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Southern Ulster Times, Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Marlborough considers police car purchase
Continued from page 1
patrol.
Cocozza said the cost of a police car is about $26,000
and another $8,000 is needed to outfit it with a computer,
extra lights and a metal cage to separate the front seat
from the back. He said he likes Dodge Chargers and has
been buying them since 2006.
Cocozza said there can be a substantial lag time
between when he orders a vehicle to when it arrives at
his station. It then takes additional time to properly outfit
it. He recalled that the last time he ordered a Durango it
took about 4 months for it to come in.
“They had to build it, they just don’t keep them in
stock,” he explained, pointing out that the vehicles he
orders must be certified police cars. “The brakes are
bigger, it’s vented differently, the electronics are set up
different, there’s heavy-duty cooling in it, there are rear
end differential coolers, there are oil coolers that you
wouldn’t see in a civilian vehicle.” He said he buys all-
wheel drive vehicles, “which is what we like.”
Cocozza is concerned that if a significant incident
happens in town he may be left short of vehicles. He
recalled that the Town Board initially wanted to hold off
on a new purchase and have him outfit his own Chief
of Police car as a patrol car and “make-due” until the
coming fall budget season.
Cocozza said currently his vehicles are used for patrol
and absent any momentous event, he has enough cars to
put his officers out on the street. But when school opens
in September, he has 3 SRO cars at the schools and 2 on
patrol for the 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift.
“That’s no grant cars, no DWI cars, no evidence
running, no one going to court,” he said. “You should
have at least 3, that’s why I say 8 cars minimum. So we’re
going to pull the DARE car from the officer and we’ll put
that in so the SRO officer can drive that to the school,
which will give us an extra car to stay here at the station
to run evidence, to go to court and do all the things I just
mentioned.”
Cocozza said because of the timing, which puts him in
the middle of model years, he is unsure what the dealer
will have available. He said the town used to have a 2 and
1 replacement policy.
“That means one year we would budget for two cars
and then the following year we would budget for one car
and the following year for two cars. That replacement
worked very well,” he said. “Following that replacement
we reduced our breakdowns tremendously; cars lasted
longer and they weren’t used as much and it allowed us
Lloyd fails to meet affordable housing code
Continued from page 1
a committee charged with reviewing and revising the
current law and put Building Department Director Dave
Barton in charge of it. Earlier this month at the Town
Board meeting, Barton admitted that no committee has
been created to deal with this issue.
“There is no committee at the moment [and] I’ve been
rewriting the law and now I’m down a guy (department
employee) but I don’t know when that will be done.”
He said a new version of the Affordable Housing Law
is, “half written but I don’t have anything to submit to
anybody.”
Barton said he has commitments to provide affordable
housing units from developer Brad Scott, who is in
the process of building a housing project behind the
new Dollar General, Nick Dellaportas and Greg Sims,
developers of the proposed Views by Route 9W and
Chapel Hill Road and from Mark Sanderson, developer
of a proposed senior living center, called the Village in
the Hudson Valley, across from the Bridgeview Shopping
Plaza.
“They’re all committed but nobody’s in progress yet,”
Barton said.
Months ago two attorneys informed the Town Board
that they may retroactively require developers, whose
projects have been approved and built, to provide
affordable housing units, such as Trail View and
Highbridge. To date, however, the board has taken no
action to correct this matter, leaving improperly approved
projects standing in direct violation of the Town Code.
The Town Board said they wanted any revision of
the Affordable Housing provision to be done collectively
by the committee but Barton said, “if you can find four
volunteers tell them to come and see me,” adding that “I
wear a whole lot of hats and this is one of them.”
Barton mentioned that the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development [HUD] is supporting a
new type of housing that may work in Lloyd.
“It actually is a double-wide trailer but the finishes
are much higher than a typical double-wide. It requires
a whole bunch of things including a porch, which you
typically wouldn’t get in a double-wide, a garage, sidewalks
to the main door. It all comes as a trailer that sits on a
frame,” he said. “At some point I’ll bring it to the town to
look at and it may behoove us to look at other locations
like in the Residential 1/4 acre zone where that might
work for people with lower price points. The mortgage
with utilities works out to be about $1,140, which is way
below our number [in Lloyd] for affordability. Taxes
would have to be built into that [but] is easily reachable
in the R ¼ zone with a house evaluation in the $220,000
range.”
When asked if affordable housing units are to be woven
into proposed housing projects, as per the code, Barton
responded yes but added the caveat, “or anywhere.”
Barton said, “I’ve got 8 or 9 areas large enough in the
hamlet in an R 1/4 zone that could still be subdivided
out and are perfect locations; they’ve got water, sewer,
gas and small lots so you’re not looking at the extra
tax hit. A future developer could come in and propose
these units, which are trailers that we allow in only
three locations in our trailer parks; maybe there’s some
room for negotiation with particular developments,
where we could have affordability throughout the whole
development.” He concluded by calling these double-wide
units an, “interesting product and you can get 30 year
mortgages on a trailer, which is sort of unheard of.”
to have a larger fleet.” He said in the last few years the
Town Board moved to one vehicle per year for budgetary
reasons. Although he has had an 8 car fleet, the rotation
puts replacement once every 8 years.
“That’s a long time for a police car to be in service. As
we start breaking down cars now, that same amount of
miles gets driven every month whether it’s put on 8 cars
or 5 cars; we’re still driving roughly 10,000 patrol miles a
month,” he said.
Cocozza said once a new car arrives, his chief’s car
is supposed to be returned to him, as per his contract.
There is also an outstanding $50,000 member item grant
earmarked for a police vehicle that was obtained by now
retired NYS Sen. William Larkin that the town is waiting
to receive.
P olice B lotter
Town of Lloyd
Esperanza Aguilar, 32, of Highland, was arrested
Aug. 17 and charged with Obstructing Governmental
Administration 2nd degree and Resisting Arrest.
She was arraigned before Town of Lloyd Judge Elia
and remanded to the Ulster County Jail on $2,500
cash bail or $5,000 insurance bond. She is due back
in Town Court Aug. 22.
James R. Cheney, 30, of Kingston, was arrested
Aug. 16 and charged with Driving While Intoxicated
after the vehicle he was operating was stopped for
traffic violations on Rte. 9W in Highland. He was
released and is due in Town Court Sept. 10.
Brittney N. White, 28, of Highland, was arrested
Aug. 13 on a bench warrant for Criminal Possession
of a Controlled Substance7th degree from the City
of Newburgh Police. White was turned over to the
City of Newburgh Police on the warrant.
Evelyn E. Ricks, 31, of Accord, was arrested Aug.
14 on a bench warrant for Disorderly Conduct. She
was arraigned before Town of Lloyd Judge Elia and
paid a fine.
Town of Plattekill
Al Giudice, 42, of Plattekill was arrested Aug.
10 and charged with DWI and Operating a Motor
Vehicle with .08% or more Blood Alcohol, both class
U-Misdemeanors. Giudice was arraigned in Plattekill
Court and released on his own recognizance.
Andrew Overton, 52, of Middletown was
arrested Aug. 14 and charged with Aggravated
Unlicensed Operation of a Motor Vehicle 3rd, a class
U-Misdemeanor. Overton was issued an Appearance
Ticket to appear in Town Court on Sept. 16.
Edward Mitzner, 41, of Wallkill was arrested Aug.
16 on an outstanding Arrest Warrant charging him
with Assault 3rd, a class A-Misdemeanor and Issuing
a Bad Check, a class B-Misdemeanor. Mitzner was
arraigned in Plattekill Court and released on his
own recognizance.