Blaming Others For Administrations Failures

Isn’t it interesting that when there’s something that Mr Feiner fancies, finger-pointing becomes his latest exercise regimen? In a recent email, it is hard to keep track as he sends so many, he complained that there aren’t enough bicycle lanes and walking areas on West Hartsdale Avenue. So, in an interview with News12 reporter Sarah Toland, Mr Feiner again decided to pick and choose the latest controversy: this lack of sidewalks on West Hartsdale Avenue - not everywhere else in the Town that he is responsible for, just West Hartsdale Avenue.

The reason for Mr Feiner to highlight this “issue” is, ahem, pedestrian safety for those walking on West Hartsdale Avenue, which falls under the onus of NY State, is so he can afford to be critical knowing it will be of no consequence and yet garner positive publicity for himself. While pedestrian safety on most of our roadways is a serious issue, most roadways that are Town-owned lack the proper sidewalks required to maintain a modicum of pedestrian safety. Clearly, with 24 years at the helm, Mr Feiner has had ample time to address the sidewalk deficit throughout the Town yet has chosen not to. But, as is so aptly quoted in the hallways on Hillside Avenue, “Why fix it when we can talk about it!” Or, the other saying is, “We seem to care.”

And talk about it he has! In fact, while the Town has passed a law that all developers must create a sidewalk in front of a property they are developing, no laws have passed mandating sidewalks in any other part of Town. This is why there are often so many “sidewalks to nowhere.” One claim by Mr Feiner is that there is no money for sidewalks in the budget. Perhaps that is true. But before the 2% Tax Cap limit gave him the excuse he now uses to say, "No!" to residents’ requests, it could be because he was found guilty of discrimination in Federal court for violating the rights of the Fortress Bible Church from developing their property for a church and school. Found guilty of lying under oath, destroying evidence and several other counts, he single-handedly is costing the Unincorporated Town of Greenburgh residents $6.5 million in fines! While he told taxpayers not to worry because the insurance policy the Town had would cover the fine, he was wrong again*. Apparently, when you lie under oath and are found guilty in Federal court, the insurance company does not have to pay the entire amount. We do.

While always branding himself as the “Problem Solver”, it seems he only solves problems that he has had a hand in creating and knows he can undo (or blame someone else for). Anytime any individual, group, student association or Brownie troupe can elicit a sympathetic ear, the current Town Board remains affable, congenial and yet provides little beyond an empathetic sounding board. As always, they would love to meet with the party(s) after the meeting to further discuss their concerns. And while we can never positively know, we wonder if this seasoned Board already knows Mr Feiner's signal or buzzword to refuse them, adjourn or move to the next issue. We're sure you're familiar with the signal in The Sting where the con artists rub their nose with their pointer finger. Et tu?

Where else would sidewalks be a significant safety addition to the Town? Several years ago a group of Westchester Community College students spoke at a Town Board meeting requesting sidewalks along Knollwood Road and Grassland Road to be able to safely walk to the bus stops or the Valhalla train station while attending the college. They even had a sign that stayed propped up in the lobby of Town Hall - that is until it had served out it's media life for Mr Feiner - that drew sympathy for the student's sidewalk cause. The result of all of the fawning over these few college students? They probably went on to graduate or transferred to a college with safer walking conditions - but no sidewalks ever materialized or were built by Mr Feiner and crew. Safety isn't really a priority in Greenburgh, as witnessed by the lack of police patrols in most neighborhoods.

The Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations (CGCA), along with the Fulton Park Civic Association, Broadview Civic Association and others has requested sidewalks on Old Kensico Speedway, Hillside Avenue, Knollwood Road and other numerous well-trafficked pedestrian thoroughfares. And regardless of how needed these could be for those forced to walk, especially at sunrise, dusk and nighttime, their safety only accounts for a few votes that are expendable if lost. After all, Mr Feiner and his Board's real donations and political influence come from the bigger bankrolls, usually those who have homes, cars and donate.

But still no sidewalks. Instead of coming up with a, ahem, comprehensive plan for sidewalk development throughout the Town, Mr Feiner would prefer to point fingers at the untouchable and immovable State Department of Transportation. They won't do anything for the same reason he won't: it requires real effort and money. And there is money out there for sidewalk development. It's just that Mr Feiner and his minions choose not to apply for it. For if they applied for it, they would have to do something with it should they get awarded the funds. That too would muck everything up and require valuable resources that are needed to pay guilty verdicts and fines. Imagine how many sidewalks could be built with $6.5 million?

Finally, Mr Feiner is famous for throwing out unsubstantiated numbers like spaghetti on a wall and waiting to see what sticks. Here again he claims thousands could bike and walk to the Hartsdale train station if these sidewalks were built. We seriously doubt its thousands. But then he says if they don't have the money for sidewalks, they should extend the shoulders - in effect building a sidewalk. If they don't have the money for one, why would they have it for another? It's just political doublespeak. And, it's a shame the News12 reporter bought into this lie. But she's only doing this as a stepping stone and told to cover these types of events. Besides, Mr Feiner is a master at media manipulation and she won't be here long enough to learn this. It's time for a change. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

* One million dollars was all that was paid by the insurance company.

Great News & More Lies

A recent press conference held by County Executive Latimer, touted, finally, the upcoming plans for the former abandoned Westhelp facility on the Westchester Community College campus. It was abandoned because Mr Feiner decided to play games with the facility while it was under the Town’s control. Sadly, due to his politicization of the site and his desire to generate publicity, the “problem causer’s” plan backfired for the Town.

The facility originally generated $1.2 million a year for the Town, guaranteed. Now, forever lost, these were monies that could be applied toward paying off penalties and fines brought upon the Town with the Fortress Bible guilty verdict by Mr Feiner and Diana Juettner directly, and his Board indirectly through their condoning of previous behavior, to mention just one example. During the Feiner-induced Westhelp debacle, Mr Feiner decided on his own to not sign the Westhelp renewal contract with the County during the waning days of the then-County Executive Spano administration. In fact, they reached out to Mr Feiner numerous times only to be rebuffed by him. Mr Feiner then lied to the public when asked about it, saying the County never reached out him and that was why the contract was not renewed. Copies of communications from the County Executive later validated the County’s claim that Mr Feiner was again lying.

Now Mr Feiner has again used his infamous GB-email list to share more “great news” - even if it’s only partially true. In his announcement, he thanks his Board "who worked very hard" to make this happen. They did nothing! They condoned everything that Mr Feiner tried to do with the site. Instead, they should have forced him to adhere to the original contract, intent and agreements that were in place when it was created. After which the facility would be turned over to the Town entirely to be used for senior rental housing - period! 

Ever the shrewd publicity hound, Mr Feiner publicly suggested that it was the County causing the problem with utilizing the facility and not him. County Legislators Williams and Shimsky, not at all Feiner fans, vociferously countered as did then-County Executive Rob Astorino. Also following this sham, his lies and missteps was Journal News writer David McKay Wilson, who painstakingly detailed Mr Feiner's bad and possibly illegal activities. In fact, it was repeatedly pointed out that Mr Feiner and the Town were in breach of the inter-municipal agreement in place for the facility. As we’ve stated numerous times before, when Mr Feiner doesn’t like a particular law, agreement or decision, he simply ignores it, leaving the taxpayers to pick up the fines and penalties generated by his bad behavior!

The original conversion of the apartments was to be into 54 units. Regardless of the rationale, the number was then inflated to 74 by those involved as the numbers were increased to make a more profitable result for the management company, claiming 74 units would make the project more financially viable for them. Critics complained that the change would make for smaller, more cramped apartments for the future residents, which was not the right direction to proceed.

Now that County Executive Latimer has been dragged into the Feiner quagmire, he’s agreed to the 74 units at the facility in a lease created last October. Part of the discussion was about whether or not the new facility would generate more students for the Valhalla school district. Isn’t it a bit ironic that so often we hear about declining enrollments and yet “leaders” continue to try to keep new students from coming into our schools? Presently, in fact, Dr Tahira DuPree Chase, the Greenburgh School District Superintendent, is fighting the Greenburgh Central School district’s current reputation by visiting civic associations and neighborhood groups to try to dispel what she considers to be a false narrative from realtors and others about the Greenburgh schools. 

The plans call for the developer, Marathon Development Group, to pay $1.5M - $900K to the County and $600K to the Town, on behalf of the County, in exchange for the Town relinquishing all rights to the site. The new development will serve a wide mix of income levels, including 40% to 60% of Area Median Income as well as 80% to 90% of Area Median Income. Market analysts note the mix of units will broaden the property’s appeal to the senior community. 

The Town has suffered long enough and lost millions of dollars due to Mr Feiner's arrogance, failed management and his rubber-stamp Board. As is so often said, the Supervisor, who is missing the “shame gene”, says this is good for the Town and the County. Is it? Cramped living quarters are certainly better than no living quarters. And, receiving $600k for the Town doesn’t negate the loss the taxpayers have incurred on top of the millions of dollars that must now be spent unnecessarily to remediate the mold and destruction that has taken place in the interim. This kind of arrogance and incompetence needs to end. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

“Deflection Mode” Media Blitz Underway

In classic style, Mr Feiner has spent the last week or so bemoaning the need for sidewalks in our Town. Never one to let a “good” crisis go by without comment, he has engaged a complicit media with email and snail mail press releases about the death of Mount Vernon resident Herbert Wesley, age 57, on Grasslands Road in Valhalla, on November 17th. It’s been reported that Mt Pleasant police received several phone calls of an intoxicated man, who turned out to be Wesley, who could be seen walking along Grasslands Road. He was struck and killed by an SUV at about 7 p.m. The driver of the SUV was not identified by police and is not facing charges but did remain at the scene.

After this happened, Mr Feiner sent out numerous letters to the editors of area newspapers. In them, he states, “The pedestrian death... highlights the need for sidewalks to be built on streets leading to the community college.” What he failed to mention was that this accident might not have happened had he not postured several years ago and acted in earnest on the request made about two or three years ago by a young college student from Westchester Community College. He appeared before the Town Board meeting holding a hand-made sign asking for sidewalks from the college on both Grasslands and Knollwood Roads, citing the hazardous walking conditions along the sides of each road compounded by a high volume of traffic.

As usual, the Town Board bristled, as here before them was a novice, young, idealistic voice of a new constituency, untainted and unmarred by Greenburgh’s demagoguery. Mr Feiner engaged him in a conversation, giving Mr Lewis the “secret signal” to allow the exchange. You see, when things get prickly for Mr Feiner, Mr Lewis is right there to stop the exchange and has even fallen on the sword when necessary to spare his boss self-inflicted embarrassment. At the end of this exchange and even with a brief interview by a news reporter, several long-time residents eventually informed him that nothing would come of his pitch to them and the exchange that followed. That’s politics kid!

On November 14, 2015, ABG wrote about another pedestrian struck by a car that went unreported by other news media. Here’s an excerpt:
“According to Police Chief McNerney, ‘On November 24th, at approximately 6:55pm, a pedestrian was struck on Joan Avenue at the intersection of Knollwood Road. The pedestrian was crossing Joan Avenue, from the north side to the south side and was struck by a vehicle that was traveling south on Knollwood Road, making a right onto Joan. According to the report, the pedestrian suffered minor injuries.’ This piece of information was unreported to the media.” What we had learned at the time from a police officer was that Mr Feiner called the Police Chief and asked him to withhold the information from the press. You see, many newspapers, including the Journal News, will call daily all of the Westchester police departments and ask if they have any news to report. We believe that is what he asked him to withhold.

Looking back through the ABG archives, we found another story from Friday, February 8, 2013 about a pedestrian struck on Knollwood Road. Here’s that excerpt:
“At about 2PM today, Friday, a pedestrian was struck by a car walking on Knollwood Road at the entrance to the Westchester Community College. There is no sidewalk. At the other end of Knollwood Road, the new Greenburgh Health Center has opened. It’s only a matter of time that a pedestrian gets hit by a car at this new address. The old Community Health Center on Rt 119 across from the former A&P in the Crossroads Shopping Center, found many of it’s clients crossing Rt 119 with kids, strollers and shopping bags, etc., in all kinds of weather and traffic. The dangerous situation that existed at one area has been shifted to another. Even though it is a different area, the same risk still exists for the health center’s clientele, just at their new home. There is no sidewalk.”

ABG has followed numerous requests for sidewalks for years from the North Elmsford, Fulton Park, Worthington Woodlands, and the Broadview Civic Associations to name a few. No responses or action have taken place by the Town to those requests. Although Broadview has been pushing the argument that the Town dropped the ball by not enforcing the agreement that the Greenburgh Health Center, owned by the Mount Vernon Health Center, and the condominium next to it have failed to honor their agreement to build sidewalks in front of their respective property. Our research also found two additional pedestrian deaths on Rt 9A in 2008.

The only response for sidewalks made thus far has been to the Edgemont Community Council’s request for sidewalks at Seely Place, where there is a school. ABG believes the only reason Mr Feiner worked towards getting them sidewalks is the looming secession they have held over him. Should Edgemont secede, the Town and Mr Feiner would lose a tremendous portion of income for his budgets, pulling back the magic curtain and exposing the shell game Mr Feiner has run for years. Let’s not forget the money lost by his breaking the contract with Westchester County for WestHelp to the loss of $1.2 million per year. Let’s also not forget the guilty verdict by a Federal Court against Mr Feiner, Ms Juettner and the Town for $6.5 million of which the taxpayers must pay $5.5 million!

Last year, the village of Ardsley built a sidewalk on Heatherdell Road leading to the Ardsley High School using federal dollars. What Mr Feiner fails to mention is that only Ardsley’s elected officials secured the funds without Mr Feiner or the Town's involvement and built their sidewalks in record time. ABG has learned that each time the State has had funds available for sidewalks, Mr Feiner has never “stepped up” to try to secure those funds for sidewalks in any portion of the Town! If only Unincorporated Greenburgh residents had a Mayor like Ardsley things might be different.

What Mr Feiner typically does is act like the Town Crier (no pun intended) and then say that other politicians should pay for what he says we need. It’s the classic bait-and-switch scheme that frankly, has gotten old and worn out under this administration. It’s time for real leadership in Greenburgh. Only then will we see A Better Greenburgh.

Ferncliff Deal Rejected – Everyone Loses!

In a stunning, yet expected, upset, The Paul, the Town Board, County Executive Rob Astorino, County Legislator Michael Smith, CE Advisor Ned McCormack and a few lesser players, have failed with their bid to remove the WestHelp affordable housing from the Westchester Community College Campus – again! They fought it when it was proposed and even tried to secede from the Town and incorporate as a Village just to fight the Town’s acceptance of it! ABG will state that we honestly believe the Ferncliff School does great work, serves a vital community service and was most likely duped into believing The Paul with another of his convoluted schemes.

A letter posted below from the State, details the state’s rejection of Ferncliff’s request to proceed with the WestHelp project.

Over a year has gone by with The Paul-induced and Town Board supporting, the failure to live up to its contract with the County. You may recall the contract stipulated that the Town be paid $1.2M per year to house low/no income individuals and to maintain the facility. ABG believes The Paul ordered the facility to remain left abandoned and exposed to facilitate its rapid deterioration. ABG also believes there was a deal made between The Paul, Rob Astorino and Michael Smith for some return favor to be determined at a later date. Ultimately, ABG has maintained this has always been about The Paul acquiring votes in the next election. But The Paul’s intentional ruining of these apartments while the Greenburgh Housing Authority maintains a list of some 250 or so families in need of housing is the real  crime.

Only last week Legislator Catherine Borgia, D-Ossining said, “What happened between the end of the WestHELP lease and today? And why is Greenburgh still involved when provisions are not being met?” ABG wants to know why the all the county legislators weren’t demanding the answer to this same question for over a year? And, will the County be pursuing restitution for The Paul’s wrongdoings or are they going to let it just “disappear”? Could it be that everyone’s blind party affiliations and the partisan need to sit with one side or the other is more at play here than anything else? Were the democrats who favored the Ferncliff School deal simply representing their Yonkers-based constituents or trying to support The Paul – or both? Were the republicans siding with Astorino for similar partisan reasons? You decide.

In the end, nobody won. The Paul failed to buy his votes from Valhalla. Rob Astorino and Mike Smith haven’t endeared themselves any more or less with their neighbors but have proven they are still racist. The Ferncliff School loses because they are still no closer to relocating to a newer facility. The no/low income people and the Greenburgh Housing Authority’s families and individual members in need of housing are still in need of housing. The Town of Greenburgh loses to the tune of $1.2M each year (or $100K each month) because of The Paul’s corrupt and reprehensible decisions. The County loses because their facility was left vacant and forced to deteriorate and will require repairs to be utilized again.

Several RFP’s indicated that this $20M facility would require approximately $3M in renovations to make it habitable again. Let’s hope the County appropriates the necessary emergency funding to do these repairs immediately and get the housing back to it’s required condition for use. ABG doubts the County will decide to bring an action against the Town, as that may have been the deal made for The Paul’s participation in helping the Mayfair-Knollwood neighborhood. The Paul is no stranger to lawsuits against him. While the Town maintains a AAA Bond Rating it has never taken advantage of, the time for it’s unfortunate need is approaching. ABG doesn’t wish to see more lawsuits against the Town. What ABG would like to see is The Paul and his Board resign in an admission of their dereliction and illegal actions. We can only hope.

It’s About Time

ABG has maintained along with others that the Town is in violation of the County-Town contract regarding the WestHelp Housing Facility property on the Westchester Community College Campus. The intentional (mis)direction by The Paul to cause the 108 Apartment Facility to fall into a aggravated state of disrepair is nothing short of criminal. To that end, the Westchester County Legislators began finally talking about taking action against the Town and removing the Town as the lessee for the WestHelp property! The shame of this entire catastrophe is that people in need of housing are being pitted against the developmentally disabled by The Paul and his Town Board, all without any of our legislators exhibiting any moral conscience.

ABG asserts that the root of The Paul’s actions against maintaining the WestHelp Facility has nothing to do with his desire to help the developmentally disabled. If he did want to help them, he would have offered the former Frank’s Nursery property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road as a credible site for them. They need six acres of relatively flat land and 715 Dobbs Ferry Road is about seven acres. But he didn’t offer it, proving his insincerity. ABG believes this was always about The Paul buying votes from Valhalla’s Mayfair-Knollwood School District residents. His illegal payments to the Valhalla School Board was reversed via a lawsuit filed on behalf of the Town against the Valhalla school district. ABG also believes there is complicity on the part of Republican County Executive Rob Astorino, his Communications Director Ned McCormack, Republican County Legislator Michael Smith and Matt Richter, who also is employed by the County Executive.

After fighting a growing tide of resistance from other politicians, three County Legislators have maintained their position of contractual violation against The Paul, the Town of Greenburgh and the County Legislators. While the tide might have been finally shifting to favor what ABG believes is the only correct stance they have taken, it had appeared to be an uphill battle. The Paul’s media outlet confidantes continue to not only drink, but distribute The Paul’s Kool-Aid. They also endorse and condone his corrupt viewpoint of destroying existing and viable housing to gradually force the need to tear it down and offer the property to the Ferncliff School.

Now that it’s safe to change her position, County Legislator Judy Meyers has decided she is against tearing down the WestHelp housing and wants to continue it’s use for housing homeless and low income people. How nice. Why the shift in position? Why didn’t she easily recognize the violation by The Paul and the Town? We need legislators willing to stand up for what is right and not simply ride the wave of their respective party. Meyers jumped on the Democratic surf board to “hang ten”. That’s all happened here. And when it looked like The Paul and Ferncliff might be the wrong side, she headed for the other shore. Is this the best we can do or will can we someday get better representation? We can only hope.

NAACP Continues Fight Against Feiner, Sends WestHelp Support Letter to Cuomo

Steeped in controversy, the housing facility known as WestHelp languishes while people in need of a home wallow in despair. There was controversy when the facility was proposed and ultimately built, as there still is now, many years later. Back in the day, it was so bad that the racist NIMBY’s in Valhalla fought the low income housing tooth and nail. It got so bad that residents in the Mayfair area of the Town threatened to secede from the Town of Greenburgh, and form their own village. And while the residents fought hard to stop the facility, then HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo, now our governor, persevered and succeeded in getting the housing built. Tough love aside, the facility was erected on the campus of the Westchester Community College campus. 108 new apartments were then made available to people within the DSS system. Some were single women and others had kids. In the end, 108 families were living in their own apartments thanks to Andrew Cuomo (and others)! To keep Valhalla residents safe from the hoards of roaming single women from entering other neighborhoods, The Paul had a chain link fence installed, topped with barbed wire to contain them. Perhaps The Paul used the same company that installs fencing at our corrections facilities?

Between New York State and Westchester County, the housing was built and then the Town was assigned to collect rent from the County to the tune of $1.2 million dollars per year. Greenburgh has the Greenburgh Housing Authority whose function is to work with and maintain existing housing as well as those in need of housing. They currently maintain an active list of about 250 people in need of shelter.

Imagine everyone’s dismay once The Paul decided to not renew the housing contract with the County and cost the Town $1.2M per year! Many, including the G10, went to Town Board meetings and asked The Paul and his Town Board why he would not renew the lease. The Paul stated it was County Executive Andrew Spano’s fault. He said that Spano never sent a lease for him to sign. Residents quickly proved this was a lie! ABG has learned two Lease requests were sent to The Paul. Spano’s office claimed it was The Paul who didn’t respond. In a desperate attempt to cover his butt, The Paul then fabricated fake emails he claimed were sent to the County Executive requesting a lease. It’s shameful that not only would The Paul lie to everyone, but that he would fabricate emails to compound his lie.

Things were going well for Greenburgh while the County kept using WestHelp. But once they claimed to not need it as temporary low/no income housing facility, The Paul decided to break the lease and hatch a plan to get Valhalla votes. Whether this was done with or without a complicit Town Board is moot, as they went along and continue to go along with the charade. As mentioned earlier, the Greenburgh Housing Authority has clients that could have moved right in after the apartments had been vacated by the previously homeless women tenants. It would have almost halved their client list in need of a home! But this wasn’t part of The Paul’s grand vote-getting scheme. He wouldn’t be collecting any where near the rent he was getting from the County he needs to offset the year and a half loss relying on the Greenburgh Housing Authority.

There were two meetings hosted by the White Plains Chapter of the NAACP to discuss the WestHelp property and it’s fate with legislators and concerned citizens. We’ve written about this previously and won’t rehash what we’ve said before.  NAACP President Lena Anderson, has just sent a letter to Governor Andrew Cuomo asking him to maintain the apartments. ABG has posted a copy of her letter below:

When everything is said and done, this is still a landlord/tenant issue. The fact that The Paul’s racism has been exposed, along with Rob Astorino, Michael Smith, Ned McCormack, Matt Richter, and media sap Phil Reisman (of the Journal News), doesn’t come as a surprise. The fact that so many other “leaders” would go along with it all, does surprise us. Actually, it disappoints us more than surprises us. ABG understands that the electorate has short memories. The Paul and the other politicians realize this too. They are assuming when the next election comes around that this will all be forgotten and they’ll get re-elected. Since that is what has happened for the last twenty years for The Paul, he figures he has a lock on being re-elected. ABG hopes not. Then again, we can only hope.

Assaulted From Every Level

The Paul decided a previously thought-to-be untouched neighborhood should have a group home for the developmentally disabled located in it at 88 North Road. He also decided to keep his goal from the neighborhood he was about to punish. Had he included the Parkway Homes neighborhood with his plan in the beginning, he would have learned there were other group homes in the immediate area. The Paul’s actions highlights why we need term limits. The Paul has been in office for so long now, he’s in his 21st year, he has forgotten that he is there to serve the public, not himself, his developer friends, the county or the state! And since the electorate cannot seem to stop reelecting career politicians after a few terms, mandatory exiting through term limits would keep the abuse from perpetuating.

So while The Paul “ghettoizes” Fairview (Alfreda Williams, January 14, 2013, WestHelp Forum in White Plains) with more and more not-for-profits, building homeless/affordable/low-no income/Section 8 and any other type of housing that will not pay taxes, the State has decided to implant it’s own housing in Greenburgh. Why aren’t our elected Greenburgh officials standing up for what our residents want? Did The Paul invite the State to purchase 88 North Road or did the owner of it seek them? Could the State merely have been stumbled upon it? Doubtful. ABG believes The Paul reached out to the State agency and “suggested” 88 North Road to them, promising they will sail right through the approvals/zoning changes, et al, once he makes his Board the project’s lead agency.

In another seemingly shady move, this time from Westchester County and CE Rob Astorino, the County has entered into a deal with a church in Mount Vernon, namely the Friendship Worship Center, on Lincoln Avenue to create a homeless shelter in their basement. The hours of operation for this “warming center” are 9PM until 6AM each day. There are four schools in the nearby vicinity. So once the homeless are asked to leave at 6AM, they will probably be running into teachers, students and their parents arriving at school. It seems we are being assaulted at every level of government with low income and homeless housing. We have the Federal HUD mandate, NY State building out of place group homes in residential neighborhoods, this “paying of churches” by the County, and The Paul saying we should tear down the 108 units in Valhalla that were built specifically for the homeless population. Why so much? Because everyone knows where the money is and simply needs to form a not-for-profit company to jump on the government gravy train.

The homeless problem has lessened a bit in Westchester County, although the frigid weather brings the reality of it right back to our doorstep. Legislator Lyndon Williams made several excellent points in his letter to the County Executive. Here’s an excerpt:

“Addressing the homeless problem is a County obligation that requires a comprehensive long- term, county-wide solution, not a patchwork of fixes in which the homeless population is targeted for tolerant communities like Mount Vernon. Moreover, many of the homeless persons are in need on mental health services, and yet your Administration has closed the County’s mental health clinics that provided such services to this vulnerable population.

Perhaps more than any other community in Westchester, Mount Vernon has done its part in cooperating with the County to address the problems of the poor and vulnerable. However, this City cannot continue to be the dumping ground for all of the social problems of Westchester County, especially when considering that your Administration has eliminated from the 2013 County Budget many of the worthwhile programs that benefit Mount Vernon, like funding for at- risk youth initiatives that have been proven to be quite successful.

I do not want to simply point to the problem without proposing a solution. Therefore, I suggest that the $120,000 awarded to Friendship Worship Center to house the homeless be used instead by the Church to run programs that serve at-risk youth in Mount Vernon.

The shelter program for the homeless, in turn, should be located in the county-owned housing located adjacent to the Westchester Community College campus in Valhalla. This facility consists of 108 units of housing that are presently available and unoccupied. The fully equipped facility, which was constructed under the administration of former County Executive Andrew O’Rourke, was intended to house the homeless and that intention should be fulfilled by using it to solve the homeless problem in Westchester County.

It is truly a disgrace that housing specifically constructed to address the problem of homelessness remains vacant while these most vulnerable members of our communities are left to wander the streets, sleep in doorways of buildings and even die in cars in which they reside by necessity. Mr. Astorino, you have an opportunity to change the plight of the homeless by implementing this solution.”

ABG agrees with Legislator Lyndon Williams and hopes the County Executive will heed his plea to not pay off his friends and cronies, use the County taxpayer money properly and reopen the WestHelp housing that sits hostage under The Paul. We can only hope.