Wallkill Valley Times Jun. 12 2019

Vol. 37, No. 24 3 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 2019 3 ONE DOLLAR Valley Central’s brightest Water lantern festival Page 20 Page 12 w w w .W V T I M ESON L I N E . c om A good fit for Montgomery? Residents voice concerns at tense meeting with Medline representatives By LAURA FITZGERALD [email protected] Montgomery residents expressed numerous concerns over impacts to their quality of life in a tense meeting with the Montgomery village board and Medline Industries, Inc. representatives on June 6. Located on the east side of NYS Route 416 and north of Interstate I-84, the 1.3-million-square-foot warehouse is proposed in the Town of Montgomery, just outside Village of Montgomery limits. The building will replace the outgrown facility 500,000-square-foot facility in Wawayanda, which employs 320 workers, according to Town of Montgomery planning board documents. The project is currently before the Town of Montgomery planning board. Numerous village residents stated the project would ruin their quality of life, bringing traffic, noise, pollution, and visual impacts. “This is not going to benefit us,” village resident Amy Jones said. Chief among residents’ concerns was an increase in employee and truck traffic through the village, which already experiences trucks and congestion at peak traffic times on narrow intersections. Dmitry Dukhan, Vice President of Real Estate for Medline, said Medline will not send its trucks through the village, instead routing them through Neelytown Continued on page 3 W alden C elebrates F lag D ay Silence isn’t golden Banned from speaking at public meeting, residents are fighting back By LAURA FITZGERALD [email protected] Montgomery town residents are fighting back after some of them were prohibited from speaking at the public meeting with the Montgomery Village board and Medline representatives on June 4. During the meeting, Village of Montgomery Mayor Stephen Brescia stated only village residents could speak. When town resident Susan Cockbur n tried to speak, B r e s c i a directed village MICHAEL SUSSMAN police to escort her out. Police CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY prohibited her from speaking, but did not remove her from the meeting room. Crawford town resident Jess Gocke was escorted out when she tried to speak but was allowed back into the meeting hall. Village and town residents have contracted Michael Sussman, Esq, a prominent civil rights lawyer located in Goshen. Cockburn said Sussman believes residents’ constitutional rights have been egregiously violated. Sussman, who has scheduled a press conference for “ T his is not America. This is not the country we all love.” Alana Velez, Little Miss Walden, is assisted by Walden Mayor Sue Rumbold in leading the Pledge of Allegiance during Sunday’s annual Flag Day Ceremony at Walden’s Veteren’s Memorial Park. Continued on page 3 SERVING CRAWFORD, GARDINER, MAYBROOK, MONTGOMERY, PINE BUSH, SHAWANGUNK, WALDEN AND WALLKILL