of signs up there."

Meanwhile, councilman Mike Durso and Distel agreed, residents can put pressure on the state and write letters to county and state legislatures asking for their assistance in the matter.

In other news, the board awarded Rothe Lumber Corp of Saugerties the proposal to grind the brush and wood debris at the Wawarsing transfer station in the amount of $3,999, and tabled a motion to award a bid for the Napanoch sidewalk and curb repair project because, councilman Stephen Bradley said, they both came in too high.

The board approved a payment of $120,280 to Time Warner Cable for the Oak Ridge Project, which includes extending cable eight miles, bringing cable and internet to ninety-nine residents. The monies to take on the project, which Distel said was very hard and expensive, will be deducted from the franchise fee account the company pays to the town quarterly.

The next meeting will be September 3.