Last night’s Town Board meeting held no real surprises to
the audience members. Having recovered from his routine bumbling, The Paul was
right back to his tricks. The one exception was everyone involved with any participation in any
type of tennis-related program for the Town was there to speak in favor of the Town’s purported cash
cow from Sportime, that plan to install a bubble over the tennis courts. This plot has
forced The Paul to lie to us again as to the money the Town will rake in hand
over fist. One speaker commented that it would be a mere drop in the bucket as
the certiorari payouts the Town must make, coupled with the guilty verdict
payments totaled over $450,000 for this one meeting! He also stated it was
unfortunate so many people would come out for a tennis bubble but not to
address infrastructure, flooding, housing and budget issues.
The Edgemont Association had posted on their website that
they were against any vote being taken during this vacation period as families will
be away or unavailable as their children are out of school this week and celebrating
the Easter/Passover holidays. The President of the Greenburgh Council of Civic
Associations took her turn at the microphone to chastise those on the dais echoing the sentiment of not voting this evening due the holidays. But for The Paul and
the Stepford Board this was just another nuisance vote they’d like to get
off their plates.
Ending the residential leaf pickup by the Town’s vacuum
trucks and forcing residents to bag their leaves for removal was another hot
topic. We knew based on the Tuesday work session that the leaf bagging issue
from the Town Board was a done-deal! One speaker even mentioned that. Another queried
as to how much are we actually saving given the constant media barrage from The
Paul and his minions? Others commented how their landscapers have informed them of the added cost to bag. And another added that just getting the leaves to the curb was a challenge to many seniors for physical reasons as well as financial ones. The overall theme, however, seem to focus on another eliminated service that affects the constituency while The Paul continues spending and giving away chunks of the Town, mostly to developers.
There was nothing on the Town agenda addressing anything
with flooding. When the cameras were rolling, The Paul was everywhere waiting
for a microphone and a reporter to say, “We’re rolling.” Now we see the pseudo
concern and feigned interest he had toward his constituents for what it really was: a campaign gimmick!
We had been optimistic of newly elected Councilman Ken Jones, hoping he would be playing
to a different drummer. Unfortunately, he must feel it’s easier to go along to
get along. Ah, the taste of victory dished out by The Paul. During the work
session, Jones questioned the amount of money being charged to gas stations for
the newly created special occupancy permits for gas stations. This seems like a
different kind of spot zoning – another signature ploy from The Paul. We assume
this is part of the unspoken payoff to Cumberland Farms, who wants to redevelop
the former Exxon station on Central Avenue. Never one to pass up an opportunity
to increase a fee, add a tax or apply another costly indemnity to our
businesses, The Paul and the Stepford Board have created another layer in the
already congested arena of fees and taxes. Jones realized that this would be
expensive at $2500 for each gas station and asked how the Town might be able to
lessen the pain for them. Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan then went into a lengthy diatribe about how the gas stations aren’t required to purchase the
permit and that it’s “voluntary”. Jones nodded respectfully, acknowledging his allegiance to The Paul and
let his concern die, as well as our glimmer of hope.
You can expect an urgent plea soon for an emergency
replacement of the Library’s HVAC system. HVAC systems are usually designed to
last about twenty years or so. With proper maintenance, they can even go
longer. Greenburgh’s library is an award winning design. It’s HVAC system was
not. It wasn’t mentioned at last night’s meeting but shouldn’t take too long to
see the light of day. ABG isn’t surprised that the mostly glass structure
requires more of both heating and air conditioning due to the necessary btu’s
needed to treat the air respectively. And, since Presidents Carter and Ford’s pleas asking us to set our thermostats to 68° has long since passed, let’s just
crank it up! They did. It’s why the system is cooked and in need of
replacement. An award winning design indeed.
As the saying goes, the more things change, the more they
stay the same. We hope Greenburgh will change. We can only hope.
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