T IMES
MID
HUDSON
Vol. 30, No 4
3
JANUARY 24 - 30, 2018
3
ONE DOLLAR
Swimmers
win 6
straight Meet
Colonel
Crook
Page 36 Page 23
SERVING NEWBURGH AND NEW WINDSOR
Massive problem
Forum seeks solutions to opioid crisis
City votes
to accept
donations
for Dutch
Church
rehab
Public meeting
scheduled Feb. 21
By SHANTAL RILEY
[email protected]
Carl Hart, neuroscientist and chair of the Dept. of Psychology at Columbia University, speaks at a forum on the opioid crisis at the
Newburgh Armory Unity Center on Saturday. (State Assemblyman Frank Skartados is seen on right.)
By SHANTAL RILEY
[email protected]
St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital in
Newburgh treated 181 opioid overdoses
since April, 2017. “Over 50 percent were
from inside the city limits,” said Sgt.
Julio Fernandez, a civil operations
specialist with the New York National
Guard Counterdrug Task Force.
“People say Newburgh has a massive
problem,” Fernandez said, but almost
50 percent of those overdoses occurred
outside the city. “No, the region has a
massive problem. The towns connected
to us have a massive problem. Our
counties, our state, our nation has a
massive problem.”
Opioid overdoses in the cities of
Poughkeepsie and Kingston were
up in 2016, explained Fernandez, who
crunches data on drug use in the Hudson
Valley. Opioid overdoses in the cities of
Newburgh and Middletown were down,
he said. “This epidemic is bouncing
from city to city,” Fernandez said.
The sergeant spoke at a forum on
the opioid crisis, hosted by New York is
Continued on page 2
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The City of Newburgh will begin to
accept donations for the rehabilitation
of the Dutch Reformed Church. The
unanimous decision of the Newburgh
City Council follows on the heels of public
opposition to a proposed plan to develop
the church property together with two
other city-owned properties.
“Regardless of where that proposal
ends up, it still does not answer, ‘How
do we stabilize the Dutch Reformed
Church?’” Councilwoman Karen Mejia
said at a city council meeting on Monday.
“That work needs to continue, regardless
of any developer’s agreement.”
The Greek Revival-style church
was designed by Alexander Jackson
Davis in 1835. It was named a National
Historic Landmark in 2001 and one of
the “Seven to Save” historic sites by the
Continued on page 4