By Margaret Menge

You might not know who Barbara Gosda is, but you might be familiar with some of her work. She is the founder of one of Cornwall’s most charming annual events -- the Children’s Pet Show on the Fourth of July -- where Sis Barton holds court and kids do their best to walk their cats around on leashes and make their gerbils and lizards smile pretty for the judges. Gosda was also the force behind the first-ever village-wide yard sale last fall, camping out in the parking lot of Village Hall all morning to hand out maps to sale-goers. The yard sale was such a success that the town is looking to join in next year, and the plan is to promote it to communities all over the mid-Hudson.

Barbara Gosda grew up in Beacon, and moved to Cornwall in 1972 when she married her husband Bob, a 49-year member of Storm King Engine Co. # 2. “I couldn’t not do what I’m doing,” says Barbara. We’re sitting in the living room of her home at the end of Homeland Avenue, and she’s talking about running for Trustee. It’s the first time she’s run for anything. But she says she can’t keep reading the newspaper every week and not step up to run. The time, she says, is right. “I don’t do anything unless I have the time to do it,” she says. “That’s really important for me.”

Barbara retired on Oct. 1 after working for 15 years as the assistant director of the Dominican Sisters of Hope in Newburgh. She and Bob have two sons, now both grown. Stephen, age 31, lives in Washingtonville and works as a New York City firefighter. Jeffrey, age 32, lives in Oregon. When the boys were young, Barbara was involved with the schools. For ten years she worked the all-night party at Cornwall Central High School. But now, her focus has turned to the village.

Barbara Gosda became involved in village affairs when former Mayor Ed Moulton called her on the phone and asked her to serve on the Master Plan committee. “He called me and I said ‘Yes’ right away, because I think planning is really important,” she says. She’d noticed how many additions were being approved in Homeland and elsewhere in the village and thought that it was really time the village looked more closely at its building code, and that villagers thought more about preserving the character of their communities.

Barbara was an active member of the Master Plan Committee, which was headed by Lee Murphy and met throughout 2005, 2006 and into 2007 (the draft plan is now before the village Planning Board). And she’s now the chair of the newly-appointed Village Square Improvement Committee, a group of citizens selected by the Village Board to study and recommend improvements to the Village Center. The committee quickly corralled some funding, from the county and the state (from Assemblywoman Nancy Calhoun) and is now looking to hire a surveyor to do surveys of three intersections – the blinking light, Duncan Ave., and Dock Hill. Barbara’s chief contribution to the committee is to articulate a plan for parking that involves making maximum use of already-existing spaces while putting up better signage and working with building owners to encourage their employees and tenants to park in designated spaces, rather than taking up street spaces. In a presentation to the Village Board last November, Gosda said they’re looking to complete their recommendations to the Village Board by April.

Barbara has been going out door-to-door almost every weekend since she decided to run. She says in talking to people that more than any other issue, she hears people complaining about property taxes -- "make do, Brendan, make do," she says, referring to Brendan Coyne, president of the Board of Education, and school spending. But she says that the next thing people say is “Don’t change the character of our neighborhoods.” Barbara says she knows what they mean. She and Bob were thinking of moving away a few years ago, but they stopped the search when they realized that what they were looking for was another Cornwall. And there just wasn’t one out there.

Barbara Gosda on the issues:

The Moffia Wall: “I’m glad that we have time on the moffia wall,…because there again we have some grant money to do planning at the waterfront, so I think we bring the planner in….I would rather have a plan than do anything first…” Gosda says she wouldn’t be opposed to the wall (to be buried and flush with the ground) if it "fits in with what the community seems to want for the riverfront.”

Parking: “Everybody coming into the restaurants doesn’t know where it is, and we need to do a better job of pointing it out." Gosda is now working with the Orange County Planning Department to have an aerial survey done of the village, so that they can look at making maximum use of all available parking around the village center.

Policing: Barbara says village police should be more visible, and be paying closer attention to quality of life issues that concern villagers. She says the police chief, Charlie Williams, in particular, needs to be more visible to the community. "When I'm out talking to people one of the questions is, 'Who is he? I don't know who he is,'" she says.

Police consolidation: "We need to have a solid plan...I think we have to look at the numbers, absolutely." In a letter to the editor published in the March 7 edition of the Local "Mayor Gross needs our input and our respect," Gosda wrote that it made sense for Mayor Joe Gross to wait for a new town supervisor to take office before approaching the town about the issue of consolidation of the town and village police departments. "Before this issue is voted on we need a solid plan to cover shifts in the village, a cost analysis and other considerations," she wrote. "It needs the full support of both boards. This all takes time and careful planning. We are talking about THE most important issue here, public safety! I know I want all the facts before I cast my vote. I hope that you do too."

Stone bridges: “These kinds of artifacts are treasures in our community and I want them here."

Water: "I think we need to do an analysis of the Water Department. I need to know how much supply we have, how much demand we have.." Gosda says she wants to know how much the village is spending on water from each of the three sources -- aqueduct, wells and reservoirs. "I can't absolutely make decisions unless I have that information in front of me...I need hard facts. I don't want to make decisions without hard facts....We're making commitments here. We're making sizable commitments with supply [to developers]...and I don't want us to get smacked with real problems down the line because we guesstimated."