1) How should I review this article; 'let me count the ways': tolerant, timid, lifeless, anemic, dyspeptic. Clearly the one thing it is not is what it should be: dynamite!
Imagine if you will a community where a hot house has already erupted over the mad rush to force a sweetheart lease upon a mostly unwary population who have been tempted by the notion that this will bring soccer fields and other goodies to Greenburgh's neglected children who have no play to pursue competitive sports because the Town's Parks Department has failed to accurately gauge what is the flavor of the day. Lulled by the Town Supervisor that these "needs" are in reach, he plays to their greed and presents a fable that not only can these dreams be fulfilled by their saying yes to the lease at the coming referendum but also the entire will be served the equivalent of "free lunch" by being paid so-called "rent" as the frosting on the cake.
And, not by design but by the efforts of concerned citizens who, unlike the Town Board, are not paid to see what's behind the curtain but do so in their free time and do so despite the Town Supervisor's efforts to make it difficult to part the curtain. In fact, these citizens get criticized by the Town Board for not rushing the stage earlier in the process and the Board attempts to shift the blame for the underlying problem to the concerned citizens because they didn't discover who killed cock robin sooner. This is what happened last night. And I shall detail this in my next post coming your way in just a few minutes. So come back and it'll be there. But before I depart let me leave this wake-up call ringing in your eyes(ears): there is an appraisal of the property which the Town has had all along and what it reveals is mind-numbing. Remember all those activists claims that Feiner had sought a RFP before even obtaining one and Feiner did not respond that there was one. He had good reason to take the beating and remain silent. But first let me return with more about the Town Board meeting. Why am I doing it in parts? Because I compose online and you get "timed out" after an uncertain time and your post vanishes often in mid-sentence. So I always try to write with full exposition and get in under the clock.
2) There is a problem that reporters working for the Daily Voice share, perhaps one common to online Journalism. Their marching orders seem to be getting there fastest with the "leastest". And to try to appear balanced in presenting content.
Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. Here it doesn't. Let me give an example.
"Many who commented also referenced 10 former students of Briarcliff High School and Middle School who claim contaminated school fields there caused cancer."
This could be an entry into the understatement of the year contest. "10 former students" might have something to do with 3 of them dying from cancer and the other 7 dealing with its effects.
This lack of passion, which like cancer, infects the balance of the article.
Here's what happened.
Citizens got wise to the game(on) that Feiner is playing with his promised and required by law second step which involves obtaining a Phase ll environmental study which picks up where the Phase l study left off. Phase ll is intended to learn more, not less. Phase l had been obtained some years back when the Town looked into the possibility of using the Frank's site (with vacant building) as a temporary location for the Library to use during the expansion incurred construction forcing its closing while underway. Everyone was interested in solving the then imminent problem but were wary knowing how the property had been used (storing and using toxic chemicals, contaminants...otherwise known as fertilizer, weed killers, growth hormones and the like and also an oil spill). And just for laughs, throw in the presence of overhead high voltage electric lines. What the Phase l revealed was sufficient to convince the then Town Board to pass and the Library ended up using Town Hall and the multipurpose center.
Oh, you see at the time, the Town Board cared about the town's child population thinking that their visits to a temporary library might be dangerous to their health and perhaps remove an entire generation of future voters.
So, asking Sherman and Peabody to set the dial of the time machine back to 2012, we see a different Town Board faced with sanctioning what they view as "the inalienable right of private business" to harm the Town's next generation of youth, they under Town Supervisor Feiner's direction ok'd the ordering of the Phase ll study. Since the Town Council members lead such busy lives, it turns out that at least two of the Town Council's PAID members have confessed that they relied on Feiner and allowed the requisition of the study without even reading what was called for.
Unfortunately, the concerned and unpaid public also have personal life distractions and they were not on top of this immediately' thus risking the censure given them by Francis Sheehan who lectured the public on not realizing the problem sooner: the problem being one created by... the Town Board.
So what is the problem? The Phase ll Study can be many things, wear many hats but primarily its function is to be complete and relentless in finding, recognizing and listing the problem areas so that their cure can be effected and provide an estimate of the cost to secure this cure. However, the way Feiner viewed it was to seek to cure only the one danger identified in Phase l (the oil spill) and ignore everything else that might be found on the entire site. Fine if those coming to the site remember to only occupy just the one location "cured".
But the goodies and amenities promised by the tenant extend over the entire site and not only under the bubble but outdoors on its large playing field(s). And oddly enough, like the Library countenanced in its Referendum, the expansion and cost be damned was needed for the good and welfare of Greenburgh children. While not exactly similar, (GameOn will be attending to the "needs" of all children from anywhere) the underlying message sent by Feiner to the voting moms and dads and Seniors (free but limited use of the indoor walking track) that here is the opportunity for your kids to remain competitive in the increasingly important area of learning soccer skills -- yours for a song if only you vote "yes" in the referendum. What he did not mention is that the song would be a funeral dirge and young kids may not live long enough to make use of their acquired soccer skills inherited from the sage instruction of "world-class instructors" (yes, the Town Supervisor is the spokesperson for a private company and uses the Town's resources as soapbox). This not only raises the question of whether he is being secretly compensated by the GameOn backers but also whether he has "taken leave of his senses" however few he has remaining.
3) For in his inexplicable fervor to get GameOn into his parrish, Feiner has broken laws, lied, deceived, and used disproportionate amounts of his time on the clock all for the benefit of one entity: GameOn. What is the attraction that this beckons this fly toward the fire? Residents may never know but some of us do know what he has done toward attaining his "vision" of sports capital of the world.
As is clearly stated in the documents now being the object of last night's Town Board Meeting grilling -- an explosive and passionate overdue public lynching/flaying of Feiner and his compliant Town Board -- is not the take away feeling experienced from reading the Daily Voice account. Feiner clearly directed those hired to do the Phase ll to avoid any search and discovery of contamination in areas on the site other than what was named in their commissioning. Like should a kid chase an errant out-of-bounds soccer ball out of the safety zone and into a contaminated area? Does this sound like cause for alarm? Knowing that the Library steered clear of the site for good reason, now Feiner is willing to throw Greenburgh lambs into the slaughter because: this will bring $5 million to Greenburgh. But even this poor excuse no excuse is a lie and will be explained shortly. No one should forget that Feiner in his previous emails to residents said that this represents an opportunity for the Town to clean up the site and for once and for all get rid of the problem so that when the lease expires in 15 years (more accurately 15 years plus 2-3 years of $0 revenue while other requirements are met to include SEQRA, zoning change, height variance etc) that the Town can either use a broom clean site or sell it a higher price (his hope based on nothing tangible and unreliable crystal ball) but now residents have learned that he is practicing more of the same old same old that we have gotten used to BUT this time around the gameon is being played with higher stakes: gambling for our childrens' lives. I don't attribute this new direction to the principals of GameOn but rather I lay it squarely at the feet of Feiner while allowing that GameOn has identified a willing politician whom they can "work with".
So how is the game played? What was all along observable but unconnected (perhaps mere residents with scruples are unfit to connect curious events to a darker cause) was the Town Attorney, Tim Lewis (of all people) suddenly the Town's voice in relation to environmental stigma. Left at the roadside (on purpose? or by default?) were the more knowledgeable Town department heads, Madden of Community Development and Carosi of DPW who claim ignorance but suddenly we have Tim Lewis spouting that the remediation cost would only be around $100,000. This was mentioned and repeated last Spring well before the Phase ll study was even ordered. Interesting that appearing in the Lease is GameOn's enticement: they'll contribute $125,000 toward making it happen, $43,500 to pay for the Study and the balance, $81,500 toward the remedy. Wow, they were willing to contribute the lion's share of the $100,000. Chalk it up to good neighbors. What was not so apparent at the time (forgive us for thinking pure thoughts) or even conceivable to Town Hall watchers that Feiner would try to rig the study so as to conceal or even stumbling upon contamination unknown at the time of the Phase l. Clearly the less studied, the lower the cost of the study and ultimately the lower stated cost to cure the site -- in its entirety. And what does that say about 15+ years from now when the site may be put to another use when perhaps the parking lot is torn up by the new use? Thus by limiting the reach of the study the fruit of this fraud is picked before reaching maturity: reducing the study cost; reducing the menu of problems to be cured but also reducing the potentially burdensome cost of effecting a total cure means that dealing with a problem no longer is in the crosshairs and Feiner can breathe easier with the possibilty that it could be the next guy's problem should he still be in office 15+ years from now and retirement beckons. But dealing with today, let's note that the Lease offers a get out of jail free card to GameOn should they elect to use it: if the cost of remediation exceeds a set amount (the higher the cost may also infer a longer passage of time to effect the cure), GameOn can walk. Indeed GameOn has a number of these cards in its wallet; the Town, by design, has but GameOn default and the Court's veto.
(One of benefit of these bite-sized comments is that you don't have to "eat the whole thing" in one sitting).
4) The result of all this recidivism really requires the talents of a professional script supervisor (a DGA title), not town supervisor, to keep track of the various story changes. Last night's Town Board meeting was the nadir of Town Board/town resident interaction. Having to confront such animus at the last Town Board meeting before the Referendum, Feiner did what he does best: lie, obfuscate and bloviate.
Despite appearing in black & white (and appearing on the Town website if you knew where to look) Feiner refused on MULTIPLE occasions to admit that he had instructed the Consultants (hired to do the Phase ll) to limit the scope of their investigation to just the afore mentioned oil spill and not to look elsewhere on the site. That there was proof in hand of this was enough to cause the anger of those that took the trouble to show up.
So starting from the lie (first base), Feiner then moved up to saying that 'not to worry, if we missed anything I'm sure that various government authorities will oversee and insure correctness (stealing second base) followed by "Town Supervisor Paul Feiner assured those attending that he and the board had no intention of putting anyone in harm's way." (third base on bunt by Councilman Ken Jones who put on his concerned mask) and then the public was blamed for not being sharper sooner (rbi by Sheehan at bat).
The bottom line is that the Town Board has sanctioned the Phase ll study which when released will confirm what Tim Lewis predicted last Spring. And the voting public will be no wiser because few watch the Town Board meetings, few bother to ready even the tepid and contented media which prizes harmony over controversy and that leaves the smaller windows for concerned residents like myself to air their grievances in the hope that there is someone out there equipped to ride and spread the alarm. Instead of the blind faith in "to be honest" Paul Feiner, Greenburgh needs a willing Paul Revere, ready, willing and able to ride to every middlesex village (A Budget) and farm (B Budget) and say that even the touted $5 million is a lie; the reality is that we've already established who the whore is while even negotiating over the price is futile.
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