On a warm May evening, nearly all the chairs were filled at the A. W. Buckbee Center—the original library building for the Orange County village of Warwick. For five minutes at a time, speakers stood and shared a story. The stories were diverse during nearly two hours of tales: Some were adventuresome, others cheerful, and a handful were downright tragic. The storytellers, too, differed in age and mannerisms, and audience members listened in rapt silence before erupting in applause for each speaker. It was a microcosm of Warwick itself: People with separate backgrounds and differing opinions sharing common ground.
"We live in the most beautiful town in Orange County," says Jesse Dwyer, former village mayor of Greenwood Lake. He's now Warwick Town Supervisor, having taken the helm from Michael Sweeton, who retired at the end of last year. The town in southwest Orange County comprises three villages—Warwick, Florida, and Greenwood Lake, each with its own attractions and personality—and multiple hamlets. At 104.9 square miles, Warwick is the second-largest town in the state. Thanks to Community Preservation Fund efforts spearheaded by Sweeton, 5,000 acres of farmland and parkland will never be developed.
The beauty of that wide-open land is evident to hot and hungry patrons waiting in line for an icy treat at Bellvale Farms Creamery; visitors practicing their asanas amid cloven-hooved friends during Goat Yoga at Pennings Farm Cidery; or imbibers sipping a local vintage amid the grapevines at several wineries throughout the town. Land preservation is important here; along with that, Dwyer says, comes infrastructure work on the developed sections to ensure the town remains as livable as it is now. "The Town Board has had an aggressive approach to sourcing funding outside of our tax base, and that is through grant opportunities." More than $20 million in grants have either been awarded or submitted this year for a bridge replacement in the village of Florida, repairs in the Wickham Sewer District, and town park upgrades.
Grants will also improve walkability in the village of Warwick, where a plethora of businesses pack the sidewalks with shoppers. Michael Newhard, mayor of the bustling village since 2001, says public safety and traffic are the biggest focal points right now. "The village of Warwick is a crossroads—to get to Florida, Greenwood Lake, or [the hamlet of] Pine Island, we are sort of in the middle," Newhard says. "We're starting a campaign to slow people down and raise drivers' consciousness of pedestrians."
Cooperation between municipalities and the state is an important link to the town's success. That rose to the surface in May, when a strong storm ripped from one side of Greenwood Lake to the other, causing severe property damage but no major injuries or loss of life. By the end of the day, emergency officials from county, state, and national agencies had assessed damage and assisted newly minted Mayor Tom Howley in evaluations and repairs. Howley himself went door to door, checking on residents and offering help.
Inviting Tourists
Tourism is a big part of the town: Warwick village's downtown brings visitors each weekend, and the town's orchards, wineries, and breweries are a magnet for tourists—not to mention the restaurants that boaters flock to on the weekends after a bracing day on Greenwood Lake. "The beauty of where we live is huge in attracting businesses and visitors," says Stefanie Keegan Craver, executive director of the Warwick Valley Chamber of Commerce. As an example of the popularity of tourism in the town, Keegan Craver notes that the Chamber distributes 25,000 copies annually of its directory.That's still shy of the 30,000 people who fill downtown Warwick each October for Applefest. Now in its 34th year, the one-day Applefest includes vendors, exhibits, food, music, and activities. Big events in the town like Applefest can be inconvenient for locals trying to navigate their familiar routes, but "there's an understanding that they are an important part of our economy," Newhard says.
The chamber will get a boost with the opening this summer of a new tourism center in a former antique shop next to Village Hall on Main Street in Warwick. Open daily, it will offer information on places to go and things to do in all three villages and in the unincorporated parts of town, Keegan Craver says. Long-range plans include potential municipal bathroom facilities there, too, according to Newhard.
That cooperation between the town, village, and chamber isn't unusual for Warwick, the chamber president says. "You know you'll be supported here," says Keegan Craver. "Everyone wants community, and we have a great community."
We the People Warwick
That sense of community has come with growing pains, though. StoryShare—that magical May evening of storytelling—is part of We the People Warwick (WTPW), a grassroots organization founded in 2021 by teacher and mediator Beverly Braxton to address tensions that had been building since 2016, when the seams of the nation were being teased apart politically. Warwick wasn't immune to division, as evidenced by heated board meetings after the village approved painting a blue line down Railroad Avenue in support of its local police force, and then repainted it red, white, and blue in an effort to be more inclusive. The New York Times spotlighted the strife in an op-ed and film."It was so nasty and intense, it was shocking," Braxton recalls of the post-blue-line meetings. Leaning on her training as a mediator, Braxton contacted the Mayor Newhard to offer her services. "He wanted to figure out how to tone down the violence that was threatening," she remembers. "The tensions were just under the surface. Would Warwickers have it in them to resolve it?"
With Braxton's direction, 10 groups met in four, two-hour sessions at Village Hall to discuss the issues and find a peaceful solution in May 2017. "I didn't want people to just sit around and gripe; they had the opportunity to feel deeply and express those feelings, and we were using the language of belonging to make people feel safe," Braxton says. The efforts seem to have helped, she adds: "Things are feeling so much better, in an almost imperceptible way."
Within five years after those heated meetings, WTPW was formed to foster communication, understanding, and common ground so everyone in the town feels welcomed. A multifaceted group, WTPW includes a dialogue series; facilitator training; mental health and teen wellness programming; A Day in the Life, where people talk about their daily lives and careers; and the storytelling series, among other programs. Braxton hopes to bring to light the effects of smartphones and our fast-paced culture on the health and wellbeing of children. "We're looking for ways to build resiliency, and how to get youth involved in our community. People seemingly gave up civics education to go shopping," she explains.
Braxton says most of what WTPW does has come about organically: "I'm not forcing anything. I'm inviting it," she says. "I'm not going to live a life where nothing will be done. Let's open a lens to our humanity and not our divisions."
Physical Growth
A little more than 32,000 people call the town of Warwick home. And as Dwyer described, it's the job of the town and villages to ensure there's safe, clean space for them. The secret sauce that makes the town popular are its solid school districts, small-town businesses, good property values, and having a health facility—St. Anthony Community Hospital—right in the village, says Kim Corkum, Warwick Valley Chamber of Commerce president and associate broker and director of luxury for Keller Williams Realty in Chester. That's kept Warwick in the high end of competition for an inventory of homes that's remained low since before Covid.The median price of homes in Warwick this year is $502,000, an increase of almost three percent over 2023, Corkum says. Over the last 12 months, 210 homes were sold in Warwick, she adds. "Our inventory is quite low, lower than I've seen it for years," Corkum says. Buyers are still intent on living here, despite bidding wars and interest rates that continue to fluctuate. "I tell my clients that you marry the home, not the interest rate," Corkum explains. She doesn't see the popularity of Warwick waning any time soon. "I see us remaining a destination area for a while—we have amazing stores and restaurants here."
Dwyer agrees. "We have a unique town with three villages and many hamlets, each with their own distinct characteristics, joined by a common bond of a strong sense of community," the town supervisor says. "It is our job, as a town board, to protect the very things that make Warwick great—our scenic landscape, bountiful natural resources, and the character of our town that is unlike anywhere else in the state."
