UPDATE: Accomplishments By the Blooming Grove Town Board and Officials to be Proud Of!
New Blooming Grove Ambulance & Emergency
Services Center Land is Being Cleared
Editorial UPDATE
CORRECTION: The image shown above is NOT the new Ambulance & Emergency Services Center. The building above is a new Cold Storage Building for the Highway Department. THE LAND THERE FOR THE AMBULANCE & EMERGENCY SERVICES CENTER IS CURRENTLY STILL BEING CLEARED, AFTER WHICH CONSTRUCTION IS PLANNED TO PROCEED., and which, when completed, will be a tremendous asset for the Town.
Next week Blooming Grove will begin another round of official work, with some of the same Town Officials, and then possibly several new ones. I want to take this time to congratulate the current board on their extraordinary accomplishments and how excited we should be about several exciting new projects they are avidly working on. Well done!
Completion of a brand new Senior Center with greatly expanded space and uses at Lasser Park. Adjacent to the Town's major athletic fields it offers greater accessibility which is already being used for expanded programs.
New Pickleball and Baseball Courts were installed at May's Field.
A new automated maintenance system for athletic fields assisted by a robotic system that takes over much of the back-breaking work that had been done by hand by our Buildings and Grounds Department. The lease agrement for the robotics system also offers a huge discount to the Village of Washingtonville if they decide to incorporate it for the High School grounds maintenance.These athletic fields, especially May's Field and Lasser Park, bring significant income to the Town.
It was Supervisor Jeroloman's meetings with the Open Space Institute that facilitated the inclusion of Blooming Grove in its Heritage West Trail & Park expansion plans, both now and in the future. This opened up important communication lines between the Town, conservation groups, Trail Hikers and advocates, and most importantly for the Town's future connections with other trails in Orange County, and the development the new Schunnemunk Rail Trail from the new Heritage County Park at the Chester/Blooming Grove border and continuing North through Blooming Grove to Cornwall. Part of that new Heritage County Park at the Chester border is in Blooming Grove. This will be conducive to a whole new thrust in visitors, recreation and tourism and it will undoubtedly boost business in both the Town and especially through the Village of Washingtonville which already has several significant businesses adjacent to this historic foot trail that dates back to the first known inhabitants of the area, the Munsee Wolf Clan. These Indigenous Native Americans are named after their dialect of Algonquin spoken in the Hudson Valley region. The Munsee clan was first identified in the region in about 1694 and there are still some local descendants actively promoting history of their culture in our Town.
The Town added very significant upgrades to the essential communication systems at both Town Hall and the adjacent Police Department to improve emergency contacts with other emergency related systems in the County.
A large number of both needed and some required stormwater migitations were accomplished. These included major changes in drainage adjacent to the Goosepond Dam culverts, a May's Field Culvert, Route 94 drainage crossings in the vicinity of Ahern Boulevard and MANY more. At this time, after these repairs, the major flooding events of recent years has STOPPED the life-threating damage to homes and properties that occurred during the last decade.
A brand new Ambulance and Emergency Services Building is nearing completion on Town-owned property at the Highway Department Garage.
It is a beautiful and much more efficient setting (both fiscally, safety wise and aesthetically). Because it is Town-owned instead of the leased property in the Village of Washingtonville, it will be a longterm fiscal savings in addition to being a much better traffic free and safety factor for ingress and egress. This is likely to also result in significant improvement in response times to reach emergencies.
A significant acquisition, the Historic Lasser Homestead adjacent to Lasser Park was purchased via a Skoufis grant, and thanks to the generous Lasser Family. It is adjacent to Lasser Park, which is the Town's largest and busiest park site. This is a site for preservation of Town Historic documents and many related historic preservation projects in the future. Major renovations were done to the 1880's home during the past year. Soon dozens of exciting community projects will happen there. Near the new Schunnemunk Rail Trail it will also help bring Blooming Grove Community and tourism activities up to par, at a similar level with other "Foothills of the Catskills" favorite communities. and historic sites like Hill Hold, Bull Stone House, Washington's Headquarters in Newburgh, Sands Ring Homestead and Firthcliffe in Cornwall, and Chester's Erie Depot to name a few.
Both the Town and Village spent countless hours supporting and participating in the production of a series of major successful Community Events, some numbering 5,000 attendees, including the Firemens Parade, the 250th Independence Day Celebration, the Easter Parade, a Christmas Parade, this past week's Witchingtonville and Kingdom of Acre Viking Event and Amada's En Dia de los Muertas, both of these events bordering the new Schunnemunk Rail Trail. These enormous events don't just happen. It requires months of hard work by the Town and Village and Event Committee, assembling potential lists of participants, researching their event content and reliability, designing how and where they best facilitate, assuring proper insurance and other document receipts, and overseeing the event itself. Government entities have tons of important business to attend to. They also have a "Face", a Brand that makes them successful, or not. These Events create a GREAT BRAND for our Community.
A new addition is being explored right now. Alanna Bodman, who owns Celtic Carriages, has had huge success offering pony rides and horse drawn carriage rides for Washingtonville events during the past few years, both at Vern Allen Park and right through the Village along East Main Street. Every time the pony comes to Town there are thrilled residents waiting on line for their turn. This week Town Historian Johanna Kiernan went to the Celtic Carriages Farm, had a chance to see the various beautiful carriages and horses available to pull them. She sat down with Alanna and they made a draft for Year-Round Historic Carriage Rides through Blooming Grove. So if any of you are as disappointed as I am that the Carriage Rides in New York City have been shut down, be a little patient and cheer up because chances are the Town will be offering Historic Carriage Rides right here. Celtic Carriage horses have already proven they are champs along our local roads and as an equestrian I am very eager for them to begin. And if I say pretty please enough times maybe the Open Space Institute will allow some special times for Celtic Horse & Carriage rides to be permitted in an area along the Moodna Trestle Meadows Trail.
As of this week, because of my respect for their work, I am becoming very active in communications with the new Orange County Commissioner of Trail and Park Promotions. Beginning as an unofficial Liaison since his office is at the farthest opposite end of Orange County making access to our offerings a bit challenging, this will enable me, as an advocate for the environment, nature and recreation at this end of the county to continue to facilitate and enable the popularity and business successes and events along the new trail, including some promotional work that has already provided some highlighting for Amada's Kitchen (a thriving new business adjacent to the Trail Entrance on Route 208), and Guilty Pleasures Cafe (at 1 Depot Street, the Nexus of Routes 94 and 208, Fulton Square and May's Field). Both of these new businesses are thriving, along with the always popular Weirs Ice Cream, adjacent to the Moodna Creek and Schunnemunk Rail Trail. I have heard Weirs fans asking numerous times "How are we going to connect with the Trail on the other side of the Creek?" A very good question?
The Town has maintained good fiscal and bond ratings, and an excellent rapport with its Villages, the County and State Officials.
These are just a few of Blooming Grove's most recent significant important accomplishments ...the ones that I think will be most predictive of its successful future if they are facilitated to continue!
As a local journalist schooled at University of Kentucky and Northwestern University, and having received an award from the New York Press Association for excellence in coverage of local government including: Orange County Government, Town of Goshen, Town of Chester, City of Newburgh, Town of Newburgh, Town New Windsor, Village of Washingtonville and Town of Blooming Grove, I have seen and covered many boards and officials fail, and many others to succeed, so at least I have some pretty extensive analytical background on municipal management. I gave up assignments with other news media because I felt that my hometown and its usually hardworking and quiet leaders needed quality coverage of some pressing issues with the explosion of higher density building pressures and the need for active natural resource and preservation of this spectacularly beautiful environment.
Personally, I give this Board and its Officials an A+. on both accomplishments and plans, and I feel blessed to be a resident and member of our community.
Edie Johnson
Executive Editor
Orange County Courier Journal
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