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Mid Hudson Times, Wednesday, February 7, 2018
Maloney asks city to prevent firefighter layoffs
By SHANTAL RILEY
[email protected]
Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney
is calling on the City of Newburgh to
provide funding to keep 12 full-time, city
firefighters.
“We need our local leaders to step up,
and otherwise, we’re looking at losing
12 firefighters,” said Maloney, who held
a press conference in front of the City
of Newburgh Fire Department last
Thursday.
Since 2013, the 12 firefighter jobs have
been paid for through grants, including
Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency
Response (SAFER) grants. The SAFER
grants program was created to provide
funding directly to fire departments to
increase or maintain trained, front-line
firefighters.
However, the current SAFER grant
paying for the 12 positions runs out in July.
Maloney has taken issue with the City of
Newburgh for not providing funding to
cover the positions in its recently-passed
2018 municipal budget. The spending plan
cut the fire department’s overtime budget
by about half.
“For five years, some of us have been
working our hearts out to give this
firehouse an adequate staffing level to
protect the citizens of Newburgh and
the surrounding communities – and
we’ve been successful for five years,” said
Maloney. “But, we’re coming to the end of
Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney held a press conference last week, calling on the City of
Newburgh to provide funding to keep 12 full-time, city firefighters.
the federal support available, and I don’t
have a rabbit to pull out of my hat.”
Mayor Judy Kennedy said it comes
down to taxes. “Our city council love our
firemen, our police officers and other
employees,” she said in a statement last
week. “We hate to lose any of them.
And, we have a fiscal responsibility to
our taxpayers. For five years, we have
operated on a bare bones budget. There is
no room to raise taxes given the level of
taxes our people already carry. We have
to make very hard choices.”
Responding to public criticism that
the city should have planned ahead in
the absence of another SAFER grant,
Comptroller Katie Mack said the city
was stretched paper thin with expenses.
“Even if we raised taxes all the way to the
tax cap, there would have been layoffs,”
said Mack in December. “It was just one
of the difficult choices we had to make
this year.”
Paying for the 12 positions would have
cost the city about $1.2 million for the
year, she said. At Newburgh City Hall on
Nov. 27, the mayor cited some of the city’s
major expenses. “Here we are needing
police officers,” Kennedy said. “We need
equipment, we have a $40-million sewer
problem... every which way you turn,
more money is needed.”
When asked if it was possible for the
city to receive a third SAFER grant, city
Acting Fire Chief Terry Ahlers said it was
unlikely. Moreover, new SAFER grants do
not pay for staff retention, he said, only
new hires. “We could hire them back,”
Ahlers added, “but, I don’t think they’re
going to wait to see what happens.”
The dozen firefighters are young,
with whole careers ahead of them, he
said. “Their chances of getting hired
by another fire department are good,”
Ahlers said. “They need security.”
The layoffs would result in more
firefighter injuries and larger fires,
Ahlers said. “We’re going to lose one
firemen off every fire truck on every
shift,” he said. “We would have one guy
searching for victims in a building where
we now have two.”
Ahlers said he has faith the positions
can be maintained through some form
of funding found between now and July.
“The last time we received the grant, we
were one week away from layoffs,” he
said. “We’ll do everything we can.”
NYPD detective commits suicide at Billy Joe’s Ribworks
A young NYPD detective took his own life outside
of Billy Joe’s Ribworks last week. The man’s body was
found on an outdoor patio at the restaurant on Sunday,
Jan. 28. City of Newburgh Police state he died of a single
gunshot wound to the head.
“The investigation of this incident has been completed
and been ruled a suicide,” city police reported last
Wednesday.
His body was reportedly found by a restaurant worker
around 11 a.m. that Sunday, after being seen at the
restaurant the night before. City police are withholding
the man’s name. However, several news sources have
identified the man as 36-year-old Nicholas Budney, a
detective with the 47th Precinct in the Bronx.
According to the New York Post, Budney had been
hospitalized for a minor car accident immediately before
going to the restaurant-bar, located on the Newburgh
Waterfront.
An obituary stated the Rock Tavern resident attended
SUNY Plattsburgh and John Jay College of Criminal
Justice. After graduating from the New York City Police
Academy, he was assigned to the 47th Precinct. Budney
was a member of Special Operations, served with
Emergency Service Unit Truck 3 and named Officer of
the Year four times.
Budney was also a member of the North Highlands
Fire Department, where he was recently named Fireman
of the Year. He leaves behind his wife Shannon Sheehan
Budney.
Memorial donations may be made to the NYC Detective
Endowment Association Widows and Orphans Fund, 26
Thomas St., New York, NY 10007.
- Shantal Riley
City of Newburgh to appoint new police chief
Continued from page 1
lieutenant and police chief in the Village of Monticello,
where he worked for 30 years. In March 2012, he began
serving as police chief in the City of Beacon.
Ciaravino has praised Solomon’s experience working
in diverse communities, earning a 2010 achievement
award from the Sullivan County NAACP. Notably,
Ciaravino said in December, Solomon “addressed a gang
problem in Monticello.”
Solomon also has extensive experience in grant
writing and managing overtime, Ciaravino said. He
also worked with building departments to address code
violations and other housing-related issues, according to
the city manager.
It has been t hree years since the city has had a
permanent police chief. The delay was caused, partly,
due to a requirement that city department heads reside
in the City of Newburgh and the Newburgh Civil Service
Commission’s refusal to promote former Acting Police
Chief Dan Cameron.