T IMES
MID
City budget
adopted
By KATELYN CORDERO
[email protected]
After a long and stressful budget season
the City of Newburgh voted unanimously
in favor of the 2019 budget proposed by
City Consultant Charles Duffy. The budget
season was plagued by setback after
setback, yet made it to the finish line on
Monday.
The final budget includes an increase
of $14.73 in property taxes for homestead
properties and an increase of $57.14 for non-
homestead properties valued at $150,000.
This is a .5 percent increase for homestead
property taxes and a 1.44 percent increase
for non-homestead property taxes.
The issues for this budget season started
with three significant resignations by the
City Comptroller, Katherine Mack, City
Manager, Michael Ciaravino, and Director
of Planning and Development, Dierdre
Glenn. The latest setback came in the
form of a letter by the New York State
Comptroller, Thomas P. Dinapoli, with
a series of large and specific monetary
requests to be added to the budget.
The City of Newburgh is expected to
submit a budget to the State Comptroller
for examination and recommendations
every year. This is something that has been
done every year since 2011, but according
to Corporate Counsel Michelle Kelson, this
is the first time the letter has specific
monetary recommendations.
“This is the first time where the state
comptroller said ‘you must’,” said Kelson
to the City Council in a work session on
November 13. “I think it is unfortunate
that the city would have to absorb all of
these changes in one budget year. It has
been a disturbing 24 hours for me and it’s
taken a large portion of my day today to
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HUDSON
Vol. 30, No. 48
3
NOVEMBER 28 - DECEMBER 4, 2018
Bells on
Broadway
Page 38
Swimmers
set to splash
3
ONE DOLLAR
Page 40
SERVING NEWBURGH AND NEW WINDSOR
Shopping small is big
Small Business Saturday Shopping Crawl a huge success
By KATELYN CORDERO
[email protected]
Small Business Saturday kicked off
this holiday season with a profitable
weekend for small businesses in
Downtown Newburgh. Small Business
Saturday is a nationwide event
sponsored by American Express to
promote small local businesses.
This year 27 local shops in Newburgh
came together for a shopping crawl to
get shoppers out for the day.
Event organizers Jacqui Watkins,
owner of Newburgh Mercantile, Angela
Paul’Gaito, owner of APG Pilates and
Cher Vickers, founder of Newburgh
Restoration, teamed together to create
an event that would highlight local
businesses and draw people out to take
part in the day.
“It didn’t work well when I did the day
by myself,” said Paul’Gaito. “When I
heard they were trying to do something
all together I was excited. I sold more on
this day than I have in any other event.”
The shopping crawl brought out about
300 shoppers to the Downtown Newburgh
area. Participants of the shopping crawl
were given passports with deals from
each of the 27 participating shops.
Each business attended gave stamps
to shoppers. Every five stamps equated
to a raffle put in the pot for a prize with
donations from each of the businesses.
Restaurants only gave stamps to
customers who purchased something,
due to the high volume of people.
The shopping crawl made a huge
difference for businesses who normally
wouldn’t get the amount of foot traffic
they received for the day.
“It’s a huge difference, it’s not even
Photos courtesy Newburgh Restoration
Bakery patrons peer out a store window onto Liberty Street during Newburgh’s first
shopping crawl.
comparable,” said Watkins of Newburgh
Mercantile. “We’ve been doing this
for three years on our own and it’s
always been our best business day.
This year we had new customers from
all over Newburgh and surrounding
areas. There was this enthusiasm and
excitement in being in Newburgh and
supporting small businesses that hasn’t
been there before.”
Watkins had four times the amount of
WWW.MIDHUDSONTIMES.COM
foot traffic she had in previous years on
Saturday. She is hopeful that the event
will bring about more collaboration
with local businesses in Newburgh
to promote one another and keep the
momentum from the event going.
“The goal is that everybody has their
own social media following, but the point
is to share everybody’s network to try
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