Village holds special meeting on battery storage facility fire

The Village of Warwick held a special meeting on Jan. 13 to enter executive session to obtain legal advice from village counsel regarding the fire that occurred at the Church Street battery energy storage system facility last month.

“We are trying to define our stance and where we’re we’re headed and we have to do that of course with our legal counsel by our side,” said Mayor Michael Newhard. “Our desire is to be as completely transparent with our actions as we should be.”

During the meeting, which was open to the public prior to the board entering executive session, Newhard shared that the village would hold an internal meeting with Orange and Rockland, which would include himself, Trustee Thomas McKnight, village attorney Benjamin Gailey and village engineer Keith Woodruff. Although the Newhard said at the recent board meeting that this meeting would occur during a public session, he explained at the special meeting, that Orange and Rockland had asked to keep the initial meeting private.

He added that the board agreed to keep the dialogue open and moving forward and that this is just the beginning of what the village believes will be other meetings, where the public will be welcome. He said that the village will relay as much as they can to the community from this meeting.