Mid Hudson Times Aug. 29 2018 | Page 3

3 Mid Hudson Times, Wednesday, August 29, 2018 Back to school barbecue bring community together By KATELYN CORDERO [email protected] Newburgh residents end summer on a good note after the Back To School BBQ, hosted by We Are Newburgh. Downing Park was packed with nearly 3,000 people on Sunday celebrating the new school year, with food, music and their community. With the help of about 60 organizations We Are Newburgh made the event happen. The group had 32 vendors register for tables at the Barbeque. Various groups donated services and items to show their support. Kiwanis, a nonprofit organization in Newburgh donated 600 “study buddies” or stuffed animals for kids too young to go into school yet. The Newburgh Enlarged School District and the Newburgh Rotary Club donated about 4,000 backpacks and school supplies for students. Food Bank of the Hudson Valley provided a truck load of groceries with a promise to bring more food for next year after running out of food within two hours. Blacc Vanilla Cafe brought hot and cold brew coffee for all the volunteers in the morning. The Orange County Sheriff ’s Department created ID’s for children and took down fingerprints and information for the amber alert service. If a child goes missing their information will be on file to help find them as quickly as possible. “It wouldn’t be as great as it is without all the support of the organizations that rally behind us,” said Damian DePauw, Director of Operations at We Are Newburgh. Joe Alvarez, founder and president of We are Newburgh sees these types of community events as a place to show the true colors of Newburgh. An event that takes around 6 months to plan took an Photos provided Members of the community hopped on stage to dance and sing to music. The Newburgh Enlarged School District and the Rotary Club donated school supplies handed out by volunteers. entire community to pull off. “This is what unity in our community looks like,” said Assemblyman Kevindaryán Luján. “I could not be Danskammer Plant to be replaced Continued from page 1 “heat rate will be among the lowest for combined cycle combustion turbine projects, which means less fuel is combusted to produce a given amount of electric power output. Carbon emissions from the project could be as low as 50 percent of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s [NYSDEC] recently proposed limits for existing power plants.” The new plant incorporates an air-cooled condensing system that would eliminate the need to use Hudson River water for cooling. In addition, because the site already has electric and natural gas lines, no new transmission lines are needed at the plant. Tiger Infrastructure Partner s predicts the plant’s new efficient design will allow them to produce electricity in a far more cost effective manner than other plants. In turn, they expect they can bring cheaper electricity to the marketplace that will lower overall electricity costs. Lacey pointed out that although New York State is pushing to have 50 percent of their electricity coming from renewable sources by 2030, the reality is that presently wind and solar power is unable to meet the demand and spikes while the new Danskammer plant is designed to provide support when it is needed the most. The Public Accountability Initiative [PAI], a non-profit, non-partisan research and educational organization focused on corporate and governmental accountability, A young boy gathered his donated school supplies. more proud of our city than I am in this moment.” The food for the event was donated and cooked by members of We Are Newburgh and people in the community. They had 800 pounds of chicken, and 3,000 hot dogs and burgers, to prepare and cook. McDonald’s donated unlimited Ice Tea for the event, and Arctic Glacier donated 100 sleeves of ice and 72 cases of water. “People need to realize Newburgh is a great place to live,” said Alvarez. “People have so much love for our city and we are just bringing the community together. We Are Newburgh is a reflection of it’s people that love the city and by people getting together it makes you believe that our city is turning up.” We Are Newburgh will hold their next event in November for Thanksgiving. To find out more information about We Are Newburgh or how to volunteer, visit their Facebook page. has countered many of the assertions made by Tiger Infrastructure Partners in an in-depth and multi-sourced published document on the company’s investors and the proposed new plant. PAI states that the new plant would produce pollution that would impact both local and regional air quality, in particular, “large emissions of climate heating pollutants, including carbon dioxide and methane, a particularly potent heat-trapping greenhouse gas.” PAI categorized this project a “money-grab” by wealthy Wall Street investors, multi-millionaires and billionaires who are intent in locking in high profit returns while the local air is polluted and the public’s health and the environment suffers.