River protesters arrested at COUP meeting

By TOM RUE
NARROWSBURG - Four individuals protesting the presence of the National Park Service (NPS) on the Upper Delaware were escorted by state police from the October 22nd meeting of the Conference of Upper Delaware Townships (COUP) in the basement of the Tusten Town Hall, and charged with disorderly conduct, a violation.

This is believed to have been the first time since the park service arrived here in 1978 that NPS opponents were arrested for their disruptions. In the past some meetings have adjourned early, while federal public hearings in June 1986 were not even allowed to begin when protestors became unruly.
Complaints were signed against Donald Rupp, 50, Henry Rupp, 51, Herb Wolff, 59, all of Barryville, and Jeffrey Ojeda Bellinger, 42, of Equinunk after they sat at the confer- ence table with COUP members and refused to leave. Don Rupp shouted questions and remarks at Westfall delegate and COUP chair Phil Fitzpatrick in a manner apparently calculated to make the discussion at the table impossible.

Speaking of Larue Elmore of the Upper Delaware Citizens Advisory Council (CAC) - and seated next to him - Rupp shouted, "We feel that this man has no right to be at this table. He is not representing any town. He is representing an organization. If he has a right to be at this table, so have I. I represent the Upper Delaware Citizens Alliance."

The CAC was established in 1978 by act of Congress to comment on the Upper Delaware planning process, and was invited by COUP about a year ago to send a nonvoting representative to help prepare (or plan implementation. October 22nd was the first meeting of COUP since the River Management Plan was signed by Secretary of the Interior Donald P. Hodel on September 29th.

During the disruption, Hancock delegate George Frosch telephoned for New York State Police from the Narrowsburg barracks. Eleven minutes after the meeting was scheduled to start, troopers J.J. Barrett and J.W. Norton were directed by Fitzpatrick to take Don Rupp into custody. When Barrett led Rupp to the back of the room, the other three men moved together from the audience to the table.

"And I represent the Association of Cross-Eyed Eskimos," Bellinger challenged as he sat down.

They were arrested with Rupp, arraigned in the Town of Tusten Justice Court, and released. A court date was set for November 11.

About ten supporters of the Upper Delaware Citizens Alliance, which Rupp said he represented, watched quietly when he was taken away. As he entered the patrol car, Don Rupp said he was being falsely arrested and predicted, "There's going to be a lot of problems."

Although the protestors were nonviolent, one plan opponent in the audience, who was not arrested, remarked, "They've got to kill somebody first. It's the only way."

Frosch dismissed the disruption as "a media event." In addition to local media, a reporter from the WaD Street Journal was present at the meeting. After being processed by police, an arrestee returned to the town hall to ask a radio reporter to come outside and hear a statement.

A statement by Fitzpatrick issued the following day called for an end to disruptive behavior, but encouraged "everyone with questions or concerns about the river plan" to call the COUP office or attend meetings.