Village leaders laud Hinchey’s contributions
Village leaders this week paid tribute to late former U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, noting that his impact on the community included the preservation of the iconic Saugerties Lighthouse.
“Maurice moved mountains basi- cally and got the lighthouse turned over legally to the [Saugerties Lighthouse] Conservancy,” village Special Projects Coordinator Alex Wade said at a Village Board meeting Monday.
The lighthouse had been unoccupied for more than 20 years when the Saugerties Arts Council began efforts to bring public attention to the deteriorated building in 1976. Nine years later, the U.S. Coast Guard gave up control of the property and sold it to the conservancy for $1.
Hinchey, a state assemblyman from 1975 to 1992 and a congressman from 1993 until his retirement at the end of 2012, died Nov. 22 at age 79 after battling a rare and terminal neurological disorder. He grew up in Saugerties and lived in the town most of his life.
Wade said Hinchey also helped secure funding for other projects that improved the village of Saugerties.
“Probably the biggest thing he did was getting the ... funds to bury the power lines and put the streetlights in,” Wade said. “That certainly changes the whole character of the downtown.”
Hinchey also was lauded at Monday’s meeting for securing grants to help update land-use regulations.
“It was seed money that was tied to a lot of different things,” Wade said. “It was tied into redoing the zoning law, [and] it was doing the waterfront revitalization program.”
Wade noted that Hinchey also could be found at shops and eateries in the community.
“In the later days, we use to have Sunday breakfast together,” he said. “We went to the same little restaurant every Sunday.”
Hinchey was buried in a private ceremony Nov. 29 on the grounds of the Catskill Interpretive Center, which is named for him, in Mount Tremper.