News Release
For Release: August 24th, 2010
Contact: Frank Baraff 914-469-3775

In Response to State Budget Cuts,  Orange Seeks Additional Public Funding and to Create More Public/Private Partnerships

Statement by Mayor Eldridge Hawkins, Jr.

“In response to these difficult economic times and Governor Christie’s cuts in state aid for Orange, we are seeking additional outside funding. One of my campaign promises was to enable Orange to do a better job of securing county, federal, state and private resources by bringing grant writing and research in-house.  We kept our word.

Over the past two years, we brought in more than $10 million in federal and state grants including rebuilding of the Chestnut Street pump station, hiring of additional police officers, upgrading of police communications technology, upgrading fire safety equipment, stabilizing neighborhoods, rehabilitating deteriorated buildings, restoring the areas around our train stations, and much more. We created public/private partnerships to provide new health services to seniors, assist entrepreneurs to develop businesses in Orange, move the fire dispatch system to a shared facility, and provide summer jobs for teens.

Other municipalities hire grant writing companies and lobbyists to help secure public and private funding. Before I became Mayor, Orange spent over $311,000 from 2003 to 2008 attempting to bring in this funding. Yet, according to Congressman Payne’s office, the city never solicited federal appropriation dollars. I am proud that we were able to accomplish in-house what an outsourced firm was unable to achieve. We did the job better and at less cost than an outside firm.

Now, we are redoubling our efforts. Deputy Business Administrator Tai Cooper assisted by Chief of Staff Stephanie Gidigbi will write grants and seek outside funding to help relieve the burden on taxpayers.  In our departments, key staff members are being assigned to work with them to identify projects and programs that could benefit from outside funding.

Both Ms. Cooper and Ms. Gidigbi are veteran federal legislative staffers who were deeply immersed in the process of securing grants for local governments and Orange in particular: Ms. Cooper as Senior Projects Specialist for U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg and Ms. Gidigbi as a Senior Legislative Assistant for Congressman Donald Payne.”