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Mid Hudson Times, Wednesday, May 9, 2018
Harvey, Lee to run in Democratic primary
Continued from page 1
The city is currently working on taking surplus sales-
tax revenues to use for infrastructure, he said. The city
also recently found room in the 2018 budget to save three
of twelve firefighter jobs that were slated to be cut due
to lack of funding, Harvey said. The city applied for a
Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response
(SAFER) grant to pay for the remaining nine, he said.
“Public safety is our number-one priority,” Harvey said.
“It has to do with quality of life.”
In the next few months, the city will focus on roads
and revitalization, Harvey said. “We’re diligently looking
at road repavement and ADA-complaint sidewalks,” he
said. “We’re also looking at a Downtown Revitalization
Initiative (DRI) grant,” Harvey said, to continue forward
with improvements to the city’s downtown area.
“Something special is happening in Newburgh,” he
declared. “We want to keep it going.”
Harvey will face fellow Democrat Gay Lee in the
September primary. Lee announced her mayoral bid last
month. When asked if he planned to seek his own four-
year term as mayor, Harvey said it was too soon to say.
“I haven’t fully decided on that,” he said. “I will decide
based on what the people want. My intention right now is
to fulfill my commitment to Mayor Kennedy.”
13-year-old lunges at police with
kitchen knife
Torrance Harvey accepts a Comp Alliance Award for Worker
Safety on behalf of the City of Newburgh at the New York
Conference of Mayors this week.
Dumping poses a health threat to Polly’s inhabitants
Continued from page 1
some wet weather – sometimes it’s a large die-off.”
And these dead goldfish mar the park’s charming,
19th-century atmosphere being planned for the newly
renovated stone building that’s going to be a cafe.
Key to the dead goldfish problem is educating the
public against dumping goldfish into the park’s waters.
Now is prime time for sprucing up the park for
warm weather outdoor strollers, bench sitters and soon
customers in the park’s renovated stone building that
will have a cafe.
“We have thousands of people who come to the park
every year,” says the park director.
It is truly a small paradise in the city designed to be
a pleasant refuge from city hustle and bustle. The park
boasts more than 800 trees. There are 30 gardeners in the
park’s vegetable growing tract.
And having goldfish in the pond would not be so tragic
(but illegal) if the Polly’s water was freshly oxygenated
by movement but it’s stagnant because the outfall that
keeps the water moving is often blocked by impressive
amounts of trash that pile up at one end of the pond.
And that means this massive mess that piles up has to
be removed by the city’s hard-working Department of
Public Works.
Goldfish can gulp air at the surface but prefer to
absorb oxygen through their gills.
Stagnant water looses oxygen and makes life tough for
some aquatic creatures. And this is why people find dead
goldfish in the park‘s Polly Pond.
Sure enough at the outflow to the Polly recently plastic
strips and other glop was a floating mass at the Polly’s
outflow and it wasn’t looking like it was going anywhere.
I n B rief
The outfall was blocked by trash on a recent day. All
kinds of trash.
City Department of Public Works director George
Garrison says the outflow of water gets blocked by so
much debris that very little water can be released from
the pond to keep the usual flow going. Trash then piles
up into a big mess at the out-flow grating, including such
things as sanitary diapers.
A testament to the repeated trashing of the Polly came
from the city’s hard working Public Works Department’s
repeated efforts to clear the trash bottleneck.
Yet key to the problem of dying goldfish is clearing
the debris from the Polly’s outtake and that means DPW
assistance is needed once again, Eberle-McCarthy adds,
while appreciating the “very, very busy” department’s
past help with the same problem.
“I was trying to pull things out but now,” she says, “I’m
waiting on the city.”
As she spoke two very large goldfish pushed aside
some floating weeds.
“This (the goldfish die off) usually happens when we
suddenly get some hot weather. But the die off of the fish
is natural. Its a natural die-off and last year we had a
really big die off.”
So, Eberle-McCarthy adds, “it’s not something that’s
terrible that’s happening or a big surprise.”
As she spoke, a very large goldfish glided over a large
frying pan -sized snapping turtle.
“It’s beautiful to be in the park, especially in the late
afternoon.”
Birders treasure the park for the enormous numbers
of birds spotted here. Birder Claudia Perretti just saw a
bald eagle fly over Downing Park.
Ci