Running Scared 2

There is a distinct interest in the Primary race for the Democratic Party endorsement. Depending with whom you ask, either opponent may seem to have the edge as the frontrunner. The reality of slowly unmasking Mr Feiner’s track record is happening daily and exposing him as the ungracious, scheming career politician he has evolved (perhaps de-volved) into. Somewhere, somehow, during his 22-year tenure, something snapped, changing him from the young, helpful politician into the grumpy, Tammany Hall-like insider. Twenty-two years ago there were many people who felt compelled to support him when he first took office. He was a breath of fresh air after a developing and maturing Greenburgh began to feel weighted under an aging Anthony Veteran.

In the beginning, Mr Feiner seemed like a viable and even welcomed choice – a breath of fresh air. Mr Veteran advanced his years in office and continued his agenda, whatever it was. People tired as he progressed but didn’t give them whatever they or their special interest group requested. The “young guy” studied the history and once he got into office, he used it to his advantage. While he is an incompetent leader and manager, he has mastered history and has been using it for the last 22 years to his advantage. Although, it appears we haven’t learned from history and are once again repeating it.

Robert “Bob” Bernstein, is an attorney, community leader, and family man from the Edgemont section of Greenburgh. He has earned a local reputation as a ethical person who puts his principles before politics. He is the challenger for the Town Supervisor position against Mr Feiner, touching on topical issues of the day involving the Town, our Town Board and others issues affecting Greenburgh taxpayers. He recently addressed a group of voters in the Worthington section of the Town after attending a four-hour church mass in another part of Town.

In his presentation to this group of neighbors provided insight toward his improving the operations of the Town government, a respect for residents and a more cooperative give-and-take between the two. He cited examples of mismanagement, arrogance and a willingness by Mr Feiner to repeatedly break the law. He pointed in the direction of the former Frank’s Nursery, stating that Mr Feiner refused an offer twice that of his preferred lowest bidder, with no strings attached. He further pointed out that there is still no action with that property. He discussed the WestHelp debacle that was started two years earlier by Mr Feiner by not renewing the WestHelp contract from the County guaranteeing the Town $1.2 million. He talked about flooding, revaluation, and our increasing rise in taxes. The list was almost endless but the audience remained engaged and rewarded with thoughtful, intelligent answers to their questions. If only the Town Board meetings were run the same way.

The Town has had 22-years of an abandoned constituency in the Unincorporated portion of the Town, a decaying infrastructure, bullying and abuse of employees, losses in court exceeding millions and millions of dollars and certiorari adjustments to businesses throughout the Town by Mr Feiner and his hand-picked cohorts. It’s time for the residents of Greenburgh to get something better. This September 10, is the Democratic Primary for Greenburgh. ABG encourages all Democrats to study the topics affecting the Town and make an informed decision by participating in the Primary process. Your vote can make a difference and lead us toward a Better Greenburgh.

Issues Updated

At a recent Civic Association meeting, it was suggested that most residents are unaware of issues affecting the taxpayers in Greenburgh and the differences between the two candidates.

Here’s a list of topics affecting the Town based on the actions of our current Supervisor and his Town Board.  We had compiled this list but hadn’t posted it as it continued to grow and grow. Rather than wait to post this, we thought we would post it and add to it with more topics as they come to light.

Here is most of the issues we have so far:

The Edgemont Community Council has been dealing with the Dromore Road zoning and building issues where a developer intends to add a multi-family apartment building on a small piece of property.

Mr Feiner and the Board are racing through any and all building applications and projects, Spot-zoning (illegally) parcels to accelerate developer growth before the Town’s Comprehensive Plan can be proposed and adopted.

Fulton Park’s Civic Association is dealing with Westhab’s building construction and possible violations to no avail.

Fulton Park will next be addressing the Deli Delicious drive-through proposal again.

The Parkway Homes Civic Association found themselves surprised with Mr Feiner’s “slipping” another group home into an already saturated area at 88 North Road. Low and behold, Councilman Ken Jones is a member of their Board and said nothing to his neighborhood.

The Glenview Civic Association has had its issues with the very large Brightview Assisted Living facility that asked for a zoning change from the Town Board to increase the size of their building and any others built throughout the Town in the future. Brightview’s attorneys wrote and the Board approved and subsequently received the approval the wanted.

Glenville had just finished with all the Stop and Shop issuess and violations only for Mr Feiner to find a speck of undeveloped property in their neighborhood he would “gift” to this developer. See above.

The Broadview Civic Association has wrestled with multiple issues with the New Mt. Vernon Neighborhood Health Center (dba Greenburgh Health Center) on Knollwood Road. The medical clinic is not suitably screened from adjoining residential districts, lacks an ADA compliant pedestrian sidewalk, mandated by the Town, the Planning Board, the Zoning Board of Appeals. Excessive exterior lighting on the health center building impinges on residential area property.

The Building Inspector must obtain a current “as built survey” for the site and compare this “as built survey” to the plans as originally approved by the Town Board, the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals. Any variances between the as built structure and the site plan as originally approved, must be individually evaluated by each approving Board, and any additional necessary variances granted or denied by the original approving Greenburgh Boards.

The “mountable pedestrian traffic island” installed at the intersection of Knollwood and Tarrytown Roads is a serious public safety hazard to both pedestrians and motor vehicles.

The Village of Ardsley will be getting at least half a million dollars from the sale of the Town-owned, foreclosed upon former-Water Wheel property while other Villages and the Unincorporated Town watch helplessly in disbelief.

Of course, the Cumberland Farms deception on Central Avenue gave the Town Board a warped view on how the Town could charge all Central Avenue Service Stations a several thousand-dollar fee (read: tax).

Let’s not forget the Worthington-Woodlands Civic Association’s recent request to meet with the Town Board to discuss the GameOn 365 propos...oh, wait a minute, Mr Feiner and his Board just pushed that through without a public meeting after promising to propose a few dates for them all to sit down together to discuss it.  Now it seems after many have pointed out the Board members are individually liable if the Town sells to a low-bidder, they are finally talking to House of Sports.

The guilty verdict against the Town for the illegal sewer district billing by the Southern Greenville Civic Association area keeps those people occupied, as the Town still hasn’t followed the court-ordered restorations and refunds.

While we’re in that neighborhood, lets not ignore the Toll Brothers development that has constantly and continually violates many of the Town’s building regulations. Apparently, Mr Feiner and the Board are happy to look the other way.

Of course in Valhalla, Mr Feiner led the charge to break the lease stipulations with the County for the WestHelp facility, allowed it to deteriorate and try to add a new tenant that he did not have authority to do. Fortunately, NYS shot down this bad idea and insisted the affordable housing remain just that. And while we would love to see legal action taken against him for doing this, it would be counterproductive and only cost us more money in guilty verdict judgments.

In the Payne Street area of Mazzaro Park, Mr Feiner has promised security cameras by the end of the year to assist increased security. There doesn’t appear to be any money in the proposed capital budget for this. Another empty promise.

The north Elmsford-area Civic Association of the Town will now be trying to reign in Mr Feiner with the 100 acres (50 in Greenburgh and 50 in Mt Pleasant) of construction near and on the old Union Carbide property, increasing car and truck traffic to an already impossible traffic situation on Rt 9A and other area roads. Record setting flooding will continue to hammer anything south of the area during a “regular” rainfall.

 In fact, flooding throughout the Town has now become the norm with a Supervisor and Town Board uninterested in helping flooded residents but willing to sell off Town parcels to the developer du jour. Plans include multiple big-box stores, more office space, 400+ condominiums and smaller retail stores. No plans for increasing roadways or addressing flooding.

On Taxter Road we’ll see 400 more condominiums being built. White water rafting to Ardsley may be a new sport from Elmsford with each rainfall.

On the Bronx River side of the Town, Mr Feiner has done nothing to help those residents and businesses with any type of flood relief maintenance.

There remains the Fortress Bible Church decision* where Mr Feiner, Ms Juettner, and the Town Board were found guilty of seven counts against them, including discrimination, destruction of evidence and lying under oath. The cost of this decision has yet to be announced but has been estimated to be as high as $8M.

* U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Robinson ruled on Aug. 12 that the town impermissibly prevented the church from building a new place of worship and school on Pomander Drive. In a unanimous three-judge panel decision, Judge John Walker of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit wrote that the Town Board violated the church's rights under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.  

Flooding The Town

The intentional title could be about the flood of emails slowly picking up from a nervous Mr Feiner whose monarchy is being threatened. It could be from the water cascading down the 9A and Bronx River corridors like a spring thaw in upstate NY’s Ausable Chasm. It could be from the soon-to-be-normal campaign blitz to re-elect the current and failed Town administration. Indirectly, its about all of them. ABG was begun and has flourished because of issues facing our Town and caused internally. It is because of this that we felt this post is warranted.

Every election cycle seems to find every politician promising the world and delivering only invoices. There are two candidates embroiled in the race for the Democratic endorsement for Town Supervisor in this election cycle. Those two people are the well-honed, incumbent Paul Feiner and his opponent Robert Bernstein. The similarities and differences offered voters is a starkly wide one based on the issues needed to be discerned. This will only further muddy the decision making choices one must make if they plan to vote in the Democratic primary. On the one hand, Mr Feiner has cultivated the appearance of “problem solver” to the unknowing and uninformed public. Mr Bernstein has pointed out that the “problems”, beyond filling a pot hole or trimming a tree, are usually created by Mr Feiner so he can “solve” them.

Incumbents Diana Juettner and Francis Sheehan, also seeking re-election, continue to try to distance themselves from Mr Feiner’s unscrupulous dealings with GameOn 365. Yet, they can’t stray too far from Mr Feiner’s campaign war chest lest they be forced to pay for their campaign themselves. Mr Feiner has always financially sponsored candidates seeking office with him. Since he must run every two years, its that leash that allows him to easily “pull their strings”. Go against him, as Sonya Brown quickly learned, and be jettisoned with a new puppet on his knee. In this post, we won’t even get into the Fortress Bible Church debacle.

Here’s just a few points that can help distinguish the differences and similarities between the candidates. First, the similarities. Please keep in mind that these are not meant to be disrespectful, insulting or accusatory. Both men are near in age, white, Jewish, lawyers–one practicing, one non-practicing, live in upscale homes, are married with children and have been involved with various social issues in different capacities.

Now a few of the differences.

Mr Feiner illegally paid the Valhalla School District millions of dollars as a payoff for accepting WestHelp’s 108 affordable housing units while offering nothing to other Villages or neighborhoods. Mr Bernstein (with retired Justice Herb Rosenberg) recouped some of that money for the Town residents proving in court that Mr Feiner’s actions were illegal.

Mr Feiner chose to let the WestHelp apartments decay in hopes of tearing them down. Mr Bernstein worked independently as well as in concert with the local NAACP to thwart Mr Feiner’s efforts, halting the ruination of these apartments while the County turned a blind eye. That saga is still unfolding.

Mr Feiner insisted the Town Board do their “due diligence” in choosing a management team to oversee the former WestHelp property. Their choice was a non-experienced, new entrant into the mix, Group MRH, ignoring other qualified applicants simply because he promised a higher monthly fee. After doing his own substantive research and “due diligence”, Mr Bernstein conclusively proved that the Feiner-blessed choice, Group MRH, had misrepresented themselves and essentially lied to gain the contract. Mr Bernstein has repeatedly asked the Town Board to disqualify this firm.

Probably the most important aspect of the entire WestHelp debacle is that Mr Feiner arbitrarily took it upon himself to allow the largest income-producing, non-tax revenue funding and allowed it to expire! The County had “gifted” Greenburgh a most lucrative $1.2M per year lease for the WestHelp facility and Mr Feiner chose to allow it to lapse. Mr Bernstein has often stated that this was one of the largest and most costly blunders of this administration affecting the finances of the Town.

Mr Feiner’s most recent tax that he and his Board imposed was onto existing gas stations on the Central Avenue corridor. Mr Bernstein pleaded with Mr Feiner and the Board not to initiate the fee but they would not heed the advice of Mr Bernstein and proceeded anyway. At the last Town Board meeting several service station owners attended the Town Board meeting and lashed out at the Board and Mr Feiner for hurting their businesses while he catered to Cumberland Farms and a few other stations of choice.

Mr Feiner has focused on non-Town issues, such as turning the Tappan Zee Bridge into a park, similar to NYC’s “High-line Park” created from an old elevated train line. Mr Bernstein may be interested in the Tappan Zee project, but it doesn’t affect the Town. Mr Feiner should be focusing on Town issues, such as lowering taxes, reducing waste, and sitting down with the employees of the Town and working out a contract he let go unratified for 4 years. Mr Bernstein remained focused on Town issues. But since Mr Bernstein is not the Town Supervisor, he can focus on whatever he pleases. Focus seems to be an issue with Mr Feiner. Don’t believe us? Ask him a question and see if you get an answer.

Mr Feiner has a grand plan to overdevelop the Rt 119 and 9A corridors with larger, more “city-like” buildings. Mr Feiner’s Board goes along with everything proffered by job-security-seeking Town Planning Commissioner Thomas Madden. There is currently a move on Central Avenue to build a dance studio that was a little bit of everything: business on the bottom, offices on the top and possibly apartments as well. The push was for a 4 to 6-story building. This would be on one of the corners on Central Avenue near the 7-11 and Hess gas station. Mr Bernstein believes in development within reason and adhering to existing zoning. This project is simply too large for the location. But this is the vision Mr Feiner and Mr Madden have for our Town.

Mr Feiner’s administration has perfected their own “cloaking devices”. One such device is the intentionally curtailed development and lethargic implementation of a Town Comprehensive Plan. A town-wide comprehensive plan would severely restrict Mr Feiner and his Board’s ability to spot-zone properties for developers. While spot zoning is illegal, Mr Feiner has perfected the ability to not be held back by zoning laws. Mr Feiner has had 22 years to appoint members of the Planning and Zoning (among others) Boards, virtually assuring agreement and passage of any plan that comes for review. Mr Bernstein may want to consider removing zoning capabilities from the Town Board.

Finally (for now anyway), Mr Feiner has never worked in the private sector. As such, he has no management experience and terms such as Return On Investment (ROI), evaluation metrics, and performance reviews are abstracts to him. Most unqualified people in a significant position would invariably learn while on the job. Yet reviewing numerous projects throughout the Town, morale of our workers (our greatest asset), flooding throughout, spot-zoning, illegal leases, illegal referendums, over-saturation of group homes, developer-centric decisions, over-sized buildings throughout the unincorporated Town, WestHelp, GameOn 365, out-of-control Board members (“Sit down! Sit the F*** down”) keeping the public from speaking and more has proven this is not the case with Mr Feiner. Mr Bernstein brings management experience to the Town and a level-headed sense of what is in the best interest of the Town. Mr Feiner abandoned this quite some time ago. Mr Bernstein has also suggested he would investigate the benefits of hiring a Town Manager/Administrator as that seems to have worked well for the Villages.

There is clearly a difference between the candidates and we look forward to hearing them at several forums prior to the Primary election.

It’s Time

Westhab silently purchased property with funding provided by Westchester County and others in Fulton Park. Mr Feiner apparently assured them that spot-zoning (not in so many words) would not be a problem. But he and his Board spot zone almost at will. Rather than continue to allow the property to be the buffer from light commercial into the residential neighborhood, Mr Feiner offered them the worst zoning the Town has on record, sanctioning a skyscraper that ultimately was reduced from it’s original size to a more logical one, taking the design cue from a nearby and outdated 1960’s building. Mr Bernstein fought the zoning change because what happens in one neighborhood will soon happen in others.

In that same neighborhood, the Town just paved Old Kensico Road, referred to as Old Kensico Speedway, to assist in minor flooding control. Previously, layers of blacktop upon blacktop raised the road so much that rainwater on the street would funnel into the east-side homes’ yards and basements. While repaving the street was helpful, that’s all the Town has done to address the massive flooding this neighborhood’s had for years, highlighted by Hurricane Irene. 

As we once again approach Hurricane season, with Tropical Storm Andrea bearing down, residents are in no better shape now than they were before. Once the homes are flooded, we’re sure Mr Feiner will call the media to bemoan how terrible this flooding is and the County, State and Federal governments “need to do something.” He’ll invariably offer to reach out to FEMA again to see about purchasing homes in the flooded area, knowing they don’t qualify for it. He will do what he always does, simply nothing, all the while pointing fingers at others.

The Brightview Assisted Living Center in Glenville needed the ever-coveted (spot) zoning change to build their oversized building on too-small a parcel of land. The Town had them write the change for the Town, which Mr Feiner and his Board unhesitatingly adopted, sanctioning another monstrosity on the hill and overshadowing the tiny neighborhood. All the homeowners of the properties below the site will suffer with water runoff, flooding and other problems including a loss of power. This will affect more than just the Glenville section of the Town. It’s time.

The latest issue is at the Eastview area of northern Greenburgh and Mt Pleasant. It’s where the old Union Carbide, ConEd and Home Depot are. Now that Mr Feiner has “bought into” the proposal to (over) develop 50 acres in the Town and 50 acres in Mt Pleasant to build what is otherwise porous space that now absorbs the rain. Where will all of the runoff go once this 100 acres is developed? Obviously, the water will travel downhill and add to the already over-saturated 9A corridor. While Mr Feiner is blinded by all the tax dollars this new development promises, he neglects to address the elephant in the room that comes at a cost for this development: flooding. We hope Mr Bernstein will address flooding if elected. It’s time.

Mr Feiner is seeking re-election. He’s been in office for 22 years. When he started, he seemed to actually help constituents. Now, however, he only seems to help developers and his inner circle! Because of all of his bad deals, judgements against him and the Town, etc., he is desperate to try to get money for the Town anyway possible. You can’t continue to balance the Town budget with the Fund Balance money as he is doing. Those funds are being depleted yearly in Mr Feiner’s ruse to appear to be keeping the budget in control. And his saying we are mandated to limit ourselves to a 2% Tax Cap by NYS is also disingenuous. The Town can easily override the 2% Tax Cap. It’s time.

Mr Bernstein has worked toward helping the Town get out from under some of the Town’s and Mr Feiner’s bad deals and decisions. Other residents have worked hard to help this administration do the right thing. Mr Feiner berates them at Town Board meetings while hiding behind the agenda notice which says there will be no personal attacks during the meeting. Mr Feiner has repeatedly attacked Mr Bernstein in his blog and in newspaper Letters to the Editor, Community Views and so on. We can only assume Mr Bernstein must be doing something right to warrant these personal attacks by Mr Feiner. It’s time.

Divide and Conquer and Bid Rigging

At the last Town Board meeting, where new Councilman Ken Jones hurled the “F-bomb” at resident Hal Samis for approaching the dais, the G10 were in attendance and in good form. Speaker after speaker continued to harangue the Board for not doing their “due diligence” regarding the allegedly fabricated partnership of Group MRH and the Richman Corporation by Group MRH’s principal. Richman is well-known for their work in affordable housing throughout the nation. Regardless of what was presented, the Board feigned interest with their residents and either walked out or directed their attention to their personal electronic devices. ABG acknowledges that the exception may be momentarily acceptable to check a device, but this Board is worse than a young teen with their first phone (or A.D.D).

Also at the last meeting the public was treated to a new catch-phrase from Mr Feiner. He decided he would attack the residents questioning his motives regarding WestHelp since he lost that challenge. His lack of due diligence and feckless ability to broker a beneficial deal for the Town, or for that matter, any deal for the Town keeps our Town spiraling out of control. The list of Mr Feiner’s recent and ignored debacles awaits poised for his re-election bid this Tuesday night at Greenburgh Town Hall.

This reminds us of when democrats were using the facility to make phone calls for President Obama’s re-election campaign and Republican Chairman Doug Colety found out that a political party was using Town resources for campaigning and caught Mr Feiner red-handed supplying the use of Town Hall by a political party without charging for its use. Embarrassed? Doubtful. ABG has repeatedly heard that Mr Feiner is without the “shame” gene. But, he did request they pay a token amount. And, in typical knee-jerk fashion, the Town Board “wrestled” with how much to charge any group using Town Hall property? As always, after they all postulated, they offered no solution. Ms Ella Preiser informed them of a policy already on the books for years, citing chapter, verse and date of adoption, and that they should simply follow it. Ockham’s Razor; also doubtful in Greenburgh. Let’s see if the Town receives a check from the Democratic Party for this nominating convention?

As Mr Feiner continues the wholesaling of the Unincorporated Town to developers, residents are challenged by his divide and conquer strategy, all the while sitting in either increased traffic or flooded neighborhoods. He wrongfully assumes they cannot possibly have the resources to effectively battle him, deeming himself unstoppable. In concert with Mr Feiner is his “Fidus Achates”, Planning Commissioner Thomas Madden, whose title seems to grow in propensity with the need cover Mr Feiner’s litigiousness butt. Mr Madden bristles as he presents every proposal to the Town Board with an implied endorsement, ensuring job security. Mr Feiner relishes these exhortations, perched from the dais like the buzzard eyeing a carcass from afar, never once disagreeing or instructing Mr Madden to, “Sit down. Sit the F*** down!”

Here’s a few examples:

The Edgemont Community Council has been directing their efforts to dealing with the Dromore Road zoning and building conflagrations and slowly making headway. Fulton Park’s Civic Association is dealing with Westhab’s building construction violations to no avail and will next be addressing the Deli Delicious drive-through requests yet again - if they can get through the backed-up traffic jams on their overburdened street. The Parkway Homes Civic Association found themselves surprised with Mr Feiner’s “slipping” another group home into an already saturated area at 88 North Road. Low and behold, Councilman Ken Jones is a member and said nothing to his neighborhood. The Glenview Civic Association has had its issues with the Brightview Assisted Living facility that asked for, wrote and received the zoning change from the Town Board to increase the size of their building and any others built throughout the Town in the future. They had just finished with all the Stop and Shop problems and violations only for Mr Feiner to find a speck of undeveloped property in their neighborhood he would “gift” a developer. The Village of Ardsley will be getting at least half a million dollars from the sale of the Town-owned, foreclosed upon former-Water Wheel property while other Villages and the Unincorporated Town watch helplessly in disbelief. Of course, the Cumberland Farms deception on Central Avenue hosted a look at ways the Town Board could charge all Central Avenue Service Stations a several thousand dollar fee (read: tax) based on their distorted view of how to reward existing businesses in the Town. Let’s not forget the Worthington-Woodlands Civic Association’s recent request to meet with the Town Board to discuss the GameOn 365 propos...oh wait a minute, Mr Feiner and his Board just pushed that through without a public meeting after promising to propose a few dates for them all to sit down together to discuss it. The guilty verdict against the Town for the illegal sewer district billing by the Southern Greenville Civic Association area keeps those people occupied as the Town still hasn’t followed the court-ordered restorations and refunds. While we’re in that neighborhood, lets not ignore the Toll Brothers development that has constantly and continues to violate many of the Town’s building regulations. Apparently, Mr Feiner is happy to look the other way himself and ignore others that work for him doing the same. Of course in Valhalla, Mr Feiner led the charge to break the lease stipulations with the County for the WestHelp facility, allowed it to deteriorate and try to add a new tenant that he did not have authority to do. Fortunately, NYS shot down this bad idea and insisted the affordable housing remain just that. And while we would love to see legal action taken against him for doing this, it would be counterproductive and only cost us more money in guilty verdict judgments. The north Elmsford-area Civic Association of the Town will now be trying to reign in Mr Feiner with the 100 acres (50 in Greenburgh and 50 in Mt Pleasant) of construction near and on the old Union Carbide property, increasing car and truck traffic to an already impossible traffic situation on Rt 9A and other area roads. Increasingly record setting flooding will continue to hammer anything south of the area during a “regular” rainfall. On Taxter Road we’ll see 400 more condominiums being built. White water rafting to Ardsley may be a new sport in Elmsford with each rainfall. Back on the Bronx River side of the Town, Mr Feiner has done nothing to help those residents and businesses with any type of flood relief maintenance.

In every instance mentioned above, its believed developers secretly met with Mr Open Government himself or Mr Madden to craft what they would need to promise the Town to move ahead with their plans. The Fortress Bible Church refused to offer the fire district a donation per Mr Feiner’s request and met only resistence with their proposed church and school. The Hebrew Retire Center on Grasslands road conceded and their expansion plans sailed through the Town’s bureaucracy like a hot knife through butter. Fortress Bible Church sued and won, with the settlement award to be upwards of $8M! 

Mr Feiner accused the residents of bid rigging at the last Town Board meeting but has been proven to be the only suspect of bid rigging in the Town. And where is our Town Board? Surely the Board members who are attorneys can see they are not upholding their “Officer of the Court” status with their condonation of all of these actions and bad decisions. We can only wait and see what happens with the nominations at the democratic meeting to invariably be held at no charge at Town Hall. We hope the democrats have someone able and willing to challenge Mr Feiner. His time has past. We need to get back to healing our Town without being divided and certainly never conquered!

Town Votes To Object To State Against Group Home

After another presentation from the Richmond Community Services, the state agency seeking to build a group home on 88 North Road in the Parkway Homes section of Fairview, the neighborhood made their case again for the over-saturation and changing landscape this project would cause if built. ABG noted previously that Councilman Ken Jones neglected to inform his neighborhood of this proposal. ABG isn’t sure if he was feeling guilty for that or truely believes what his neighbors were saying, but he made the motion today for the Town to officially object to the State to this group home being constructed at 88 North Road. As expected, and clearly unable to recognize and vote for adhering to Town law, The Paul voted against the motion. His reasoning was that he was for group homes. Unable to see that this was not what the motion was about, Councilman Jones explained that he heard the neighborhood speak and is following local Town law about having a minimum distance of at least 2000 feet between group home facilities. Councilman Sheehan concurred, saying the nearest property was just over 1,000 feet away. Had this been 2001 feet, he would have not voted in favor of the motion to object.

At this point, proceeding with the home is temporarily put on hold until there is a hearing with the State. There is an agreement in place to purchase the property assuming the State gives the green light for this project. While the arrogance of the State representative at the last Town Board meeting should shed no light on the possible outcome, we can only hope that the State sees the error in choosing this property and looks to situate near similar sized homes where there are no group homes or facilities – say in Boulder Ridge. The residents got their message across to enough Board members this time. The Paul clearly insisted that he wasn’t interested in representing the constituents, only his own personal views towards group homes. Sometimes, as a representative, you must go against your own beliefs and do the right thing. This would have been one of those times as the four to one vote to object was based on Greenburgh law. 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.