Vol. 37, No. 32 3 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2019
3
ONE DOLLAR
Pre season
drills Side
by side
Page 32 Page 16
w w w .W V T I M ESON L I N E . c om
Tempers
flare at
Sailfish
meeting
A hastily-called meeting to deal with
a procedural matter boiled over into a
heated exchange over the public officer’s
meeting law last Thursday at Montgomery
Town Hall.
The Town of Montgomery Planning
Board called a special meeting for
Thursday, August 1 at 9 a.m. The purpose,
according to Planning Board Attorney
Richard Hoyt was to complete the Final
Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS)
for Project Sailfish, a proposed warehouse
distribution center located on 187.7 acres
of vacant land bordering on Interstate 84
and NYS Routes 17K and 747.
Notice went out late Tuesday
afternoon (too late for inclusion in last
week’s Wallkill Valley Times). That didn’t
prevent approximately 35-40 people from
showing up, including one visibly angry
Montgomery resident.
Don Berger, a vocal opponent of two
proposed large-scale projects in the town,
accused the board of violating the open
meetings law by failing to give at least 72
hours notice.
(According to Section 104 of the New
York State Public Officers Meetings laws:
“Public notice of the time and place of a
meeting scheduled at least one week prior
thereto shall be given to the news media
and shall be conspicuously posted in one
Continued on page 2
Fighting substance abuse
Hope Not Handcuffs receives $23K in grants
Senators Jen Metzger and James Skoufis presented Hope Not Handcuffs—a police-community partnership which provides access to
substance abuse treatment—with a $13,000 grant Tuesday for the program’s outreach efforts.
By LAURA FITZGERALD
[email protected]
Hope Not Handcuffs (HNH)—a police-
community partnership that provides
access to substance abuse treatment—is
on the receiving end of $23,000 in grants
within the past week.
HNH received a $13,000 grant on
Tuesday from State Senators Jen
Metzger (SD-42) and James Skoufis (SD-
39) to support the program’s outreach
efforts. This came after Orange County
presented a $10,000 check on August. 1.
“This
funding
will
empower
community volunteers and local law
enforcement participating in the Hope
Not Handcuffs Hudson Valley program
to continue their work providing life-
saving support to individuals who suffer
from the disease of addiction,” Metzger
said. “Ending the opioid epidemic
in the Hudson Valley will require a
combination of strategies focused on
prevention, education, treatment,
and recovery, and it will take all of
us working together to reverse this
devastating trend.”
The Families Against Narcotics
(FAN) Hope Not Handcuffs initiative
is coordinated locally through the
Tri-County Community Partnership
(TCCP). The TCCP created the first
HNH chapter outside of Michigan last
November in the Town of Wallkill Police
Department.
TCCP President Annette Kahrs said
the grant will be used for marketing and
training across all of HNH’s locations.
Individuals suffering from substance
abuse can enter or call any participating
police station and ask for help through
the HNH program. The individual will
go through a brief intake process to
determine if they are eligible. Then,
they will be placed into treatment
as soon as possible through a HNH
angel. Angels are ordinary people who
undergo HNH training and volunteer to
place individuals into treatment.
“Addiction is a disease that no one
asks for, and it must be treated as such by
our communities, law enforcement, and
local government,” Skoufis said. “Hope
Not Handcuffs has been instrumental
in helping rehabilitate those who have
suffered in the grips of addiction and
I’m proud to deliver this funding that
Continued on page 3
SERVING CRAWFORD, GARDINER, MAYBROOK, MONTGOMERY, PINE BUSH, SHAWANGUNK, WALDEN AND WALLKILL