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May 05, 2024
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General News: Village Approves Building Inspection by Town

Trustee Jim Kane read his resolution recounting how the building inspection problem occurred.
Trustee Jim Kane read his resolution recounting how the building inspection problem occurred.
March 01, 2011

The village of Cornwall-on-Hudson agreed Monday night to use the services of the town of Cornwall building inspector/code enforcer for the next 90 days. The inter-municipal agreement resolves a two-month dispute among village trustees that held up the building projects of several property owners who could not get inspections. The agreement still must be approved by the town board.

Last week, New York’s acting secretary of state ordered the village to either hire a code enforcer or enter into an inter-municipal agreement to provide code enforcement services. Mayor Gross replied to the order in a letter on Friday, saying that he expected the board to take action on Monday. He abstained from the resolution approving the agreement, which passed 4-0.

Prior to the approval, both sides gave their accounts of how the village ended up without a building inspector or code enforcer. Mayor Gross spoke first, focusing on his concerns that the letter of the law was not followed in negotiating the details of the agreement. He also blamed the delay on the need to clarify insurance issues. “I know that inspections are important for health and safety and expediency,” Mayor Gross said, “but as mayor I am required to follow the law.”

Trustee Jim Kane then read a lengthy resolution that described how a review of the residency requirement for village officers ended with the resignation of the building inspector in December.  He noted that the mayor did not take action to ammend that residency law despite legal advice showing how to do that. He also described how Mayor Gross’s proposal in January to hire a new code enforcement officer who also lived outside the village would still violate the law.

Deputy mayor Barbara Gosda expressed her view that the village should have been able to hire its own code enforcer without having to turn to the town for assistance.

After everyone on the board had weighed in how the village ended up without building inspection services, trustee Kane’s resolution that included an authorization for the mayor to sign the agreement was adopted.

Town supervisor Kevin Quigley said on Tuesday that he expects that his board will discuss approval of the agreement at its next meeting on March 7th.



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