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Mid Hudson Times, Wednesday, November 28, 2018
City Fire Dept. set to receive new ladder truck
By KATELYN CORDERO
[email protected]
The City of Newburgh Fire Department is set to receive
a much needed ladder truck thanks to a $950,000 by the
DASNY (Dormitory Authority of the State of New York).
The grant is part of the State and Municipal Facilities
(SAM) Program through the work of Senator William
Larkin.
“Senator Larkin was responsible,” said Fire Chief
Terry Ahlers. “I wrote him a letter and a week later he
already secured the funding. We were very lucky to get
this.”
The new truck will replace a 13 year old truck
currently in use by the fire station. This truck is one of
two ladder trucks used by the City of Newburgh Fire
Department.
“What happens is we can’t keep them both in service,”
said Ahlers. “The manufacturer is out of business and
it’s becoming tough to find parts for them.”
The truck getting replaced is 13 years old, making
about 16,000 fire calls in its career. The back-up truck for
the station is 18 years old and Ahlers hopes to keep it as
a backup when the new ladder truck is purchased.
The station has been using both of the trucks recently
due an inability to keep either one running for long
Firefighters get equipped and hop onto their trucks to put out a fire in the City of Newburgh.
periods of time.
The City of Newburgh Fire Department is also
currently moved out of the West Side Firehouse. The
city is in talks with the Goodwill Fire Department to use
the volunteer station on Route 52 as a home until the
deficiencies in the building have been remediated.
According to Ahlers, City Corporate Counsel and the
Goodwill Fire Department are working on an agreement
and hope to have a meeting next week to finalize the
details and move firefighters and equipment.
City council adopts 2019 budget
Continued from page 1
get you the proposal that we think is legally defensible
and manageable, frankly without burdening the public
or creating any kind of paranoia.”
The State Comptroller is asking for a laundry list of
hefty amounts, yet the city does not have the money
to cover in one year. It is recommended for $841,622
added in debt service, $830,000 to cover overtime for the
police and fire departments, an additional $576,193 in
pension payments, and $2,275,000 was recommended for
tax overlay, or to account for uncollected taxes.
City consultant Charles Duffy looked at these
recommendations and moved the numbers in ways he
could please the state comptroller yet keep the taxes at
a steady rate.
“We had to be resilient and malleable,” said Duffy.
“Our big win is that we were able to stay away from an
increase, we were able to stay steady with less than a one
percent increase on homesteaders.”
Duffy took the recommendations of the State
Comptroller and stretched some recommendations into
a five or ten year plan. He has devised a plan that will
feed into the contingencies every year, hoping to grow the
fund balance by $500,000 each year to reach the $900,000
goal the state recommended within five years.
To combat the issue of overtime Duffy added money
he predicted the city will save by promoting a sergeant
in the City of Newburgh Police Department back into
the budget. He looks to combat the systematic issue
of overtime by looking into the staffing of the Police
Department and Fire Departments by finding ways to
cover excessive overtime with regular time through
The city council voted unanimously in favor of passing the 2019 budget presented by City Consultant Charles Duffy
promotions.
As of November 11, 2018 the city spent $1.8 million in
overtime this year. This is a decline from the nearly $2.3
million spent on overtime last year.
Fire Chief Terry Ahlers and Police Chief Doug Solomon
have agreed to work with Duffy on ways to change the
systematic issue of overtime. All three agree the solution
lies in finding ways to hire or promote staff that can fill
the positions with regular time rather than overtime.
According to Duffy, filling a Sergeant position and
a promotion to fill the vacancy left in the place of the
Sergeant will cost the city a total of $22,407. This will
leave a savings of $114,848 if a patrol officer position is
left vacant.
Others ways to abide by the comptroller’s
recommendations include increasing the tax overlay
or predicted uncollected taxes to $200,000. The full $2
million can be collected over 10 years without a deep
burden on the city.
To account for the increase in the budget with these
items the predicted revenue stream coming into the city
was looked at with a more critical eye. It was predicted by
O’Connor Davies, a private accounting firm for Orange
County, there would be a 10.5 percent increase in county
sale revenue.
The most controversial amendment made to the 2019
budget was a 10 percent re-balance of the homestead
and non-homestead levies. The amendment to do this
rebalancing was not unanimous with Councilwoman
Hillary Rayford voting against the rebalancing.
The change in market value has left a larger burden on
commercial property owners, without the rebalancing
there would have been a 1.13 percent decrease for
homestead property taxes and a 3.13 percent increase in
non-homestead taxes. This rebalancing would keep the
city under the tax cap and create more equal taxation
between homeowners and business owners.
Duffy participated in a public budget forum on
November 16 hosted by Councilman Anthony Grice.
The duo look to get feedback on ways the city can create
revenue in years to come.
The open dialogue gave members of the community a
chance to understand the proposed budget, ask questions
and make suggestions on their flashcards for ways to
generate revenue.
“Going forward I would be open to taking part in more
meetings with the public and conducting budget forums
to keep the dialogue free flowing,” said Duffy. “Forums
like that help to form the groups necessary to revive the
local economy.”