BEACON – An afternoon fire in the City of Beacon Tuesday required mutual assistance from Orange County fire departments.

The fire  was in a 445-foot by 1215-foot occupied multiple dwelling at 3 Colonial Road. First responders reported fire from the roof.

City of Newburgh and Coldenham firefighters were called to the scene to assist in the firefighting operations.

GOSHEN – Four men, including a father and son, have been indicted by an Orange County grand jury in yet another major drug trafficking case.

District Attorney David Hoovler identified the defendants as Antonio Bucci, 28, of Chester – identified as a major trafficker, Lester Zaborski, 51, of the Bronx and his son, Tyler, 26, and James Baltimore, 36, of Chester, were all charged.

Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler noted this was the 15^th major trafficking case conducted by his office.

“It is a significant drug case because we investigated it for a year and they were doing over $75,000 a month in narcotics trafficking,” he said. “This is just the type of case that I said we would continue to be proactive about these largescale drug trafficking cases in Orange County, particularly with guns. Guns were involved in this case.”

Bucci was charged as a major trafficker, along with conspiracy and related charges. He was remanded to the county jail in lieu of $500,000 cash bail, $1 million fully secured bond or $2 million partially secured bond.

Lester Zaborski was charged with drug possession and conspiracy and remanded on the same bail/bond. His son was also charged with the same crimes and remanded on $350,000 cash bail, $1 million fully secured bond or $2 million partially secured bond.

Baltimore was charged with drug possession, conspiracy and two counts of weapons possession and was remanded without bail.

TOWN OF WAPPINGER – Dutchess County Executive Sue Serino was administered her ceremonial oath of office Sunday, becoming the ninth county executive since Dutchess County switched from being governed by a board of supervisors in 1968.  Serino took the oath from Judge James Brands while surrounded by friends, family, supporters, and several aircraft inside the Dutchess Community College Aviation Programs 32,000 square-foot hangar at the Hudson Valley Regional Airport.

Several elected officials attended, including Congressman Marc Molinaro (NY-19), who held the county’s top spot for 11 years.  Molinaro took a moment to joke that several of Serino’s staff, veteran government employees, served as interns during his tenure.  He was pleased to announce that the Serino staff will be led by Deputy County Executive Rachel Kashimer, who was appointed to that position last January by former County Executive William O’Neil.

Serino listed food insecurity throughout the county, mental hygiene, and access to affordable daycare as priorities for her administration.

Serino, who served on the Hyde Park Town Board, Dutchess County Legislature, and New York State Senate before being elected as county executive stressed the need for listening to constituents as a key component of effective leadership.  “I’m dedicated to ensuring you always have a representative government because as I say, you don’t know what you don’t know – and if you’re not listening to the issues that our community has, you can’t solve them.”

Serino also announced the appointment of her former senate staffer, Carly Bulgia as the head of the first-ever Department of Community Engagement, created by Serino last week.  According to Serino, the office is tasked with delivering a responsive government to the county’s nearly 300,000 residents.

GOSHEN – The Orange County Legislature’s special task force looking into the contract procurement policies related to the assignment of an extended contract to the brother-in-law of Human Resources Commissioner Landon Chapman convened on Monday only to go behind closed doors for an hour to further discuss issues with their attorney.

County Attorney Rick Golden has been adamant about the way the contract and extensions were given to IT consultant StarCIO, maintaining they were done totally above board.

However, addressing the special committee on Monday, he appeared to walk back his stance.

“The executive branch has certainly been clear from this committee’s work and some of the questions that our procurement policy can be improved upon,” he said. “Contract administration and payment of invoices, etc., needs to be further addressed, and so, the county executive has pulled together a small group of people to begin working on that in earnest so we can in short order try to come up with suggested changes that we would implement in addition to any that the committee would like to recommend that we would consider.”

Golden said he had not reviewed the entire report from Senator James Skoufis’ investigations Committee, but from what he has read, some of the information is incorrect.

Committee Chairman Kevin Hines also revealed that the attorney for StarCIO has sent the county a letter. He did not reveal its contents.

He also said a whistleblower came forward to legislature Chairwoman Katie Bonelli last week with additional information about contract procurement.

Hines said his committee has yet to complete its report.

WASHINGTON – Elected federal officials are calling on the Department of Defense to get moving on the environmental remediation of the toxic PFAS at the Stewart Air National Guard Base. The installation spans a portion of the towns of Newburgh and New Windsor and has been determined to be the cause of the contamination of the City of Newburgh’s water supply, Washington Lake as well as streams in the area.

Ever since the lake was found to be polluted, the city has been tapping the New York City Catskill Aqueduct for its water with the state picking up the bill.

Senators Charles Schumer and Kirstin Gillibrand, and Representative Pat Ryan are pushing the DoD top prioritize the cleanup of Stewart and explore new measures to stop the ongoing pollution of downstream waters by PFAS from the base – while DoD works to full implement a comprehensive clean-up plan as part of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act process.

Schumer said from “day one, I’ve pushed DoD’ top brass to clean up the Air National Guard’s mess at Stewart and we need more meaningful action to restore health, safety, and peace of mind to nearby Orange County residents in Newburgh and New Windsor.”

Gillibrand said residents of the area “deserve to have access to clean waterways, free from the toxic PFAS pollution originating from Stewart ANGB.”

That call for speedy remediation was echoed by Ryan.