The Hartsdale Neighborhood Association meeting recently
held at the Highview School to inform people about how the impact of the
Edgemont incorporation may affect them may have raised more questions than
answers. It may have also inadvertently pointed to the incompetence of the
Feiner administration with their cavalier approach about the Edgemont
Incorporation.
During this meeting of over a hundred people in
attendance, Jason Muldoon queried the crowd as to how people learned of the
meeting? It seemed the majority were from the email blast sent out by Mr
Feiner. That shows his power to draw his supporters in when he needs them. Many
people showed up at 7PM even though the meeting was scheduled for 7:30PM. Those
same people raised their hands having been notified of the meeting by Mr
Feiner’s email.
Our previous article describes how Mr Feiner showed up
early and was talking about the Edgemont incorporation. When asked to stop, he shouted
at one of the organizers that he had a first amendment right to free speech
even though she asked him to respect that this was their meeting not his,
forcing Police Chief McNerney to intervene and diffuse the situation. As an
aside, residents are permitted and
limited to speak for 3 minutes at a Town Board meeting. If they go beyond the
allotted time, or are part of the G10, he has Mr Lewis interrupt them and shut
them down or they are banned from speaking, such as was done to vocal critic
and resident Mr Hal Samis.
There were rumblings about the upcoming elections by some,
but Mr Feiner knows it’s just talk and is not threatened. He garners 7,000
votes when he runs unopposed and works relentlessly to disqualify ballot
signatures. In fact, to deny culpability, he even utilizes other Board members’
family members to do that dirty work. One time that he did feel threatened was
in a debate/forum in Hastings on Hudson, a normally safe haven for him. The
forum was against Supervisor candidate/challenger Robert Bernstein during a
Supervisor’s race several years ago. He became rattled as Mr Bernstein threw
too many truths at him and he slowly unraveled, with spittle flying from his
mouth and hands shaking as he held up papers yelling, “I have proof of what I’m
saying right here!” Still, he won the election, with his biggest support coming
from those who he does not govern, the Villages, and those that he does,
Fairview. Well played.
During the Q&A period at the end of the meeting Mr
Feiner was asked what contingencies had been put in place should the
incorporation happen? He said none. He was asked if he had talked to the
Edgemont community about what he could do to change their minds and he said no.
However, in all fairness, he had gone to Edgemont Community Council meetings
with some frequency and heard regularly of complaints from their past presidents
and current President Bob Bernstein. In fact, when the Town’s now-adopted
Comprehensive Plan was still being developed, many Edgemont residents chimed in
often complaining of misguided directions the group was favoring. More significantly,
when the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee was holding hearings, an
inordinate amount of Edgemont residents participated, giving feedback that was both
positive as well as negative. Many believe the Comp Plan Steering Committee
listened but didn’t hear what was being said. Please realize that while the
Comprehensive Plan could have provided a valuable road map to the future for the
Town, it became an extremely politicized exercise to the point where two of its
members refused to sign off on final approval! It was adopted in spite of what
many believe were valid objections.
Mr Feiner desperately needed to placate the Edgemont
Community to keep them from or at least slow them from moving incorporation
forward, knowing he could lose millions of dollars for the Town if they
succeeded. He had already lost $1.2 million per year for the Town by illegally and
intentionally breaking the Westhelp contract with the County. That source of
revenue was gifted to the Town requiring minimal effort from the Town. He also
cost the Town $5.5 million dollars when he was fined after being found guilty
in federal court for discrimination in the Fortress Bible Church case.
He continued offering to build sidewalks in multiple
locations, including Seely Place, along with others in Edgemont. What’s ironic here
is that some time earlier he had visited the Seely Place neighborhood telling
those residents they should not ask for sidewalks because they would be
responsible for maintaining them! In
fact, he sent an accusatory letter to Fulton Park residents stating their Civic
Association Vice-President asked the Town to put in a sidewalk on Old Kensico
Road at those residents’ expense and maintain it - which was a lie!
While he was offering Edgemont sidewalks to get them to
put their guard down and feel like he was working with them, he was secretly
making backroom deals with Jim Kane of Formation Shelbourne, LLC., to build an
assisted living facility on the current Sprain Brook Nursery property. The
proposal is not only too large for the parcel of land they seek to build on, it
requires several variances to comply with the two-year old Assisted Living law written
by the Brightview Assisted Living attorneys for themselves that the Town
adopted as its own. One of the variances that Shelbourne needs for this project
is a 3000% variance to accommodate the requirement of being within 200 feet of
a state right of way. It’s absurd to even entertain this outrageous
accommodation.
At the Hartsdale Neighborhood meeting, the uninitiated
took Mr Feiner at his word as being truthful when he said the Town could lose $17
million dollars if Edgemont incorporated, forcing, “Police services, um, you
know taxes, uh, water rates may go up,” and, “it would require major reorganizing
of the Town of Greenburgh.”(http://westchester.news12.com/news/edgemont-residents-meet-to-discuss-incorporation-1.13196407?pts=564454) .
The point here is that if the Edgemont incorporation proceeds forward, several
things will stay the same for Edgemont and several will change. One thing is
fire protection, provided by the Greenville Fire District. Instead of billing
the Town of Greenburgh for fire protection, they will bill the Village of
Edgemont. Sewer districts will remain the same as will costs. Although, we’re
unable to verify if billing will stay the same or change. Public Works
services, such as trash and garbage pickup, snow plowing, road maintenance,
etc., will change in that it will be a contracted service from the Town
(according to what was said by the HNA leaders). Of course, they might
be able to secure a better price and service from Scarsdale or Yonkers. However, if that
doesn’t happen, and the Village of Edgemont seeks to keep the current status
quo with services, the Greenburgh budget may see a slight shift, but nothing as
doomsday-ish as Mr Feiner is saying. If the Village of Edgemont is able to acquire better pricing from Scarsdale or Yonkers for example or a private
company such as Waste Management, then the Town’s budget might take a significant but
not as crippling a hit as has been perpetuated by Mr Feiner.
While we are cautiously optimistic about how this will
turn out and might change the budget and services for Unincorporated
Greenburgh, it’s nice to see more people are paying attention. Several people
in the audience were part of the G10. Most, however, have never gone to a Town
Board meeting to see how the Town is run, residents treated and developers
courted. Perhaps it’s time. Only then will we see A Better Greenburgh.
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