Cornwall selectmen praise Emergency Management Team

“It was quite a Fourth of July and July 5th event. I think things worked out pretty well considering the situation we were in.”
— First Selectman Gordon Ridgway

CORNWALL — The Cornwall Board of Selectmen outlined the town’s response to the July 4 storm, discussed plans for pickleball courts and provided an update on last winter’s firetruck purchase at its July 7 meeting.

First Selectman Gordon Ridgway said the storm impacts could have been much worse, but thanks to the town’s system for filing road-closure tickets with utility companies, officials were able to get roads reopened quickly. At one point, he said, about 15 roads in the northeast corner of town were blocked and 25% of the town was without power.

Ridgway said that if there’s a silver lining when it comes to storms, it’s the work of Cornwall’s Emergency Management team. The two-person team, Diane Beebe and Jane Hall, was responsible for filing road-closure tickets with utility companies to help get roads reopened.

“Thanks again to all the volunteers who came out, the highway department, emergency management people, first responders that had been out for a while that night and went to Pawling,” Ridgway said, referring to local crews who assisted with a fire at a CVS in New York.

“It was quite a Fourth of July and July 5th event. I think things worked out pretty well considering the situation we were in.”

The first priority after a storm is getting roads back open, Ridgway said, and power restoration comes second. A primary concern during the July 4 storm was whether parts of town would be cut off from emergency response teams due to service outages and fallen trees.

To monitor that, he said, a local resident lent use of a drone to see the extent of damage beyond where roads were blocked. Ridgway said some trees were still coming down in Cornwall on Tuesday, but for the most part, everything reopened.

In parts of town, Cornwall Bridge in particular, it barely rained, according to Selectman John Brown. While there’s little recovery left to be done in Cornwall, Ridgway said, “we’ll continue to monitor the needs of our neighbors and neighboring towns to see if we can be of assistance that way.”

He said he heard stories of locals taking in stranded motorists during the storm.

During public comment, local resident Tom Barrett praised the town’s use of email updates to keep residents aware of road conditions over the weekend.

“It was really nice to get Jane’s emails. You could follow the progress of what was happening,” he said.

Barrett said he was also curious about a different agenda item: plans to pave new pickleball courts in town.

There’s room for two courts on the site that formerly housed the Little Guild’s temporary trailer kennels during its renovations, Ridgway said. The site would need to be leveled and paved, and exercise equipment could be added if the budget allows.

Jane Hall, who serves as the Town Hall administrative assistant, beach director and assistant emergency management director in Cornwall, said plans for the project haven’t been finalized, but will be updated after the town’s paving bid closes on July 21. The bid covers the 64’ by 64’ courts and three roads.

Ridgway said a regular Thursday night crowd frequents the pickleball courts on Foote field, and he expects work on the addition will be underway soon.

“That’s until somebody tells us no, but so far it’s been enthusiastic,” Ridgway said. “I mean, a crowd in Cornwall is not a crowd anywhere else, but we’ve had some nice support.”

In other news, the two new firetrucks purchased for the Cornwall Volunteer Fire Department still need to be outfitted before they make their way to town, Ridgway said.

“They are in line, on order and will hopefully be here by next July,” Ridgway said.

The trucks, a mini pumper and a custom rescue pumper, cost $438,957 and $861,451 respectively, Hall said in a phone call after the meeting. The town was given a $100,000 discount from the seller, Massachusetts based Greenwood Emergency Vehicles LLC, by purchasing the trucks as a pair with an upfront payment, bringing the total cost to $1,200,408.

Last fall, fundraising efforts made replacing the previous, outdated equipment a possibility.

In other business, Hall and the board discussed summer programs at Hammond Beach.

Hall said a new kayaking program takes place at Hammond Beach every Tuesday morning. The board noted that other programs, like free swimming lessons, are running smoothly, and emphasized the beach’s importance during the recent heatwave.

“It’s a great gift, especially great to have during our batch of super hot weather, to have that resource for people to go up there and cool down and relax,” Ridgway said. “The lifeguards are enthusiastic, attentive, and the kids are splashing. That’s what it’s supposed to be about.”