Plus, more from recent Town Board meetings
At the June 18 Town Board meeting, the board acted on several matters affecting daily quality of life in Cornwall.
For instance, Supervisor Josh Wojehowski announced that Riverlight Park, in the vicinity of the front lawn where the Farmers Market is held each week, now has public wifi. The password is wifi@park, the supervisor said, and while it is a limited amount of bandwidth available, anyone using the park is welcome to log onto it while there. The network to look for is Cornwall Public Internet.
The free wifi was put in place as part of the process of getting the Electric Vehicle chargers up and running in the adjoining parking lot. While those were not yet operational as of last week’s meeting — “this has been challenging, I have to say,” Wojehowski said — representatives of the company were expected on hand next week to assist town representatives in getting them connected to the town’s internet network.
Another challenge the board is facing, he said, is making sure that the HVAC system at Munger Cottage can handle heat like the Hudson Valley experienced over the past week.
“They couldn’t get the temperature below 79 degrees in there last Tuesday,” he said, explaining that it will cost “tens of thousands” of dollars to repair it, so a replacement system might need to be purchased on an emergency basis. He, and others on the board, noted that Munger Cottage serves as a cooling location (in addition to the Cornwall Public Library) for the community, as well as is important to seniors for daily programming.
“Do we have a Plan B for these hot days?” Councilwoman Virginia Scott asked? Wojehowski said the Ambulance building could be used if necessary.
The board — which is scheduled to meet just once in July as per its summer schedule — may need to have a special meeting to approve heating/cooling work if it proves necessary at Munger, the supervisor said.
The one scheduled meeting in July is set for Tuesday, July 9.
In some other matters from the meeting:
— The board approved $5020 for an operating budget for the town’s Office of Emergency Management, which is manned by volunteer Kurt Hahn. The approval came with another $2500 that could also be used for expenditures, but has to be approved by the board on a case-by-case basis. Woje-howski said the Village Board is also considering a request from Hahn for some funding. Councilwoman Karen Edelman-Reyes pushed for the funding to be approved, which it was unanimously, noting that Hahn “always shows up for this community” with no compensation.
— A public hearing on ongoing fire hydrant/water pressure concerns at NYMA was held; representatives of the school said work is in progress. The board scheduled a return date for them on July 9.
— Several special events were discussed and approved, including art-related events this summer and the Halloween Spooktacular for the Chamber of Commerce. The fall’s Color Run, hosted by the Youth Committee, is being planned, but there are still several funding matters to be figured out.
— The board okayed a request from a resident to petition Orange County, and New York State, to lower the speed limit on a portion of Mineral Springs Rd.
— In committee reports, both Wojehowski and Councilwoman Virginia Scott praised the Orange County contractor working on the Main St. bridge for their “nice job so far”.
