Chuck presents a flag to Town of Kinderhook Supervisor Doug McGivney at a town hall meeting in Columbia County on January 7, 2002.

Chuck's Activities in the Hudson Valley
Here are some highlights of what Chuck has done for the Hudson Valley. For a complete index of Hudson Valley related press releases, please scroll down or click here.

• Chuck has worked to bring low-cost passenger flights to Stewart Airport and increased U.S. Customs services for passenger and freight traffic. In August 2001, he wrote to the CEOs of 10 major national and low-cost carriers  urging them to establish service at Stewart, "one of New York's best kept aviation secrets."
  
  
• After Service Merchandise went out of business, leaving an empty warehouse and lack of jobs in Orange Co., Chuck worked with local officials to persuade Staples to bring its distribution center to the empty facility located in Montgomery. The new Staples warehouse is expected to employ 489 New Yorkers within five years, including 324 new jobs by the end of 2001.
  
  
• Chuck secured $3 million through the FYO1 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill to protect the Croton Watershed from contamination. Croton Watershed provides approximately 10% of New York City's drinking water and was threatened by pollution and nearby development. The protection of clean water at Croton helped avoid the need to build an additional $8 billion filtration plant for NYC and Westchester drinking water.
  
  
• Chuck successfully worked to reverse FEMA's initial denial of the State's application for West Nile Assistance, eventually securing $5 million in unprecedented emergency funding from FEMA to reimburse localities for costs associated with the outbreak.
  
  
• Chuck brought a record $70 million in direct payments, through the FY2001 Agriculture Appropriations Bill, for New York's apple and dairy farmers, including those in Dutchess, Orange, Ulster and Columbia counties.
  
  
• Chuck was instrumental in obtaining a Resource Conservation & Development (RC&D) Council designation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for Lower Hudson-New York City-Long Island region, bringing in annual funding from the USDA.
  
  
• Chuck, working with Reps. Nita Lowey and Sue Kelly, secured $1 million in funding to replace old buses in the Westchester County Bee-Line Bus System.
  
  
• Chuck successfully mediated a dispute between the Franciscan Friars at Graymoor and the National Park Service regarding the status of 18 acres of land along the Appalachian trail in Putnam County. In March 2001, a mutually acceptable agreement was reached involving the establishment of easement boundaries, protections against future development, and a compensation payment to the Friars, and deeds were signed in a ceremony at Graymoor May 25, 2001.
  
  
• Chuck protected the Kensico Reservoir in Westchester County — the source of drinking water for 50 percent of New Yorkers — by persuading the New York State Department of Transportation to scale back proposed road construction in the vicinity of the Kensico Reservoir that the reservoir's water quality.