While most people were at home making their New Year’s Eve plans, Cornwall Supervisor Josh Wojehowski was in his office last week wiping his ever-present whiteboard clean and then refilling it with his 2025 priorities for the town. While most aren’t new items, they’re ones he hopes to if not complete in the year ahead then to make significant progress on.

The 14-item list includes projects that aren’t necessarily the town’s, but will affect the community, its taxpayers and residents.

Among those are looking for a “path forward” for both NYMA and Cornwall Commons – two large parcels of property in the town that could include significant development. A third large project, this one closer to fruition, is the expected ground breaking in the year ahead for a Main St. hotel project.

“Working with the property owners of NYMA and Cornwall Common’s to develop plans that are supported by the community, Town Board and key stakeholders is paramount to the future of Cornwall and something that my administration will be focused like a laser on in 2025,” the supervisor said. “You can either sit back and hope or roll the dice that you get the right type of project or outcome, or you can go out and work hard to make it happen.”

Something else he – and most in the community – are looking forward to is the probable opening of the DG Market in Cornwall Plaza (in the location that previously housed DeCicco’s) later this month or next. While, on social media, residents have debated the brand going in there, most are happy to have some kind of grocery store in town.

“Some residents wanted a higher tier of grocery store, but my position has always been not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” he said. “Goshen lost its supermarket a number of years ago and has failed to get one back. It’s important to move quick sometimes and look at the positives – seniors and those with limited access to transportation now have an affordable option, Cornwall Plaza has a new anchor and the economic benefits from job creation, sales tax and property tax will continue to bolster our municipal budget.”

The completion of the Storm King Golf Course and Cornwall Social project are also on the supervisor’s radar, both will help improve quality of life – always a concern of the Town Board – of those who use the facilities. They’ll also bring visitors to the area, Wojehowski has said.

In town projects, he said expected are breaking ground on the Hasbrouck Ave. drainage project which will help with flooding issues for a significant part of the community, culvert replacement projects on Boulevard, Taylor Rd., Jackson Ave. and Long Hill Rd. Those will also help with flooding during large rain events.

“We are going to continue working hard to secure funding for infrastructure replacement and hazard mitigation projects from the state and federal government. The ongoing threats from severe weather and hyper-localized rain events has not gone away for Cornwall. The Association of Towns, NYCOM and other municipal advocacy organizations are pushing for the creation of a new pot of infrastructure money similar to CHIPs or other paving and road repair dollars in the upcoming state legislative session,” Wojehowski said. “We are going to be supporting this request and asking our state legislators Senator Skoufis and Assemblyman Eachus to back as well.”

There are improvements planned for the months ahead at both Sands Ring Homestead and the American Legion Hall which will allow for more community use of those buildings (by way of historic tours, etc. at Sands Ring, and organizational use at the Legion Hall).

As well, as he explained at the last meeting of the Town Board, projects funded by the NY Forward grant program will soon see contracts in place and requests for proposals going out. A ‘Small Project Grant’ program for local businesses will also soon open up to get funding out into the community to help the Cornwall and Cornwall-on-Hudson economic districts.

There will be activity around Riverlight Park, too, if the supervisor has his way – including the creation of a master plan/capital project for the playground, ice house/pavilion, town pool and the aging Rings Pond gazebo bridge. There are grant funds already in place for some of that work. Munger Cottage, too, may see an upgrade with Wojehowski wanting to start the planning, design and engineering work for a capital project there. In that same area, some work is already being done to create space in that old ice house for a Winter Farmers Market, something many in the community have expressed support for.

The supervisor said: “We started a rough draft of a site plan for Riverlight Park which was partially driven by the NY Forward grant and are now at the stage where it’s time to gather community input. In the past month alone, I have had conversations with residents who believe we need to expand the size and capacity of Munger Cottage, add more programming and facilities for our youth – like a build a skate park – and make an informed decision about the future of the pool.”

And two other projects – applying for the national Safe Streets & Safe Roads grants and working with the USDA in six home buyouts (in an area declared a flood zone) are already in the works but will likely remain before the board in the months ahead.

To get updates on Wojehowski’s list, as well as the many other ongoing and new projects before the Town Board, residents are urged to pay attention to Town Board meetings, which are streamed live on Facebook and then posted on the towns’ website and Facebook page. The next meeting is set for Tuesday, Jan. 14 – that’s the board’s annual reorganization meeting, where the meeting schedule for the remainder of the year is set. Also that night the board will hold several public hearings, have a work session, and quite likely hold a special meeting to conduct time-sensitive matters of business.