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Wallkill Valley Times, Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Walden waiting on sidewalks; mulls Climate Smart
By Ted Remsnyder
The Village of Walden is playing the waiting game with
the New York State Department of Transportation (DOT)
as the municipality is standing by for the agency to give
the go-ahead for the village’s upcoming Ulster Avenue
sidewalk project. The construction work that will span
sidewalks from Main Street to the Most Precious Blood
school was delayed in May after the Newburgh office of
the DOT misplaced Walden’s application, and the project
is still on hold for the time being.
During the Walden Village Board meeting on June 4,
Village Manager John Revella told the council that the
state is working through the application process. “I’ve
had a few conferences with New York State DOT since
they botched our application,” Revella told the board.
“Now we’re being delayed because of them again. I did
have a couple of phones calls with the local rep, trying to
get things worked out.”
The contractors hired to complete the road work are
holding off on other projects while waiting for the green
light to commence the Ulster Avenue work. “It’s going to
cause a financial burden to them soon if they don’t get
started soon,” Revella said.
Once the state approval process is completed, the
work could begin quickly, and is projected to last
approximately four months. “We’re still waiting for the
state DOT to approve our permits,” Revella said. “It could
be any day. We have no idea. We have no control over it.
We’ve been asking the local rep in the Newburgh office
and the regional rep in the Poughkeepsie office to try and
help expedite. We’re paying rent now for a facility for our
engineers and contractors to use, because we’re required
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to by the state. But they can’t even use it because there’s
nothing going on yet.”
During Tuesday’s meeting, the board voted to schedule
a joint meeting with the Montgomery Town Board on
July 16 to discuss the potential annexation of the Amthor
property into the village. The site is on the outskirts of
the village, and with the East End Bus Lines company
exploring the possibility of moving into the property, the
company wants to hook up to village sewer and water.
The annexation would get the Amthor property on
the village tax, water and sewer rolls. “It’s more control
over property that abuts our village,” Revella said.
“You have control over what uses are there as well.”
The Route 52 historic site housed a welding operation,
and the village could annex 9.4 acres of land under the
potential agreement with Montgomery. When the deal
was discussed at a board meeting last fall, indications
were that East End would pay double the standard water
and sewer rate to use the public lines. Walden Mayor
Susan Rumbold voted against holding the joint meeting.
The Walden board is weighing whether or not to
join the state’s Climate Smart Community program,
and Patricia Hennigan of the Town of Montgomery
Conservation Advisory Council appeared at Tuesday’s
meeting to declare her support for the Department of
Environmental initiative. Orange County, Gardiner, the
City of Newburgh, the Town of Woodbury, the Village
of Highland Falls and the Village of Maybrook have all
signed up for the program. The Climate Smart program,
which is overseen by six state agencies, stipulates that
their resolution must be adopted verbatim by the highest
body of officials in a given municipality.
The 10 climate goals in the resolution include building
a climate-smart community, shifting to clean, renewable
energy, using climate-smart materials management and
supporting a green innovation economy, among others.
“The main goal is really to reduce greenhouse gases in
the community as a way to deal with climate change,”
Hennigan told the board. She added that there’s no
financial commitment of any kind to participate in the
program, but municipalities who are certified Climate
Smart Communities can apply for additional state grants
tied to climate initiatives.
There’s no strict timeline tied to the climate goals after
a community adopts the resolution. “It looks at things
like how much energy is being used in the village and
probably the first six months or so is really looking at
the energy budget and saying ‘How can this be modified,
how can this be reduced in some way?’” Hennigan told
the board. “So it’s looking at green technology and other
ways that can help.”
Rumbold expressed her skepticism about joining a
program where the village would be tied to additional
state regulations. “Dealing with the State of New York for
many, many years now, I would not count on anything,”
Rumbold said during the meeting.
Trustee Lynn Thompson noted that while the language
on the state resolution seems rigid, she’s not convinced
that it’s meant to be taken that way. “I’m under the
understanding that you don’t have to complete those
steps in a given period of time,” she said. Thompson said
she hoped to schedule a meeting with Maybrook Mayor
Dennis Leahy on the issue to find out what that village
has learned from being a part of the program.
Trustee Dan Svarczkopf expressed a desire to move
forward with studying climate initiatives for the village
that wouldn’t be tied to the state program. “Once you
adopt this resolution, you are bound by it, and as long as
New York State is the one that’s going to be able to look
at these 10 things and unless there’s a chart, what does
that mean?” Rumbold asked the board. “Give me detailed
information about what this is. So these communities
may be adopting this thinking ‘Oh yes, let’s get on this
bandwagon.’” Thompson said she will continue to study
the issue and will report back to the board at a future
meeting.
Bullville Deacon to be ordained
June 15 at Cathedral
A Bullville man is among the 14 Catholic men
who will be ordained as deacons by Cardinal
Timothy Dolan in a mass
on Saturday, June 15, at
St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Deacon
Michael
McCabe,
55,
is
a
parishioner of St. Paul
in Bullville, where
he serves as a lector,
extraordinary minister
of Holy Communion and
acolyte. He has served
on the parish council
and taught religious
education.
Michael McCabe
He is a third-degree
Knight of Columbus and is active in hospital
ministry at Orange Regional Medical Center. He
is the director of facilities for a New York City law
firm and an alumnus of St. Raymond High School
for Boys, the Bronx.
He and his wife, Mary, have been married for 32
years and have two children, Michael and Kelly.
P olice B lotter
Town of Crawford
Howard Benedict, 32, of Middletown was charged
on June 2 with driving while intoxicated and
aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.
He was arraigned in town court and remanded to
Orange County Jail on $10,000 cash bail.
Michael Pernice, 57, of Pine Bush was charged on
June 7 with assault 3rd. He was released to appear in
town court on July 1.
Cameron Leath, 20, of Pine Bush was charged on
June 7 with criminal mischief 4th. He was arraigned
in town court and released on $250 cash bail to
appear in town court on July 2.
James Robinholt, 51, of Pine Bush was charged
on June 7 with a suspended vehicle registration. He
was released to appear in town court on July 1.