Chester explores Sugar Loaf sidewalk options

With the town of Chester a recipient of a $400,000 DASNY grant thanks to the help of State Senator James Skoufis, it’s time for the town to get down to business and craft a plan for the business district of Sugar Loaf. Town engineer John Queenan laid out a preliminary plan for sidewalks and raised crosswalks for the Sugar Loaf community. The town’s contribution to the plan is $42,000.

The town has the option of putting a sidewalk on either side of the road leading to the SLPAC. Feedback from the residents present at the public hearing on January 22 indicated they’d rather have the sidewalk laid out on the SLPAC side of the road and the raised crosswalk go across the street at Scott’s Meadows.

There would be a sidewalk extending past Pine Hill Road to Wood Road and another raised crosswalk near the church. Though nobody at the public hearing spoke against the raised crosswalks, The Chronicle was contacted by local residents who felt they were promised there would be no speed bumps included in the project at a meeting last year with Senator Skoufis and Supervisor Brandon Holdridge.

Property owner and landlord Ed Mullins met with The Chronicle along with Holdridge to discuss the raised crosswalks. Mullins was concerned that the crosswalks were potentially near blind curves, actually adding to pedestrian danger.

Holdridge said the plan was in its preliminary stages and suggested that Mullins put his comments on the record at the next town meeting where the public hearing on the plan will continue.

Resident Chris Maurer, administrator of the Chester Strong Facebook page, told the Chronicle the community was promised there would be no speed bumps as part of the sidewalk project. She told The Chronicle, “I don’t know why we’re having this dance again. We were told last year that the matter was closed. There were other traffic calming methods they were going to consider. It’s ironic that we had such a tax increase to pay for a dedicated ambulance service to cut down the response time, and now they’re talking about installing speed humps which will slow response time down.”

Holdridge said in his opinion raised crosswalks are not the same as speed bumps and emphasized that the project is still open to public input and nothing is set in stone. He noted that work on the sidewalk project would likely take place in May and June of this year.

Senior support

In other news from the January 22 meeting, the town introduced the new Chester Senior Independence program provided by the Jewish Family Services organization. A representative of the organization said they partner with the Office for the Aging and currently work with six municipalities. They have six volunteers for the town of Chester and are setting up information tables at Town Hall, the Senior Center and the library.

Noise

The town passed a revised noise ordinance that apparently satisfied the critics of the original noise ordinance. A representative from Tin Barn Brewing said the changes were good changes. Originally Tin Barn had been concerned their outdoor concerts would be banned under the noise ordinance.

SLPAC

Councilman Tom Becker discussed a conversation he had with Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus about the future of the SLPAC. Neuhaus indicated he would be willing to pay $1.1 million for the facility, which is the same amount the town paid several years ago when they acquired it.

Expenses

The stipend for the planning board chairman position has been decreased from $21,620 to $10,000. The higher amount was the most any planning board chairman had been making in Orange County.

The board passed a resolution to authorize “a $150,000 loan from the Highway Townwide Fund to the General Fund to cover expenses temporarily in the General Fund. The loan will be paid back in full when tax revenues from the first quarter are available.”

Appointments

Giuseppe Cassara resigned from the Zoning Board of Appeals and has been appointed to the Planning Board. Justin Brigandi resigned from the Planning Board, leaving that board with multiple open positions that need to be filled.

Melissa Foote has been appointed secretary of the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals.

Other business

Residents EJ Szulwach, Lydia Cuadros, Tracy Schuh and Richard Logothetis received proclamations from the town board for their contribution to the community and the many boards and projects they have been a part of.

The board approved a police department training request to send five officers to the NYS Child Passenger Safety Technical Conference at $210 per officer. Councilman Larry Dysinger abstained on his vote because he felt sending five officers away at once put the department at a disadvantage and would cause the town to incur overtime costs.

Choice Films requested to rent the SLPAC from April 7 to May 4 for $40,000 to shoot a movie at those dates. At a later meeting the company chose to go by the name Reimagined Productions.

The town plans to use volunteers to repaint the Chester Commons snack shack midnight blue and paint a mural over it.