Remarks by Torrance Harvey
177 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 8
“making well I want to ask because normally the Casco aqueduct shuts down sometime in the fall for a certain period of time and then we go on to Browns is there a scheduled shutdown for Casco aqueduct repairs as they typically do this time of year or is there any of those dates coming up you are correct typically in the past those Catskill aqueduct shutdowns have occurred in the fall there's no”
“mayor harvey yes jason i know at one point we were talking about a few years back when we were doing dealing with all the pfos contamination at the washington lake we were talking about the delaware uh aqueduct which is not far from here the connector i believe is somewhere between here and middle hope um in the marlboro area roosting area yeah in that area so is that an alternative god forbid if the browns pond can only go six weeks or you know eight weeks and then the casket aqueduct being shut down for 11 weeks in 2028 Do you think it will be a good alternative to look at the Delaware…”
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
“Comments or questions? Mayor Harvey? You answer my question. I was going to ask you, what were the next steps? Because I'm really excited about this and moving this forward. So how long will this these environmental matters and things take, you know?”
“Mayor Irving. Yeah, I just wanted to add that the last I knew of the numbers with the previous administration that it was going to cost roughly about $2 million, and we had that $1.9 million put into a reserve fund. But I will say, like the swimming pool, the aquatic center, The longer it takes to go to bid and get shovels in the ground, costs tend to go up. I think it would be worth the discussion of looking at possible bonding out some of the funds if we can't get the grant funding, additional grant funding.”
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
“Mayor Harvey. So, Ali, and this is not to slight you or anyone in the planning department or the gentleman that is on record to be voted upon because I'm very familiar with this gentleman as an employee of the city, etc., etc. But what I'm saying is that I take a lot of heat when people put in offers for properties that the city owns and the can gets kicked down the road for whatever reason for an extended amount of time because the person that allegedly, and I say allegedly because I'm going to look over these dates and these times and so on and so forth, the person that put in the bid well…”
“Can you give me a specific date on that, when they withdrew? Because I'm going to be talking with this family.”
“Let's go to the beginning. So their first offer was when?”
“All right, can we, hold on, I need to see, I don't see where that, okay, okay. So December 3rd it was listed.”
“Okay, December 3rd, 2025 was when it was listed.”
“Okay, so what you're suggesting to me, miss kelson is is. Yeah, yeah, hold on let me let me I'm trying to reiterate this because I need this to be on record and I need this be clear okay if someone goes on maternity leave which is professionally in legally justified. There's no contingency for someone else to step into that, and these are the internal controls that several council members have been talking about when we talk about process. So if someone goes on maternity leave in this department or any other department, what is the contingency for someone else to carry on the business of the…”
“So no one else in this department could have stepped up to move this forward?”
“See, and that's where the disconnect happens. That's where the trickery happens.”
“Okay, well, let me say this. I choose my words, and I use the word trickery because that's the heat that I get when I get in these streets. Wow. These people are feeling like there's injustice going on with the sales of properties in the city of Newburgh, and that's been the narrative for decades, okay? And I feel that heat, and I'm going to choose my words because it feels like trickery because we got dates and bullets on this document, and we can't tell me on the record in a public meeting when did this woman put in that offer, okay? so that I can look at the evaluate and the timeline on…”
“What's the date for the woman, and I don't want to use names, but what is the date of the African-American woman that put this? All right, so...”
“All right. Well, I'm going to say I'm going to recommend that we pause on this until we get all the facts because it feels like some injustice and it feels like some trickery.”
“No. Mayor Harvey. Well, I'll let Rob go. Go ahead, Rob. Go ahead, Rob. Go ahead.”
“any mayor harvey yeah and like i said there's nothing slighting um um the gentleman who has uh been requested for um the vote and and for the property it's not there's nothing personal even with the with your department uh mrs church it's just that I have to communicate and represent all the constituents that are in our city, and I have to, when there's frustration in one particular group of constituents that communicate that same energy to me and several other council members, we have to address it. The city of Newburgh's government, unfortunately, has had a history of corruption prior to my…”
“Is that what you all want? i would prefer to stick i've built my whole schedule around this schedule so i would prefer to keep it okay so it's it's not a problem for me if if the four want to have the work session it just means that the three of us that are at a conference will have to meet with the city manager um when we return and and i i i meet with him daily anyway so we could do a zoom um but yeah or just make the time up when we get back”
“good evening good evening ladies and gentlemen I hope everybody's having a wonderful Tuesday and had a great day off yesterday was a federal holiday many of us like to call it indigenous people day others refer to it as Columbus Day so October the 13th 2026 it's just a little bit after the hour two two minutes after the hour so this is the city of Newburgh City Council meeting we're gonna have a brief moment of silence and there was a tragedy that took place New York City where uh ice agents um according to reports shot into a car in marble hill section of new york city uh and my…”
“Thank you very much. I Next on our agenda under communications, item number four, we need an approval for the minutes from the city council meeting September 28th, 2026. So moved. First motion is set up by Councilman Shakur. Do we have a second? Second. Seconded by Councilmember Monteverde. Roll call on the motion, please.”
“monteverde shakur yes stewart yes zoria yes mayor harvey yes so carried thank you very much item number five under communications we have the city manager's update and we have mr jason morris presenting the city manager's update as the city manager thank you mayor thank you we'll start with the recreation department”
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.