Orange County will allocate $1.5 million to enhance security at Camp La Guardia.
Orange County Plans to Secure Camp La Guardia
Orange County government has allocated $1.5 million to protect Camp La Guardia from trespassing and vandalism. This decision comes as the county determines the future of the site.
The plan received approval at the recent physical services and ways and means committee meetings. It is expected to be passed by the entire legislative body on September 7.
Camp La Guardia, once the largest homeless shelter in New York City, was purchased by the county for $8.5 million in 2007. Since then, the site has been plagued by vandalism and occasional fires.
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The county has been unsuccessful in selling the property to developers. The latest proposal is to transform the 258-acre site into a new county park.
Upon legislative approval, the county will immediately begin securing the site. This task will be carried out by in-house staff and existing contractors, as stated by Travis Ewald, the deputy commissioner of the county department of public works.
“There are so many outlying structures on the property, so it is very difficult to control trespass and vandalism,” Mr. Ewald explained. “The goal here is to eliminate all buildings that we could possibly eliminate.”
The first step will involve clearing vegetation and trees to allow access. Then, a county contractor will remove hazardous materials like asbestos from the buildings. In-house staff will proceed to demolish and dispose of five buildings, while three others will be secured by boarding up windows and doors. For buildings deemed too dangerous to work in, a professional county contractor will handle their demolition and disposal. Additionally, four buildings at the top of the site will be fenced off by county workers for potential future use.
The Camp La Guardia complex, spanning 258 acres, originally served as a women’s prison for New York City in the early 1900s. It was later converted into a homeless shelter. The site is located in Orange County, straddling the Town of Chester, the Village of Chester, and the Town of Blooming Grove.
Local residents near the shelter have long complained about the negative impacts on their quality of life. They have witnessed shelter residents committing petty crimes and occasionally engaging in violent acts in their neighborhoods. In the late 1990s, former Orange County Executive Joseph Rampe took the city to court, resulting in a court agreement that imposed restrictions on the types of individuals who could be housed at the shelter based on their age and offenses.
In 2007, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg closed the shelter and sold it to Orange County.
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