The Town of Montgomery’s board kicked off the month with several updates during its April 3 meeting, featuring discussion about the Police Community Advisory Board, the Haber House, and road infrastructure.

New PCAB Members
The board opened the meeting with a motion to appoint four new members to the town’s Police Community Advisory Board, a group dedicated to strengthening communication and relations between residents and police officers. Members of the PCAB appeared at the town’s February 7 meeting requesting the board to help them find and recruit more volunteers, as the committee comprised only three people at the time.

The new members included Kristen Brown, Robert Saladin, Joseph Ubinas, and Lynette Wright, giving the committee a much-needed expansion.

Haber House Update

William Frank, the town’s attorney, provided an update on the Arnott-Haber House, a historical building near the intersection of Route 17K and Route 747 built around 1820. In January, the board agreed to lease the property to Mental Health America of Dutchess County for $1 annually, and the organization would use the building to house homeless veterans. As of April 2, the town acquired ownership of the property that Haber House sits on from the neighboring Amazon warehouse, known as the Sailfish Construction Project.

“The town board previously approved accepting the donation from Sailfish for a small portion of the property where the warehouse is being built, where the Arnott-Haber House was moved to,” Frank said. “Part of the agreement was that they were going to refurbish the house and get it ready for veterans housing.”

“Yesterday, we were able to complete the closing for the property to switch hands. That small portion of the property to switch hands into the name of the town,” he continued.

Frank added that Mental Health America already signed the town’s least and would begin housing veterans very soon.

“The gentleman of Mental Health Services of Dutchess was here to formally sign the lease. We got the deed. The subdivision map is being filed prior to the deed sectioning off that property,” Frank said. “Everything is all set and they’re looking to start moving in some of the affected veterans in the near future.”

Don Berger Re: Road Infrastructure
Don Berger, an active resident of the Village of Montgomery, provided an update on his recent endeavors to address hazardous road conditions in the town and county. Starting in February, Berger spoke with supervisors from several towns in Northern Orange County, intending to unite these towns together to leverage funds from New York State for Routes 208, 17K, and 211. Recently, he spoke with the City of Newburgh’s Transportation Committee on the matter.

“Ten days ago, I met with the City of Newburgh’s Transportation Committee and Commission. They reached out to me, so I went down to Newburgh and met with them, had a long conversation with them,” he said. “They basically said the same thing that every other town has said to me.”

Berger also discussed the impact that the road conditions have had on the community, specifying residents who placed traffic cones indicating severe areas and drivers receiving tickets for swerving around potholes.

“A resident reached out to me about certain potholes within their community,” Berger recounted. “On a state highway, residents had to put cones in the middle of the roads for two areas that were at least that deep and very long. That was on Route 208 in the Campbell Hall area.”

“I had a person reach out to me at the end of last week. They received a ticket in the Town of Montgomery from the New York State Police because they went over the yellow line,” he continued. “They went over the yellow line to avoid potholes, and the state police officers would have nothing to do with it.”

Berger then asked for an update from the town board, as its members previously showed interest in Berger’s cause. Supervisor Steve Bresica stated he recently spoke with the other supervisors involved in the plan, including Crawford’s Supervisor Charles Carnes, and Senator Rob Rolison, stressing that the situation looked bleak.

“I spoke with Senator Rolison about the cuts into the Region 8 funding,” Brescia said. “He doesn’t feel optimistic that they’re going to be restored because to restore that, unfortunately, they’re going to have to take it out of another region. That’s the story he’s telling me.”

Brescia asserted that he and Carnes would work on a resolution for a meeting with the other supervisors, giving them the chance to form a plan in the same room.

“It’s going to be tough to get all the supervisors all in one room unless it’s the Association of Towns,” Brescia said. “Charlie is going to bring it up a week from Friday at the Association of Towns. He’s going to try putting a resolution together tomorrow that we can all adopt, and we’ll continue to make the phone calls.”