Wallkill Valley Times Feb. 06 2019

Vol. 37, No. 6 3 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2019 3 ONE DOLLAR The Wizard of Oz Lang is state’s top diver Page 37 Page 38 w w w .W V T I M ESON L I N E . c om Municipalities face cuts in state funding By LAURA FITZGERALD [email protected] A proposed cut to state funding for municipalities in Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 2019-20 executive budget has towns and villages scrambling to fill holes in their budgets. The Aid to and Incentives to Municipality (AIM) program distributes state aid to municipalities to use Montgomery’s Building Boom however they wish. Governor Cuomo’s 2019-20 executive budget proposes the elimination of AIM funding for municipalities whose AIM amount is less than 2 percent of their local fiscal year 2017 expenditures. If passed, the proposal would cut $16.4 million from the budgets of approximately 90 percent of the state’s villages. It would also cut about $42.7 million from the budgets of the state’s towns. Maybrook will lose $13,179 in funding, Walden will lose $47,095, and the Village of Montgomery will lose $14,162, all of which represent less than .5 percent of each village’s 2017 expenditures. Crawford will lose $23,088, or .28 percent of its 2017 expenditures. Montgomery will lose $68,115, Gardiner $16,097 and Shawangunk $33,467, each of which represent Continued on page 4 Take Your Child to the Library Day A complete guide to the Town of Montgomery’s largest building projects Dominick Lionetti, owner of Weber’s Hardware in Wallkill, will soon close his store By LAURA FITZGERALD [email protected] The Town of Montgomery might teem with construction in the coming years as numerous large projects sit before town and village boards. Many of the proposed projects are warehouses, except City Winery and the Chandler Lane project in the Village of Montgomery and the Galaxy project in the Village of Maybrook. New projects promise new jobs. The majority of jobs from the two largest projects—Project Sailfish and Medline Industries—will offer jobs around the U.S. Census Bureau’s estimate of Orange County’s average per capita income of $32,600. All three of the largest proposed projects—Project Sailfish, Medline and the Galaxy Project—requested or received tax exemptions or grants. City Winery, a proposed winery and event space in the Village of Montgomery, also received state grants. Continued on page 3 End of a Wallkill era By LAURA FITZGERALD [email protected] Laura Fitzgerald Aubri plays with Legos during Wallkill Library’s National Take Your Child to the Library Day. Story on page 2. Dominick Lionetti knows the value of hard work. The owner of Weber’s Hardware in Wallkill took his first official job in eighth grade, working at the grocery store with his father. Before that, he took odd jobs mowing lawns and shoveling snow. A Bronx native, Lionetti moved to Wallkill in 1997 to raise his daughter, Nicole. He took ownership of the store on Jan. 1, 2006. Lionetti said he liked the small-town feel, complete with holiday activities and community events. He used to judge house lights at Christmas. His favorite event was Halloween, when children and even adults would dress up. “It was a cute little town, it really was,” Lionetti said. Continued on page 2 SERVING CRAWFORD, GARDINER, MAYBROOK, MONTGOMERY, PINE BUSH, SHAWANGUNK, WALDEN AND WALLKILL