By Mary Jane Pitt
The Cornwall Local sat down with Supervisor Josh Wojehowski and Helen Bunt, the person looking to unseat him in the town’s upcoming Town Council elections, recently, as well as sat with the two candidates for the one Councilmember seat which is being voted on, Angelo Schembari and Scott Teresi.
The conversations were based on the same questions, and about an hour was spent with each candidate. We appreciate their time, and willingness to help The Local introduce them to our readers.
Early voting began on October 24, and Election Day is November 3.
Helen Bunt
A Republican, Helen Bunt has lived in Cornwall since she was 21 years old. She’s a former one-term supervisor, and served on the Town Board for an additional two terms, on the town’s Planning Board, and is a local business owner. In fact, she’s owned several local businesses, but the current one, since 1999, is Butterhill Day School. She’s a past president of the Cornwall Chamber of Commerce, and a Lions Club member.
A native of Newburgh, Bunt loves her adopted home.
“It’s the Mayberry feel,” she said when asked what the best thing about Cornwall is. “It’s safe. People know each other; the police and fire know us all; I like the feel that we’re one big family.”
But Bunt isn’t a Pollyanna. (Being a Pollyanna means having an excessively, blindly, or unrealistically optimistic attitude – often to the point of ignoring real problems, risks, or negative facts.)
She says this week that she is running for the position of supervisor “because I can see where the town is going, and I just don’t want that for future generations, or even the people that live here now”.
“When I have been knocking on doors, people are asking me, ‘Are we ever going to get Cornwall back?’,” she said. “I believe, and I think many others do too, that while some things must change, there are also things that can and should stay the same. That’s what I’m fighting for.”
Here are her thoughts on several of Cornwall’s pressing issues:
A new pool
“I have a lot of questions,” she says, saying she believes, as proposed by the current Town Board right now, it will end up costing closer to $9 million than the $7.5 million figure that has been put out. She is also worried about what it’s going to cost to operate and staff down the road. Her solution? Maybe a smaller pool facility. “I do believe that people want a pool, maybe just not the pool being proposed. A pool is definitely a good community resource, but I think people need more information, and I don’t think just putting out a survey is enough.”
Comprehensive Plan
“People are really fearful – really afraid,” Bunt says of the recently adopted plan update. She says she’s heard a great deal of that when knocking on doors in the community in recent months. “I don’t know why the Town Board pushed through this process – I think if I was in office I would have listened more, been more concerned about the people’s concerns.”
Bunt carried a petition asking just that – to slow down the process – and presented it to the Town Board about the plan. She says it had over 500 signatures, and, when she and others were carrying it, people reached out to her asking to sign it.
She knows that the plan sets the groundwork for future zoning, and says if she is to get elected, Bunt says she will “do everything in my power to stop some of the major zoning changes from happening, while adding there are some things in the plan update she supports. “We need more research. I fear it’s a Pandora’s box.” In fact, she says, if elected, her objective would be to review and revise the plan update, not necessarily using the same committee that worked on it earlier this year.
“Maybe we need some new eyes on it,” she said.
Development & Housing
Bunt says she would like to see “light manufacturing” – but no warehouses – on these two major pieces of developable property in Cornwall. “I don’t know if I want to open the door for more housing,” she added. “There are properties off Mailler Rd. and Rt. 32 that can accommodate housing.” On that note, when asked if there is a need for more housing in Cornwall, she’s not so sure – “I guess if more people want to move to Cornwall there is”.
She worries about the phrase ‘affordable housing’. “It’d be nice if all housing were more affordable,” she said, “but we can’t be affordable and thus increase the school population. That would increase school taxes. It’s just not compatible.”
She’s also not sure that the community needs more senior housing – “people want to stay in the house they’re in, but they feel like they’re getting priced out,” Bunt, who characterizes herself as “one of those senior citizens” said.
Taxes
This is another topic Bunt says she has been hearing a lot about when knocking on doors and at meet-and-greet events. “People are mad about last year’s increases,” she said. “And the supervisor giving himself raises – the MS4 and budget officer stipends – make them angry.”
She says, if elected, she wouldn’t take any benefits, and she’d cut the supervisor’s salary in half. She’s also already thought about ways to cut taxes – surplusing old vehicles, not hiring a third person for the Recreation Department as has been proposed for the 2027 budget, and not buying new police cars every year, and developing a plan for the scheduled replacement of the town’s vehicles and equipment over time. There’s even the concept of asking all department heads to cut their budgets by five percent that could be used, she says. “The Village got themselves in a mess at one point and they got out of it that way. We can’t just keep doing business as usual.”
“Sometimes you have to say no,” she said. “When I was in office we had to do it. “It’s not your money, but you have to be responsible in how you spend it.”
Bunt also has strong feelings about grants, saying “they can be great, but you have to weigh what’s attached to them,” she said.
Why should she be elected?
“I have no other reason to run for office than to serve this town with the best of my ability,” she said. “I don’t need the money. I don’t need the power. And if I thought everything was just ticking along, I wouldn’t even consider it.”
Bunt, who added that she was originally a bit afraid to knock on doors for fear of hearing “Oh no, not you again” says the response has been the opposite. “People are saying thank you.”
A final note from Bunt – she says that on November 1 she will be announcing who she will name as her deputy supervisor if elected. “This person is amazing,” she said. “This town will be saved.”
Angelo Schembari
You may know him as Cornwall’s tree warden, or a member of the Conservation Advisory Council. But there’s actually more to Angelo Schembari than trees.
A registered Republican, Schembari has lived in Cornwall for 25 years. He wants to clarify, though, while he is registered Republican, in his heart he is an independent, with no party affiliation. “To this day, I vote for the candidate, not the party,” he said. “I can reach across any party line to shake hands with someone.”
Schembari will tell you that he didn’t really have any plan to run for local office at this point of his life until early last spring. “I will say I had thought about public service after retirement, but that’s like 7-10 years out. But then I started going to meetings and I started opening my mouth. I realized ‘if you’re not going to be part of the solution, what are you doing?’.”
He’s a former member of the town’s Fourth of July Committee, and in his hometown in New Jersey he served with the local ambulance corps and on a community board which helped fund local projects. He’s also the immediate past president of the New York Arborists Association, and it was there that he gained some knowledge about how the state’s municipal government works. Part of the reason he is running is because of his late father. Like his dad taught him, “since I’ve been in town I’ve been trying to give back to my community”.
Here are his thoughts on some of Cornwall’s pressing issues:
A new pool
“I’m personally in favor of a new pool, but not in favor of it as the current proposal (price and information) stands,” he said. “When you run the math, it’s going to cost a lot of money and we’re carrying a lot of debt right now. But … I’d be in favor if we could get the grant and the 20 percent match to be the total cost – if we tone down the project. We need a better plan.”
And, if that doesn’t happen, Schembari makes two points – he does not want to see the old pool relined (“that will not solve the problem”) and maybe a better option is a community splash pad.
Comprehensive Plan
Schembari was an active participant in the public meetings and hearings on the Comprehensive Plan, but says: “the time for me to voice my strong feelings is over. We have a plan and I firmly believe in trusting the process.”
He says if elected he will be very interested in working on the zoning changes that will need to be adopted under the new plan, because, right now, he sees “a lot of potential for uncontrolled growth”. For instance, he’s in favor of leaving the NYMA property operating under the special permit it has now, so that the town can continue to have some control over it.
“Nobody wants to see NYMA leave Cornwall, and people do want to see it returned to its heyday, and all of the expansion that they’re talking about would be great; good for the town. But, if the current operators decide it’s no longer a good project for them, and they hand it over to somebody else who wants to take NYMA in a totally different direction ….”
Development & Housing
Cornwall Commons, he says, “is going to be developed and that’s not a bad thing”. Although, he’s a believer that “that property should have been the high school.”
He wants the town to work with the Amato family to create a mixed-use housing/professional/light commercial development. He thinks about 30-40 percent of the land should be developed, and the housing should be a variety of types. Condos – both to own and rent – reasonably priced starter homes, and a part of the development as an age-restricted area for seniors.
“While the Town Board doesn’t control the school budget, they can control things that will impact the school budget,” Schembari said, “and adding houses, adding another 250 students for instance, helps spread the taxes across more shoulders.”
He thinks the key is responsible growth.
“We can be an ‘and’ community – grow and preserve,” he said. “That said, I don’t think we should build on every buildable parcel we have.”
Taxes
Speaking realistically, Schembari says: “We cannot reduce town taxes, but we can reduce the rate of increase of town taxes.”
He’s a believer of the ‘needs and wants’ system of spending. “People say that doesn’t work at the municipal level, and I don’t think that’s true. You watch expenses and you get a better grasp at predicting what we will need to spend. When your household is struggling financially, you sit down, and you look at all of your expenditures, and you go through everything that you have to spend money on. And you cut some of things you don’t have to spend money on.”
Schembari also has thoughts on grants. “Everybody loves grant money – getting nice things without having to pay full price for them,” he said. “But we need to know more before taking them, the match, the overall cost … that should be completely transparent.”
Why should he be elected?
“The best thing about Cornwall is the diversity of its people and their willingness to accept everybody,” he says. “While I am running as a Republican, if elected I am no longer a Republican, I’m no longer for one party or the other. I’m for Cornwall. The minute you step into that boardroom, you’re not working for one side or the other, you’re working for the residents. I truly believe that once you get down to the business of running the town, there really is no place for party politics.”
Why? Because: “It’s about what’s best for the town. And that may not always be what I feel is best, or what I would like to happen, but what’s best for Cornwall.”
Scott Teresi
Cornwall-on-Hudson resident Scott Teresi is a community resident by choice. A native of the state of Florida, he and his young family moved here from the Pacific Northwest in 2017. They were moving back to be closer to family, Scott’s wife Amy is from Poughkeepsie. They chose Cornwall for it’s natural beauty, proximity to outdoor recreation and to live in a walkable town … and voilà … they landed here.
They’ve settled in comfortably. Teresi, an unaffiliated candidate running on the Democratic line on the ballot, is the current president of the Greater Cornwall Chamber of Commerce. He also worked on the community’s New York Forward program, and, a United States Marine Corps veteran, is a member of the local American Legion.
Teresi likes to think he is, if elected, someone the community will be able to trust. He’s spent the last few months knocking on the doors of community residents – “about 650 so far,” he said last week, “and my goal is to reach 1000” – and is enjoying getting to not only meet residents he didn’t already know, but hear their views. Two of the main concerns he’s heard, when knocking on doors to introduce himself, are about taxes and “overdevelopment from large developers that don’t care about the character of Cornwall.”
Here are his thoughts on some of Cornwall’s pressing issues:
A new pool
“I’ve been reading the book ‘Bowling Alone,’” Teresi said. “It talks a lot about community connection.” Communities with tight community connections, he said, “outperform communities that lack those community connections” in education, economic development and crime. So, while he sees the positives of a new pool, he does have a few reservations about the cost, not knowing the long-term costs, like operational costs.
“Grants can provide assets or liabilities,” he said. “My current point of view is that we need to do a little more work on what the long-term operational costs will be.”
Comprehensive Plan
Zoning work is needed, he says.
“First and foremost, I think we need to make sure we put protections in regarding warehouses and data centers,” he said. Years ago, he adds, when zoning was redone, “they didn’t put in any kind of language around buffering against the residents and things like that”. He said he feels a sense of urgency to make sure the community is protected, because residents have made clear they don’t want that. “We want to make sure that if a project comes back, we’ve protected ourselves.”
Development & housing
Teresi doesn’t want a warehouse on the roughly 197-acre Cornwall Commons parcel, or a return to the 2007–2008 plan that spread housing across the whole property. His concern is the long-term cost to taxpayers. “Even though the developer pays for that, that’s a future liability,” he said of new roads, water and sewer. “It becomes the town’s property at some point.”
The idea he raises with residents is modeled on Poughkeepsie’s Eastdale Village, which, as he described it, mixes shops, restaurants and offices with apartments, townhomes and some single-family homes on roughly 70 to 80 acres. A similar project could use part of the parcel while the remaining 100 or so acres are preserved as a buffer for neighbors, possibly with trails. “The liability for us 20 years, 30 years down the road is much different than if you’ve developed that full 197 acres,” he said.
He stresses it’s an idea, not a demand. “I’m not saying that’s what I would demand that they do,” he said. “... I think the important part is the process.” He wants the owners to present a plan openly, the community to weigh in, and the town to work toward “something that is a win-win for everybody.”
He applies the same thinking to the New York Military Academy: “We can support them and also preserve our open space.”
He also favors growth led by local owners “vested in the community,” who “have a feel for what the community wants.”
On housing, he’d like more variety. “Not everybody wants or can afford a 2,500-square-foot home on an acre of land,” he said. He has heard from young firefighters and teachers who grew up here and can’t afford to stay. “We should be offering housing opportunities for them as well.”
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for what Cornwall is,” he said. “I have been talking a lot on the campaign trail about how Cornwall can be an ‘and’ community, not an ‘or’ community.”
Taxes
Teresi doesn’t promise lower taxes. “I’m honest with them,” he said of residents he meets at their doors. “Your taxes are not going down.” But, he added, “I recognize the residential property tax burden. I pay them. You pay them.”
He explains the tax rate as a simple fraction. The top number is the tax levy: the town and school budgets, minus outside revenue such as sales tax and state aid. The bottom number is the total assessed value of all property in Cornwall, commercial and residential. Divide the two to get the rate.
That gives the town three levers. The first is the budget. “We should be scrutinizing all the budgets for sure,” he said, noting that, “most of the time, they’re going up.” The second is outside revenue. The third, and his main focus, is the bottom number. “How do we increase that denominator?” he asked. When the total value of property grows, the same levy is spread across more value.
“His yardstick for any new project is how much value it creates for the land it uses. “Value per acre should be a critical key performance indicator whenever we’re looking at doing any type of development or redevelopment,” he said.
Why should he be elected?
“I think I can work with anyone,” he says. “My operating system starts with purpose. The ‘what’ and the ‘why’. Next up, implementing a disciplined process, and then measuring progress and adjusting if necessary. It’s not just about setting an angle and trying to hit that angle, but measuring that progress along the way, learning from that, and making adjustments along the way. Purpose, process, progress.”
And again, “Because you can trust me to do what is in the best interest of Cornwall.”
Josh Wojehowski
“Hands down, there is not a better place to raise a family.”
Those are the words of Cornwall Supervisor Josh Wojehowski, who is running for re-election to his position. A Democrat, he’s in his fifth year as supervisor, having served as a town councilman for two years before that. Prior to that, his local community service included time on the town’s Economic Development Advisory Committee, and as treasurer of the Cornwall-on-Hudson Elementary School PTO. He is a resident of Cornwall-on-Hudson.
Maybe that’s where he started wanting to better the community for the future. “I’m running for my kids. For everyone’s kids,” he said. “I graduated from CCHS in 1999, left the area, and then my wife and I came back to start a family. We felt there was no other place than Cornwall to do so – Cornwall has that special thing. People are friendly, and they volunteer. It’d be a real shame if it doesn’t stay this way for our kids.”
Wojehowski also looks to the community’s older residents for direction as he does his work for the town. “I look at my parents who moved from the area – they can’t afford to come back here, but I think they would. And I don’t think my parents are the only ones.”
Here are his thoughts on several of Cornwall’s pressing issues:
A new pool
Wojehowski believes the New York State SWIMS grant and local expense of a new pool is good for the town. “People expect a certain level of recreation, and a pool should be part of that,” he said. “However, without the SWIMS grant, that would be a different conversation. When the state is willing to pay for 80 percent of a project, you should take advantage.”
That said, he adds he’s always cautious, which is why he and the Town Board have been working diligently to get public input before signing any contracts to move forward with the approximate $7.5 million project. He acknowledges that there are some unknowns, like what operating costs of a new, more efficient, pool would be, and the staffing needed to keep it open. “We have done some analysis based on other similar pools, but can’t fully know until the final project scope, design and engineering is done. We will make sure to move forward cautiously on the project,” he said.
Interestingly, Wojehowski said the pool hasn’t come up that often when he’s knocked on doors this campaign season – “but it has come up often when I do my weekly Farmers Market hours, especially on the really hot days,” he said.
Comprehensive Plan
Then again, he says, neither has the town’s newly updated Comprehensive Plan now that it has been adopted. “People do want to make sure their small-town life is protected,” he said, adding that he does get questions about NYMA. Agreeing with that, Wojehowski said the board will soon work to add additional protections and special use permit criteria as it pertains to multi-family housing laws, and to set strong parameters regarding warehouses and data centers. “We want to be proactive,” he said, “before a project comes to us.” The supervisor said he’d like to get a community preservation plan in place, “kind of like the one Warwick has, where they use federal, state and private funds to buy pieces of land to protect more property.” He notes that 36 percent, or more than 7400 acres, of Cornwall’s properties are already off the tax rolls, which he believes has been and continues to be a priority for Cornwall.
Development & Housing
Wojehowski’s personal feelings about the larger parcels of developable land in Cornwall are that they should never become heavy commercial or large industrial sites like mega warehouses and data centers. But, he doesn’t rule out academic research and development - green tech and biotech industries, small hi-tech advanced manufacturing - which might provide better paying local jobs, particularly for those who currently commute to New York City or Westchester.
He’s also a fan of mixed-use development, like Poughkeepsie’s Eastdale, and some Westchester County developments he’s seen like North 80. He says an anchor business, like a medical and research building & laboratory space, some housing, open space, recreation and some commercial establishments could benefit many by creating a live, work, play project. Any projects brought forward would need to fit within the character of community and receive community support, he reminds residents.
“I don’t think we can only build million-dollar homes,” Wojehowski says. “They’re expensive to build, take a lot of time, and don’t know that they are solving our housing needs. I think our seniors want some smaller homes or condos, the same with young adults, like those graduating from college who want to return here. I haven’t heard anyone speak against doing that – you can’t just cater to one aspect of the housing market. He does add that the Comprehensive Plan addresses accessory dwelling units, some are already allowed.
Taxes
He hears the concerns of residents – in fact “it’s probably the number one thing I hear about”.
“Rising costs are putting pressure on everyone, from working families raising children to seniors living on fixed incomes. I understand that every dollar matters, and that’s why we’re focused on balancing essential services, responsible budgeting and long-term financial stability,” he said. “But realistically, the town gets 15 cents of every tax dollar. We run a lean operation, while still managing to invest in infrastructure. That’s the honest math.”
Wojehowski believes residents get good value from the town taxes they pay. Those monies allow for investment in the community, basic services and paying employees fair wages. He says that the town board deals with rising costs annually just like everyone does at home and tries its best to balance tax increases with the needs of providing public safety and basic services. The Town Board, he said, has tried to help residents by increasing property tax exemptions for seniors on lower incomes, disabled individuals and veterans.
All of his budgets have been adopted with bi-partisan support and says while the costs for employees – salaries and benefits – have risen in recent years, he is proud of the town’s employees. “We are able to do more work in house now than ever before,” he said, “and the services we provide are appreciated, like with New Windsor/Cornwall EMS, police and sanitation.”
To help pay for the rising costs he is a proponent of “appropriate development” – for instance he’d like to see the town cash in more on the agritourism popular in the Hudson Valley right now, build more accommodations like hotels, inns, bed and breakfast establishments that generate hotel tax.. “I’d love to see a brewery or cidery come here, we have spots for them in Cornwall. I think residents want that too.”
But, it has to be done carefully, he says – “we have to protect Mountainville – that’s not only an economic driver for the county and our community with Storm King Art Center and various hiking options, but is also our source of drinking water.”
Why should he be re-elected?
“I – no, make that we, because you really can’t do anything alone in government – have a really good track record over the past five years, bringing in historic investments, strengthened public safety and taking steps to protect our future,” Wojehowski said. “We have it because we’ve been proactive.
Cornwall has a really strong future and we’re trying to build on it. I want to keep it moving forward.”
And one more thing? Because he loves it here. “The beauty of this town – you can’t beat it. The mountains, the river, being a part of the birthplace of this community? There is no better place.”