Last week, at the first Chester Town Board meeting of 2022, the board unanimously passed my motion to send a letter to Governor Kathy Hochul about the COVID-19 situation here in Orange County. Since the Anthony Wayne Recreation Area testing facility was closed, Orange County hasn’t had a New York State testing facility at all. While Westchester, Rockland, and Ulster counties have their own. COVID-19 cases are spiking and temperatures are dropping, making this situation untenable.
We can’t rely on long lines at privately run testing sites or rapid test distributions from public officials at this time or in these conditions long term. This letter will be addressing these concerns not only on behalf of the residents of Chester, but Orange County at large. We will be mentioning that although the Anthony Wayne Recreation Area testing facility was great, it is preferable that any future location should be more central to the county so everyone will be able to travel to it with ease.
We will be sending this letter to the Orange County Legislature and executive, as well as our NYS representatives in the area to let them know we are lobbying for the governor to open a new testing facility in Orange County.
Brandon Holdridge
Chester Town Councilman