The Town Board of Goshen on Oct. 23 approved a slate of planning and administrative items, including deeming the IWS draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) complete for public review, scheduling a public hearing, waiving certain permit fees for an Orange County Soil and Water project, and adopting county and transit-related resolutions.

Deem DEIS complete and schedule hearing: After staff and the town engineer reviewed the applicant’s resubmission and supporting memoranda, the board voted to deem the IWS DEIS complete pending satisfactory responses to engineering comments and scheduled a public hearing for Dec. 11 at 7 p.m. The review centered on outstanding traffic-study clarifications and language edits to the DEIS that staff and the town engineering consultant requested.

Fee waiver for Orange County Soil & Water: The board voted to waive administrative permit fees for a soil- and-water project that received Department of Environmental Conservation support. Town staff noted the project involves removing about three feet of ledge in a river channel to restore flow and that the DEC’s permit work remains the controlling state-level approval; the board’s fee waiver does not replace any required flood-plain or engineering permits.

County hazard-mitigation plan and Dial-A-Ride plan: The board adopted a resolution formally joining Orange County’s 2025 multi-jurisdictional multi-hazard mitigation plan and approved the Goshen/Chester Dial-A-Ride Title VI plan (with a small change to item 9 on the outreach description). Officials said those actions keep the town eligible for FEMA mitigation grants and maintain compliance with transportation funding conditions.

Personnel and finance motions: The board approved the appointment of a part-time officer to full-time status and authorized the supervisor to pay the accounts payable check run for Oct. 23 in the amount cited at the meeting.

Votes at a glance
- Deem IWS DEIS complete (motion) — outcome: approved (roll-call). Key condition: satisfactory engineer memo comments required before public-release finalization.
- Schedule public hearing for IWS DEIS, Dec. 11, 7 p.m. — outcome: approved.
- Waive administrative/permit fees for Orange County Soil & Water project — outcome: approved (voice vote).
- Adopt Orange County 2025 multi-jurisdictional multi-hazard mitigation plan (resolution) — outcome: approved (roll-call).
- Adopt Dial-A-Ride Goshen–Chester Title VI plan with outreach amendment to item 9 — outcome: approved (roll-call).
- Appoint full-time police officer (promotion from part-time) — outcome: approved (voice vote).
- Authorize supervisor to pay accounts-payable check run (10/23/2025) — outcome: approved (voice vote).

Board members and staff said several items still require follow-up work, including final engineering comments on the IWS DEIS, flood-plain permitting work tied to the Soil & Water project, and adding outreach details to the Dial-A-Ride plan. The board also noted that fee waivers do not relieve applicants of escrow or other technical-review costs that staff must still collect and manage.