Town considers law prohibiting for-profit, door-to-door solicitation

The Town Board of Warwick, at its April 23 meeting, scheduled a public hearing on the adoption of a proposed Introductory Local Law called “The Town of Warwick Temporary Moratorium on the Acceptance and Processing of Application for Peddler or Solicitor License.” The local law aims to prohibit for-profit, door-to-door solicitation in the town.

“This is specifically geared toward for-profit solicitation, including real estate developers and real estate agents and pretty much anyone that is trying to make a profit who go door to door,” said Supervisor Jesse Dwyer while explaining the law.

“This does not stop the Boy Scouts from going door to door, this does not stop religious entities from going door to door ... your politicians can still go door to door, because those are constitutionally protected activities,” he explained. “What is not protected under the Constitution are people going door to door asking you to sell your house, and those are the things we want to curb in the Town of Warwick.”

The public hearing is set for May 14 at 7 p.m, and while the law banning door to door sales is being constructed, a moratorium will be placed on the applications for soliciting.

Calls for awareness in work zones

Board members also addressed the ongoing construction that is taking place across the town. During his reports to the board, Police Chief John Rader mentioned that he and other officers had to stop a vehicle that was heading towards a construction flagger.

“People have to allow more time, take the alternate routes, respect the neighborhoods that they’re cutting through. Our officers are out there on these construction sites and around these neighborhoods every day, and we’re doing our best to keep these construction workers safe and these projects moving,” said Chief Rader.

Councilman Kevin Shuback stated that the Village of Florida had an issue where an individual got out of their vehicle and started yelling at the construction workers.

“It’s not going to help anyone. Please just have a little patience,” said Councilman Shuback.

Supervisor Dwyer also commented on the state of construction in the town and addressed certain projects that will continue to have an impact on traffic in the community.

“Another very big impact that we see on the horizon is on Galloway Road, between Larry’s Deli and the country club. That section is to be closed to local traffic only from June until September, and the reason they’re going to do that is that is when school’s out, they won’t have to divert school busses around local roads during that time, but that will be a full detour from June to September,” stated Supervisor Dwyer.

“We understand that that is going to have an enormous impact on those local businesses ... as we get more information on this, we will share it with the public,” the Supervisor added.

Plans to add more preserved land

The board recently applied for two grants through the Orange County Open Space Fund to add more preserved land to the town. One grant that was applied for was for the purchase of a 30 acre tree farm, and the other was for a 24 acre parcel on Route 94S near the Price Chopper. The board has plans to create a multi-use trail on the 24 acre property to connect residents of the Village of Warwick to the shopping district of the town.

“It will be an integral part to our multi-use trail that we are partnering the Village of Warwick on. We want to create a multi-use trail – which is a bike trail, hiking trail, walking trail, – that connects the Village of Warwick to the central shopping district,” said Supervisor Dwyer.

Other business

Councilman Russ Kowal provided an update on the progress of creating a battery storage ordinance for the town and stated that good progress was being made on the project.

“I think we’re going to have a draft for the committee to look at within the next few weeks, and then after reviewing it we’ll turn it over to the board for their review, and then it’ll be out for public review, and hopefully sometime in the summer we can ratify it,” said Councilman Kowal.

Another public hearing was scheduled for May 14 to consider projects to be submitted for HUD funding through Orange County Community Development grant program.

The next Coffee with a Supervisor program will take place on Tuesday, May 12 at Table 21 in Pine Island from 9 to 10 a.m. Supervisor Dwyer stated that the first installment of the program went well, and thanked department heads and residents for attending.