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Mid Hudson Times, Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Beautifying Newburgh one garden at a time
take pride in where they live.” When
locals can return to their homes or their
neighborhood and be greeted with colorful
flowers or vibrant food gardens, “It
changes people’s attitude,” said Sinnott.
He also noted that several families came
to the event because their kids wanted
to grow a garden. For Virginia Kasinski,
head of Downing Park Farm’s urban
outreach, including children in planting
and caring for the gardens is central to
Beautify Newburgh’s goal. “It’s important
to get kids involved and successful with
what they are growing,” Kasinski said.
Saturday was the first of multiple
garden-related events that will be
occurring this summer. There will be
a series of fundraisers hosted at the
Downing Park, and the Shelter House
Café at Downing Park hopes to open
by the end of the summer, with profits
going towards funding the park. Future
events and park community clubs can be
found listed on Downing Park’s website
ajdowningpark.com.
Many different groups donated plants,
time, and otherwise helped to put on this
event, including Downing Park Urban
Farm, the Arboretum in Montgomery,
and Poughkeepsie Farm Project. The
Downing Park Planning Committee,
Best Temple, Living in Jesus Ministry,
Bija Project, Conservation Advisory
Committee, City of Newburgh Human
Rights Commission, SUNY Orange Club
REACH, Pathstone, Hudson Valley Seed,
and St. Mar y of the Assumption Friary
also collaborated to help make this event
successful.
By LAUREN BERG
City of Newburgh residents revealed
their green thumb this past Saturday
as a crowd gathered outside Calvary
Presbyterian Church for Beautify
Newburgh’s “Building Community with
Gardens” event. The afternoon featured
volunteers demonstrating seed plantings
in egg cartons (which were donated by
Liberty Street Bistro), and advice on how
to grow and maintain flower, herb and
veggie gardens. Local garden enthusiasts
could choose from a variety of free seeds to
plant such as sunflowers or watermelon,
and there were several small cucumber,
tomato, and flower seedlings available for
passersby to take home and plant as well.
Beautify Newburgh is a volunteer group
made up of residents, businesses, schools
and congregations to “plant and maintain
colorful flowers, healthy vegetables and
herbs, and trees that will help create
vibrant neighborhoods where residents
can live, work, and play in, while enjoying
clean streets and celebrating their
cultural and ethnic diversity.” The idea
is loosely based off Brooklyn Botanical
Garden’s Greenest Block in Brooklyn
contest—a
competition
promoting
streetscape gardening and community
development between residents and
commercial businesses.
Stephen Sinnott, a member of the
Downing Park planning committee
and volunteer at the event, described
how gardens can be used to unite the
community: “It’s giving people the chance
to come together, make their own veggies,
not be afraid to start from scratch, and
Volunteers demonstrate seed plantings in egg cartons
Despite changes to U.S. Cranes site plan, neighbor expresses concerns
By LAUREN BERG
The town of Newburgh’s May 18 planning board
meeting continued the public hearing of U.S. Crane’s
development of the auto auction site off Route 17K.
At the previous public hearing last month, Stewart
Avenue and Route 17K residents expressed extensive
concern over the potential noise disturbance made by the
company’s fabrication process. In response, U.S. Crane’s
representative team has made several changes to the site
including: moving the building of operations back an
additional 25 feet from the adjacent property lines for a
total of 66 feet, conducting and reviewing a noise study
on the property, and implementing changes to the plan
suggested by the study such as adding larger trees and
sound-deadening walls at the southerly and westerly
edges of the property.
Larry Wolinsky, a representative attorney for
U.S. Cranes, also made a point to note during the
meeting that U.S. Cranes had obtained the Industrial
Development Agency (IDA) benefits resolution, which
includes a property tax reduction program (known as
an “accelerated PILOT”) over the next ten years, and a
waive on the sales tax of construction materials and the
state portion of the mortgage tax. According to Wolinsky,
the IDA’s approval indicates the good character of the
company, something that was called into question by
members of the New York City Community Alliance for
Worker’s Justice at the previous public hearing:
“We did obtain the IDA benefits resolution. And I want
to point that out because the significance of that is that a
lot of the comments that were made about the operations
and the work practices were vetted by the IDA in order
to be in favor of this resolution, which I understand was
adopted unanimously. So if there’s any real substance in
any of those things, the IDA would’ve certainly sussed
those out and acted accordingly,” stated Wolinsky.
Despite the many site plan changes, neighboring
business owner Jude Martini still expressed concerns of
noise negatively impacting the nearby residents. Martini
questioned whether, due to the surrounding elevation
changes, the eight-foot-high sound wall would be tall
enough. He also asked whether the thickness of the
building’s interior siding material would be adequate, as
it would only be meeting the “minimum recommended
STC (Sound Transmission Class) rating.” After multiple
back and forth questions and comments from Martini,
the U.S. Crane representatives and the planning board,
an assertion repeated several times during the public
hearing was the applicant’s compliance to the town’s code.
“Compliance with the code is absolutely required,” stated
planning board attorney Michael Donnelly. “This is a use
that’s allowed in that zone. The uses that are allowed in
the zone, per the town board, are those that have been
determined to be appropriate for the neighborhood.”
Later Wolinsky also affirmed, “The bottom line is we
have to comply with the town code.”