17 June Proposed Treetop Warehouse Project June 17, 2022 By Danyelle Barrett General 0 Treetop Companies is proposing a warehouse project on the former Cornwall Commons site off 9W. The project currently is before the Planning Board and Town Board for review and approval. Below is the link to their presentation. Treetop Project Website Link 5-2-22 Amended Notice of Public Scoping Session/Pos Dec Package Link Treetop Cornwall Presentation Download Link Related Articles NY Forward - Call for Projects Reminder! Submit by July 21st NY Forward - Call for Projects Reminder! Submit by July 21st Virtual Office Hours on Tuesday, June 27 4-6 PM Town Board Public Comments - Treetop DEIS Review the attached document to see the Town Board's Public Comments regarding the Treetop DEIS. Central Hudson Cornwall Project - Quaker Avenue Timeline Central Hudson has advised they will start work again on Quaker Avenue the week of May 30th and expects work to be completed the end of that week. If weather delays are experienced, an additional week would be needed and work will be completed at the end of the week of June 6th. Joint Public Statement from the Town of Cornwall & Village of Cornwall-on-Hudson Boards For Immediate Release May 19, 2022 Subject: Proposed 3-Year Contract Between Cornwall and the New Windsor Volunteer Ambulance Corps (NWVAC) for Basic Life Support and Advanced Life Support Services As most residents understand, individual municipalities are responsible for providing and maintaining an effective and sustainable ambulatory service to their communities. Of recent, it has become more difficult to provide this critical volunteer service due to soaring costs and the dwindling number of available volunteers. This issue has been a topic of debate within the New York State legislature recently, with legislation introduced to establish EMS (the provision of urgent pre-hospital treatment and transport for medical care) as an “essential service.” Long overdue, this effort could potentially reconfigure how ambulatory services are administered across New York State. Unless and until the County and/or State elect to make certain changes, municipalities must seek effective methods to sustain and improve services. Experts contend that the paradigm is evolving and that mergers, or consolidation, exist as an intermediate solution. For over a year, New Windsor Volunteer Ambulance Corps (NWVAC) has contracted with the Town and Village to provide Advanced Life Support (ALS) services to Cornwall residents for a fee, while Cornwall Volunteer Ambulance Corps (COVAC) provides Basic Life Support (BLS) coverage for a fee, as well. ALS includes the highest level of emergency medicine – paramedic-level treatment – and NWVAC (or another EMS provider with ALS capabilities) has long answered calls within Cornwall for mutual aid, bereft of a contract. COVAC, staffed with Emergency Medical Technicians, or EMTs, has remained a fixture in our community since 1955. A number of years ago, COVAC made the request to bill patients directly and a decision was subsequently reached to dissolve the “ambulance district” overseen by the Town. By billing insurance providers directly, this was to be a more efficient process that allowed for the Corps to remain solvent without monies allocated from Cornwall. The global pandemic and an attendant paucity of available volunteers has made staffing across the past several years a concern. This, coupled with significant debt accrual resulted in COVAC’s appeal for subsistence from the taxpayers – which the Town and Village jointly agreed to support. Despite the provided financial support, there continue to exist a number of issues that have not been resolved, as relates to the professional administration of ambulatory services to our residents. Public safety is of paramount concern. Both the Town Supervisor and Village Mayor have met privately with COVAC leadership and members of COVAC’s elected board and operational membership appeared before a joint boards’ special meeting on January 11, 2022. While COVAC maintains they have mitigated their insolvency issues and improved their first-call response rates, it is the consensus of both boards that NWVAC – widely regarded as the “gold standard” for local ambulatory care – will be contracted to cover both BLS and ALS responsibilities for Cornwall residents. This assumption of responsibilities can be considered a consolidation. Current COVAC members who wish to continue to serve Cornwall residents may interview with NWVAC, and be afforded opportunity to operate out of 1 Clinton Street location, be attired in Cornwall EMS uniforms, and respond to Cornwall service calls in a Cornwall-branded ambulance. This serves both professionalization and training standardization efforts. On balance, we believe that this decision for establishment of a contemporary public/private partnership model -- created and supported by multiple municipalities, including Town of New Windsor, Town of Cornwall and Village of Cornwall-on-Hudson -- will ensure our residents receive the high-quality emergency medical care they deserve. NWVAC enables Cornwall leadership to remain confident in the model’s financial viability and sustainability, administrative transparency, leader oversight, and accountability while serving as an example for the region. This was not an easy decision. Careful consideration was given to all impacted equities. Town and Village elected officials reflected deeply on the many decades of selfless service that COVAC and its volunteers have provided to our community; indeed, it is an honored local institution. But the primary responsibility of public officials is ensuring their constituents are afforded best available services for their hard-earned tax dollars. In our estimation, the proposed three-year contract with NWVAC ensures this. Know that we have explored innumerable options to guarantee confidence in the provision of EMS. And we have reviewed a number of similar municipal consolidated-services agreements. This is the best path forward for Cornwall. On Thursday, May 26, 2022, at 7:00 p.m., inside the Edward C. Moulton, Jr. Village Board Room, located at Village Hall, 325 Hudson Street, Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York 12520, the Town and Village boards will convene a joint special meeting to address this matter publicly. Meeting will be publicly-noticed and contract provisions will be disclosed. The public will be afforded an opportunity to speak and boards will address some factors that led to this decision. On behalf of the Town and Village Boards, Joshua Thomas Wojehowski Supervisor James A. Gagliano Mayor SUPERVISOR'S UPDATE Joint Public Statement Regarding NYS Governor’s NY Forward Grant Award On Tuesday, February 21, 2023, the Town of Cornwall and Village of Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York were notified by the Governor’s Office that our community was to be awarded a $4.5 million grant -- part of the NY Forward program. With the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University in White Plains, NY as the backdrop, the supervisor and mayor were presented with a “check” that represents New York State’s commitment to the Hudson Valley region. Beginning in early Fall of 2022, the town and village became aware of the opportunity to receive considerable state funding to help move our communities forward and improve resident and visitor experiences alike. Both of our elected bodies immediately collaborated throughout an extensive application process that involved a delicate rendering of Cornwall’s quaint, historically-significant firmament, while recognizing the ever-evolving growth and progress in our community. Governor Hochul announced the establishment of the NY Forward program with the intent to “invigorate and enliven downtowns in New York’s smaller and rural communities – the type of downtowns found in villages, hamlets and other small, neighborhood-scale municipal centers.” This program was tailormade for Cornwall and Cornwall-on-Hudson. With this in mind, Steven Jones (visionary chair of the Cornwall Economic Development Advisory Committee) and Jason Burnham (longtime Cornwallian and master polling/survey instrument guru) were conscripted to fashion a workable plan to ignite interest and determine the community’s “pulse” as to how/where funds should best be expended if we were lucky enough to be awarded the grant. This project would never have achieved success without the energy, enthusiasm, and drive of both Steve and Jason. No grant application has a chance to achieve success without an experienced application oversight team. Steve Densmore and his accomplished corps of experts in the public relations and grant-writing realm at Choice Words were indeed a portion of the margin of victory. The tiny financial “seed money” investment made by the village and the town for their services paid off big in blessed dividends here. A final deserved, public “thank you” is owed to our loyal, local elected leaders and community stakeholders. Awards from New York State do not happen without support from elected officials. Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney, State Senator James Skoufis, Assemblyman Colin J. Schmitt, and Orange County Executive Steven M. Neuhaus all proved their mettle and commitment to our community. In addition, words cannot appropriately express our appreciation to Matt Decker of the Open Space Institute, the Orange County Arts Council, Montefiore St. Luke’s Cornwall, the Hudson Highlands Nature Museum, the Greater Cornwall Chamber of Commerce, the Cornwall Public Library, the Cornwall Central School District, and the Storm King Art Center. Also, we would be remiss in not expressing our gratitude to the Regional Economic Development Council for their support for our application. The supervisor and mayor would also like to publicly express appreciation to their respective boards. Without their advisements and collegiality, projects like this never, ever come to fruition. There exists plenty of hard work ahead. Cornwall and Cornwall-on-Hudson leadership will continue their commitment to further collaborate as one greater Cornwall community, as we envision potential projects to make best use of this windfall. Stay tuned. The best – we promise you -- is yet to come. Joshua Wojehowski James A. Gagliano Town Supervisor Village Mayor Notice of Town Board Special Meeting - 1-23-24 5:30 pm PLEASE TAKE NOTICE THAT THE TOWN OF CORNWALL TOWN BOARD WILL HOLD A SPECIAL MEETING on Tuesday, January 23, 2024 at 5:30 p.m. in the Town Hall, 183 Main St., Cornwall, NY to discuss Town Board’s Public Comment of the Treetop Development DEIS and any other business that may come before the Town Board at that time. BY ORDER OF THE TOWN SUPERVISOR Dated: January 22, 2024 Comments are closed.