The Montgomery Town Board provided updates both bittersweet and business-minded during its March 5 meeting, including the upcoming retirement of a longtime town official and discussions to establish a business park floating zone.

At the start of the meeting, Supervisor Steve Brescia announced that Town Clerk Tara Stickles will retire later this month after 25 years of service. Her final day will be March 26, with Karen Miller taking over as the new clerk. In honor of her tireless work over the past quarter-century, Brescia and the board gifted Stickles a plaque and took a huge photo with her, the Stickles Family, and several other town officials.

“This is a special presentation we have tonight for our town clerk, Tara Stickles, upon her retirement. I want to thank Tara for her 25 years of dedicated services to the town. She’s done a splendid job, and we can’t thank her enough for her service,” Brescia said. “On behalf of the town, thank you. Everybody remembers that you were conscientious, meticulous, and thorough with everything you did here, and that you won’t be forgotten. Definitely come back and visit.”

Stickles, a little flustered, thanked numerous people who helped her throughout her career, including past and present board members, attorneys, town employees, friends, and family members. She is looking forward to spending more time with her friends and family during her retirement, and she is confident that Miller will do an excellent job as the new clerk.

“I’ve always had support from the boards, thank you all. You’ve always let me do my training, you never ask how I spent my money, and you’ve always let me preserve my records. You’ve always had great attorneys that made me look good. The employees here are amazing, they work so hard for the residents,” Stickles said. “I also have to thank my family, because I know how much all of you sacrificed. You know how much time I have devoted to this town, so thank you for being there for me. Mom and dad, thank you for being my biggest cheerleaders. I have amazing kids who, not by me, turned out amazing.”

Following Stickles’ ceremony, the board opened a public hearing for Local Law 3 of 2025 which, if approved, would establish a procedure to create a business park floating zone in the town. As stated in the law, the board aims to attract new, diverse businesses and projects into Montgomery, providing the town with more revenue and jobs. Once the board establishes a BP floating zone, projects would go through several steps for approval, followed by the board selecting the most-fitting projects for the town.

“This is going to be a good law for the Town of Montgomery, it’s been something we’ve been talking about before I came to the town board, when I was mayor,” Brescia said.

During the law’s public hearing, representatives from the town and Orange County expressed their excitement about a potential business park in the town, emphasizing possibilities for attracting desirable industries and generating economic growth.

“With this floating zone in place, it’ll position Montgomery to be a very attractive site for development and bring in some impactful projects to the Town of Montgomery,” said Vincent Rouhotas, executive director of the Montgomery IDA. “I believe it will define the future for us; Montgomery won’t just be a destination for distribution, this will give us the ability to properly attract projects that are in the high-tech sector, pharma, and bring good-paying jobs for the town.”

“The first phase of our shovel-ready initiative entailed a detailed study to identify developable properties that could host these types of projects around Orange County,” said Bill Fioravanti, CEO of the Orange County IDA. “A couple of the top sites we identified were in the Town of Montgomery. One in particular is Aden Brook, we envision it as a high-tech business park. However, a site like that requires the floating zone, it’s integral with that.”

“I want to thank you for taking on this issue, doing this type of economic development is difficult. Having this type of zoning apparatus in place is critical for us to do our work, our job to attract these companies,” said Conor Eckert, senior development officer and vice president of business attraction of OC Partnership. “We hope to create a shovel-ready park at Aden Brook, and this floating zone will enable us to attract the types of jobs that our communities ask us to attract.”

Later in the meeting, the board passed a resolution approving a labor agreement for the town’s police station project, along with the project’s bid document. The PLA agreement was made with the Business Trades Council of the Hudson Valley, which Brescia and Councilman Mark Hoyt previously met with. Both the PLA and bid document will enable the board to begin putting out construction bids and find labor for the project.