Wallkill Valley Times, Wednesday, March 6, 2019
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Valley Central looks to save for a rainy day
By TED REMSNYDER
When Valley Central School District
residents head to the polls on May 21 for
the school board elections and the annual
district budget vote, a referendum will also
be on the ballot to decide whether or not
a proposed Capital Reserve Fund for the
district should be created. If established,
the fund would have a maximum limit of
$10 million over the course of 10 years
that could be utilized to pay for capital
infrastructure projects.
Voters must first approve the creation
of the Capital Reserve Fund, then
subsequently each time that the district
proposes using money from the fund,
the public would have to vote to expend
the funds. Last year, the Wallkill School
District created their own fund, and now
Valley Central is looking to do the same,
as the Board of Education approved the
referendum 5-0 during its meeting on
Feb. 25.
The money for the fund would come
from the district’s reserve funds, if the
fund is established. “I think most districts
around us, Wallkill being one certainly,
have gone to the voters for approval,
which you have to have, to put up to a
maximum of $10 million,” Valley Central
Superintendent John Xanthis said. “At
the end of the school year, sometimes you
have funds available, and if you’re over
that four percent in fund balance you’ll
have a place to put some of this money.
So then if you decide to do a project, and
if it’s $25 million and the district’s part of
it is a certain amount of money, you can
use some of that to pay for that part of the
referendum. So it’s a good thing to have
as a rainy day fund, but it also gives you
the ability to save some money and get
projects done with the voters’ approval.”
During last Monday’s meeting, the
board also unanimously approved a
measure to increase the district’s Senior
Citizen Tax Exemption for the first time
in 24 years. To qualify for the exemption,
residential property owners in the district
must be at least 65 years of age or older.
Under the adjusted table, homeowners
with an annual income of $24,000 or less
will receive a 50 percent reduction in
the assessed valuation of their property,
while residents in the $24,000 to $24,999
will see a 45 percent reduction.
The exemption also applies to
City Winery gains final approval
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soon as the landscaping plan is approved
by the village board. The next priority
will be the hotel and bridal suite.
Dorf said the winery will promote
tourism not just in Montgomery, but the
entire Hudson Valley, drawing visitors
to City Winery and other businesses in
the area.
“Hopefully we’ll get people that want to
come up and visit not just City Winery on
a weekend afternoon but go up to Angry
Orchard and go to one of the distilleries
and then go antiquing,” Dorf said.
It will also provide between 15 and 20
new jobs.
The site will be the first non-urban
winery in the metropolitan chain with
locations in New York City, Chicago,
Atlanta, Nashville, Washington, D.C. and
Boston. It will also be the first to aid in
the production of other City Winery sites.
It’s tasting room and restaurant will have
a unique combined design.
“We’re really good at making food and
being a restaurant so, our tasting room
will be more expansive than most in
that it will have a restaurant side to the
tasting room,” Dorf said.
Dorf said City Winery’s specialty is
events, from weddings to private parties,
and everything in between.
According to City Winery’s Planned
Development District (PDD), the hours
of operation for the restaurant, indoor
cafes, tasting rooms and retail will be
from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturdays and
Sundays and 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Fridays.
Other weekdays from 4 to 10 p.m. may be
added with village board approval.
Dorf said the winery would add hours
only if there is local demand.
The PDD also stipulated the site may
play jazz, folk and classical music only
between the hours of 1 and 4 p.m. on
Saturday and Sunday; noise was a major
concern for neighboring residents. Dorf
said the atmosphere of City Winery is a
classic working winery, the opposite of
a bar or nightclub with loud rock music.
Despite earlier concerns over noise,
traffic and quality of life impacts, several
people expressed support for City Winery
and the tourism benefits it might create.
“From the community’s perspective,
this is a big win,” Director of Orange
County Economic Development Bill
Fioravanti said.
homeowners in the ranges of $25,000 to
$25,999 (40 percent); $26,000 to $26,999 (35
percent); $27,000 to $27,899 (30 percent);
$27,900 to $28,799 (25 percent); $28,800 to
$29,699 (20 percent); $29,700 to $30,599 (15
percent); $30,600 to $31,499 (10 percent)
and $31,500 to $32,399 (five percent).
In a hearing held before the regularly
scheduled school board meeting, some
local seniors expressed the hope that
the maximum income for the exemption
would be raised higher. Walden resident
Mary Ellen Matise noted that the Town
of Montgomery offers a five percent
reduction to seniors with an income up to
$37,399. Before the changes were approved
by the board, Valley Central previously
offered a 10 percent exemption up to
$23,999 in income, with no exemptions
above $24,000.
The district changed the exemptions
table for the first time since 1995 to bring
themselves closer to current standards
adopted by local districts. “I think it was
well overdue,” Xanthis said. “It started
last year. There were some people who
had approached the board about taking
a look at it, and I believe it was too late
last year to do anything about it. So it
was brought back this year, and the board
seemed very interested in getting in line
with the other districts in the county,
which I think is more than fair.”
The board could still adjust the
exemptions further in the future if they
desire. “It’s going to where the majority
of the districts are, which is still a little
bit below the top district,” Xanthis said.
“But we’re moving in the right direction.”
The board is expected to vote on a
resolution during its next session on
March 11 that could give the CSArch
architectural firm the go-ahead to begin
laying the groundwork for a possible
public referendum project so that the
district could renovate the High School-
Middle School complex parking lot. Even
if the resolution passes, no date would be
set for a potential public referendum vote
until after the May elections. “We’ll bring
it back and approve it, and then they
can start the process with SEQRA (State
Environmental Quality Review) and the
lead agency,” Xanthis explained. “Then
we’ll see how we do at the election with
the budget vote, and if things go well
there I think we’d certainly recommend
to the board to take a look about doing a
referendum in maybe the early part of the
summer.”