Blooming Grove Town Board Takes Oath and Votes for Public Hearing of Moratorium on Battery Storage
- ejreporter
- 5 hours ago
- 3 min read
Town of Blooming Grove Board members took their oaths of office last evening and, aside from 2 issues requiring serious discussion, they proceeded to tackle the 14-page-long Agenda items of Resolutions including committee assignments, liaisons to the Humane Society, Environmental Review Board, Payroll, Facility Use Applications Process, Town Vehicle Use Rules, Committee Appointments, Associate Businesses the Town works with, and several dozen other annually documented Re-Organization Meeting items. Supervisor Rob Jeroloman read each item, as is customary, this requiring over an hour, and asking for discussion and vote by board. Board member discussion was minimal on these line items since most of them show little change from year to year, but there were two items for serious discussion.
Governor Kathy Hochul's Announcement in December of a tax revision to expand property tax exemptions for disabled veterans and 2. A Public Hearing set for January 20 for a Moratorium on any proposed Battery Storage Facilities.
The Battery Storage Facility Moratorium is being considered due to their danger and the fact that 2 of such facility requests have already been received by the Town. The Public Hearing was set and voted unanimously, due to overall battery-caused fires and a major concern due to the THIRD of serious fires at a Warwick battery facility storage site that continued to re-ignite and was determined to emit extremely toxic hydrogen cyanide. The site in Warwick has been taken offline and the property condemned, and it was determined that the facility did not even have proper certification to begin with. One of the biggest issues is the propensity for these fires to re-ignite numerous times, and the serious safety issue of the air contamination by hydrogen cyanide.
Further, there is an issue with containment because all oxygen has to be removed to put the fire out, and this may be the issue at the basis of the fires re-igniting. With the growing need for electricity more and more power is being sought for battery storage facilities, but more and more people are demanding that if they are to be built at all it should be far away from any residential housing... but much of the additional storage is for that same local housing. Another concern is that with this type of fire re-igniting, what will be done with the units when their usage is over. When new Councilmember John Byrnes asked whether they could be banned permanently Supervisor Jeroloman, while proposing the Moratorium, said that while the State is reviewing alternative precautions, safety measures, and ways to contain fires where they currently exist, it would be prudent to set a 6-month Moratorium (which could be extended) and at least listen to the official recommendations when the initial Moratorium ends. Byrnes repeated his query whether battery storage facilities could be "banned", adding that he is in favor of a Moratorium, but Jeroloman stood his ground saying that we should at least look at whatever the State comes up with as to new regulation.
3rd Fire at Warwick Battery Storage Facility results in it Being Condemned
Tax Exemption for 100% Disabled Veterans -The other major topic brought up was a passionate speech by resident Vinny Lang about Governor Hochul's signing of a bill for expansion of veteran property tax exemptions to 100% for any veteran who is 100% disabled. Lang told of his support for the new 100% exemption describing how these individuals "gave all for their community" and we should do this to give back to them and the numerous impacts that their service has made on their lives.
In the last days of 2025, Governor Hochul signed the bill, as described by its primary sponsor, state Senator Joe Addabbo,
The bill, as listed on the nysenate.gov website reads as follows and
takes effect on " any assessment rolls prepared after January 2, 2026."
If you have any questions about how this bill might affect you, check with the
local VFW in Washingtonville and your local assessor.