Executive Budget Includes Funding to Revive Plans for Catskill Visitor Center

January 22, 2008

Assemblymember Kevin Cahill (D-Ulster, Dutchess) announced today that $1 million has been included in Governor Spitzer’s 2008-2009 Executive Budget for the purpose of updating the design plans for the long proposed Catskill Visitor Center.

“The Governor’s decision to add the funding that I and many organizations have been advocating for illustrates his commitment to our region,” said Assemblymember Cahill. “This investment will be a boon to efforts to preserve the natural beauty of the Catskills while at the same time enhancing opportunities for both visitors and residents to enjoy all that the region has to offer.”

The appropriation will be used to update plans for the Catskill Visitor Center for the purposes of designing it as a state-of-the-art LEED certified facility. When finally completed the Center will tell the story of the region’s history and showcase what is possible in the future. Among other things, the facility will:

• Celebrate the natural and cultural assets and history of the Catskill Park;
• Interpret the Catskills for an estimated ½ million annual visitors;
• Demonstrate the latest green design and environmental technology in a LEED certified facility featuring New York solar and other products that advance sustainability;
• Serve as the principle point of entry to attract visitors to and direct them within the Catskill Park and Forest Preserve.

This project has roots that date back to 1986 when a partnership of local, private and state interests began to work on development of a Catskill Center. Seeking to build on the tremendous success of the state’s multi-million dollar investment in the two Adirondack Visitor Interpretive Centers, a 63 acre site on Route 28 in the Catskill town of Shandaken was acquired for the Center with the intention of having the proposed facility to serve as an integral part of the comprehensive Catskill Education plan and the Catskill Forest Preserve Public Access plan.

In the years that followed, a SEQRA review was conducted and completed, over $1 million was invested in site preparation, additional state land acquisitions were made to buffer the site and funds to construct the facility were appropriated for the construction of an 18,600 sq. ft. building. In 1995, the Pataki Administration suspended the project.

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