Mid Hudson Times Apr. 10 2019

T IMES MID HUDSON Vol. 31, No. 15 3 APRIL 10 - 16, 2019 Page 40 SERVING NEWBURGH AND NEW WINDSOR Report cites widespread absences overlooked in school district In June of 2016, a teacher noticed his students were ineligible to participate in a championship track meet. The key runners were in serious breach of the school’s attendance policy. Upon noticing his students’ ineligibility, Newburgh Free Academy teacher and former Girls Varsity Basketball Coach, Richard Desiderio was met with the decision to report the students ineligibility to administrators in his building or to keep the information to himself and allow the students to compete regardless of all ONE DOLLAR NFA opens with win Special section Who is accountable? By KATELYN CORDERO [email protected] 3 their absences. “I had two students in my class in June 2016 that were competing in state track meet in Syracuse but they were ineligible as per our attendance policy to be competing. It was a big deal it was Continued on page 27 N ational C rime V ictims W eek Maloney announces Federal investment on water cleanup By KATELYN CORDERO [email protected] Brian Wolfe Crime victims are memorialized Sunday afternoon during a National Crime Victims Week vigil held at the parking lot between Johnson Street and Lander Street. Each year Jeanette Drake (in purple) and Rhonda Valentine hold a vigil in honor of their daughters that were shot and killed at a Halloween party in 2016.Also pictured are Amanda Silvagnoli and Tylon Ross. Story on page 3. CHECK OUT OUR NEW WEBSITE - WWW.MHTIMESONLINE.COM The City of Newburgh is finally starting to see some federal investment on its contaminated water supply. Representative Sean Patrick Maloney announced on April 3 that the United States Army Corps of Engineers will fund the installation of a filtration system to prevent further contamination from Recreation Pond. They will invest $2.4 million into the project to clean up the PFAS contamination created by Aqueous Fire Fighting Foam at Stewart Air National Guard Base. The contamination dates back to May of 2016, when the City of Newburgh’s drinking water reservoir, Washington Lake was discovered to be contaminated with PFAS. The contamination was discovered at Recreation Pond next to the base, which then moved through Silver Stream, into Washington Lake. “This is a huge victory for the City of Newburgh, there’s much more work to do, but this is a critical first step in getting the city’s original water supply Continued on page 27