Local Flooding Ignored

Religiously, we seem to enter into that time of year with area flash flooding, road closures, blocked roads, power failures and the like. Each time this happens our representatives search for or notify the media which flooded neighborhood they will visit in hopes of getting some “free” publicity. Mr Feiner routinely does this after he receives word that it is safe for him to exit his Boulder Ridge gated community. The 1%-ers such as himself know when to stay in. The rest of the Town, basically at opposite ends of each other, wait apprehensively, and are usually furnished enough water to provide the requisite flooding of their neighborhoods. Nothing changes except the promises to “do something”. As anticipated, nothing changes.

After Hurricane/Tropical Storms Irene and Sandy, the Village of Elmsford organized a cleanup of the Saw Mill River just south of the Elmsford Little League field adjacent to the river. For those unfamiliar with the fields location, it is along Rt 9A where southwest Elmsford and Greenburgh meet. The Babbitt Court neighborhood, well known for its political visitors seeking the flood limelight, usually floods quickly and gets media coverage. While the Elmsford Village officials organized and implemented a cleanup, Mr Feiner issued a carefully crafted press release alluding to taking credit for it. Interestingly, the Village officials did not seek the limelight or “atta boys”. They simply did what they could for their residents. It was not the end-all to the problem, but it was a start. Highway Commissioner Victor Carosi has tried to make sure area storm drains and such are as open as possible. But once the river cannot handle the volume of water, his efforts are, pun intended, a drop in the bucket.

At many Town Board meetings, Fulton Park residents, Hartsdale residents, their respective Civic Association leaders, and others, all request the Town do something to clear out the Bronx River to allow better water flow by removing the debris and “strainers”causing water backups into the Town’s flood-weary neighborhoods. Simply, strainers are debris of every size and shape that get caught up in the water, flowing with it until it gets caught in something, blocking the water flow and causing a clog at that point. Where does all this debris come from? Some of it flows downstream because of littering. People who are too lazy to hold the garbage from McDonalds or Burger King and toss it on the side of the road before they can dispose of it properly, beer and soda cans and plastic containers that will never degrade and are tossed out their car window all accumulate and go with the flow. Some of it is from dumpsters and garbage cans that are overturned during a flood, emptying their contents and finding its way into the river. Other debris could be larger items stored next to, or behind and near buildings and homes that also gets swept into the current and is on its way. Again, nothing changes.

At one Town Board meeting, when a resident pointed out to the Board that its been a relatively dry season, and a good time to work on clearing the river, Mr Feiner said it was County property and the County has to do it. “You’re my representatives,“ he said, “I’m just one guy. I need you to represent us with the County and any other agencies that need to address cleaning out the river.” Mr Feiner subsequently sent an email to a County commissioner that a resident had complained about the river needing to be cleaned out. That’s as far as he was willing to go. “Please re-elect me. I’m just as excited now as I was on my first day as Supervisor.” ABG understands its difficult for Mr Feiner to request County help since he has spent the last two years fighting with them over WestHelp, HUD, etc. But, residents shouldn’t suffer because of his bad behavior. It’s akin to him complaining that Greenburgh is losing HUD funds because County Executive Astorino is fighting with HUD. Again, nothing changes.

Today’s weather report is for mild temperatures and rain, heavy at times, with local flooding in low lying areas expected. The people who live in these low lying areas know that they will be dealing with flash flooding or just flooding. What they don’t know is why they cannot get help from all of the representatives who pander for their vote every two or four years. It’s time for the willfully ignorant to say, “Enough! We demand a change.” Only then may we see A Better, and drier, Greenburgh.

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.

Mission Accomplished!

When The Paul started the Citizens Committee meeting Monday night, there were the usual faces in the audience. Also in attendance were those The Paul can count on to lob him softballs and non-question questions. This fact was reiterated throughout the meeting and highlighted by one woman who claimed, “We have to take personal responsibility when a storm in coming to be prepared. To do this,” she continued, “residents need to go to “ready.com” for a list of items one might need.” While not bad advice, it’s like watching the TV news before a storm or before a holiday. They’ll start broadcasting what you should do, not do, for how long, and so on for days on end only to see people demanding help because they didn’t heed the advice. 

For the uninitiated, this was strictly a ruse for the public. The Paul sent emails to his devoted followers to attend. And, attend they did. ABG assumes he prompted them to ask “his” questions, offer advice and of course, dish out compliments where “they” believed appropriate. His ploy worked so well, the room began to list as resident and non-resident alike stated that ConEd was the villain. It was working. Most in attendance ignored the obvious: The Paul did nothing to help before, during and after the storm - again! It was more of his standard operating procedure as The Paul got unencumbered publicity before his end of the month publicity quota expired. Frenzied reporters scrambled to get photos and names of speakers, already knowing their medium would simply use The Paul’s press release talking points for the bulk of their articles. In fact, they simply could leave early since they had all they needed before they got there!

As the constant campaigner, The Paul has developed his craft of subtle campaigning into a well-honed and revered art form. When he was awaiting the court’s verdict in the Fortress Bible case, he needed to deflect attention from his illegal actions and fast! Thankfully, the TappanZee Bridge had entered the campaign season from Obama and Cuomo and gave The Paul a deflection subject better than he could have imagine: save the old Tappan Zee Bridge as a park. He wasn’t the first person to come up with this. But since he has unfettered access to the media machine in Westchester, they gave him the platform he needed and led this rally for a short time until the governor trumped him and cast him aside. But the deflection was working.

The Paul and the Town of Greenburgh were found guilty, with the decision appealed and upheld in Appellate Court, of violating the Church’s first amendment rights of free speech, free assembly, equal protection, due process, and the Town had discriminated against the church under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act or RLUIPA. The judge cited the Town for “intentional delay, hostility and bias towards the Church's application.” This is a damning decision as to what’s wrong with and the lack of quality of leadership in the Town!

Thankfully, The Paul’s the Tappan Zee bridge emergency fiasco and gifted him the “out” he needed as he became the lead proponent of morphing of the current Tappan Zee bridge into a High Line Park, similar to what NYC did to a much-different and safer rail track in Manhattan’s west side. But the park wasn’t the issue. Deflection from the Fortress Bible decision was. ABG wonders why there isn’t outrage throughout the Town demanding the resignation of The Paul and his corrupt partner from that event, Councilwoman Diana Juettner? ABG believes he told her to keep her mouth shut and he’ll get her out of this. She obeyed.

The Citizen’s Committee would not have stopped the illegal actions of The Paul, Juettner and the other Board and various Department members who answer to The Paul of bad and illegal behavior. But The Paul certainly could have asked felon and fellow-schemer Alan Hochberg to investigate by forming a Citizen’s Committee subcommittee (as opposed to the faulty Ethics Committee) that could continue The Paul’s deflection toward another (mis)direction. Sure, there would be the questions and legal challenges from the G10, but they would wither through time as the phony decision from the committee would find The Paul did nothing wrong. Can you say Tammany Hall?

New Castle Town Supervisor Susan Carpenter was one of the attendees as well as several New Castle residents. Why they were remains an inconsequential mystery. Could it be she believed she might get an education in solutions management or campaign strategies by attending? She said that her town of was faced with the same problems as Greenburgh. As if scripted by The Paul, she too berated ConEd, the Public Service Commission and offered no solutions. If we continue to elect the same people, listen to the same press conferences and never hold their feet even near the flame, we should not expect solutions or different outcomes!

So The Paul has anointed ex-convict Alan Hochberg to chair the do-nothing committee to find fault with others and assist in deflecting attention from The Paul’s illegal, immoral, and ill-conceived actions until the next fiasco rears it’s ugly head from the shadows. Whether it is the Fortress Bible decision ($8 million), the WestHelp debacle ($1.2 million), the Water Department deficit ($4 million), the Dromore Road decision, Cumberland Farms, Brightview Assisted Living Center, Stop and Shop on Rt 119, flooding in Fulton Park along the Bronx River, flooding on the Rt 9A corridor in Elmsford, 400+ new condominiums off of Taxter Road, 400+ new condominiums at Eastview (both adding to the Rt 9A flooding), 20 new McMansions in Tarrytown/Greenburgh across from Kraft Foods and last but certainly not least, the GameOn 365 Sports Bubble with it’s über-contaminated site on Dobbs Ferry Road, The Paul is costing us a fortune. It must stop! 

The meeting for the Citizen’s Committee concluded with little more than finger-pointing and no solutions offered and the promise to discuss it more. The unsuspecting committee will meet, proctoring some ideas gleaned from The Paul’s press releases and have Alan Hochberg dutifully hand them to The Paul, feigning interest. There will be the requisite pomp and circumstance and then the committee will fade into the rising flood waters until the next time. They’ll never provide a solution to any of Mother Nature’s fury, the Town’s inability to help it’s constituents and The Paul’s ineptness with dealing with anything that doesn’t require having someone else do something. The best we can hope for is for The Paul and his Board to resign. The least we can hope for is they step aside and let the residents provide solutions. We can only hope.

They Should Resign

Rain, rain, go away, come back another day. Everyone should recognize the lyrics from this old nursery rhyme. The Paul sings a somewhat different tune, “Residents, residents, go away, come back another day.” It seems The Paul repeatedly takes the proverbial wrong courses of action at every turn and every venue regarding the Town’s involvement, finances and now tenuous future. According to him, it’s the residents that continually get in his way of doing what he wants. Although the residents are probably singing, “Paul, Paul go away, don’t come back on any day.”

Flooding
The weather experts claim we are scheduled to be hit with another 100-year storm two months after the one year anniversary of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene. It defeats the purpose of calling it a 100-Year Storm if it’s happening every year, doesn’t it? Speaking of experts, one year ago, The Paul hired Jonathan Raser, an engineer and expert specializing in flood mitigation to review the conditions in the Town and seek assistance for the flooded residents. After collecting his somewhat substantial fee, and securing absolutely no funds for the residents or the Town, Mr. Raser hi-tailed it back to New Jersey whence he came, offering no resulting help, funds, or hope! The sum of his efforts? A letter to the flood-prone residents of the Town that they do not qualify for any aid and basically they are on their own. As he was leaving, he might have been overheard saying, “My bill is on The Paul’s desk, see ya suckers!” 

This once again imbues the well-known deflection tactic of The Paul seeming to care. When the flooding from Hurricane Irene hit the region and Greenburgh in particular, it took The Paul quite some time to leave the stately Boulder Ridge gated community to visit his serfdom. But once he received word that the news cameras, reporters and crews were out covering the effects of the storm in Greenburgh, he sniffed them out like a bloodhound that caught a scent. He visited Hartsdale, Fulton Park and Babbitt Court, offering any affected and suffering flood victims another false hope, this time of FEMA home buyouts. He corralled numerous Town employees, working for four years without a contract, to receive a little overtime picking up debris. These dedicated workers came through as usual and then The Paul did what he does best, deflect, ignore, babble on and disappear.

In spite of The Paul intruding with the victims’ cleanups spewing vague ideas that accumulated no traction, his next best idea was to request every other politician do something to help these beleaguered and beaten residents. After all, he’s done everything he can, which in reality was nothing. In fact, he wrote, talked and postured about how many other politicians he contacted deluging various residents with daily mailings stating as much. After the media left, so did The Paul - back to his sanctuary of the secure confines of Boulder Ridge, where flooding, traffic, homeless people, sports bubbles, over-sized stores, concerned citizens, environmental studies, and projects that devalue our residential areas are not an issue.

But why do these areas have such frequent flooding where there never was any? Overdevelopment! The state renovated I-287 and the Bronx River Parkway, routing their water runoff into Fulton Park. The Town has done nothing to address this. Nothing! The Paul helped develop the 9A corridor with more to come, routing that water into Babbitt Court. You might ask, “Don’t we have a Planning Department to oversee and control the development throughout the Town?” We used to. Most projects they “touch” mysteriously become bigger and bigger with the Commissioners involvement. They have even helped developers to find ways around zoning and planning limitations. Quietly, without fanfare they changed the departments name. It’s now known as the Department of Community Development and Conservation. The name change, slightly sexier and more encompassing with political correctness sudden makes things all better. The cost in damage to residents: MILLIONS.

WestHelp
When the County leased the WestHelp facility to the Town, it was a financially secure and rewarding deal for the Town. People in need of housing had a brand new, extremely nice place to live and the Town was earning $1.2 million a year in income. It was a sweetheart deal for then School Board President Michael Smith, now a Republican County Legislator representing the same area. Mayfair-Knollwood Civic Association former President, Ned McCormack, who is now Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino’s Communications Director, was also against the WestHelp deal. You see, they were both on the Valhalla School Board and protested putting those horrible homeless people on the campus of Westchester Community College and into the Valhalla School System without “something in return” for them. Did you know that County Executive Rob Astorino has now endorsed The Paul’s convoluted and illegal plan to tear down the facility to lease the property to a school for fifty years? Why? Why would Rob Astorino do that when all of the County Legislators are against it and trying to optimize housing for the low income and homeless population throughout the county? Partisan politics? Hardly. The County Executive is trying to help his Director of Communications and one of only a few minority legislative allies he has in the County Legislature get along with this neighborhood and get votes through a payback. Payback? Why? 

Not to be outdone, or to lose a vote, The Paul reached a financial arrangement with the Town Board, with no checks, balances or scrutiny to pay off the Valhalla School District. Essentially, he provided them a bribe, under the guise of an “educational grant” to accept these kids. There’s your reason. How they would use the money would be up to the school board for the school district - in essence for the children. So, what did they do with the money? They took a cruise and forced the taxpayers to foot the bill! You can read more at: valhallavoice.blogspot.com/. Fortunately, the Town of Greenburgh had two residents that pursued legal action to overturn this illegal deal in court and won! Now the Valhalla School District will have to return a portion of the monies to the Town in an agreed upon settlement. Something is better than nothing. The cost for this screw-up: $1.2 MILLION per year.

Referendum/Sports Bubble
Before Frank’s Nursery defaulted on their taxes and before the property was foreclosed upon with ownership assumed by the Town, The Paul met with several people representing themselves as a company called GameOn 365. Knowing of The Paul’s non-existent business acumen, they salivated over the possibility of acquiring that property from the Town for a song. These are stockbrokers apparently tired of competing with Charles Schwab and web-based competitors for peanuts and saw this as their big jump onto “Easy Street”. Knowing how to manipulate people into buying worthless stocks, they must have thought it easy to convince a bunch of their stockbroker-jock friends to invest in this deal. The Paul met secretly and communicated with them to position them to be the preferred recipient of The Paul’s good graces when it became time to unload said property.

Immediately after the Town assumed ownership, the public cried for the property to be used as a temporary library. Unassuming as most people in the Town are about what motivates The Paul, many decried foul knowing the history of this property as contaminated. What to do? If The Paul pushed for the library to relocate, they would be exposing “the children” (as well as adults) to toxic chemicals and who knows what else. The Paul quickly needed to deflect; so the talk turned to using the land for a new and larger police station and court. At the last Town Board meeting, Councilman Morgan stated to a resident that the neighborhood overwhelmingly was against this. When did the Town Board start listening to it’s residents? You may recall at about the same time, The Paul announced his newest no/low cost plan to financially save the Town by having interns process millions of dollars worth of back-logged traffic tickets. Deflection at it’s best? You decide. The cost for this illegal deal: MILLIONS.

Fortress Bible

Back when Tom “Proclamation” Abinanti was a mere 20-year career County Legislator, he enjoyed a relative safe haven where he resided. Then an African American church from Mount Vernon, the Fortress Bible Church, purchased property nearby. Ever the close friend of The Paul, he may have mentioned to him his concern of their nearby move. What did The Paul do? He put up road blocks, delays, fees and requirements for them to have to meet in order to proceed ahead with their plans. What were their plans? They simply wanted to build a church and a school on the property they purchased.

Tim “Remediation” Lewis, not wanting to publicize his strategy for fighting the Fortress Bible case in court, remained silent. We’re sure this was mostly on the marching orders of The Paul. But silent he remained; and, so did the others in The Paul’s administration. Perhaps if they had shared their strategy, the residents might have been able to help them. Unfortunately for the Unincorporated residents of the Town, they LOST the court case and were found guilty of discrimination, perjury, willfully destroying evidence and more! The cost for this debacle: upwards of $8 MILLION.

The Paul’s entire administration is a model for mismanagement, misjudgment, misdirection, misspending and missed opportunities. The Paul has exhausted most normal routes to help the residents of the Town preserve what little is left of it. He and Town Planning Commissioner Thomas Madden are on a track to overdevelop what little areas of green is left in Greenburgh. Not sure about this? There is much more about The Paul’s and his Stepford Board’s actions that are crippling our Town. ABG has written repeatedly about it. The Paul and the Board should help the Town. They will do this when they resign. It has to end. We can only hope.

It’s Right Under Your Nose

Most people live in the moment; surrounded with their families and friends, usually in their own neighborhood. They rarely see what goes on in other parts of the community, municipality or even at the meetings of their elected politicians. ABG knows there is a lot going on throughout the Town of Greenburgh, and will touch on some in no particular order or importance. Actually, they’re all important because somebody always wins and somebody always loses. Traditionally, in Greenburgh, it’s the residents of the Unincorporated portion of the Town who always lose to developers, special interests and The Paul’s pet projects – which are often the same thing.

Greystone Developers has a project in the works to build 20 - 8,000 square foot homes on Route 9, across from the Kraft Foods site. There is already a small development adjacent to the location with some fairly large homes. In actuality, 8 of the new homes to be built will be in the Village of Tarrytown and 12 will be in the Town of Greenburgh. These new homes will make McMansions seem like bungalows. ABG is concerned about a couple of issues: increased flooding, subdivisions when the homes don’t sell, and an increase in traffic congestion. Before you say it’s only 20 homes and maybe 40 cars, each time we add to an already congested roadway, regardless of the negative impact comments the developer will make based on their traffic study, which is usually mythical to begin with, it only adds to the congestion problems our neighborhoods are currently overwhelmed with. The good news? These homeowners will cumulatively pay about a million dollars a year in taxes – until the certiorari adjustments.

The Dromore Road lawsuit case, which the Town just lost, allows a developer to take a parcel of land near the Greenburgh Nature Center that was thought to be residentially zoned for single family homes, and build 41 units of housing. The Edgemont Community, understandably, is against this. The developer contends the zoning map allows them to build a large development. A judge agreed and awarded the victory to the developer. The Edgemont community disagrees and has the financial resources and talent to challenge the decision. While it is no surprise for the Town to lose a court case with The Paul at the helm, ABG believes Greenburgh might have won if the judge evaluated the whole picture and not just a technicality. Unfortunately, the Town’s loss was based on outdated and faulty zoning maps. Another developer, Westhab, was able to succeed with their oversized project in Fulton Park through similarly faulted mapping. Only that community doesn’t have the resources to fight back.

Homeland Towers, a cell tower company, intends to erect two 108 foot cell towers in the Town. The proposed locations are one on Taxter Road and one on Tarrytown Road. If you want to know what it might look like, look near the service station going southbound on the Hutchinson River Parkway from Westchester Avenue eastbound. ABG understands that there will be at least three companies utilizing these towers. There was another company, looking to put cell towers on existing utility poles. The Stepford Board, will not make a decision on the company's request to install these cell towers. We believe they are hesitant to do any real work and make any kind of decision as it might go against The Paul’s wishes or offend a developer; especially a developer that may donate to The Paul’s campaign fund! It’s actually one of The Paul’s most clever tactics being artfully executed by his Stepford Board.

The well-publicized screw-up of The Paul with the WestHelp organization and the County has cost the Town $1.2 million per year. When WestHelp finally closed down because their services to house the homeless was no longer necessary or needed, his incompetence not only became glaringly apparent, but he reacted as he always does. He began to throw spaghetti (ideas) against the wall in hopes that something might stick and get him out from under his fiasco. Not only did that not work, but two residents sued Valhalla to get money returned to the Town that the Town had illegally paid to the Valhalla School District as a payoff deal to let the WestHelp residents’ kids attend the Valhalla schools. Their lawsuit was successful. The Town’s legal department still refuses to recognize or understand the illegality – probably because The Paul instructed them not to. There is now a plan on the table by The Paul to lease the property to a handicap school for 50 years for $900k per year. However, they wish to demolish the three buildings on the property to proceed. The biggest problem with this offer is that the Town doesn’t own this property, the County does! Consequently, The Paul cannot make any contractual deals regarding it.

There’s a new dance studio looking to open in the site of a former gas station on Central Avenue. It’s tough enough being a gas station in Greenburgh but simply purchasing the gas station property will invariably require contaminated soil remediation along with other cleanup costs. It could be thousands of dollars before the first pirouette is performed.

The Town has also proposed that we do away with leaf collection and either mulch our leaves or bag them for pickup. ABG doesn’t mind doing away with the pickup since the only time the leaves were removed were after the first snowfall by the snowplows clearing more than just the snow from our streets. So, the reality of this move will allow The Paul to tout how he reduced our highway department costs by eliminating leaf pickups. Are they going to sell the vacuum equipment? ABG doubts it. That would actually save us money.

The Theodore Young Center was a victim of Tropical Storm Irene. The difference between the TYC and our neighbors that were also flooded was that The Paul sprung into action to get the TYC monies to make repairs caused by the flood. If you go into the gymnasium at the TYC, you’re see the damaged wood floor as it undulates throughout the large room. Many neighborhoods were severely inundated and overwhelmed with water from Irene. What did The Paul do for them? He contacted every other politician and asked them to do something and then amazingly told flooded homeowners that he would contact FEMA to have them buy these same homeowners’ homes from them. Research proved that there were many steps the Town, County, State and Federal governments would have to perform before any offer of purchase would be made. Is this a sincere offer or more of The Paul’s snake oil doublespeak?

Assisted Living Centers are all the rage across the country as our baby-boomer society ages. And, while the cost of real estate is extremely prohibitive to many throughout Westchester, it is not a problem to secure and develop in Greenburgh if you “know someone”. ABG is all for assisted living and knows of one facility in Valhalla near Westchester Community College that does quite well. There is a small parcel of land, roughly where Rt 119 and Benedict Avenue intersect, immediately behind the gas station at the beginning of Benedict Avenue that is planning (still unofficial) to appear before an upcoming Town Board meeting to expose the proposal. We’re sure The Paul will make the Stepford Board the lead agency, ignore the traffic studies, SEQR, etc., and most importantly, the neighborhoods’ concerns as they fast track this project through the Towns normal maze of regulations.

Another recent court decision against the Town happened with little fanfare in the media. While we understand what happened, it’s a pretty involved case that affects one family, their neighborhood and us, The Paul’s personal ATM resource. Dominick Caratozzolo approached the Town Board in 2005 and explained how he and his neighborhood were being overcharged on their sewer tax. He and his family had paid under protest all the while pleading with the Board to address this travesty. They would not, following The Paul’s mantra, “Sue me”. While there are a lot more details to this, we’ve elected to skirt those and focus on the outcome. Mr. Caratozzolo did sue, and won the lawsuit against The Paul and the Town Board, proving the Town was in fact overcharging everyone in the neighborhood. The judge also found that while the Town was guilty, he refused to refund the difference back to the homeowners. While we believe this is mostly because of some sort of sympathy from the judge toward The Paul, it still vindicates Mr. Caratozzolo and the others. Unfortunately, we pay for The Paul’s arrogance and non-existing management skills.

The “happenings” in the Town of Greenburgh suggests a never-ending stream of ill-conceived concepts, projects fraught with collusion, campaign donations, coercion, back room deals, payback and more dark venues than a proctologist will ever see. We have suggested the NYS Attorney General investigate the shady events happening in the Town, but The Paul has a spousal lock to keep that from happening. Someday we may see an investigation happen, exposing more under one overturned rock than even ABG cares to believe. We can only hope.

“Drowning” in Taxes

We’ve previously posted* about the proposed and now voted upon water rate increase for the Unincorporated Town residents. At Tuesday’s work session, The Paul’s newest tax sailed right through, pretending the process is painful but necessary. The Paul has the chutzpah to actually say, “We have to bite the bullet and be responsible”. Responsible? Really, Paul? The audacity exhibited by The Paul never ceases to amaze the entire staff at ABG. We’d like to see The Paul follow the law so we don’t have a dozen or so lawsuits pending against the Town? We’d like him to not lie under oath or destroy evidence (Fortress Bible). The list seems endless.

While claims to increase the water bills for the average Greenburgh residents by 24% is a significant one, it must be said that his false statement of achieving the NYS 2% tax cap simply doesn’t hold water. Yes, it’s a bad play on words but ABG staffer Christina insisted on using it. At the end of the day, between last years 72% increase and now this 24% increase, it’s impossible for The Paul to say he adhered to the tax cap! ABG understands there are numerous ways to “achieve” compliance and still have a significant tax increase. He’s come up with another.

The Paul has been making the residents “bite” many bullets repeatedly during his twenty-plus years in office. Seniors who supported him when he first ran for Town Supervisor are finding they are unable to continue living in their homes within the Town under his administrations. One widow told an ABG staffer that her social security benefits check totalled $14k a year. Having raised her family in the house she was born in, she was forced to finally sell her home once her taxes reached the same amount. Eventually, she wound up in a (DSS) subsidized apartment on Manhattan Avenue. She used to enjoy sitting outside on summer evenings but can no longer do that as she fears for her safety and feels alone with no family nearby. What a far cry from how she had planned to spend her final years.

“Rising expenses, repayment of past obligations and future projects demand the board act immediately, Feiner said. “If we don’t raise rates today the water district will see its debt increase and it’s going to be worse,” Worse? Again, really? We sincerely wonder what new projects there are that warrant this high an increase? It cannot be to repair or increase the infrastructure as that hasn’t happened since he’s taken office. The flooding caused by Tropical Storms Irene and Lee proved throughout the Town that we are inadequately served, in disrepair or frankly, in an almost hopeless condition. In typical form, he fired off letters to every legislator he could find requesting something be done by everyone but himself. Former Elmsford Trustee William Zimkin proffered a marginal solution for the Saw Mill River flooding along the 9A corridor. The Paul latched onto this stopgap as if it were his own panacea. Ideas abound, just not the The Paul or his administration.

The Paul promises another increase of at least 10% in 2013. The undeniable issue is that he doesn’t have a clue as to what he’s doing at the helm of this rudderless ship. The Stepford Board just goes along with what he instructs them to do, occasionally offering a rebuke when there’s the unwritten guarantee of passage or he’s prearranged their objections with them. They stay in line to ensure being reelected, lest they suffer the fate of the last casualty, Sonya Brown. While we had high hopes for Ken Jones, he’s fallen in lockstep with the Board faster than water floods into Babbitt Court. Greenburgh needs a change. We can only hope.

*http://abettergreenburgh.blogspot.com/2012/02/Unconscionable-102-Rate-Increase.html