Hudson Valley News

Orange County officials Thursday announced a school-safety initiative they say could serve as a model for other counties in New York, and perhaps even elsewhere in the country. The safety plan comes one month after the mass school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. 

Orange County Executive Edward Diana made the following announcement.

The New York Archdiocese will close 24 Roman Catholic schools in a cost-saving move. Ten of these schools are in the Hudson Valley, and school administrators say they are figuring out what to do.

The Archdiocese will close 22 elementary schools and two high schools by the end of the school year, with more than 4,000 students affected. Rosalie Fegan is the principal of St. Joseph School in Millbrook, in Dutchess County – one of the schools on the closing list.

Joseph Zwilling is a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York.

TOWN OF WALLKILL – One of Governor Cuomo’s proposals in his state budget would remove the power from local judges to plead down motor vehicle tickets and all monies collected would go to Albany.

As it stands now, a judge has the authority to lower the charge and part of the fine goes to the locality. And with I-84 and New York Route 17 both running through Wallkill, the town makes tens of thousands of dollars in fines yearly that are applied to the town budget.

BEACON – If the state shuts down Beacon Correctional Facility, city Mayor Randy Casale wants questions answered before he would support it.

He wants to know how the employees would be protected and how and if the city would be made whole since it sells services to the state facility.