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Mid Hudson Times, Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Water forum leaves unanswered questions
Continued from page 1
“I viewed this as an introductory with the DoD although
we didn’t get many answers we did receive a promise to
look into the many things that we have complained about
through the years,” said City of Newburgh Manager
Michael Ciaravino. “I think it could have been a more
fruitful conversation if the New York State DOH and
DEC were here. I am scratching my head as to why they
were not able to participate in the closed door meeting.”
Outside the closed door meeting members of the
community spoke with representatives from WOOD
Environmental and Infrastructure Services, The Orange
County Department of Health, and Restoration Advisory
Board. Two major tables that remained empty were
the Department of Health and the Department of
Environmental Conservation.
“This a turning point,” said Manna Jo Greene the
Environmental Director of Clearwater. “We have waited
4 years for them to come out and hear us. It feels like
we are going on a different track, but the fact that they
are hearing us is a good start. They haven’t brought all
the parties to collaborate, one would hope they have
regular meetings or whatever it takes to avoid further
contamination.”
The question of health impacts in the bloodstream
remained unanswered as did many other questions
asked by the community.
“There’s limited data right now the studies are
ongoing there’s no verdict on the health impact yet.”
said Steve Gagnon, Principal Public Health Engineer
for the Orange County DOH. “We haven’t seen anything
substantiated in human health yet. There are some
animal studies that show the health effect but as to
humans there is no certainty.”
When asked about local trends of health problems
associated with high levels of PFOS Gagnon referred the
question to the NYS Department of Health.
“This is not something we have the funding for,” said
Gagnon. “That would be something done at the state or
federal level.”
Remediation efforts were another question
unanswered by the DoD or the Air National Guard.
Surveys have been conducted to understand the level of
contamination and the Air National Guard has ended its
use of the Aqueous Fire Fighting Foam.
“I want to be careful to use the word remediation
in my understanding of the word that would mean
encapsulation or removal of the PFOS and PFOA in
the soil we’re not there yet.” said Kevin L. Mattogh,
Chief of the Operations Division Air National Guard
Logistics and Installations. “There’s an entire risk based
association where we have to work with the DEC to come
to some understanding. If your talking about mitigation
that is holding the PFOS or PFOA so that it doesn’t leave
the site thats a much more direct thought process. That’s
measured in months to years not years to decades.”
For the DoD and the Air National Guard the goal of the
meeting was to open lines of communication. They are
looking to bring members of the community and local
officials into the Restoration Advisory Board (RAB).
This is part of efforts to rebuild trust between the Air
National Guard and the community. Officials walked
through the airport to see the contamination first hand.
“Walking the ground gave us a much greater
understanding of the situation,” said Maj. Gen. John
Henderson, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force,
Installations, Environment and Energy. “Ultimately
talking to the officials here about what are some of their
concerns were, how we can better communicate and
build relationships so we can have the level of trust that
we need to have. All of that is an integral part and of
course we go from there to the community to underscore
how important clean water and more importantly how
we will work with the state to get where we need to be.”
The RAB will include members of the Air National
Guard, along with any interested citizens of the
community. They will discuss review and evaluate
restoration activities and environmental studies at the
airport. The board will also identify project requirements
and recommend priorities among sites or projects.
For more information on the advisory board and how
to get involved you can contact Sgt Sara Pastorello, Public
Affairs Superintendent at sara.a.pastorello.mil@mail.
mil or Jody Ann Murata, Restoration Project Manager at
[email protected].
City releases letter from 1992 detailing allegations
Continued from page 1
When asked about the situation, Kevin L. Mattoch,
Chief of Operations Division for the Air National Guard
Logistics and Installations was surprised to hear about
the letter.
“Unfortunately, that caught me by surprise when
it was brought up,” said Mattoch. “What we need to do
is see if the 1992 situation is one that’s already been
addressed or if there was merit to the allegation. Going
forward we have to investigate all of these activities and
understand each of their contributions because nobody
wants to be in that situation.”
Ciaravino remains unconvinced the situation has
been remediated. The documents from March 20 and
May 8 1992 suggest that the hazardous material reported
was not determined based on studies done in previous
years. It is unclear if a survey was conducted prior to the
letter released in 1992.
“In receiving those documents we have the duty to
inform our community it suggests that it isn’t just PFOS,”
said Ciaravino. “In fact, there’s a long sorted history of
dumping on the land that is owned by the State of NY.
In the last three years not once was this correspondence
provided to us and when we asked about the testing of
other chemicals, they said there’s no reason to, it’s not
a concern. So, at the end of the day what we need is an
honest acknowledgement by the New York State DEC
that as a party that has a liability as a landowner, that
they are unobjective in the advice and expert opinion
they are giving the City of Newburgh.”
I n B rief
Town adopts amended budget
At a special meeting held on November 8, the
Town of Newburgh council met to discuss and
amend the 2019 budget.
The board had previously anticipated the
budget would exceed the state tax levy by $93,185.
In October, it passed a general municipal law
that would allow it to adopt the budget despite
surpassing the tax cap.
However, a routine budget review determined
that the town’s anticipated 2019 sales tax revenue
would increase by approximately $100,000 in the
next year. This enabled the board to modify the
2019 budget so that it now remains under the 2%
tax cap by about $30,000. Despite the changes, town
of Newburgh residents’ tax rates for Highway and
General Fund will still increase for a combined
total of about 3.14% this next year.
We had passed a resolution in case we might go
over the tax cap…but now we didn’t, so we have to
repeal that,” stated Piaquadio.
The board has moved to repeal the local law
allowing the tax cap override with a new local
law, which has a hearing set for December 10 at
7:00 p.m. The December meeting will also feature
a public hearing on the Schedule of Fees local law,
concerning sewer and water rates.
- Lauren Berg
Orange County IDA
adopts resolution
for New Windsor hotel
The Orange County Industrial Development
Agency on Wednesday adopted an initial resolution
for a public hearing regarding a Holiday Inn
Express to replace the former Steak & Stein
restaurant, located at 935 Union Avenue in New
Windsor.
Banta Hospitality, LLC seeks a sales and
mortgage recording tax exemption as well as
a 10-year PILOT from the Orange County IDA
for a proposed 93-room, four-story Holiday
Inn Express at the 2.8-acre site of the vacant
Steak & Stein. The project would include the
addition of a 13,797-square-foot building with
an expected completion date of March 2020. If
financial assistance from the IDA is granted,
Banta Hospitality expects to create 24 full-time
jobs, ranging from salaried to hourly positions
with benefits. Additionally, the project is expected
to provide approximately $400,000 per year in
sales and occupancy taxes to Orange County.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Managing Director
Vincent Cozzolino reported continued success
for The Accelerator, a certified New York State
incubator focused on bringing manufacturing
back to the mid-Hudson Valley. The Accelerator,
which currently comprises six buildings across
three campuses in New Windsor, Middletown and
the City of Newburgh, provides assistance to 24
companies.