Town of Wallkill Supervisor Dan Depew

Town of Wallkill Supervisor Dan Depew was the guest speaker for the evening at our January 12^th meeting. He was a very dynamic speaker with a clear vision of what he has done and what he plans to do for the Town of Wallkill. Mr. Depew described the Town of Wallkill as sort of the Epcot Center of Orange County. It is unlike many municipalities around the state because there are towns and villages within the municipality that don't bear the Town of Wallkill name, but they bear the name of their own Volunteer Fire company (which there are 7) or their school districts – which there are 5, and it has 6 postal zipcodes. He said that it is hard to describe where you are and also very hard to get the various towns and villages to unite on any issue. Dan emphasized that he feels town government is very important. He is a graduate of New Paltz with a degree in International Relations and Political Science and he went on to join the legislature at a very young age. Dan is now in his third term as Supervisor for the Town of Wallkill.

Dan gave us a very detailed talk on how he inherited a township in deep financial trouble and how through a "total revolution in town government" - a new town board of Democrats and Republicans working together with him and using careful fiscal responsibility - brought the Town of Wallkill back to financial stability and now they have a budget surplus. He feels strongly that people being elected to town governments should have some business background and training in public relations in order to better understand how to manage their communities.

Mr. Depew made many in the Town of Wallkill very angry when he supported the idea that it made more sense for Sullivan County to get the Casino. But he said he didn't care because it was the right thing to do. Doing things because it's the right thing to do seemed to be the recurring theme of his talk. Dan was very well received by the members and received a long round of applause.