Hazmat incident at egg-processing center

WOODRIDGE, NY — Sullivan County 911 Center received a report on April 25 of two employees at the Newburg Egg processing facility having a possible allergic reaction. Mobilemedic EMS arrived a short time later and immediately requested the Woodridge Fire Department for a possible chemical leak. 

Woodridge firefighters and police responded and evacuated the facility. All 95 employees were quickly evacuated and accounted for. 

Orange County Hazard Materials Response Team responded, as well as the Rolling V Bus Transportation Services. Employees were evaluated for any illness, and 19 were transported to a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries. All were complaining of dizziness and headache, with a few complaining of shortness of breath.

It is believed that there was a small leak in one of the supply lines involved in the processing and preserving of the eggs.

Part of the facility has been temporarily closed for inspection and repair. The unaffected sections remain open.

Wayne hires engineers for Hankins Pond Dam

HONESDALE, PA — The Wayne County Commissioners have hired two engineers to continue working on the Hankins Pond Dam/Park project. They appointed Kiley Associates, LLC as civil engineer, accepting their professional service proposal in the amount of $15,000, and Bill Duggan Engineering as structural engineer, accepting a professional service proposal in the amount of $21,200.

Chairman Brian Smith said that the civil engineer works on the project from a more administrative perspective while the structural engineer does more work designing the physical structure itself.

The 1800s Hankins Pond Dam is a historic structure that was slated for demolition by the state, before the commissioners stepped in and forged an agreement with the PA Fish & Boat Commission to transfer ownership of the property to the county.

Wolf holds roundtable to reduce gun violence

PHILADELPHIA, PA — Gov. Tom Wolf and various state officials recently met and held a roundtable discussion at the West Philadelphia YMCA to address ways to coordinate efforts at the state and local levels to ensure communities have resources they need to combat gun violence.

Nearly three quarters of homicides in Pennsylvania involve firearms and more than half of all suicides in Pennsylvania involve firearms.

In 2019, Wolf created, via executive order, the Office of Gun Violence Prevention and a Special Council on Gun Violence within the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, as well as the Division of Violence Prevention within the Pennsylvania Department of Health. He has also called on the General Assembly to take up safe storage legislation to reduce the number accidental shootings by children, to tighten reporting requirements for lost or stolen guns, to pass the Extreme Risk Protection Order Act and to pursue state-level universal background checks on all gun purchases.

Port Jervis police find narcotics, make arrests

PORT JERVIS, NY — Port Jervis law enforcement found 238 bags of heroin and fentanyl during a home search on April 22. The Port Jervis Police Department and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office Special Operations Group 

executed a search warrant which had been served as part of an investigation into the sales of illicit narcotics in the City of Port Jervis.  

The search also produced $580 and packaging materials.   

Port Jervis Police detectives arrested Ashton Dieudonne, 30, and Deidre Walker, 33, and charged them each with one count of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree and one count of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fourth degree.   Detectives allege that Dieudonne and Walker possessed the heroin/fentanyl with the intent to sell, and that they possessed in excess of one-eighth of an ounce or more of the narcotic drugs.  

Both Dieudonne and Walker were arraigned in Port Jervis City Court. Dieudonne was released pending grand jury evaluation, and Walker was remanded without bail to the custody of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office pending grand jury evaluation.

New York learns to recycle right

SYRACUSE, NY — The New York State Center for Sustainable Materials Management (SMM), based at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF), has launched a first-of-its-kind statewide recycling website to address residential recycling confusion and contamination across the state. Visitors to www.RecycleRightNY.org will learn about the value of everyday materials and why it is important to recycle correctly.

The Recycle Right NY campaign was originally launched by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) after a series of recycling stakeholder meetings in 2018 to jump-start discussion aimed at addressing challenges facing New York’s recycling system. Campaign management was transitioned to the Syracuse University Center for Sustainable Community Solutions, a core partner with the NYS Center for SMM. The Syracuse team worked with more than 100 New York state recycling professionals to further build out this resource.