TUSTEN, NY — “It’s a new piece of the puzzle, and we need to think long and hard about it,” said Tusten Town Board member Kevin McDonough.

McDonough was summing up an hour-long public hearing on the future of Tusten’s municipal buildings, a hearing with 45 to 55 attendees and 22 comments submitted, in person or in written form.

For the last few months, the Tusten community has been discussing the fates of a pair of buildings owned by the town—210 Bridge St., the location of the current town hall and town offices and 93 Main St., the former Wayne Bank building.

210 Bridge St. has been the town hall for almost 50 years, and houses the 150-seat Tusten Theater. Tusten bought 93 Main St. much more recently, in early 2021, as part of a package deal with its attached parking lot.

The town board began discussing what to do with both buildings early in 2022, considering, among other possibilities, the sale of 210 Bridge St. and a move of the town hall into 93 Main St. Those discussions engendered a significant amount of public sentiment, with members of the public strongly against even the consideration of selling 210 Bridge St.

The board scheduled a public hearing on May 3 to gather the public’s perspectives for consideration; a selection of those perspectives is presented in the infographic above. While board members said it was too early in the process to declare themselves for or against any of the alternatives presented, they supported a general deliberation of those perspectives.

“The notion that it’s irresponsible to be asking these questions surprises me, because I think it would be irresponsible not to be asking these questions,” said board member Greg Triggs. “We have an asset that we fully need to understand the consequence of. Do we need more information before we can responsibly make that choice? I think so.”