Mid Hudson Times Mar. 28 2018

T IMES MID Chadwick Lake upgrade Town of Newburgh to get $1.8M to improve water quality HUDSON Vol. 30, No 13 3 MARCH 28 - APRIL 3, 2018 3 ONE DOLLAR SERVING NEWBURGH AND NEW WINDSOR City Hall in dire shape By SHANTAL RILEY [email protected] Newburgh’s City Hall building is in rough shape, city code enforcement officials say. The building has structural and electrical issues that require immediate attention. And, if lead or asbestos is found during the course of needed work, staff may have to vacate the building. “Chief Horton has laid down, as a condition of our continued occupation of 83 Broadway… that we need to have certification done by a structural engineer that says we can continue to occupy this building,” said City Manager Michael Ciaravino at City Hall last week. The building issues are serious, city Assistant Fire Chief and Interim Building Inspector Bill Horton said. They include electrical problems and structural issues that “cause the building to continually shift,” he said. “Two years ago, they started noticing some settling on the southeast corner of the building,” Horton said Tuesday, and some cracked joists were found. “Fifteen to 18 years ago they did renovations at City Hall. There had been a second staircase in the back,” on the southeast side of the building, he explained. “When they removed that staircase, it turned out to be more of a support structure. So, the building started settling toward that void space.” The city Department of Public Works built temporary shoring in the basement and on the first three floors of the four- floor building to address the problem, he said. “Recently, there seems to be additional settling going on,” Horton said, as well as rotting around windows facing Grand Street. Continued on page 26 March draws thousands By SHANTAL RILEY [email protected] The Town of Newburgh will receive $1.8 million from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection for improvements to the water-filtration system at Chadwick Lake. The lake reservoir will serve as the town’s primary source of drinking water during the shutdown of the Delaware Aqueduct in 2022. “They want to make sure communities that buy water from them can be self- sufficient during the shutdown,” said Town of Newburgh Supervisor Gil Piaquadio. Currently, the town relies on both the lake and the Delaware Aqueduct for drinking water. The aqueduct is scheduled to close down for more than six months while a new bypass is constructed as part of the aqueduct system under the Hudson River. “To respond to the demand for water, Brian Wolfe Continued on page 46 Nearly 8,000 people attended the “March for Our Lives,” Saturday at the Walkway Over the Hudson. Story on page 2. WWW.MIDHUDSONTIMES.COM