T IMES
MID
HUDSON
Vol. 30, No 3
3
JANUARY 17 - 23, 2018
Dogs of
Newburgh
Page 4
Lady
Goldbacks
win
SERVING NEWBURGH AND NEW WINDSOR
City water mains break under pressure of deep freeze
By SHANTAL RILEY
[email protected]
Continued on page 4
ONE DOLLAR
Page 36
Coping with winter
The extreme cold is giving the city’s
water infrastructure a beating. A total of
14 water-main breaks took place during
the deep freeze earlier this month.
“The water-main breaks haven’t
stopped,” City of Newburgh Water
Superintendent Wayne Vradenburgh
said in an email Monday, when crews
were working on a new main break on
Courtney Avenue.
Other water main breaks have
occurred on Hasbrouck Street, Ann
Street, William Street, Broadway,
Lutheran Street, Third Street and
Liberty Street, among other streets.
Vradenburgh described interruptions
in water service as “minimal.”
As of Tuesday, all service had been
restored, he said. “This winter has been
(harsher) than previous winters, due to
the low temperatures and the drastic
fluctuations in temperatures,” the water
superintendent said.
In addition to the extreme cold, he said,
the city’s 100-year-old infrastructure is
“a recipe for break after break.” Water-
department staff have been “pushed
to extreme levels” with the breaks and
the city’s water-plant shutdowns due to
Catskill Aqueduct repair work. “They
have met the challenge and excelled,”
Vradenburgh said.
The city has embarked on numerous
water-infrastructure
improvement
projects in recent years. In 2017, the
city purchased a valve-turning truck to
allow water-department staff to begin a
valve-exercising program, city Engineer
3
Return of
skating on
the Polly?
Thick ice on the pond
sparks hope
By LAUREN BERG
Courtesy City of Newburgh Water Department
A City of Newburgh crew works on a water-main break on William Street this month.
WWW.MIDHUDSONTIMES.COM
After several years of warm winters,
ice skating may finally return to the City
of Newburgh’s Downing Park pond, the
Polly, as early as next week. Stephen
Sinnott, a volunteer with the Downing
Park Planning Committee and the driving
force behind the future Shelter House
Café, spoke at the city’s council meeting
January 8 to propose the return of open
skating at Downing Park.
Downing Park officially opened in 1897,
and the history of ice skating on the
Polly goes back just as far. Newburgh
was a major hub during the origin of
speed skating in the late 1800s. Joseph
F. Donoghue, the first “declared” world
speed skating champion in 1891, hailed
from Newburgh. In fact, the Eastern
championship speed skating races were
held on the Polly in Downing Park in
January of 1900.
The stone building adjacent to the
Polly, known to longtime residents as
the Shelter House, was added in 1934 to
be used by local skaters in the winter to
warm up, change into skates, and even
enjoy cups of hot chocolate. However,
annual ice skating on the Polly declined
sometime after the late 1960s, and by the
70s and 80s the Shelter House became
neglected and abandoned.
Continued on page 3