Lied To Again

Under the guise of “good news”, Mr Feiner has done it again. He blitzed the mainstream media with press releases that the former owners of the animal shelter in north Elmsford, Pets Alive, will be returning ownership of their now-closed facility to the Town. You’ll recall they closed their facility on September 17th. That’s when the Town’s Building Department condemned their building as unsafe due to structural faults that had arose and not been addressed. The reason given was that the structural issues were caused by settlement, declining revenue and increased costs. All of the animals were transferred to another Pets Alive facility in Middletown, NY.

When Pets Alive proposed returning ownership back to the Town, Mr Feiner and his Board said, “No!” He began saying the building was uninhabitable and needed too much extensive and costly work to be made whole again. After being informed by the Town Building Department that the building was uninhabitable for safety reasons, they were forced to close their doors. The public was repeatedly told by Mr Feiner and the Building Department that the building could not be repaired! New “good news” press releases from Town Hall prove that to be a lie.

A little known fact about the property was brought out by Mr Feiner in that the former Town property was restricted to being used as an animal shelter when it was given to Pets Alive. This provided another dilemma for Mr Feiner as well as a campaign bonanza. He was forced through his own mandate to keep the facility as a pet shelter and would be unable to unload it to someone else, such as another assisted living facility. What to do? John Lucido, the Town's Building Inspector, now stated that half of the building could be used after saying it was uninhabitable, once again changes the playing field for a predetermined outcome.

In fact, in a statement on their website, Dr. Joseph D’Abbraccio, Acting President and Chairman of the Board of Pets Alive says, “The Town knows its constituency and could more easily work with another animal rescue organization to get the appropriate building permits and meet the other needs to restart operations as an animal shelter.” Again, what to do? An initial estimate from engineers in December 2014 reported a price tag of $1.1M to repair the building. If that’s the case, and half of the building is uninhabitable, wouldn’t it be more cost-effective to tear down the structure down and rebuild a new one, allowing for the use of the entire building? In fact, given the structural issues which many believe have been compounded by the development in the area, shouldn’t they tear down the old building and erect a new one, specifically designed to house animals? In fact, the new building should be constructed to earthquake-proof standards as it is next to a rock-crushing, gravel making facility that will cause the same issue to any building. It should also be built above the area's floodplain to avoid future flooding as this area will get worse in the upcoming years.

The building at 100 Warehouse Lane was never designed to be an animal shelter. Regardless, that's what Mr Feiner wanted it to be and he made it so. Half of the building cannot be used. Pets Alive is seeking to deed the ownership of the property back to the Town now that their animals have either been adopted or moved. They cannot afford it or the necessary renovations. Mr Feiner, already saddling taxpayers with paying $5.5 million dollars for a $6.5 million judgement for being found guilty of perjury, lying under oath and destroying evidence, can ill-afford yet another million dollar expense. Add to that the loss of income for violating the WestHelp contract to the tune of $1.2 million per year for four years and still counting, the former Frank's Nursery property mired in schemes, contamination and lies and you’ll see the lies are catching up with Mr Feiner. It has to end. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.