Orange County’s new county executive, Steven Neuhaus, is supporting the early efforts for the Village of Kiryas Joel to become its own town or city. At present, it is a village within the Town of Monroe.

Neuhaus, who grew up in Monroe and has family still living there, said the discussion is a good first step in the exploratory process.

“At the end of the day if this is something that is agreed upon and moving forward, you would need a permissive referendum in Monroe that would require all the voters to decide – the Village of Monroe, the Village of Kiryas Joel and the entire Town of Monroe, and the Village of Harriman – all of those voters would get to decide on if they want to split on this,” Neuhaus said. “It’s going to be a process, but I am 100 percent behind this.”

Monroe Town Supervisor Harley Doles starting the ball rolling on the idea with a letter to Kiryas Joel’s mayor last week.

(Source: MidHudsonNews)