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Mid Hudson Times, Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Newburgh resident dies in Benkard Ave. shooting
Continued from page 1
My husband didn’t deserve this.”
It is the second shooting incident to occur on Benkard
Avenue since February, when an 11-year-old girl was shot
as she exited a cab with her mother.
Councilman Torrance Harvey explained street mentality made it so that people who know about crimes don’t
talk to police. “Snitches get stitches,” he said, quoting a
well-known street saying.
Harvey then called on the city to implement a “comprehensive video surveillance program,” adding that new
surveillance cameras would soon go up in crime-riddled
areas of the city.
The new cameras are expected to supplement several
surveillance cameras already installed around the city.
But, residents complained Monday that some of the
existing cameras were broken.
Mayor Judy Kennedy described “a fairly, small group
of people out there, carrying on, gun-shooting anywhere,
anytime.”
“We cannot arrest our way out of this,” the mayor said.
“If you have a child that you know of involved in these
shootings, you have got to step forward.”
The council set a time and date of 12 p.m., Saturday,
April 2 for an emergency public forum on gun violence
at the City of Newburgh Activity Center, located at 401
DA announces prison sentence
for Town of Newburgh burglary
Glenton A. Wright was killed when he was shot near 50
Benkard Avenue on March 25.
Washington St.
Anyone with information about the March 25 or Feb.
19 shootings may contact City of Newburgh police at
561-3131.
‘People’s Waterfront’ opens for 2016 season
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they’re just selling coffee and t-shirts,” he said. “Let’s get
some kids down here and teach them about nature.”
The Newburgh native remembered visiting the site as
child. “When I was a kid, we would scrounge up metal,
load up the wagon and haul it down here to the scrap
yard,” McTamaney said. “We’d get 50 cents, or something
like that.”
That was Laskin’s scrap yard, he said. “As an adult,
I remember just watching it get worse and worse,”
McTamaney recalled. “You couldn’t enjoy the river.”
Consolidated Iron and Metal operated a scrap and car
In Brief
junkyard at the site from the mid-50s until 1999, leaving
behind heavy metals, volatile organic compounds and
PCBs in the water and soil. After years of extensive
testing and cleanup, the site was delisted by the EPA in
December 2014.
As of now, Church said, there are no definitive development plans for the site. The city plans to complete a trail
connecting the park to Ward Brothers Memorial Rowing
Park sometime in the next few months, she said.
The park will be open on a temporary basis throughout
the spring and summer.
Orange County District Attorney David M.
Hoovler announced on Thursday, March 24, Spencer
Seymour, 33, of Newburgh, was sentenced to seven
years in state prison by Orange County Court Judge
Nicholas De Rosa. On Feb. 11, 2016, an Orange
County jury convicted Seymour of Burglary in
the Second Degree and other offenses, in connection with the June 14, 2015, burglary of a Town of
Newburgh home.
In the early afternoon of June 14, 2015, Spencer
went to a home on Weaver Road in the Town of
Newburgh, while the owner was not home. Spencer
entered the home and stole tools and a rifle. A nearby resident saw Seymour enter the home, leave with
a bag full of the homeowner’s belongings, and put
the bag into his pickup truck. The neighbor took
Seymour’s picture as the burglary was occurring.
When the homeowner later saw the picture, he recognized Seymour and the pickup truck. Seymour
later surrendered the proceeds of the burglary.
Hoovler thanked the Town of Newburgh Police
Department for their efforts in the investigation and
prosecution of the case.
“Those who commit residential burglaries
deserve to be sentenced to state prison,” said District
Attorney Hoovler, “Citizens have a right to feel
secure in their own homes, and when our homes are
violated, even when we’re not there, we lose not only
property, but the sense of safety that we all deserve
to have in our homes. The violation of a home affects
not only the homeowner who is victimized, but
every other resident of the community, who have to
wonder whether or not their homes might be next.
In my office, we take residential burglary seriously,
and we will seek strict sanctions for those who commit such violations of private property.”
The District Attorney highly commended
Assistant District Attorney Christopher Kelly for
his work in the prosecution of the case.
William Street closed
by falling debris
The City of Newburgh has announced that due
to falling debris in the area of 73-77 William St, the
street will be closed between Hasbrouck and South
William Street until the City completes emergency
planning of demolition
This section will be closed and a detour will be in
effect until completion of work.
For questions regarding the street closure contact
the Building Codes Department at 569-7400 during
working hours 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.
For any emergencies hours, contact the Police at
561-3131.