Parks, pools, police reform and cannabis biz are pride of 2021

Michael P. Sweeton

The State of our Town is strong. We live in one of the most beautiful, vibrant communities in all of New York State. We have three vibrant and economically strong Villages, as well as numerous hamlets led by our largest Pine Island. We have over 4,400 acres of preserved farms and more than 8,000 acres of the most productive soil in America, our famous black dirt. We have innovative zoning that respects our environment, facilitates energy innovation and encourages business development. We live in a safe community with a professional police force, great schools and recreational opportunities second to none. While Covid 19 continues to cause health concerns for our community we refuse to succumb to its fears or let it crush our spirit.

2021 saw much progress in our Town. We put in place safeguards to protect our employees so they could safely remain on the job to serve our residents. We adopted and began implementation of our EO 203 police reform plan that included seeking NYS Accreditation for the department and an updating of our police policies to ensure we continue to protect all our residents as we have always done.

We continued to expand recreational opportunities with upgrades in our many parks as well as opening the Town’s first municipal pools at the former Kutz Camp. Our redevelopment efforts at the former Mid-Orange Correctional Facility took a giant leap forward with the complete renovation, in a public-private partnership, of the dairy barn now operating as a CBD extraction facility, processing locally grown black dirt hemp. GTI, a national company, bought the remaining undeveloped land and began construction of a 400,000 sq. ft., 175-million-dollar facility related to the newly adopted NY State cannabis law. All commercial properties at the former prison are now in private hands, generating tax revenues and jobs for our residents!

With the help of our State representatives Senator Martucci, Assemblyman Brabenec and Assemblywoman Gunther we successfully got our home rule bill to extend the successful Community Preservation Fund to 2050. Former Gov. Cuomo signed it into law and now Warwick’s successful program to protect and preserve working farms in our valley will continue. We currently are working on acquiring the development rights on four farms with eight others considering entering the program. The benefits of this program will ensure that our children and grandchildren enjoy this beautiful valley and all it has to offer.

2022 will be an exciting year with many challenges but many more rewards. The town board and I look forward to working on your behalf in the year ahead.

Town residents can drop off Christmas trees on Public Works Drive, across from the Warwick Dial-A-Bus building, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. through January 31st.

The next regular meeting of the Town Board will be held on Thursday, January 20, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. in the Warwick Town Hall, 132 Kings Highway.