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The Upper Delaware Council (UDC) board elected Damascus Township, PA Representative Jeffrey R. Dexter as its 2013 chairperson at the non-profit organization’s annual meeting held January 3 in Narrowsburg.
A swearing-in ceremony and public reception will take place at the Feb. 7 UDC meeting, at which time Chairperson Dexter; Vice-Chairperson Andrew Boyar, Town of Highland, NY; and Secretary-Treasurer John B. Niflot, Town of Fremont, NY, will take their oaths of office.
Jeff Dexter began his Council service in January 2010 as a first alternate before he assumed the role of Damascus’s UDC representative two years later. He was elected as the UDC’s vice-chair in 2012.
As chairman of the Damascus Township Board of Supervisors on which he has served since 2006, Dexter was influential in the Wayne County municipality’s vote on July 21, 2008 to join the Upper Delaware Council.
The 63-year-old Cochecton, NY native graduated from Narrowsburg Central School in 1967 and earned a 1971 Bachelor’s degree in Resources Management from the College of Forestry at Syracuse University, including one year of study at SUNY Alfred Agriculture and Technical College.
Retired after 33 years working in the Arizona State Parks System, Dexter is the Volunteers-in-Mission Team Leader for disaster recovery projects through the Damascus Methodist Church, the sponsor’s representative to the Northeast Council of the Boy Scouts of America for Troop 122 in Damascus, a member of the Penn State Extension Agricultural Board for Wayne County, is active with the Damascus Volunteer Ambulance Corps, and belongs to numerous local historical societies.
Jeff and his wife, Linda, are the parents of three children, Bethany, Jonathan, and Kari. The couple resides in a log home they built in Damascus.
2013 UDC Vice-chair “Andy” Boyar re-joined the board in January 2010 after becoming his town’s first representative from March 15, 1990 when the Town of Highland joined the Council under his leadership as town supervisor, through the UDC alternate representative positions he held from 1991 to 1993.
Boyar was re-elected as Highland’s town supervisor in 2010 after having previously held that office for 13 years starting in 1981. He is a former chairman of the Sullivan County Board of Supervisors.
In addition to being a member of the UDC’s Water Use/Resource Management Committee, the Eldred resident currently serves as president of the Trout Unlimited Upper Delaware Chapter; trustee and officer for the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum; and is a member of the Federation of Fly Fishers and Ducks Unlimited.
“Jack” Niflot was elected as 2013 UDC secretary-treasurer for his 12th, non-consecutive term. He filled the position from 1997-99 and 2005-2012. Niflot was first appointed to the UDC as an alternate in 1994 and became the town’s representative in 1997.
The Mileses resident has served as a councilman on the Fremont Town Board since 1994.
Niflot is a founder, the current president, and newsletter editor of the Basket Historical Society of the Upper Delaware Valley, which operates a seasonal museum in Long Eddy, and is also secretary-treasurer for the Fremont Center Community Church.
The Upper Delaware Council was established in 1988 under a Cooperative Agreement partnership with the National Park Service to oversee the coordinated implementation of the River Management Plan for the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River, a component since 1978 of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.
For more information on the organization and its activities, visit the Council’s website at
www.upperdelawarecouncil.org or call the Narrowsburg office at (845) 252-3022.
