Ciaravino: “This city is on the rise.”
NEWBURGH – Newburgh City Manager Michael Ciaravino, who was set
to resign from his post on December 31, will be leaving instead on this
coming Friday. The city council has named Joseph Donat, the regional director
for Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney as acting city manager until a permanent
manager is selected.
At his last city council meeting on Monday night, Ciaravino offered advice
that the city stick to its guns in terms of remediating its contaminated
water from the Stewart Air National Guard Base. He said New York State
must take responsibility for the water crisis since Stewart Airport, including
the Guard base, is on state-owned land.
“My tentative conclusion is that the City of Newburgh is on their own when it comes to protecting their own interests and we really shouldn’t expect promises from anywhere in Albany to protect us from their self-interest, which is to get out of this mess as cheaply as they can,” he said.
Ciaravino didn’t mince words about the Department of Defense and the New York Air National Guard at Stewart.
“Don’t wait for the Department of Defense to do something because at the end of the day all the DoD is going to do is cover their own liabilities.”
Ciaravino offered his services for free to the city as a consultant going forward as long as the contaminated water issue continues.
The outgoing manager also had high praise for the police department under the leadership of Chief Douglas Solomon for bringing the community and department together.
Maloney commented on Donat’s appointment in Newburgh. “Joe has
done excellent work on my behalf to help the people of Newburgh –
from fighting to fix issues with the water supply to helping me secure
millions of dollars in funding for the fire department. We look forward
to continuing the partnership between my office and the City of Newburgh
over the next few months and we’re proud to leverage the talent
in our office to help the community,” he said on Tuesday.
