NEWBURGH – On Friday, March 10, former Newburgh City Councilman John Giudice announced he is officially seeking the office of Mayor in the City of Newburgh.
A life long resident of the city of Newburgh, Giudice, who served eight years on the city council, said it’s his love for the city and its citizens that encouraged him to seek office, along with the hope to enhance the quality of life for all who live in the city.
Giudice stated, “I am running for Mayor of Newburgh to help improve the quality of life for all our citizens. Over the recent years I have witnessed a decline in the quality of life in our city and I want to help to reverse that trend.”
Key areas of concern and focus identified by Giudice include improved pubic safety, the need for more programs for young people including a return to city sponsored organized sports, removal of the new, hurtful parking meters and replacement of a more fair and thoughtful parking program, support for our city businesses, and the reduction of city water/sewer and sanitation fees.
“We need more cops and firemen,” Giudice stated, “and we need them now.” Giudice stated further, “And these public safety professionals need to be paid a fair wage. Newburgh is a busy and very complex city, and we need the best people to keep us safe. You must pay good people a good salary if we are to have the best public safety professionals working for the citizens of our city.”
As for the youth Giudice said, “We need to provide our young people more and better programming. What happened to the robust little league programs of years ago? Why has our city pool languished for years after it was destroyed by lack of maintenance and winterization? What happened to the Youth Bureau and the programs run through that former city agency? Our young people need more structured programming.”
If elected Giudice also stated he would work with fellow council members to remove and replace the cumbersome and hurtful parking stations installed on city streets. “I do not know whose bad idea this was, but we must fix it. These metering stations so not work well at all. They are harmful to our businesses. There must be better way to regulate parking in our business districts and that discussion should include the business owners.”
Joining Giudice was Donald Rehrey, Jr., who announced his candidacy for city council. He said, “I am a staunch supporter of John Giudice and his run for mayor. I feel the same way about the meters…The City of New York is using us as a dumping ground and sending their people up here and we are not able to afford their housing. We need better parking and street maintenance.”
Mike Walker, manager of Rockland Bakery, spoke about the meters and how it has affected his, and other businesses along Broadway, and the need for something to be done about that, along with other quality of life issues that affect the businesses such as the homeless population.
“I promise to meet and work with all our businesses to seek ways and means to improve the relationships between our businesses and our city government,” said Giudice. If elected he also plans to host a weekly “Talk with the Mayor” meeting where residents and business owners can come talk with him directly.
Giudice and Rehrey also spoke about water/sewer rates as well as sanitation fees, water pollution, clean drinking water, taxes, police, fire and emergency management. The duo hope to talk with as many residents as they can in the coming months about their ideas and plans for the city to earn their vote.
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