T IMES
MID
HUDSON
Vol. 30, No 19
3
Mambo
prince
MAY 9 - 15, 2018
3
ONE DOLLAR
Shop for Mom
Page 14
Page 22-23
SERVING NEWBURGH AND NEW WINDSOR
Garbage threatens city’s oasis Harvey, Lee
Dumping poses a health threat to Polly’s inhabitants
By WAYNE A. HALL
One of the glories of Newburgh is
the swath of greenery ringing Downing
Park.
The 35-acre park’s rolling grounds
and pleasant walking paths are just a
step away from the major traffic on busy
Route 9W.
Downing Park and it’s restful,
manmade Polly Pond is a 2 ½-acre man
made pond designed to be a watery
balm to city dwellers.
You can sit on a bench at the pond and
watch the clouds roll by, which was the
goal the 19th-century park’s designers
had in mind.
But there’s a vexing problem in
this urban paradise. It’s dead goldfish
sometimes found on the park’s grassy
shores. They are victims of oxygen
depleted stagnant water.
Careless garbage tossing people are to
blame, say park officials.
Refuse – everything from diapers to
candy wrappers – periodically clog the
Polly’s drainage out flow. That in turn
backs up water and debris creating a
mass of stagnant, oxygen poor water,
dotted with refuse, which seems to be a
big cause of die-offs of fish in the pond.
And that, say park officials, is a
nagging, periodic problem.
It doesn’t help that sometimes large
objects such as baby-carriage parts have
been found in the water.
“Sometimes it’s a large die off of
goldfish and it usually happens when
we get some wet weather,” says park
director Karen Eberle-McCarthy.
“It usually happens when we get
Continued on page 4
to run in
Democratic
primary
By SHANTAL RILEY
[email protected]
Downing Park Planning Committe Chairman Karen Eberle-McCarth stands beside a
stagnant pool of water filled with debris at Downing Park’s clogged Polly Pond outlet.
The City of Newburgh’s new
Mayor Torrance Harvey will seek the
Democratic nomination to serve out the
remainder of the term belonging to late
Mayor Judy Kennedy. He was appointed
mayor by the Newburgh City Council in
April. “I’m fulfilling my commitment to
Mayor Judy Kennedy,” said Harvey last
week. “She asked me to finish her term.
That’s what I’m trying to do.”
Harvey took the position after it was left
vacant by Kennedy, who passed away on
April 15. The city council appointed him
to serve as mayor until Jan. 1. In order
to complete the entire year and eight
months that remain in Kennedy’s term,
he needs to win in both the Democratic
primary in September and the general
election in November. Harvey, a history
teacher at NFA, was elected as a city
councilman in 2015.
Mayor Harvey hit the ground running.
Since his appointment, the city DPW
has been filling in dozens of potholes
and plans are to kickstart a citywide
road pavement project, he said. One
of Harvey’s first official duties was to
accept a Comp Alliance Award for Worker
Safety on behalf of the city, alongside
other council members, at the New York
Conference of Mayors this week.
Continued on page 4
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