Dear Nieces and Nephews
A week ago today, as the residents of Orange County were enjoying the holiday weekend, the gremlin responsible for conveying the activities of the County Executive, quietly provided the following:
County agencies move to Matthews Street
Orange County government cleared out of three office building on Matthews Street in the Village of Goshen this year, bidding farewell to its home for nearly six years with the opening of the revamped Government Center down the road.
Now, with most county departments back at their former site, the county is refilling some of that vacated space at two of the Matthews Street buildings. Three agencies that previously were housed on the campus of the former Middletown Psychiatric Center —the Office for the Aging, the Youth Bureau, and the Employment and Training Administration —have already moved to offices at 40 Matthews St. Next up, county officials say, is the Department of Social Services, which is shifting part of its Middletown operation and all of its staff at Hatfield Lane in Goshen into offices at 30 and 40 Matthews St. in early 2019.
Those four agencies will take up about 33,000 square feet in all. County officials say they are paying below-market rent for the space and expect to save about 20 percent with the move, although the exact savings has not yet been calculated. -Chris McKenna (underscore ours)
“County agencies move to Matthews Street”? is this 2013?
Most of the County Offices are back at the government Center? And the offices just vacated by OC Government at Matthews Street are being refilled by OC Government? What is going on?
Steve justifies these moves because the county is saving 20% on market rents by locating at Matthews Street.
Steve, the County can save 100% on market rents by not renting offices on Matthews Street and placing them in the new OC Government Center or other county owned property.
Initially, Steve had the county offices moved to Matthews Street from the Emergency Services Center. The previous County Exec had the offices located at the emergency center when the government center was vacated. (Please note that having offices at the Emergency Services Center was rent free.)
Why did Steve move offices to Matthews St at that time?
It was to be closer to his pal, Maureen Hallahan. He told us back in 2013!
Housed on the top floor of the Emergency Services Center* since Diana closed the Government Center in 2011, the county executive’s suite is being moved to leased space on Matthews Street in Goshen. Neuhaus said he hopes to have his office in close proximity there to two agencies vital to his focus on business growth — the Orange County Partnership and the county’s Industrial Development Agency.
STEVE SAID: “I think you’ll find the county executive’s office, the IDA and the Partnership have a spirit of cooperation that we never had,”
In 2018. even though we spent over $80 Million to rebuild and furnish the government center, the county is renting offices at Matthews st, supposedly to save 20% off market rents. 33,000 sq ft. (government center= 200,500 Sq ft, interesting)
It seems that on both occasions, the County was/is renting office space unnecessarily.
N.B. Essentially, a "folly" in architecture, refers to a building constructed for looks not function.
Looks like we failed on both features.
The picture of this building speaks volumes about the current administration that allowed this monstrosity to be built. It represents the discourse and division of two different points of view...the rights of the people vs. corruption of the political agenda. Folly is certainly happening with our tax dollars.
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