Orangetown Town Board Approves CDBG Requests

The Orangetown Town Board approved three Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) requests that add up to a total of $307,208.71 at its regular meeting Tuesday night.

The requests will now be submitted for consideration by the County of Rockland Community Development Office.

"What I hope is that all three get them," said councilman Denis Troy. "The money sent out by CDBG is in the millions. What we have  here is a pittance compared to what is sent out in Rockland County."

Councilman Mike Maturo abstained from the vote because he is on the board of one of the potential recipients, the Rockland Conservatory of Music, but he joined the other board members in supporting all three grant requests.

The conservatory is asking for $25,000 for transportation of low-income students so they will be able to continue their lessons when the facility moves from its current location in Spring Valley to the building the conservatory recently purchased on Main Street in Pearl River. Of the three applications, the conservatory inspired the most debate because many of the students who would benefit live outside of Orangetown. Only 10 percent of the students who take lessons at the conservatory at this time live in Orangetown, though that is expected to change in time due to the move.

The largest of the grants is $200,000 to purchase generators for the four buildings in Thorpe Village, a federally-subsidized facility for seniors on Route 340 in Sparkill. Thorpe Village suffered a power outage of 36 hours last winter and currently does not have back-up power in place.

Thorpe Village was listed as the top priority by the board, with Conway House on Orangeburg Road second and the Rockland Conservatory of Music third. Conway House is requesting $82,208.71 for renovations to improve insulation, siding, gutters and windows.

The board also approved a five-year bond for up to $300,000 to pay for replacing the roof on the Highway Department garage. The board also awarded the bid to do the work to the Hayden Building Maintenance Corp. in West Nyack, which was the lowest qualified bidder at $284,685. Orangetown Highway Superintendent James Dean said the new roof is expected to last 20 years and addressed concerns raised by residents that the department might not be in that location that long.

"I don't see the highway department going anywhere," Dean said.

With the snow just starting to fall as the meeting began, Supervisor Paul Whalen commended Dean on his department's work cleaning up the heavy snow from December. Dean credited the workers and the people of Orangetown for staying off the roads as they did the work.

“I want to say thank you to the town board and previous boards because the reason we were able to do this is we had the right equipment at the right time," Dean said. "That’s the difference.  Our people have really good equipment and they work hard at it.“

The board also voted to table a vote on requesting a $50,000 grant from the New York State Department of State to study possible police department consolidation to gather more information. The board members wanted to know more about resolutions passed by the other towns involved -- Clarkstown, Haverstraw and Stony Point.