BY: Keith S. Shikowitz, Editor in Chief/Investigative Reporter
This board meeting began on the same note as all others with the Pledge of Allegiance and the roll call of Trustees. Although the next item brought a somber moment to it.
Mayor Mike Kohut had the responsibility to announce a sad event.
The meeting itself began with public participation before we get to our public hearing. Seeing none, Kohut began the public hearing on the discontinuation of Dock Street. He asked their counsel to come up and discuss that for us. First he asked for a motion to open the public hearing, and then they got into the discussion. He got the motion and approval to continue.
Mr. David J. Cooper from the law firm Zarin & Steinmetz came to the podium. “Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of the board, David Cooper, partner with the law firm of Zarin & Steinmetz serving as the Village’s special counsel in the redevelopment of the Chair Factory Site.”
“Before the board is a proposal to discontinue Dock Street, which is the somewhat paved, somewhat, unpaved, Road or access point that kind of curves to the left at the end of Main Street instead of into Emmeline Park. It’s potentially a village street.”
“It’s actually not clear from, the record as to whether or not that is a either a street or a village street, but in connection with the development of the chair factory site that portion of the property is going to be redeveloped and some of it may be conveyed eventually to the master developer some of it may be retained by the village, but to the extent that the street it needs to be discontinued so before you tonight is to hold a public hearing on the potential discontinuance because that’s a prerequisite of discontinuing any street and then should, the board find that it’s no longer a necessary street and wish to discontinue it, there’s a resolution before you to discontinue the street.”
When Cooper finished his presentation, Kohut asked for public comment. No one commented so Kohut read through the resolution.
“It will be in the minutes of the meeting, but the relevant part states where the village board finds that Dock Street is not presently publicly accessible, has not functioned as an active public street, and is not needed for public traffic. Therefore, be it resolved, the village board hereby closes the public hearing on December 1 regarding the proposed discontinuance and further resolves that the village board hereby discontinues Dock Street pursuant to Village law Section 6612 and declares that such land is no longer needed for public or municipal purposes.” Kohut closed the public hearing and asked for a motion to approve the discontinuance. Motion was made and approved by the board. Dock street was officially discontinued.
Two more resolutions were discussed and voted on and subsequently approved. Kohut then moved on to reports from Village officials, beginning with Village Attorney Jay Hood.
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“So, one item tonight, has to do with the Dowd Street Tower. It’s really just, basically who’s going to be controlling it on their end.”
There was some confusion about the name of the old company because it was not found in any of the documents, but Hood stated it’s going to be changed over to Infratowers.
“I did reach out to, Mike Musso, who’s our expert on this. He said that it’s not unusual that they change companies. So, I have no problem with it, and I think you can sign it.”
Kohut asked, “So, you just need a motion authorizing me to sign the Amendment to the memorandum of ground lease agreement?” He got his motion, and the authorization was approved.
Under the Mayor’s report, the only thing he had to do at this point is reorganization which he did in bunches instead of having each item approved individually. He reappointed a number of people to their current positions announcing the length of their terms of service. He also announced when certain boards were going to be meeting. The dates and times of those boards can be found on the Village Website. All of the appointments were approved.
The next group dealt with village monies. “The depositories for the village the board of trustees is designating banks and trust companies located within the North Rockland area to be used as depositories of all monies received by the village treasurer, clerk and receiver of taxes, and also for, to allow us to utilize New York class for the deposit of monies, which is that consortium that we’ve been depositing money with and for the procurement policy, Board of Trustees is adopting a procurement policy with an award to the lowest bidder of best value after public advertisement in the official newspaper for purchase of public works contracts of varying amounts.
Then came the reorganization of the village employees.
“We have budget adjustments.” According to Kohut, there were a lot of budget adjustments that were made, too many to read into the record so he summarized them. “Increase appropriations by the sum of $563,322.73 decrease appropriations by the sum of $44,664.44 and increase revenues by the sum of $519,294.29 and to decrease revenue by $636 and that balances out to the total of 563, 32273.”
We are now moving on to fire and ordinances Truste Carlevaro.
“Thank you, Mayor. I have a report from the Haverstraw Fire Department on December 1st, 2025. The following is the summary of activity of the Haverstraw Fire Department for the month of November 2025. Total alarms 20, general alarms 15, Special calls 5, mutual aid calls 0. Structural fires 0. Cooking fires 2. Electrical fires 3. Vehicle fires 1, brush fires 1, trash rubbish fire 2, gas leaks 2, pump outs and mortar leaks 1, stuck elevator 1. Good intentions, miscellaneous 3. Assist police and other agencies 1 and false alarms 3. Total manpower responding 303 members submitted by Chief Tom Price. So ends my report.”
When the fire statistics were finished Carlevaro announced, “I have two gentlemen, who would like to join, General Warren. I have two individuals. One is by the name of Tamara Wilson. They are of legal age, and they were sponsored by a very reputable firefighter, Jimmy Wong. The other person is Alan Gomez. They both live in the village, by the way and I recommend and I make a motion that we accept as firefighters to General Warren Company number 2. Their nominations were approved.
Carlevaro then reported on his main committee, buildings and grounds. “I have a task list from the commissioner of the DPW Oswald Reyes dated from 11/17 to 11/26 2025. They installed new overnight signs on village streets. What they did is we, some of the signs were complicated and convoluted, so it made everything a lot clearer. We took the old signs down and put new signs up that made sense and easy to follow.
Actually, we modified a bunch of signs, so we didn’t spend a lot of money. We black topped the Catch basin on Highland Street and fixed the potholes on Dowd Street for parking lots 1 and 7. They cleaned the sidewalks with blowers on Main Street, New Main and Broadway. Ran sprinkler system at Manny Lopez Field and blew up the lines and Seal Crack Jefferson Park. So that’s my report.”
Trustee Sena had no new information from Youth and Family Services.
Trustee Santana did have new information from Buildings and codes. “I have a building department report of activities from November 17, 2025, through November 28th, 2025. Rental registration zero. Miscellaneous inspections 56. Complaints two, searches zero, construction inspections three, violations and tickets zero, permits NCO 6, fines collected at court, $4350 and so on. So ends the report for the building’s department.
There were no minutes for approval and no new or old business from the board that was not already covered.
So Kohut moved on to the second public participation. I asked about the discontinuance of Dock Street.
“When it’s all, said and done, will that be a private road for maintenance and snow removal, or who will the village be responsible for that at that point? What will it become?”
“It will no longer be a road. It will be part of the chair factory development. Honestly, it may be a retaining wall for the project. It’s pedestrian only access or mainstream. There’s buildings. It’s actually part of it will be a retaining wall and whatever’s on the other side of the retainer like a stairwell. The owners of the property will be responsible for the maintenance of it.”
“Please rise for a moment of silence in memory of Rafael Bueno.” The meeting adjourned after that point. The next meeting will be December 15, 2025, 7:00 pm Haverstraw Village Hall.”