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Today Governor Pataki announced that New York State has arranged to acquire 3 remaining pieces of Sterling Forest
totaling 2,218 acres to add to the current Sterling Forest State Park. The largest piece is 1,350 acres from the Sterling Forest Corporation (Zurich Centre Group), The second piece is 659 acres bordering the eastern edge of the forest and west of Tuxedo Park. The third piece is 209 acres in the town of Warwick on the west side of the forest, part of which borders on Greenwood Lake. There are still about 800+ acres that are not part of the deal, about 600+ of this is near the corporate park lands in the southern section,
slated to be a golf course, and 200+ acres in the north near the ski area.
The links on the left provide the official press release and an
article which appeared in the New York Times, both of which provide
additional details. Jan Hesbon, Executive Director, and Gary Haugland,
President, provided the following commentatary live from the press
conference.
Children from the Fort Montgomery Elementary School were at the
press conference. Several speakers commented:
Governor Pataki said, "we do this for the children of the
21st century"
Ralph Odell, Environmental Officer for OPRHP said, "The
second most exciting thing today is that these children are
here."
Gary Haugland remarked, "We are pleased at the new acquisition
and remain hopeful that the remaining 800+ acres will eventually be
acquired from the Sterling Forest Corporation."
Jan Hesbon said, "We are thankful for the initiative and
especially grateful to the Dolans. For JoAnn and Paul this is a
continuation of the dream and a testament to the wisdom of their
vision."
There remains work to be done to raise the additional funds needed
to complete this purchase and to add on the remaining 800+ acres in
phase III.
 2/15/2000 The Federal
Government has chipped in the $2 million that was hoped for. That
leaves $1 million from private sources which must be gathered within a
year to complete the deal.
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