While neighborhood concerns, angered taxpayers and even other business owners protested, Mr Feiner and his Board dug in their heels and began to fight harder for the GameOn 365 larger commercial plan in the residentially zoned property. One wonders why Mr Feiner would insist on over-saturating the Fairview district with low and no-income housing but not want to build or develop any in an area zoned for it? It also begs the question why he did not continue the lease with the County for the WestHelp property at Westchester Community College and provide low income housing with existing low income housing?
The collapse in Waldwick sparked an interesting discussion in the ABG offices. Staffers wondered how many other bubbles, superdomes, temporary structures such as the 8-story bubble proposed by GameOn 365 have also collapsed. In a frightening discovery, this is not as rare an event as one might think. This should give pause to those only interested in serving a select few group of investors/developers in our Town.
Here’s a list of other collapses and a bit of information with each. If clicking on a link doesn’t work, simply copy it and paste it into the url field of your browser.
1) http://www.newhampshire.com/
On February 9th, 2013, in Rindge, New Hampshire, wind and snow from a weekend blizzard took down the Franklin Pierce University Grimshaw-Gudewicz Activity Center Bubble. While no one was in the structure when it collapsed, it is 72,000 square feet and reaches seven stories in height. GameOn 365’s bubble is 105, 501 square feet. Not to sound overly concerned, but this same bubble collapsed once before during a 2008 ice storm.
2) http://tolland.patch.com/
In Tolland, Connecticut, on February 10th, a day after the New Hampshire bubble collapse, the Star Hill Athletic Facility bubble collapsed allegedly from the heavy snowfall that weekend. Fortunately, no one was injured from that collapse either. It may be significant to note that the bubble was the only part of the building that was damaged. The brick and mortar portion remained intact. Tolland is just northeast of Hartford, CT.
3) http://www.foxnews.com/story/
On May 3, 2009, a sports bubble in Irving, Texas, referred to as “tent-like structure”, collapsed due the wind. At a cost of more than $4 million to build, the no-frills building was pretty much a 100-yard football field with a few more yards of clearance all the way around. The roof was 80 feet high, the equivalent of an eight-story building. Here, however, there were 12 people injured.
4) http://www.lohud.com/article/
On December 28, 2010, what’s referred to as a sports “underdome” in Mt Vernon, collapsed just before midnight from damage inflicted by a blizzard’s wind. Thankfully, no one was injured as there were six to 10 people in the dome when wind tore the dome’s membrane, which caused the air-supported structure to deflate.
5) http://nypost.com/2011/01/28/
In Brooklyn, NY, in January of 2011, the sports bubble there collapsed under the weight of 12 inches of snow. As taken from the article, “It’s not the first time this season that heavy snowfall collapsed a tennis bubble. During the original blizzard, the big protective dome over the courts in the Parade Grounds in Kensington also lost its loftiness...”
6) http://www.masslive.com/news/
This collapse was especially troubling as this bubble was occupied with 29 campers (kids) and 5 counselors. Had the director not gotten a weather alert on her phone, the results might have been different. The Sports World bubble dome, part of the Sports World Athletic Complex crumpled roof reportedly blew into the southbound lanes of Interstate 91.
7) http://tomsriver.patch.com/
October 30, 2011, Toms River, New Jersey highlights another collapsed bubble due to a power failure and then high winds. Again, no one was injured but this happened at about 4PM, a high traffic period for after school events. Interestingly, there was a comment to this post by a reader named Mattie, that said, “That ‘building’ was a huge waste of money for the tax payers and has had one problem after another since the day it was erected. It was also ugly. Take it down and build something better if it’s needed....” This sums up why Mr Feiner is so in favor of installing the bubble on Dobbs Ferry Road.
8) http://www.
The Gunstun Sports Facility Bubble also collapsed from the weight from melting snows. No one was inside the bubble when it collapsed and fortunately there were no injuries. A significant outcome of this event was that County officials are currently evaluating possible uses for the location, but are not considering installing another sports bubble there.
9) http://triblive.com/home/
June 1, 2012 found 50 people in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, escaping injury when the inflatable dome of the Robert Morris University Island Sports Center collapsed during a storm. “The incident happened within about 30 seconds," said one user, “There was shaking and all of a sudden it stopped and the dome started to fall.” Everyone was able to evacuate safely; there were about 10 people inside the dome at the time. Age estimates of those inside ranged from 10 years old to 50 years old.
Our government’s primary purpose is to protect its citizens. Whatever level of government we discuss, that theme is the constant. Or, it should be. But in Greenburgh, Mr Feiner and his Town Board are more interested in serving their needs and wants, as well as their developer buddies, over those of their taxpayers/residents/employers. These examples above are what we could easily and quickly find. How sad that such a select group of politicians have no qualms about putting their constituents in harms way. We need the public to say no to the Dobbs Ferry Road proposal. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.
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