By Mark Reynolds
Last week Lloyd Police Chief James Janso and Lt. Phil Roloson met with representatives of the Walkway Over the Hudson and members of the Lloyd Town Board to review safety protocols for large events that are held on the Hudson Valley Rail Trail and on the Walkway Over the Hudson, such as May Fest, the Alzheimer and Prostate Fundraising Walks, Walktoberfest and the July 4th Celebration.
Chief Janso said they often meet to discuss what is working well and what might need improvement to ensure everyone’s safety at these gatherings.
“Each event they have gets bigger and bigger and parking becomes less and less,” he said. “We really address the positive points about the events and the negative things we can change, especially with what took place in New Orleans recently; safety is always first on our minds.”
Chief Janso stressed the importance of having before and after analysis in order to better plan for the varied sizes and types of events that take place each year on the Rail Trail and the Walkway.
“The events are good for the town, good for the community and good for the Walkway but it does come with budgetary issues, manpower staffing, parking and logistics and we rely on a lot of outside resources, such as the New York State Police, the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office, the New York State Bridge Authority and signage from Ulster County, so planning these events takes months to get done.”
The July 4th event on the Walkway is a particularly busy and well attended event.
“It’s all hands on deck for the department and is mandatory for everyone to work that day because it’s one of the biggest draws in the area,” he said. He said they cover Oakes Road, Mile Hill Road and Ransom Road, pointing out that, “although it’s a Walkway event, we’re tasked with parking of the people going there and the people living on those roads and it’s a safety issue with CSX trains passing through down there. It takes a lot of planning and a lot of thinking out of the box on what we have to do to make it safer or how we’re going to go about getting more resources if needed. It’s always a work in progress at these events.”
Janso said the Walkway organization always reimburses his department for the costs of what he has to lay out, “so that’s always been a good partnership we have there.” He also has three Deputy Sheriffs and three New York State Police in his detail.
Janso’s bill to the Walkway covers the cost of his manpower, which totals about $10,000 to assist at the large events throughout the year.
“There is always some event going on, something different and we keep having meetings to talk about what we can do, what we can’t do and what they [Walkway] want to do for the coming year,” he said. “Their goal is to hold their fundraisers and for people to have a good time and to be a great tourism place and our job is to make sure they go off without a hitch.”