Tuesday debate draws a full house

Warwick - A full house came to the Warwick Valley Community Center Tuesday night to witness the debate between Warwick Supervisor Michael Sweeton and challenger Penny Steyer. Sponsored by the Warwick Valley Chamber of Commerce, a panel of four local journalists each asked two questions of the candidates. Moderator Chris Mele from The Times-Herald Record posed questions audience members submitted as they came into the room. Question topics ranged from village-town relationships, to consolidating services and spurring the local economy, and included queries on development and zoning. With limited commercial property left in the town, Steyer said she would look to attract low-impact businesses, such as those focusing on the arts, including journalism and studios for photography, sound and film-making. Warwick has some nice pockets of commercial properties throughout the town, Steyer said. She suggested exploring bringing more business relating to journalism here. “Journalism has a home right here in Warwick,” she said, even suggesting that an educational aspect to the field could be located here. She also put forward the idea that the film industry would love Warwick’s charm and beauty. “We certainly have scenic areas and a wonderful downtown area,” Steyer remarked. “Such areas would be terrific for photo shoots, as well as for filming commercials, other film projects, and would bring lots of people here to buy lunch, shop downtown and possibly stay in our quaint bed and breakfasts.” Sweeton outlined his three-pronged approach, which he said he has been putting into action for the past four years. First, he said, is to develop agricultural business, already the largest industry in the town. He said that allowing innovative opportunities to traditional farm businesses like the Bellvale Creamery and the Warwick Valley Winery has allowed many farms to diversify. Second, he said, is to focus on medium and small businesses. “We’ve made it very easy to have a home-based occupation,” said Sweeton. “We’ve streamlined the process so that there is no Planning Board approval needed.” Third, he said, is the crowning jewel, the newly formed Warwick Development Coalition. The group’s business-development initiative included sending out 350 packets to high-tech, clean-industry companies in an effort to get them to relocate to Warwick. They also addressed the possible expansion and relocation of St. Anthony Community Hospital. Sweeton said the hospital, which is a huge employer in the town, has expressed a desire to move out to Route 94. We don’t want them to move from the Town of Warwick, he said. We will work with them. Steyer said there is nothing like having health care right here in town. She suggested the hospital look at alternate sites like the Georgia Pacific building in the village as well as satellite sites throughout the town. “We should encourage St. Anthony Community Hospital to bring satellite offices to the other side of Mt. Peter,” she said, noting the lack of services in the Greenwood Lake area. Both Sweeton and Steyer agreed the town and villages should try to consolidate services and recreation sites and they also agreed the towns should share equally in the cost of upgrading recreation facilities. Sweeton said the town did a comprehensive recreation study about a year and a half ago. Mayors from the villages have submitted their requests to the town. Steyer said the town should aim to bring all recreation services together, to unify the villages and the town with one cohesive plan. Both candidates say they also would like to work toward consolidation of services within the town. “I’d definitely be interested in merging all three police departments,” said Steyer. Merging, she said, would save overtime and provide better service to the entire town. “I have no doubt a consolidated police force would be more efficient,” Sweeton said. “We presented a plan to Greenwood Lake four or five years ago. It didn’t work for them.” Greenwood Lake and the Town of Warwick are still negotiating. But the Village of Florida is not interested in consolidation at this time. Still, the goal would be to consolidate eventually, Sweeton explained. Although both candidates are proponents of the purchase of development rights and open-space conservation, they differed about the means to achieve such goals. Steyer charged that to give developers a bonus for the kind of high-density development known as clustering is to squander the benefits achieved. “When you look very closely at how the zoning is written, by giving bonuses to developers simply by labeling a development a cluster, we’ve upped the number of acres and then we lowered them,” Steyer said. “There are 912 houses in the pipeline on 2,000 acres. That comes out to 2.2 acres per house.” “If we could take away the density bonus, we could save 30 percent of development and this would definite have an impact on our taxes and us.” Sweeton’s numbers were different. He said there are 550 homes in the pipeline and 65 percent of them are no further along than they were four years ago. In 2002, he said, before the new zoning was passed, there were 20,000 buildable acres. That number was cut in half by the new zoning regulations. Sweeton explained that with 2,300 acres of development rights purchased through PDR and 3,000 that will be saved through Community Preservation, only 5,000 acres now are available for development. In the past five years, 149 lots have been approved on a total of 800 acres, he said. Sixty-seven percent of those 800 acres are conserved and 33 percent actually developed. But the town is currently reexamining the zoning to make sure it still fits with the town’s comprehensive plan. If any changes are to be made, said Sweeton, it will be a community decision. Still, Steyer said, giving the bonus for clustering is not a good idea. “When we made that decision, we did it expressly against the recommendation of New York State,” she said. Both candidates said they want to keep spending low. Steyer said the town has to take a real account of what it has. “We can’t always spend every dollar,” she said. “Instead of buying new equipment for the Department of Public Works, the town should look at long-term leasing.” Steyer also suggested using attrition to cut back on budgets n that is, not hiring new staff members as people resign or retire. “We have to tighten our budgets,” she added, remarking on big deficits in the New York State budget, which might lead to less in grant money for Warwick. Sweeton said the town has been fortunate to keep the budget under control. He said the town is doing more today than it did six years ago, with the same number of people. He said there are things town government can’t control, such as health care costs and worker’s compensation. “Keeping budgets under control is the toughest job I do,” he said. “There is no fat in our budget. It’s so tight, it squeaks.” The election takes place on Tuesday, Nov. 6, from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m. Running unopposed are councilmen Leonard DeBuck and Jim Gerstner. There is a contest for town justice between Richard Farina and Nancy Brenner DeAngelo.