T IMES
MID
HUDSON
Vol. 30, No. 42
3
OCTOBER 17 - 23, 2018
New director
for Habitat
Page 23
3
ONE DOLLAR
Dinnocenzio
to return as
NFA coach
Page 38
SERVING NEWBURGH AND NEW WINDSOR
City
Alembic project ‘is over’
budget
battle
brewing
Tax hike of 7
percent proposed
By KATELYN CORDERO
[email protected]
Taxes were a heated topic at the
Newburgh City Council meeting on
October 9. A public hearing was held to
discuss raising the tax levy and a budget
presentation was made by City Manager
Michael Ciaravino and Financial
Consultant, Charles Duffy.
The temporary position was approved
by the council at Tuesday night’s meeting.
Duffy was brought in to assist the city
manager in preparing the budget for the
meeting. His background in accounting
is extensive with 18 years of financial and
analytical experience and nine years of
municipal experience. He is a Certified
Public Accountant and a Certified
Forensic Accountant.
The budget proposed by Ciaravino and
Duffy was widely rejected by the public
Continued on page 4
The project proposed would have created a mixed housing development on the riverfront property at 2 Montgomery Street
By KATELYN CORDERO
[email protected]
“Before we move forward I want to say
the votes for Alembic weren’t enough
to convey land, so Alembic is over,”
said Mayor Torrance Harvey at a City
Council meeting at City Hall on Tuesday
night. The announcement came during
a heated debate over raising taxes in the
city of Newburgh.
The deal regarding development of
2 Montgomery Street and the Dutch
Reformed Church in the City of
Newburgh left residents divided. The
project proposed would have created
a mixed housing development on the
riverfront property at 2 Montgomery
Street. Opponents of the deal asked
for a property that will generate more
revenue for the City of Newburgh
without supportive housing or mixed
income housing.
Although it is not clear what
development will take the place of the
proposed Alembic project, the council
made it clear that it will not be passed
by the council.
“While I did vote against Alembic to
re-apply to be considered, it has to be
done in the right way,” said Councilman
Jonathan Jacobson.
City Planner Allie Church explained
the council has to put the deal to an
WWW.MIDHUDSONTIMES.COM
official vote before moving forward in
the process. Once the deal is put to a
vote the process will start all over again.
“We are starting new discussions,”
said Church. “We want to continue to
develop and keep moving forward so
when new leadership comes in we can
move forward quickly.”
With the three major vacant positions
in the city government such as city
manager, comptroller and director of
planning and development the process is
taking longer than normal. According to
Church the city will issue another RFP
and begin looking at other proposals
once the previous proposal is voted
down by the council.