Citing damage, fights and a lack of volunteer help, Woodstock town supervisor Bill McKenna has shut down the town’s warming center at the town hall.
At the January 21 meeting of the town board, councilmembers Maria-Elena Conte and Bennet Ratcliff urged the town to set up something more adequate than the current accommodations.
“I’m concerned this week, especially with the temperatures dropping dangerously low,” Conte said. “Can we offer folks something better than the hallway to town hall?” McKenna said there was a shelter in Kingston where police were instructed to transport people.
“I mean locally. I mean in town,” Conte said.
“What’s your solution?” McKenna asked. “The last time I put a call out to the board for volunteers to come, the only one that showed up was [council member] Anula [Courtis].”
Ratcliff and Courtis asked why the town didn’t pay somebody to staff the space.
“There is a legal shelter down in Kingston. We’re not set up to be a shelter. We’re set up to be a warning center,” McKenna responded.
McKenna said after the meeting that a group of about five or six people had trashed the bathrooms, broke ceiling tiles, and damaged moulding in the hallway. There have also been fights. The town maintenance staff does not feel safe entering the area.
“We had a space available. We left them on their honor, and they made a fucking mess,” McKenna said. “Now we’re going to have to close it and send them down to Kingston.”
The main use of the room in town hall is as a courtroom. The space can’t easily be used as a warming center use unless it is staffed, he added.
“For warming, the lobby of dispatch will be open,” explained McKenna. “If somebody is in a real jam, they can go in there, but the bathrooms will not be available because they made a mess.”
Police will give rides to the shelter in Midtown Kingston, and the county UCAT bus will provide free for transportation back to Woodstock.
A video posted by documentary filmmaker Chris Finlay showed a clean hallway and bathrooms after maintenance employees cleaned it up and made repairs.
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