By Mary Jane Pitt
When the Cornwall Town Board met last week – on Tuesday, Jan. 20 – the board members tackled nine resolutions. All were discussed at the January 13 work session meeting of the board; both meetings can be viewed via the town’s website (cornwallny.gov) and social media pages.
Among the resolutions adopted were:
West Shore Trail Line Study: This asks Governor Kathy Hochul to conduct a study exploring more passenger trains on Cornwall’s side (the west side) of the Hudson River. Cornwall’s Dan DeFalco has been at several recent meetings to ask the board to support this; he has also asked other municipalities to endorse the idea. At the start of the January 20 meeting a City of Newburgh resident praised the board for adopting the resolution.The supervisor said copies of the legislation will be sent to the governor and other state and federal elected officials, the Department of Transportation and the Metropolitan Transit Authority.
Land Use Moratorium: The board voted to extend its building moratorium by 90 days. The moratorium, first enacted by the board in August 2025, halted any new building projects during a six-month period. Now that it is extended – which the board is allowed to do, twice – it will now expire on May 13. Wojehowski said that doing so gives the board the time to review a soon-to-be completed Comprehensive Plan update.
Because they extended the moratorium, the board also began the process of giving a land-use moratorium hardship waiver to the Hudson Valley Golf Foundation. A public hearing on that will be held at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 3. Because the moratorium was extended, the ongoing work at the Hudson Valley Golf Foundation’s Storm King Golf Course cannot continue. In a letter to the board earlier this month, President David A. Gang said a hardship consideration would allow “construction activities, including the parking area, driveway modifications, and new water service” during the moratorium.
Pro Housing Community: The board passed a resolution adopting the state’s ‘Pro-Housing Community’ designation, which allows the town to tap into state resources for the building of new housing. The supervisor, speaking last week, said this is important to do because Cornwall has not had much growth in recent years, with the exception of three or four “McMansions” each year.
“I don’t want Cornwall to become the land of McMansions,” he said. The supervisor added on January 20 that adopting this legislation “unlocks $1-$2 million in infrastructure money for people who want to invest in our community. We would be foolhardy to walk away from this”.
Councilwoman Rokhsha Michael-Razi added that more affordable housing should be a priority for the town.
Deputy Supervisor Tim McCarty said on January 13 he has concerns about the state government requiring participation in these distinctions, calling it “state government stepping in and telling us how to run our lives.” At the January 20 meeting he voted no on the issue.
In public comment, Cornwall’s Nancy Bryan said she hoped the board had “input from all your shareholders” before making the Pro-Housing resolution, specifically mentioning the school district (“our schools are at capacity”) and first responders.
Next, there were two resolutions pertaining to stipends on the agenda. In both of these matters, after public comment against them, the supervisor explained that both stipends were approved as part of the town’s 2026 budget work and “were not put in after the budget was adopted” as a way to increase both his and the town clerk’s salaries.
The public comment on the matter prior to the discussion on January 13 was from Eileen Reagan, who said she had called other municipalities and found they do not provide such a stipend; and former Supervisor Richard Randazzo who asked if it was allowable since the supervisor’s salary for the year had already been published as part of the budget process.
On January 20, one speaker said the tax collections should be done by the elected receiver of taxes (Wojehowski said later that that person is a part-time, seasonal, employee, as opposed to the town clerk who is a full-time employee). Nancy Bryan said it was “a big concern” that the clerk and supervisor get raises, and also asked if the supervisor’s designation of handling stormwater matters gives him the authority to go around the various municipal boards if “someone comes to him and wants something done that shouldn’t be?”
Stipend for Hote & Tourism Facility Tax Collection: The first established a stipend for Hotel & Tourism Facility Tax collection. The $5000 stipend would go to the town clerk. Up until this week, the town’s Building Department has handled registration, permitting and any required inspections or code enforcement of short-term rentals under the town’s code. Since enacting a hotel and short-term rental tax, Wojehowski’s secretary has handled the quarterly tax collection. As the program expands using new state-mandated registries and technology to locate unregistered hosts, the workload will need to be handled by a department with the appropriate staffing, he said. The supervisor added he doesn’t want the building department “getting bogged down in administrative garbage” since their focus should be on safety – code enforcement and building permits.
“The clerk’s office, on the other hand, has a full-time staff and are set up to do this,” he said. “She is well positioned to take this over and to manage it.” Wojehowski also said, in his opinion, “the $5000 is a measly amount”, but they set it keeping taxpayers in mind.
On January 13, McCarty agreed that the clerk’s office “has an excellent staff” who could easily handle the collection of taxes that are expected to continue to grow in the coming months and years. When it came time to vote on January 20, he abstained from voting.
Stipend for MS4 Stormwater Management Officer: This is a $4800 stipend for Wojehowski to oversee the town’s state-mandated MS4 Stormwater program. He explained that the job of managing storm water has changed through the years as state and federal requirements have grown.
“Every few years the state has been enacting or phasing in new requirements and regulations that require municipalities to respond and update their programs. I’ve got to make sure all the work gets done,” he said, saying there are trainings required which significant amount of time. “Will I be going out in my little blue car and sucking up leaves before every storm? No, but I’m making sure the day-to-day work gets done by our departments and consultants. These MS-4 responsibilities are not part of the statutory duties of the town supervisor under NYS law.”