Patricia Doxsey is reporting for the Daily Freeman Ulster County has been awarded $4 million from the NoVo Foundation to benefit several county initiatives. The Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley will administer the funding, County Executive Michael Hein said October 1. The money will be used during the next two years to fund the “Brighter Future Initiative,” a series of interconnected programs and projects that Hein said will “fundamentally disrupt generational poverty throughout the county.” Hein said $300,000 of the NoVo funding will go toward the development of the conversion of a portion of the former Ulster & Delaware rail corridor in Kingston, between Cornell Street and Kingston Plaza, into the Midtown Linear Park. Hein said the trail will provide a safe route for people without vehicles to reach the supermarket in Kingston Plaza. An additional $700,000 will be used for the creation of a park and children’s playground adjacent to the linear park. The remaining $3 million will be spent on programs that include enhanced educational programming, job training, mentoring, tutoring and mental health services. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.