TIMES
MID
HUDSON
Vol. 27, No 46
3
NOVEMBER 18 - 24, 2015
3
ONE DOLLAR
Modern
jazz
Page 18
NEWBURGH AND NEW WINDSOR
Council
Lake Drive Bridge in trouble
split
over city
manager
By SHANTAL RILEY
[email protected]
In a surprise vote at the Nov. 9
Newburgh City Council meeting, four
council members voted to begin a search
for a new city manager.
Introduced by outgoing city Councilman
Cedric Brown as a new business item
near the end of the meeting, a last-minute motion proposed the council start a
search for a new city manager to replace
current Newburgh City Manager Michael
Ciaravino, hired last year.
The council voted 4 to 3 in favor of
the motion. Council members Brown,
Regina Angelo, Cindy Holmes and outgoing Councilwoman Gay Lee voted in favor
of the motion. The vote, however, does
not equate to the termination of the city
manager - which, due to a 2011 citywide
referendum, requires a super majority of
at least five council votes – nor does it follow any previous decision by the council
to terminate him.
Brown claimed the move would help
ensure a smooth transition to a new city
manager, a topic nowhere listed on the
agenda. “Some of you would say, ‘Oh, why
Continued on page 30
Culvert pipes are rotted underneath the Lake Drive Bridge.
By SHANTAL RILEY
[email protected]
The Lake Drive Bridge is likely to
close in the coming year, according
to City of Newburgh Engineer Jason
Morris. The bridge carries Lake Drive
over the Quassaick Creek and leads to
the main entrance of the Lake Street
Apartments complex.
“It is a twin, metal-pipe arch culvert
bridge built around 1970,” said Morris.
“The problem is the inverts of the two
culvert pipes are rotted out. So, the
bottom portion of the pipe rusted away
and the culvert pipe has begun to fold in
on itself.”
The rust has affected the structural
stability of the bridge, he said.
“The culvert pipes, rusted out along
the bottom side, provide stability and
structure,” said the engineer. “When
you lose the protection of the bottom
pipe, you lose the structural stability of
the bridge.”
Lake Drive was busy on Monday as
cars, trucks and school buses traversed
the bridge around 3 p.m.
The span has been “red-flagged” - identifying potential structural failures - by
the state Department of Transportation
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for a number of years, Morris said. Its
condition is steadily deteriorating, he
said.
Water erosion exacerbates the problem. “As the creek flows through the
culvert and there is no bottom, it scours
away the fill material of the bridge and
the roadway,” Morris explained.
The engineer appeared before the
Newburgh City Council this month
explaining there is state Transportation
Improvement Program (TIP) funding
available to repair the bridge. “We
have 80 percent of the money to fix
Continued on page 30