by Garrett Deutermann
September 5th meeting
Tuesday, September fifth, City Council members motioned to appoint Captain Glen Scofield to Chief of Police and appoint Detective Sergeant Musmeci to Detective Lieutenant. Councilman Lee Kyriacou called a point of order, referring to a section of the local charter, “My understanding is, no appointments can be made without the issue being discussed at workshop.” City Attorney Gerard Pisanelli, who looked at the section of charter in question, said this instance fell into a gray area, but it was prudent to have the appointments put to workshop before being voted on.
Later in the month, when further questioned about the appointment, Councilman Phil Shea said, “The appointments had not been work shopped” at the September eleventh workshop, one reason being, “City Administrator Joe Braun was not present, so it could not be discussed.” There has been nothing more on the appointments to date.
September 18th meeting
On the September 18th meeting, Councilman Stephen Gold announced that
an engineer had been hired to oversee the Tioranda Bridge renovation.
The bridge, built circa 1860, has fallen into disrepair as, among other
issues, the stonework holding it together has been compromised with
age, and it is no longer capable of bearing any weight.
There are concerns the bridge may have to be removed to make the necessary repairs, and removing the bridge may cause the failure of a sewer pipe underneath the bridge and its contents may be spilled into the Fishkill Creek.
Dennis Pavelock, in the public comments section of the meeting, referenced a bridge in the Catskills from the same time period as the Tioranda Bridge that was successfully repaired with out being removed. Pavelock stressed the importance of keeping the bridge as original as possible to keep the bridge’s charm intact.
Councilman Gold said in a private interview after the meeting, “The engineer has just been hired this past Friday (September 15th). We do not yet know what is required to totally fix the bridge, but the engineer has been advised keeping the bridge’s historical integrity is a serious priority.”
“It is a part of Beacon’s history, and its for Beacon’s history tourists come here,” Beacon Concerned Citizens President Pavelock later went on to say.
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