Southern Ulster Times Jan. 09 2019

T IMES SOUTHERN Lloyd addresses lack of affordable housing ULSTER Vol. 16, No. 2 3 JANUARY 9 - 15, 2019 3 ONE DOLLAR Letters to Doris Dukes roll Page 17 Page 36 SERVING HIGHLAND, MARLBOROUGH AND PLATTEKILL School to prison pipeline? Restorative Justice Center opens in Ulster By MARK REYNOLDS [email protected] At the first Lloyd Town Board meeting of 2019, Councilman Joe Mazzetti again touched upon the lack of compliance with the Affordable Housing provisions in the town code. A recent Freedom of Information request by the Southern Ulster Times revealed that Lloyd’s Town and Planning Boards have failed to have owners/ developers of residential projects provide 10 percent of their units for Affordable Housing, despite it being required in the code. The FOIL request also showed that on numerous occasions the Building Department and the town’s land use attorney have not compelled the Planning Board to ensure that a developer provide affordable housing units when it came time for the board to vote on approving their projects. Mazzetti provided board members with an opinion he received from Sarah Brancatella, of the Association of Towns, who stated that a town may retroactively enforce provisions of its code. “The mistaken or erroneous issuance of a permit does not estop Continued on page 5 On December 27, Ulster County Executive Mike Hein cut the ceremonial ribbon to open the Restorative Justice and Empowerment Center in midtown Kingston. By MARK REYNOLDS [email protected] On December 27, County Executive Mike Hein cut the ceremonial ribbon to open the new $3.2 million Ulster County Restorative Justice and Empowerment Center at 733 Broadway in Midtown Kingston. Hein began by thanking his task force for providing him with invaluable advice and praised the Ulster County Legislature for fully supporting the center. Hein said the project came in under budget and on time; thanking all of the contractors for transforming a relatively small space into the most technologically advanced structure in Ulster County. Hein said reading a disturbing statistic is what propelled him into action. “Almost 85 percent of people born WWW.SOUTHERNULSTERTIMES.COM into poverty die in poverty, that was a chilling number. The idea that we are the kind of country, whether we like it or not, that has incarcerated a larger percentage of our citizens per capita than any other country in the world; that system hasn’t worked,” he said. Hein said the Ulster County center is aimed at creating more varied opportunities in a system that all too Continued on page 2