Vol. 36, No. 47 3 WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2018
3
ONE DOLLAR
w w w .W a l l k i l l V a l l e y T i m e s . n e t
Pine Bush parents complain of overcrowded school buses
By LAURA FITZGERALD
[email protected]
Several parents have accused the Arthur F. Mulligan/
Birnie Bus Company, which provides bussing for the Pine
Bush School District, of allowing overcrowding on buses,
either denying students seats or not providing enough
VC looks at
alternatives
room for students to safely sit.
Jennifer Placco, mother of a Pine Bush student, said
students sat or stood in the aisle and in each other’s laps
on the 66-passenger bus on her child’s bus route. Her
child attends Crispell Middle School on bus route 122, a
route that buses sixth through twelfth graders.
Her student was told the bus was too crowded, so
she had to drive her son to school. As a working single
parent, this is an inconvenience for her.
Pine Bush Assistant Superintendent for Business
Michael Pacella said he did not see students sitting in the
aisle when he checked surveillance videos of the buses.
Continued on page 2
Winter arrives early!
Crawford to
open small
business
center
By TED REMSNYDER
The Valley Central Board of Education
will continue to weigh its options regarding
a potential public referendum on making
site improvements at the entrance of the
High School-Middle School complex after
the CSArch architectural firm presented
the council with four alternative plans at
its Nov. 13 meeting.
The four different options, which each
contain varying degrees of infrastructure
work throughout the district, range in
price from $7.8 million up to $21.9 million.
Going forward, the board can pick and
choose which items from each option
they might be comfortable presenting
to the public in a package, or the group
could decline to approve a bond proposal
at all.
During Tuesday’s board session,
Thomas Ritzenthaler of CSArch, a
company which the district has hired to
study traffic upgrades on Route 17K as
well as additional infrastructure needs
in district schools, laid out four options
for possible public referendums. The first
option would include approximately $6
million in spending at the high school
complex in order to improve the traffic
flow at the site for school buses and
student drop-offs, as well as funding for
Continued on page 4
By LAURA FITZGERALD
[email protected]
Photo provided
Jaleanna and Adrianna Donnolly took advantage of the first snowfall of the season in Walden
to build a snowman last week. The early blast of winter dropped 6-10 inches in most parts of
the Wallkill Valley.
The Town of Crawford will launch
a Tourism and Small Business Center,
which will attract and retain businesses
and promote tourism.
Town of Crawford Director of
Community Services Domanie Ragni
said the center will boost business
development and sustainability and serve
as a central location where potential,
new and/or existing business owners can
call or meet with a liaison to all town hall
departments.
Ragni first shared news of the
center with the Pine Bush Chamber of
Commerce, where she expressed her
hope to work together with the chamber
to best serve businesses in the town.
“I’m optimistic based upon responses
to the announcement from some of the
Chamber’s board members,” Ragni said.
Continued on page 2
SERVING CRAWFORD, GARDINER, MAYBROOK, MONTGOMERY, PINE BUSH, SHAWANGUNK, WALDEN AND WALLKILL