Much of the January 22 Mamakating town board meeting was given over to a presentation by the Lakes and Communities Alliance of Rock Hill, a citizen advocacy group. Jessica Lansdall, the president, said the aim of the group is to keep track of development pressures in the area, especially near canals and lakes.

What the alliance is most concerned with is the Delaware-Hudson-Canal Reservoir Lakes area, which is situated between the Basha Kill wetland system, the Shawangunk Ridge Forest, Roosa Gap State Forest to the east, and the Neversink River to the west.

According to Lansdall, the area supports more than 200 species of birds, 30 species of fish, 40 types of butterflies, and numerous other plant and animal species, including some that are federally protected. The alliance seeks to prevent development in the area that could potentially harm the ecosystem there, and negatively impact the character of the town and its economy.

“We need to keep the pressure on,” the group’s website says, “to show the town as well as on developers who think they can take advantage of a small rural area to push through developments that not only negatively affect our lives through increased traffic and pollution but might also do irreparable harm to the landscape that is our most valuable economic resource.”

At the meeting she said that “one way to pressure developers not to put their distribution centers in our backyard is by creating something called a critical environmental area, or CEA.”

A CEA, she explains, “doesn't change zoning, it's not a law, and it definitely does not affect personal property. The only thing it really does is it encourages additional consideration during local government review of environmental impacts that are associated with large development proposals.”

So, in other words, if an entity wants to put a large distribution center or housing development in the reservoir lakes area, they would go through an additional layer of environmental review.

There will be another public meeting in the near future with a longer presentation where people can hear more details and ask questions, but the few people that did respond were not happy about more restrictions.

One person, an attorney who lives in the area present via Zoom said, “We don't need another organization or more laws to control our own property. We'll be happy to do it by ourselves.” That was pretty much the consensus of a few others who spoke – but most say they are willing to hear out the full presentation.

Dogs and Taxes

The most notable advancements in the meeting were to approve hiring an additional part-time dog control officer, as well as approval for construction of a temporary facility for dogs that have been picked up as strays or lost from their owners. This will not be like a full-time kennel or dog boarding facility, but will serve as a temporary storage facility.

Mamakating has had no pound or large area to kennel stray or lost dogs, meaning a lot of expensive transporting to facilities at Port Jervis, Walden, or Middletown. So, the part-time hire, Jessica Jimenez, will help with transport.

But, going forward, the town needs a space to house animals for short times before transfer or, hopefully, they’re reunited with their owner.

Councilman Tyler Wood, who has been at the helm of the project, made a point of emphasizing that the construction is “definitely not a ‘kennel’ in any way, shape, or form. It's literally dog cages for our dogs. It's to keep them safe and indoors.”

In other matters, the Highway Department was approved to purchase two new trucks.

On taxes and finance, Nicholas Salomone, county legislator for Mamakating, reported that the town adopted a 2025 budget that kept the tax increase under the state cap for housing services and labor employees. They avoided shortfall and long-term borrowing and created no new debt, and are also planning to rebuild the airport.

“Sullivan County,” Salomone said, “remains in the best financial shape ever.”