The Town of Palm Tree may be formed next year as Governor Cuomo signed legislation moving up the creation of the town from the all of the Village of Kiryas Joel and a portion of the Town of Monroe by one year.

“From the beginning, our only goal for creating the Town of Palm Tree was to establish a solid foundation for a lasting peace between the residents of KJ and the residents of Monroe, by giving both communities independence from the other without any political interference,” KJ Administrator Gedalye Szegedin said Monday. “Today we have finally achieved that goal and have shown that diplomacy and compromise produce better results than acrimony and division.”

There was widespread support for creation of the new town with the Orange County Legislature approving a vote of Monroe town residents. The mayors and trustees of the villages of Monroe, Harriman and Kiryas Joel, as well as the Monroe Town Board backed it.

The Monroe-Woodbury and Kiryas Joel school districts also supported the new town. Kiryas Joel Superintendent Joel Petlin said with the governor’s signature, the boundary alteration between the school districts will become effective on July 1, 2019.

“In the coming months, I will be working with the Monroe-Woodbury School District to finalize the details of this action, including working to minimize the impact to taxpayers and of course, to any affected students,” Petlin said.

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