Vol. 36, No. 9 3 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2018
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ONE DOLLAR
Streak ends
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Page 36
www .W allkill V alley T imes . net
Walden starts process to end flouride Maybrook
By TED REMSNYDER
The finish line is in sight for Walden’s
months-long debate over the potential end
of public water fluoridation in the village,
as the Board of Trustees authorized
village attorney Dave Donovan at its
meeting on Feb. 20 to draft a local law
that would halt the fluoride program. If
the board is satisfied with the legislation,
a public hearing could then be set for a
future meeting with a final board vote
to follow. The local law would be the last
step in a process that began last spring,
as the board began the debate on the
difficult public health issue.
Walden has satisfied every other
requirement of the state law regulating
the removal of fluoride, as the board
has gathered testimony of multiple
health experts and held a session with
representatives from the New York State
Department of Health on Jan. 22 to hear
their opinions on fluoridation. The village
has also submitted a mandated plan to the
state detailing how residents will acquire
the needed amount of fluoride for their
dental health if the water fluoridation
initiative is discontinued.
Village Manager John Revella noted
to the state officials during the group
meeting last month that the state’s 2015
water fluoridation law makes it more
difficult for towns and villages to stop
fluoridating their water than to start.
The village began the deliberate process
of weighing the removal of fluoride last
Continued on page 4
W orld T hinking D ay
village race
heats up
Leahy challenged
for mayor
By JASPREET GILL
[email protected]
Jaspreet Gill
Troop 60239 members pose in front of their poster board about Italy during the Girl Scouts World Thinking Day event, Friday at Wallkill Senior
High School. Story, photos on pages 18 and 19.
The Maybrook elections are heating
up this year with a fiery divide between
the incumbents and newcomers.
Village Mayor Dennis Leahy is
running for reelection alongside current
trustee Rob Pritchard and trustee
candidate Daryl Capozzoli. They are
running against the “Maybrook United”
- Thomas Starro, a worker for Interstate
Waste Services running for village mayor,
Joseph Byrne, a tax manager and Valley
Central Board of Education member
running for village trustee, and Joshua
Tyrrell, a full time student, five year part-
time EMT, 11 year firefighter and former
marine running for village trustee.
Leahy first became mayor in 2008
when the village was in the beginning
stages of what he called “the worst
recession many of us ever experienced in
our lifetimes.”
“My goal during those four years was
to start chipping away on the village’s
infrastructure,” he says. “You can’t
build a home unless you have a good
foundation. We built a new senior center,
Continued on page 2
SERVING CRAWFORD, GARDINER, MAYBROOK, MONTGOMERY, PINE BUSH, SHAWANGUNK, WALDEN AND WALLKILL