Greenburgh CSD Civic Associations Meeting for New Superintendent Search

 Good afternoon,

As a follow up to my email concerning the superintendent search process, below is the link to register for the stakeholder meeting for the Civic Associations located within the Greenburgh Central School District boundaries. Please share it with your members.

Upon registration, each participant will receive an email with the meeting link.

Greenburgh CSD Civic Associations Meeting at 4 pm:

https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJclduGqqDMoHNZ41AK_dS7HIEVQRTv6kV-n

Anyone who cannot attend the stakeholder meeting, can participate in one of the three community meetings listed on the District's website. In order to allow for as many individuals as possible to participate in this process, everyone is asked to please attend only one meeting.

Also, the Board of Education is encouraging everyone to complete the online survey related to the search process. The survey closes at 8 a.m. on Friday, November 20, 2020. 

For your convenience, here is the link to the webpage that has the registration links to the community meetings as well as the links to the online survey: https://www.greenburghcsd.org/Page/3931

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

 

Ivy Kraus

District Clerk

Greenburgh Central School District

Greenburgh Central School District 475 West Hartsdale Avenue, Hartsdale NY 10530 T: 914.761.6000

What Are You Paying For Electricity? Con Ed vs. ESCO

A letter from the CGCA Executive Board
By Ella Preiser, Communications Director

A Message to All,

The Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations (CGCA) Executive Board continues to have concerns about the fact that the Town Board has not provided the promised “updates” to the almost 12,000 residential and small business users it enrolled in an ESCO for electricity supply starting in January 2019.  The original concept was simple and good – if a large number of users joined together to buy electricity, they could secure a lower price and save money.  Westchester Power negotiated a two-year contract with the ESCO Constellation at a rate of 7.709¢ per kWh.  The price seemed reasonable in January 2019, but that monthly rate has been considerably higher than the variable Con Edison rate over the past 16 billing cycles.  The CGCA is concerned that thousands of Greenburgh users are unaware they are currently enrolled in this ESCO and it is costing them additional money each month.

In response to issues raised by resident Ken Stahn and the CGCA, the Town scheduled another meeting (5/26/20) with Westchester Power regarding this contract. Westchester Power again acknowledged that Con Edison rates have been at historic lows and noted users can “Opt Out” of the ESCO at any time with no penalty.  In an email blast (5/28/20), Supervisor Paul Feiner provided a link to that meeting but he also provided erroneous information regarding the cost and an incorrect phone number to “Opt Out” of the ESCO.  Although he subsequently corrected the information after Mr. Stahn brought the errors to his attention, the archived email on the Town’s website still contains the errors.

Don’t be confused by the Westchester Power claims that those in the ESCO since 2016 continue to have monthly cost savings.  The below table provides the variable Con Edison cost per kWh for the last sixteen billing cycles that users who “Opted Out” have been paying.  As the table illustrates, the cost to the five residential owners (Properties # 1-5) for the latest bill (mainly the month of May 2020) was 4.6 to 4.8¢ per kWh.  That is three cents per kWh (or about 40%) cheaper than the rate the ESCO charges.  Westchester Power claims the average residential customer uses 669 kWh per month.  Based on that figure, the average residential customer in the ESCO paid $21.63 more during the month of May.

ESCO:    669 x 7.709¢ = $51.57 + 2.06 (4% tax) = $53.63
Con Ed:  669 x 4.600¢ = $30.77 + 1.23 (4% tax) = $32.00

If you subtract the monthly billing and processing fee (64 cents), the savings are still huge.

With the summer months now started and the current heat wave under way, many of us will be using air conditioners and consuming huge kWh numbers of electricity.

The Town feels it has no responsibility to keep the almost 12,000 residential and small business electric users it enrolled in this ESCO informed about the additional cost they have been paying in their last sixteen bills.That is why the CGCA is posting this information and urging you to check your monthly Con Edison bill and compare the kWh cost for electricity you are paying.  Please pass this information on to friends and neighbors.

Stay safe, well and informed.

Government Should Remain Neutral - Addendum

Painting the picture of volunteerism and helping the elderly, Mr Feiner did a mailing on behalf of another company in February that cost taxpayers 48¢ each at face value. There are about 35,000 households in Greenburgh. If he sent this mailing to those households, without duplicates, he would have spent $17,150! We typically refer to this as campaigning as this mailing venue allows him to keep his name front and center with the Town of Greenburgh constituency. As a one-time effort, or a quarterly summary of what is taking place in the Town, etc., we might be more understanding. But we’re not. The reason we’re not is because he does these mailings multiple times a week at taxpayer expense and still does multiple summary mailings. Then at budget time, he insists that all the other depatrtments make reductions!

This particular mailing was to promote a “not-for-profit” company that provides rides for seniors citizens to their doctor appointments at no charge, using volunteer drivers to shuttle the seniors. This is a laudable venture at face value. But once you dig just a little bit, you quickly learn that the founders and operators of this organization are doctors, either come from the medical community or are somehow involved in the medical community. Could they simply be doing this to make sure their patients continue to show up for their appointments, ensuring Medicare payments? They claim that the seniors do not need to pay for their rides, can typically get one ride per day except under certain circumstances which are not detailed on their website, and that they do accept donations. What they don’t discuss is how they actually pay for whatever their operating expenses might be.

While this organization may or may not have an ulterior motive and we believe they do, Mr Feiner should not be promoting them, especially with a 48¢ mailer consisting of three pages (two sheets) printed at Town Hall on taxpayer copiers and paper. In fact, taxpayers are charged 25¢ per print when they ask for a copy of a document from Town Hall. This is another possible expense to taxpayers of 3 x 25¢ = 75¢ x 35,000 = $26,250. So, using medical terminology, this is a non-billable advertising expense for the doctors of $43,400 that Mr Feiner decided without taxpayer input to simply give away on their behalf. We’re pretty sure the doctors involved in this can afford to advertise.

In the end, we’re suspicious because Unincorporated Greenburgh has roughly half of the Town properties listed as tax-exempt. Instead of pushing another tax exempt company, perhaps Mr Feiner and his Town Board should focus on the P.I.L.O.T. Program. This program is geared toward receiving payment from tax exempts for services rendered to them, or Payment In Lieu Of Taxes. Or, Mr Feiner could simply follow the law and not cost us in court fees and guilty verdicts as he did in the $6.5 million dollars from the Fortress Bible Church case, or the $1.2 million dollars for breaking the lease with the County for the WestHelp property, or the loss of $3.5 million dollars + remediation for the former Frank’s Nursery property on Dobbs Ferry Road, or collect on unpaid tickets through the Greenburgh courts, or, the $25 million in unpaid property taxes, or, well you get the idea.

The constant campaigning by Mr Feiner would not be so difficult to accept if he wasn’t spending our money to do so. He has a significant political campaign war-chest and it continues to grow thanks to taxpayer largess – although not by our choice. It has to end. Only then will we have A Better Greenburgh.

Government Should Remain Neutral

A short time ago, Mr Feiner did his routine email blast with the coveted GBList. We'll reiterate he is violating daily yet another court's guilty penalty and order by refusing to turn the list over to the resident who had requested it. She was refused, appealed, refused a second time, sued and won in court for access to it. This is significant mostly because Mr Feiner has always been content to violate the laws he doesn't like without consequence as well as the trust of Town residents. However, Mr Feiner wholeheartedly endorses his developer friends’ projects du jour, usually at an extreme cost to neighborhoods throughout the Town. Now, however the other shoe appears to be on his foot.

We were originally going to write about how Mr Feiner has again mounted a campaign blitz on behalf of his friends from GameOn 365 and their most recent push to build a mega-sports complex on Dobbs Ferry Road. You'll recall they tried to proceed with acquiring the property with an illegal lease scheme concocted and championed by Mr Feiner. Then he tried to gift the property to them at a significantly undervalued price with obscenely minimal payments over 13 years. When another area resident and business owner offered to purchase the property for double the amount at $3.5 million in cash and pay for all site contaminated remediation, Mr Feiner refused to entertain their offer claiming it was not a serious one. What he should have done was publicize all the facts about the property, interested parties and their offers. Clearly, the Town could have held the upper hand while being open and transparent. But once Mr Feiner began the closed door, back room meetings, that ship sailed and sank. Or did it?

Now, many years later, the property remains vacant and still contaminated because the Town Board has kowtowed to Mr Feiner's wishes to finagle a way to gift the property to GameOn 365. Both Mr Feiner and his Town Board have not done the right thing with this (now-reverted) residential property! While Mr Feiner should have the taxpayers best interests at heart, he's more interested in helping his friends. Apparently the City of Yonkers isn't the only municipality with a Friends and Family Plan for developers.

Regardless of Mr Feiner and the Town Board's illogical, perhaps immoral, if not illegal, actions with the former Frank's Nursery property on Dobbs Ferry Road, this article is about to shift gears and focus on the over-development of our Unincorporated Town property. We have bemoaned the fact that every sliver of space in Unincorporated Greenburgh is being gobbled up by developers who then approach the Administration and tout the benefits of mega-construction on the land.True to form, Mr Feiner instructs his Board how to vote and the developer's presentation sails through and before you can say, "Wait just a second," the Town Board declares themselves the lead agency and the deal is done.

Here's a few such examples to what we are referring. First, we'll go with Brightview Assisted Living Center. Mr Feiner touted the availability and need for Greenburgh residents to have a place they could spend their remaining years. What was uncovered and at first denied by Mr Feiner was that someone without assets and on Medicaid would not be allowed to move in. In typical Feiner-form, he finally acquiesced, admitting he was still in favor of it, apparently the poorer Medicaid recipient-residents be damned. This mammoth structure looming over Rt 119 is adding to the infrastructure burden and not contributing any relief to the residents. At least the developers are making out well.

Second, he is entertaining a proposal on a triangular strip of land between the Sprain Brook Parkway off of Payne Street for a 96 room assisted living facility. Access and egress will happen through one of the side streets off of Payne Street. The increase in traffic through a residential neighborhood, we're sure, will be proposed as either negligible or non-existent as these are retired, non-driving occupants. Whatever the developer wants is probably what the traffic study will say. Interestingly, all of these projects are green-lighted (pun intended) regardless of what the traffic study says. This will increase traffic and further burden the infrastructure.

Third, was the Westhab project in Fulton Park, proposed as a 7-story apartment building and finally constructed as a three story gulag-style building that is an eyesore to the neighborhood, Rt 119 and will ultimately become a Section 8 housing facility. Throughout all of the disingenuous posturing from the Town Board, residents were continually told that no decision had been made by the Town Board and they could still say no to the project. What they conveniently left out was that no open decision was made, nor was it made public. The deal was done with the neighborhood, the infrastructure and traffic to the area be damned.

Fourth, there are several plans to build apartments without parking on Central Avenue since Mr Feiner and his Board forced a new tax onto service stations, forcing them to close (opposite Scarsdale Ford). There's also Dromore Road off of Central Avenue. The pièce de résistance is the mega-development that's been presented in North Elmsford's Eastview area. Over 100 acres have been green-lighted by Mr Feiner and his Board to build more of the same. Mr Feiner has never met a developer whose plans he didn't endorse. The over-sized development there is another added burden to our infrastructure as well increasing traffic. The attitude at Town hall is that traffic is already congested so a little more won't matter.

The latest debacle to be proposed is in Ardsley at what was the old Akzo Nobel Chemical site that was in the area of 9A and the Saw Mill River Parkway. STOP! Mr Feiner says its not a good location. He says the developers should reconsider building there because it will, ahem, tax the infrastructure. All developers in the area know that there is no project that Mr Feiner won't give a thumbs-up to as long as his precious gated community is left alone. Infrastructure be damned! Could it be the carcinogens left on the site that might poison staff and residents? No. What's good for the goose, perhaps? No. Too much traffic? No. Overburdening the schools? No, not even close. Then what could possibly cause Mr Feiner to be against another development?

Votes. That's right. Mr Feiner is afraid to upset the Villages of Ardsley, Dobbs Ferry and Hastings. He will lose beau coup votes from the otherwise solid stalwarts at election time. How can we tell? It's simple really, but an even more obvious example is the cleaning out of the Saw Mill River after the massive flooding that we believe was, in part, caused by all the over-development approved by Mr Feiner and his Town Board. He rallied alongside Elmsford's Babbitt Court residents, Ardsley and the other river towns in Greenburgh. More importantly however, is that he did absolutely nothing about helping the Greenburgh residents along the Bronx River corridor. Why? They cannot bring enough votes against him in an election so he knows he can ignore them - and he and his Town Board does just that.

ABG believes the site for this newly proposed multi-family metropolis is a viable one in a location that will not intrude on any residential neighborhoods. And, lo and behold, there is an extremely successful sports complex nearby for the families to use. We understand they might be looking to expand and this could be just the venue to help them along. We accept that Mr Feiner routinely lies to the constituency, the courts and God knows who else. And, it was during his 22-year tenure that the infrastructure was neglected. Hardly a valid argument for him to make now. But we needn't accept this bad behavior from our government leaders. Politicians should remain neutral with developers and their projects and not advertise on behalf of them. They should also invest in its infrastructure, not use its failings as an excuse. It's time for a change. Only then will we see A Better Greenburgh

Don’t Worry, I Promised

Trying to get a jump on the GameOn 365’s latest application to the Town, Mr Feiner has once again tried to move the process along by emailing thousands of residents via his cherished GBList. This is the same list which he and the Town have been court-ordered to turn over to a resident, whose repeatedly denied FOIL-ed application forced her into court. Subsequently, the court found in her favor. Transparency? Open government? Honesty in government? You decide.

According to Mr Feiner’s email, “Game On has filed a petition to amend the zoning code to initiate a review of a proposal to build an indoor and outdoor privately owned recreation facility on parts of the Golf Range property.” He continues, “Currently, the property is not zoned to allow recreational uses. The project would include an indoor space housed in a permanent structure covering about 107,630 square feet of the approximately 32 acre property. The remaining land would be preserved as open space and used for recreation fields and related uses. The driving range would stay open.”

While the presentation sounds innocuous enough, which is always accompanied by soft pastel drawings and paintings. He discusses how this offering is different from the previous “sports bubble” that had been proposed. He continues by saying, “Members of the Town Board and I have not made any decisions on whether to approve or reject the petition.” We hardly believe this to be the truth. We read a post by a resident on another site and have chosen to include it here as it succinctly sums up Mr Feiner’s position with GameOn 365:
“WPEyesNEars:
Here's the quote from PF: "Members of the Town Board and I have not made any decisions on whether to approve or reject the petition," Greenburgh Supervisor Paul Feiner said." This is an outright lie. He was in favor of it when he tried to illegally lease the property to them, then sell it to them at an undervalued price, the put it on the ballot as a proposition, then refuse to entertain the House of Sports offer for double the amount plus remediation, then skew the contamination study to move the process along for GO365, and finally to have an "auction" until the auctioneer said no one would bid for contaminated land and finally, when TL said remediation costs would be no more than $100k. They have been doing everything they could to give this land to GO365. Try writing the real story!”

What is most disturbing throughout all of this is the lack of respect Mr Feiner has shown to the residents of the area. Numerous Civic Associations, individual residents, families and leaders have objected to all of the GameOn 365 proposals. Mr Feiner has routinely tried to change the position offering to broker meetings and meet individually with residents. His “divide and conquer” methodology has been a proven winner for him. The residents continue to say they only want residential housing built on the property, not commercial.

Once the former Frank’s Nursery property was acquired by the Town, Mr Feiner and his Board sat on their hands and frequently ignored the contamination within it. When the police department, the courts and the library all were suggested as tenants of the property, the severe contamination of the site prohibited it. During the GameOn 365 debacle created and fostered by Mr Feiner and his Board’s incompetence. Elm Street Sports, Inc., of Ardsley, offered twice the money for the land, plus total remediation for the property. Mr Feiner said, “No! Theirs was not a serious offer.” One of the owners said at a Town Board meeting he was always serious when discussing money.

Now that GameOn 365 has come back with a reworked proposal, albeit a moderately changed one, they’ve decided instead of an 83-foot tall Sports Bubble to build a warehouse-sized building on the east border of Golf Driving Range property line, closest to the Frank’s Nursery property. In effect, they too are thumbing their noses at the residents by moving it even closer to the existing residential housing. We know from our various meetings with Town Civic Associations that this is still unacceptable. In fact, we wouldn’t be surprised if Mr Feiner orchestrated this latest scheme to invade the neighborhood.

The Town Board sits impotent, afraid to upset their elective apple carts as Mr Feiner controls their destiny. Ultimately, and unfortunately, we believe that since Mr Feiner wants GameOn 365 to succeed, and he always gets his way, he will help them get their approval. He’s content to remove more of our green space while adding to Greenburgh’s Corporate Park environment. After all, we believe he promised it to GameOn 365. This has to stop. The electorate keeps voting him into office and it’s time for a change. Only then will we see A Better Greenburgh.

Commercial Development Will Impact Our Residential Neighborhood

An Open Letter to the Greenburgh Taxpayers:

Dear Neighbors,

Paul Feiner is moving forward with changing the zoning on Dobbs Ferry Rd from Residential (R-30) to recreation in tandem with group of commercial enterprises under an umbrella organization spearheaded by GameOn 365. This for-profit conglomerate has abandoned the Frank’s Nursery property and will now be erecting multiple buildings on the current Golf Driving Range (32 acres). The Town will allow GameOn 365 to build with various partners, an 8 story bubble, and an outdoor field with an additional structure and more down the line.

This massive development will destroy the character of our neighborhood.

Dobbs Ferry Road is the convergent point from the Sprain Brook Parkway, I-287, the Saw Mill River Parkway, Central Avenue, Rt 119 and other local streets in our area.

We will have increased traffic congestion, noise, concerns for emergency and fire vehicles responding to alarms, etc., concentrated in a limited area. Remember that Dobbs Ferry Road is also used by 3 school districts, private school bus transportation, the Elmwood Day School/Day Camp, the Golf Driving Range, the Elmwood Country Club, Rumbrook Park and the Bee Line Bus Service. Don’t forget the “regular” residents traveling to and from their homes, shopping and doing other things.

Paul Feiner uses the Lake Isle Country Club and the sports bubbles there as the example of why we should have even larger bubbles. Eastchester has a few tennis bubbles on the property of the Lake Isle Country Club, but fails to say they are set way back into the Lake Isle Club, with no homes in close proximity of the bubbles. He claims our neighborhood is in “transition” and we do not have “High-End” homes like Eastchester. Paul Feiner simply doesn’t care what we think, only what his friends from GameOn 365 want.

The Proposal:

Phase 1
The proposed 8-story bubble will be close to Dobbs Ferry Road and to the homes on Westchester View Lane.
The first outdoor field will impact Jean and Jennifer Lanes off of Secor Road.

I am sure they will want outdoor lighting and a sound system to turn this into a stadium-like field for the soccer leagues.

Phase 2
They also have a plan to put in additional commercial enterprises in our residential neighborhood.

Thomas Madden, the Commissioner of Planning, has been working with their planner for months to find ways to put forth their plan.

Mr. Madden gave information to GameOn without the knowledge or consent of the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee. This is akin to revealing what’s commonly referred to as “insider information.”

The proposed new zone is being called “Recreation Open Space” or an “Overlay Zone” with no height restriction. This is “spot zoning” with fancy names!!

We must stop this now!!

We must attend Town Board meetings to speak out against this plan.

We must submit letters to Paul Feiner, the Town Board and Thomas Madden to voice our outrage.
The Secor Homes Civic Association is in agreement with our opposition to this re-zoning plan.
Contact your neighbors that live in this area to let them know what is happening.

We must reach out to other neighborhoods to let them be aware that this could happen to them.
Paul Feiner does not want other neighborhoods informed because he fears that they will support us in our opposition to his plan to rezone this neighborhood. What happens in one neighborhood can and usually does happen in others.

Again, a good showing from our neighborhood is extremely important at Town Board meetings if you want this zoning change defeated.

Dorrine Livson
President
Worthington-Woodlands Civic Association

Fulton Park Street Picnic & Barbecue

It’s Saturday. There’s a threat of rain. Heat. Humidity. Sunshine. Clouds. Vacations. Holiday weekend. Politics. Campaigns. No shows. These were just a few of the issues the Fulton Park Civic Association had to contend with as they planned their first neighborhood street-closing picnic and barbecue. Under the deftly executed control of President Maria Gomez and help from Vice-President Tom Bock, the first of what is hoped to become an annual street festival was successfully enjoyed by about fifty or so residents and their friends.

Fulton Park neighbors visit with each other
during the neighborhood picnic

With music playing and the smells of a summer barbecue wafting through the neighborhood, curious residents as well as invited guests began to arrive at 4PM. Neighbors brought everything required to have a good time. There was music, barbecued food, salads, soda and bottled water to quench every appetite and thirst. Several families had their kids with them and for a small donation of only $5 per family, they were invited to consume as much as they wanted. Many left very satisfied after eating both store-bought food and an assortment of home-made dishes. Later, the deserts table was quickly left made bare.

50/50 raffle tickets were sold during the event and the drawing was held at the end of the event. A woman named Donna from Hastings, visiting a Fulton Park friend, was the lucky winner of $64. In a noble gesture, she asked the group there to accept her winnings as a donation to the Civic Association, saying she thoroughly enjoyed herself and wanted to help their future efforts. Many residents in attendance personally thanked her for her generosity. What a great way to end an event.

Greenburgh Town Supervisor candidate
Bob Bernstein stopped by for a hot dog,
cold water and conversation.

Speaking with many of the residents elicited the same response. They all wanted to do this again! It was a great way to meet more of their neighbors, enjoy some good food and spend some time with friends and family without the hustle of having to travel to another location. Fulton Park Civic Association President Maria Gomez says now they know what they can do differently or better for next year’s event. That sounds great – count us in!

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!

No Disaster Management, We Offer Three Ideas

Disaster management is typically relegated to emergency responders as a quasi-military event in most communities. Greenburgh isn’t much different. We have a very well paid police department and three very well paid fire departments that provide coverage to most of the Unincorporated portions of the Town. Each Village has it’s own police department. Where there is no paid fire service coverage in the Town, the Town contracts with the Village’s all volunteer fire departments for fire protection coverage. Those residents pay a significantly lower fire tax for the assessed value of their homes than the areas with a paid department, roughly $11/thousand versus $130/thousand). It is the most cost-effective use of our fire protection dollars. As with any police or fire department, they are reactive and respond to emergencies as they arise. This is no different for hurricanes, other weather-related events or their “normal calls” and requests for assistance. They are not in the disaster management business although they may be called into it at a moments notice. You call 911, they respond.

The field of disaster management originated during the Cold War, when planning for nuclear attacks and the need for building bomb shelters was developed. Once the threat of nuclear war waned, concern turned towards responding to natural disasters. Not surprisingly, there appears to be a relationship between the degree to which communities accept disaster management planning and the degree to which they experience disasters: the greater the exposure to disasters, the greater the interest in disaster management. Ironically, in Greenburgh, we’ve always been relatively insulated from major storm event damage. However, The Paul tasked Police Chief Joe DeCarlo to work with Disaster Planning consultant Jonathan Raser to develop a Town Hazard Mitigation Plan.

Developing a Town Hazard Mitigation plan was a seemingly good idea and the two men worked independent of the Town’s Comprehensive Planning Committee, with it’s sole goal to allow the Town to apply for grant funding. While not a terrible idea, Raser was subsequently contracted by the Town to assist residents that were affected by flooding damage during Hurricane Irene. Conflict of interest? Perhaps. But the end result was a Hazards Mitigation plan that proved deficient and ineffective during Hurricane Sandy, no funds secured for any residents suffering from Hurricane Irene, and a hefty paycheck for Mr. Raser, who has returned to his home state of New Jersey. No doubt he’ll be billing Governor Christie for similar “planning”.

Community members are becoming increasingly frustrated not only with being excluded from the decision-making processes involved in community planning, but also with being excluded from those involved in disaster management planning. During all of the three-card monty-like shuffles, we still haven’t received any solutions from our leaders. Fortunately, public participation is gradually becoming an accepted part of the disaster management process – except perhaps in Greenburgh – so things may improve. The Paul rarely has a problem forming a committee for anything and everything with his convict-buddy, Alan Hochberg. He has no issue corralling interns to do the work our regular employees would normally be doing and being paid to do. Could it be because the interns are too naïve to realize they’re being used and abused or that they simply seek the community service hours and could care less how bad The Paul is at doing his job?

ABG can and will continue to critique the actions of the Town and The Paul and the waste of money to get us no closer to any solutions. Additionally, rather than only being critical, ABG is offering a few suggestions to follow and hope they make their way to The Paul’s yet to be formed Emergency Management Committee (EMC), not chaired by Alan Hochberg. While these are our ideas, they by no means are the panacea for all that is wrong in our Town: spot zoning, over-development, antiquated and ignored infrastructure, lack of flood mitigation, lack of impervious space and so on. So here’s just a few of ABG’s ideas that can be done with little or no money and stay under the 2% Tax Cap.

Solution Number 1:

We’d like to see the Town develop a program we’ve tentatively named: HEROS, for Home Emergency Response Operation System. This would entail having a leader and volunteers from every neighborhood throughout the Town to provide information to the Town as well as get information from the Town and back to its residents.

The HEROS’ tasks could include but not be limited:

1) to complete a neighborhood inventory of available equipment (e.g. chainsaws, pumps, generators) and skills (e.g. nursing, plumbers) that could be useful during and after a disaster.

2) to develop a list of special-needs situations (e.g. elderly people living alone) and follow up with them after an event to ensure they’re okay.

3) to arrange for local stockpiling of supplies, such as medical (ice packs, bandages), food (snack bars) and water.

4) to have community members become CERT members and provide basic emergency interaction prior, during and immediately after an event.

5) to provide basic search and accountability, first-aid training.

6) to assess needs required from the Town within their jurisdiction and forward that to the appropriate designee before and/or after an event.

Solution Number 2:

We’d like to see the Civic Associations develop a HEROS-like squad within their individual civic associations that would assign key personnel:

1) to complete a neighborhood inventory of available equipment (e.g. chainsaws, pumps, generators) and skills (e.g. nursing, plumbers) that could be useful during and after a disaster.

2) to assess needs required from the Town within their jurisdiction and forward that to the appropriate designee before and/or after an event.

3) to develop a list of special-needs situations (e.g. elderly people living alone) and follow up with them after an event to make sure they are okay.

Solution Number 3:

We’d like to see the Town develop a liaison with each neighborhood via their civic associations to be the neighborhoods point of contact. This liaison could be a Police Department Constable or a Fire Department Volunteer (no additional costs to the Town) that reports back through their chain of command about the status of each neighborhood they are assigned to liaise.

ABG recognizes that while a top-down policy is needed, it’s really the local-level bottom-up policy that provides the impetus for the implementation of mitigation strategies and a successful disaster management process. When we looked at his blog, The Paul touts and is “thankful” for the work done to alleviate flooding along the Saw Mill River praising the work that’s been done. This work happened due to the efforts of business owners along the 9A corridor, former Village of Elmsford Trustee William Zimkin and the Village of Elmsford. The Paul offered nothing nor initiated any of that cleanup work. Furthermore, after repeatedly promising to show the Fulton Park area how much he thinks of them and is going to help their neighborhood, he has done nothing to help alleviate flooding for Town residents along the Bronx River. That screams volumes of how he feels about them! Their next storm with the subsequent flooding and losses will be their problem, not his. We’re sure The Paul will be emails home sending to those without power, suggesting they call FEMA to keep busy.

State and federal governments and agencies have a role to play in establishing mitigation policies, but it is up to local communities to formulate, initiate and implement those policies that will lead to the adoption of mitigation strategies. Given the obvious links between sustainable hazard mitigation and community planning, it behooves the Town to address the links between hazard mitigation and disaster management planning. In short, it is obvious The Paul has no solutions, nor can we rely on The Paul’s administration for bona fide help, just more finger pointing, emails, letters and rhetoric. We need action – even if we must provide it ourselves. We can only hope.