The Colchester Town Board voted Dec. 2 against the installation of a $357,000 bridge on Horse Brook that was to be built at no cost to the town.
The project was planned to allow the migration of three trout species to the spawning area above the existing culvert.
Colchester Supervisor Bob Homovich said Tuesday that Horse Brook Bridge started out "as a fish project, and the town has other projects we need to do on a higher priority."
Homovich said the board opted not to approve the project because the cost of the project increased from $187,000 to $357,000, though the town's contribution didn't change.
Homovich added that he believes the structure will be in peril if there is flooding because there is debris in the brook above the culvert.
The bridge was originally planned with a 20-foot span, which would have resulted in the county taking ownership once it was completed.
The final design shortened it to 16 feet, which meant the town would retain ownership and responsibility for upkeep and repair, Homovich added.
Theodore Gordon Flyfishers President Bert Darrow said the Colchester board approved the Horse Brook Fish Passage Mitigation Project on July 2, 2008, agreeing to proceed to the next step of the project once all the required permits and proof of secured funding were provided to the board.
"It's terrible for the Colchester board to take away a gift like this from the town," Darrow said. "The Beaverkill is a world-class trout stream, but the trout have been disappearing because they are losing spawning areas.
"This project would have provided jobs during the construction, and it will be good for businesses because it will bring fishermen to the area. It is hard to believe in this economy that anyone would turn this offer down."
Horse Brook is a tributary of the Beaverkill.
Rick Weidenbach, of the Soil and Water Conservation District, designed the project and helped obtain the funding and required permits.
"We hurdled every obstacle," Weidenbach said. "We got the money, we got the permits, the bridge is designed to county standards and we even had a private donor that called and offered to cover the $25,000 the project would cost Colchester, and they still said no."
Partial funding for the project was provided by Theodore Gordon Flyfishers, which secured money from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency and Trout Unlimited. The largest portion of the funding came from the Upper Susquehanna Coalition, which received funds from the Millennium Pipeline Project.
The Colchester board previously agreed by resolution to proceed with the project, removing the structure and installing the pre-cast concrete decking that was to be provided by Delaware County Public Works.
Darrow said the proposed sheet-piling bridge would allow the debris in the brook to pass underneath and would not jeopardize the bridge. The current culvert would trap debris, he said.
Delaware County Public Works commissioner Wayne Reynolds said the sheet-piling bridge design is durable, and most of the time following a flood, the bridges are still in place even if the road is gone.
"These bridges are the best thing we have found," Reynolds said. "We have good luck with them, and they are environmentally sound."
During the design phase, it was determined that the bridge should be moved upsteam because of a bend in the streambed, which placed the abutment on state forest preserve land. But a permit was obtained to allow the construction.
Darrow said old bridge abutments were found where the new bridge was to be placed, which helped secure the approval from the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
"The DEC realized the project would be good for the stream," Darrow said.
Darrow said the entire project will be lost if something isn't done immediately because part of the funding must be spent before the end of the year.
"We are not going to do it," Homovich said. "Right now, the structure we have can be replaced for $15,000 if it washed out."
Darrow said state regulations are changing because of recent flooding, The culverts that run under Rogers Hill Road over Horse Brook may not be able to be replaced, which would result in Colchester having to fund a $350,000 bridge project at taxpayers' expense.
