Tuxedo is not the only western Hudson Valley community with Trail Town aspirations. The Village of Suffern borders the eastern edge of Harriman State Park and a local park-friendly coalition has been hard at work taking concrete steps to turn talk into action.

Alexandria Evans of the Suffern Chamber of Commerce and Rockland County Legislative Chair Alden Wolfe show new park-friendly signage coming soon to Suffern, as the village positions itself as an attractive destination for park adventurers.

The office of Rockland County Legislative Chair Alden Wolfe has taken up the Trail Town banner, making the Suffern initiative a tourism priority to help infuse economic uplift to the area. From Legislatior Wolfe’s vantage point, eastern Rockland County has well-established River Towns such as Nyack and Piermont — why not western Trail Towns that act as gateways to the popular draw of Harriman State Park?

Leg. Wolfe represents District 6 which covers half of Suffern and stretches from Montebello to Monsey. He will be the featured speaker at the Suffern Chamber of Commerce inaugural Summer Mixer Wednesday, July 22, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. at the Waterfall Garden at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Suffern.

The Rockland Trail Town initiative includes support from Wolfe’s office, the Suffern Chamber of Commerce, NY/NJ Trail Conference, and an active group of Sloatsburgers.

Wolfe will be joined at the Suffern Chamber event by Trail Conference New York West Hudson Program Coordinator Sona Mason, with both speaking on how county and state parks can help drive tourism in the Suffern/Sloatsburg corridor and act as a catalyst for economic growth.

A nice place to visit: members of the loose coalition working on the Suffern Trail Town initiative include from left Darcy Casteleiro Assistant to the Chair, Rockland County Legislative Chair Alden Wolfe, Cathy Mills, Village of Suffern, Patsy Wooters, and Sona Mason, NY/NJ Trail Conference.

The basics of the Trail Town idea is to create pedestrian friendly village centers in both Suffern and Sloatsburg through the installation of signage, street blazes and communication about the hiking, biking and trails in the communities — low-cost attractive features that are friendly to park visitors. If Suffern and Sloatsburg can re-brand themselves as attractive recreational gateways to the surrounding parks, the thinking goes, they can begin to draw more of the park traffic, re-circulating traffic into village stores and restaurants.

Sloatsburg itself is surrounded by state, county and town parkland and, with the right plan of action, could re-invent itself as a pedestrian-friendly, groovy Trail Town village, with easy rail access for New Yorkers who lust after a bit of bucolic beauty and have shown to pay good money for it. 

Tuxedo has taken steps to re-define itself as a gateway to Harriman State Park, leveraging it’s spacious Tuxedo Train Station as a focal point. Community and business activists, in partnership with the Tuxedo Chamber and led by the efforts of MyHarriman.com, are reviewing any number of options that could revitalize the town’s downtown area via pedestrian-friendly walkways, trail blazes, signage, and investment.

Suffern’s enormous advantage is it’s very walkable restaurant’s row along Lafayette Avenue, with the Lafayette Theater anchoring the east end. There’s also the addition of the new Aufgang building which will act as a magnet for new stores and office space. Suffern lacks the many park entry points that Sloatsburg and Tuxedo enjoy — in fact, Sloatsburg is surrounded by all sorts of parkland and, with the right plan of action, could re-invent itself as an easy train stop for New Yorker who want to spend a day or weekend in the park. A pedestrian-friendly, walkable village-center would be an important piece of that plan.

Currently, Tuxedo has taken the lead in embracing a Trail Town ethos out of the three corridor communities, who, taken together, will essentially anchor western Rockland’s Trail Town effort.

With its recent steps of blazing the road, getting new directional park signage and leveraging the interest of Rockland County itself, Suffern is moving in the right direction — and has that perfect, walkable village center. In September, the group, led by the Suffern Chamber, will host a sort of fam trip that helps connect the dots related to the areas parks and recreation and dining opportunities.

Suffern Mayor Trish Abato will also speak at the Summer Mixer, as will Josh Goldstein of the Orange Avenue Project, and Ariel Aufgang of Aufgang Architects. Both Goldstein and Aufgang have important, defining developments in the works, with Aufgang’s gleaming new old-style brick-faced building nearing completion along Suffern’s Lafayette Avenue.