Another Valley View hearing to be scheduled

GOSHEN — In another effort to get Valley View nursing home into private hands, the Orange County legislature plans next week to schedule a public hearing for 7 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 29, to get the process going again.

The public hearing will be scheduled at next week's meeting of the legislature's Health and Mental Health Committee, chaired by Michael Anagnostakis, which starts at 3:45 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 16, in Classroom No. 1 in the Emergency Services building at 22 Wells Farm Road in Goshen. L. Stephen Brescia, the legislature chair, will attend to discuss scheduling the hearing.

Supreme court knocked down the legislature's previous effort in April because not enough legislators had agreed to transfer the county-owned nursing home to a local development corporation that would then proceed to sell it off. The judge ruled that to abolish a county department, like Valley View, a supermajority of 14 votes is needed. Only 12 legislators agreed to the transfer.

The April vote split mostly along party lines, with Michael Anagnostakis of New Windsor, a Republican, voting with the Democrats against the transfer; and Curlie Dillard of Newburgh, a Democrat, voting with the Republicans for it.

No legislator has publicly changed his or her mind since the April vote, so it is unclear whether the dynamics of a new vote will be different.