Dave Wilson of the Journal News was the moderator for the night. The NAACP was the host and a church in White Plains was the location. The forum on Monday night was a sounding board over the low income housing dilemma facing the County and the Town. The panel for the forum was composed of David “Tax Watch” Wilson, Robert Bernstein, an attorney who intervened with retired judge Herb Rosenberg on behalf of the Town to reclaim $1.2M illegally paid to the Valhalla School District by The Paul. Alfreda Williams and MaryJane Shimsky, both County Legislators representing Greenburgh and other communities, were joined by County Legislator and County Executive Candidate, Ken Jenkins. Arriving late, as had been announced to the crowd, was The Paul.
Wilson began the evening with a slide presentation showing the WestHelp facility on the Westchester Community College campus. Bernstein was the first panelist to speak and highlighted several key points that appear to be in violation by The Paul and his Town Board. He read specific sections of the original contract and the case against The Paul seems damning! It basically said that the Town shall maintain the facility and the Town will continue to house low income residents in the facility. Both of those points have been unequivocally violated. Then the three legislators spoke. Jenkins assured everyone that the County is not against Ferncliff, a private company, and is also working closely with them to find an appropriate site for their school. He continued that The Paul should not be pitting the WestHelp property against Ferncliff. Both are equally worthy causes. Shimsky said that WestHelp is a valuable public asset that we cannot let go to waste under any circumstance. She furthered that there is obviously a need for affordable housing in our community. The crowd wholeheartedly agreed. Williams suggested that organizations such as this one could help by continuing to stay involved.
By arriving late, The Paul knew he would have limited exposure at this meeting. If he was lucky, he knew he could bloviate, dance a bit, get his agenda across and hope to be out of there without answering any real questions. After letting The Paul ramble on for about five minutes with an “opening statement”, Wilson asked Feiner one question, “Why did you support the WestHelp affordable housing when you were a County Legislator but now as Town supervisor you won’t support it?” Performing “The Paul shuffle”, he read from a piece of paper all the points he wanted to make, but never answered the question!
One woman in the back row put her head down on the table, shaking her head in disbelief while others could be overheard saying he wasn’t answering the question. After Wilson interrupted him twice and asked him to answer the question, he continued his rambling. We all know this is The Paul’s main deflection tactic. The woman in the back raised her hand and asked why he wouldn’t answer the question. People in the audience wanted substance. The audience was not happy with The Paul’s deflection. They demanded answers. After The Paul claimed that the DSS referred people mostly of color to affordable housing, one gentleman took offense to Feiner’s statement and asked why Feiner would put “people of color” in his statement? The Paul’s response was because he was at a meeting held by the NAACP. This did not bode well with the crowd, who let their displeasure be known.
Without a doubt, this could have been a good back-and-forth session with good questions and perhaps honest answers. But The Paul wasn’t there to participate in an honest dialog. Rather, he was there to campaign. But tonight, the crowd The Paul thought he could pander to wasn’t buying the goods – finally! Overheard after the meeting was the comment that, “The Town has a lot of bad things happening to it because of The Paul’s mismanagement and illegal actions, but we have a lot more good things happening to it too.” We just need to make sure we keep the good outweighing the bad.
To keep the good outweighing the bad, we need to vote The Paul out of office. This meeting may have been one of the first steps toward that end. We can only hope.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
Calling In The Troops
As usual, the evenings Town Board meeting started out with about an hours and a half’s worth of wasted time. Patience exhausted, even Mother Theresa might have snapped. The first presentation was from a small group of students from the Xposure program of the Theodore Young Community Center. Their’s killed a half an hour. The Convicted criminal Alan Hochberg and his Citizen’s Committee members each got up and hammered The Paul’s financial failures, with Hochberg returning to the microphone after each speaker to give a synopsis about that person. The mutual admiration society would have been proud.
Speaker after speaker got up and found fault with the financial operations of The Paul and the Town. As has been said, The Paul lacks the “shame gene” and while he should have been embarrassed that “his” committee ripped his policies apart, he just thanked them. After an hour of this, the Board might not have been ready to move on but the audience certainly was ready to get down to the real business at hand. There were two hearings: one for a Town-wide zoning change to allow Independent or Assisted Living Facilities and while removed from the agenda at the last minute, the GameOn 365 referendum/proposal/“done-deal” brokered behind closed doors by The Paul and his Stepford Board.
Several issues with the Brightview Senior Living Center start with a play on words as to what type of facility they plan to be. Then will they have kitchettes, or a communal dining room; will they accept Medicaid or not? If they do not accept Medicaid patients, will it really be low cost, and will poorer people will effectively be barred from this particular facility? Any future facility built under this zoning code will also be able to block Medicaid recipients, ultimately making these facilities only for the wealthy or those with assets that can be used to purchase entry.
Another issue is the size of not only the Brightview facility in particular but the future commercial structures to be allowed in any tiny residential neighborhood through this zoning change. Since the Town’s Legal and Building departments are incapable of writing a law, and The Paul will not utilize the expertise on his appointed Zoning Board, the Town always counts on the developer’s attorneys to craft and propose the law. The repeatedly experienced problem with this is that the law serves the developer better than it winds up serving the Town. Our Town Board, reliant on Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan’s pseudo-legal abilities, usually produces sloppy, incomplete and inadequate Town laws. Whenever Sheehan writes proposed legislation for the Town, the G10 typically points out it’s flaws and then in their act of defiance, the Board passes it anyway.
Resident after resident got up to speak against the zoning proposal change mostly for three reasons: 1) it allowed structures to be four stories in the middle of residential neighborhoods throughout the Town; 2) it had setback allowances that would effectively let a parking lot be created to within feet of a private home; and 3) it utilizes state and county roads as a necessary access/egress to the facility. Two Edgemont residents suggested utilizing just a state road instead. Another consensus was that most people favored having assisted living facilities but were against such a liberal granting of neighborhoods to the developers, especially in residential neighborhoods. As Greenburgh becomes more and more congested with structures throughout the Town, we need tighter controls as to how we parcel our land away. We also feel that any structures created should incorporate flood, traffic and infrastructure alleviation since our current administration seems incapable and unwilling to do so.
The other hearing, pulled from the agenda at the last minute, was to be for the GameOn 365’s 83-ft tall sports bubble proposal for 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. Scan back through the ABG site and you can read in detail all the issues with this “done-deal”. Simply, a group of uninvested investors struck an apparent back room deal with The Paul to lease the property before it was acquired by the Town through foreclosure. Several plaintiffs sought a legal solution to this questionable and costly-to-the-Town deal, so The Paul turned around and decided to put the lease on the referendum. Both the proponents and opponents each posted a video on the Town website explaining their positions. The supporters posted a slick 10-minute commercial. The opponents posted their positions and highlighted why this deal should not be done. The referendum, which was penned to favor approval by stretching the truth, passed. The Paul would go on to say that the people spoke. Actually, about 1% of the Town’s registered voters voted in the election and about two-thirds of them voted in favor of the proposal.
The room was literally split in two: GameOn 365’s supporters on one side and the Woodlands-Worthington neighborhood, the G10 and others sat on the opposite side. Even though the hearing had been removed from the agenda, both sides spoke passionately as to why they were for or against the proposal. The Paul continues to claim this is about one established company trying to stymie competition. The Paul has repeatedly pushed the GameOn 365 proposal after brokering what has been called a back-room, sweetheart, done, under-handed and under the table deal. It will require a zoning change after the property reverted back to residential six months after the foreclosure. The Paul will propose the change without reservation and mandate his Stepford Board to vote it through. They will comply without hesitation.
All the points as to why the proposal should not be allowed were not only impassioned, but logical. The GameOn 365 supporters were struggling to make their case. After all, we have the desire to build a superstructure to play kids games versus homeowners whom have invested in the homes, the neighborhood and the Town trying to save their largest investments. Game on stands to make a proposed $55M through the course of the fifteen-year rent-controled project. But wait, there’s more!
Once The Paul finally realized he would lose the lawsuit on all counts listed in it, he decided to change the deal to a sale, circumventing the court case. But the public voted in a referendum to support a lease, not a sale. No matter, The Paul could legally do this based on the legal requirements for foreclosed property. But wait, there’s more! Since The Paul decided to make this a sale, the House of Sports, located in Ardsley, the supposed “competitor” for GameOn 365, publicly announced they were offering $3.5M for the property! This is twice the money the Town would make from the GameOn 365 proposal! But wait, there’s more. House of Sports also said they would pay for the remediation of the property.
The Paul, never one to accept defeat quietly, did what he always does, he tried to level the playing field (no pun intended) and insist that House of Sports’ offer was not sincere. One of the House of Sports owners got up and said, “I am always serious about business.” Then another House of Sports owner got up and she questioned why the conditions The Paul was saddling on them was not done to GameOn 365? Everybody knows why, but the Board members won’t admit it’s because the House of Sports proposal was not the deal The Paul wanted. Fortunately for the House of Sports, they can meet with all the conditions The Paul throws in their path. During the night, The Paul could feel his grip slipping away. He began texting furiously to have supporters come to the meeting and speak for the proposal. They did. In fact, Town Clerk Beville pushed them to the top of the pile, forcing those who signed up earlier to speak to wait further into the night. That was wrong. Several residents protested. No matter for The Paul, the damage was done.
In the end, the neighborhood and the residents are the ones who will suffer. They will suffer with a bubble the is over eight stories tall. It will increase traffic congestion which will be compounded by additional traffic congestion from the Fortress Bible Church and School once it finally gets built nearby. The glaring issues of The Paul picking and choosing projects he favors, laws being broken, spot-zoning being done all pale to the bad shape the Town is spiraling into. It’s time for a change. We can only hope.
Speaker after speaker got up and found fault with the financial operations of The Paul and the Town. As has been said, The Paul lacks the “shame gene” and while he should have been embarrassed that “his” committee ripped his policies apart, he just thanked them. After an hour of this, the Board might not have been ready to move on but the audience certainly was ready to get down to the real business at hand. There were two hearings: one for a Town-wide zoning change to allow Independent or Assisted Living Facilities and while removed from the agenda at the last minute, the GameOn 365 referendum/proposal/“done-deal” brokered behind closed doors by The Paul and his Stepford Board.
Several issues with the Brightview Senior Living Center start with a play on words as to what type of facility they plan to be. Then will they have kitchettes, or a communal dining room; will they accept Medicaid or not? If they do not accept Medicaid patients, will it really be low cost, and will poorer people will effectively be barred from this particular facility? Any future facility built under this zoning code will also be able to block Medicaid recipients, ultimately making these facilities only for the wealthy or those with assets that can be used to purchase entry.
Another issue is the size of not only the Brightview facility in particular but the future commercial structures to be allowed in any tiny residential neighborhood through this zoning change. Since the Town’s Legal and Building departments are incapable of writing a law, and The Paul will not utilize the expertise on his appointed Zoning Board, the Town always counts on the developer’s attorneys to craft and propose the law. The repeatedly experienced problem with this is that the law serves the developer better than it winds up serving the Town. Our Town Board, reliant on Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan’s pseudo-legal abilities, usually produces sloppy, incomplete and inadequate Town laws. Whenever Sheehan writes proposed legislation for the Town, the G10 typically points out it’s flaws and then in their act of defiance, the Board passes it anyway.
Resident after resident got up to speak against the zoning proposal change mostly for three reasons: 1) it allowed structures to be four stories in the middle of residential neighborhoods throughout the Town; 2) it had setback allowances that would effectively let a parking lot be created to within feet of a private home; and 3) it utilizes state and county roads as a necessary access/egress to the facility. Two Edgemont residents suggested utilizing just a state road instead. Another consensus was that most people favored having assisted living facilities but were against such a liberal granting of neighborhoods to the developers, especially in residential neighborhoods. As Greenburgh becomes more and more congested with structures throughout the Town, we need tighter controls as to how we parcel our land away. We also feel that any structures created should incorporate flood, traffic and infrastructure alleviation since our current administration seems incapable and unwilling to do so.
The other hearing, pulled from the agenda at the last minute, was to be for the GameOn 365’s 83-ft tall sports bubble proposal for 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. Scan back through the ABG site and you can read in detail all the issues with this “done-deal”. Simply, a group of uninvested investors struck an apparent back room deal with The Paul to lease the property before it was acquired by the Town through foreclosure. Several plaintiffs sought a legal solution to this questionable and costly-to-the-Town deal, so The Paul turned around and decided to put the lease on the referendum. Both the proponents and opponents each posted a video on the Town website explaining their positions. The supporters posted a slick 10-minute commercial. The opponents posted their positions and highlighted why this deal should not be done. The referendum, which was penned to favor approval by stretching the truth, passed. The Paul would go on to say that the people spoke. Actually, about 1% of the Town’s registered voters voted in the election and about two-thirds of them voted in favor of the proposal.
The room was literally split in two: GameOn 365’s supporters on one side and the Woodlands-Worthington neighborhood, the G10 and others sat on the opposite side. Even though the hearing had been removed from the agenda, both sides spoke passionately as to why they were for or against the proposal. The Paul continues to claim this is about one established company trying to stymie competition. The Paul has repeatedly pushed the GameOn 365 proposal after brokering what has been called a back-room, sweetheart, done, under-handed and under the table deal. It will require a zoning change after the property reverted back to residential six months after the foreclosure. The Paul will propose the change without reservation and mandate his Stepford Board to vote it through. They will comply without hesitation.
All the points as to why the proposal should not be allowed were not only impassioned, but logical. The GameOn 365 supporters were struggling to make their case. After all, we have the desire to build a superstructure to play kids games versus homeowners whom have invested in the homes, the neighborhood and the Town trying to save their largest investments. Game on stands to make a proposed $55M through the course of the fifteen-year rent-controled project. But wait, there’s more!
Once The Paul finally realized he would lose the lawsuit on all counts listed in it, he decided to change the deal to a sale, circumventing the court case. But the public voted in a referendum to support a lease, not a sale. No matter, The Paul could legally do this based on the legal requirements for foreclosed property. But wait, there’s more! Since The Paul decided to make this a sale, the House of Sports, located in Ardsley, the supposed “competitor” for GameOn 365, publicly announced they were offering $3.5M for the property! This is twice the money the Town would make from the GameOn 365 proposal! But wait, there’s more. House of Sports also said they would pay for the remediation of the property.
The Paul, never one to accept defeat quietly, did what he always does, he tried to level the playing field (no pun intended) and insist that House of Sports’ offer was not sincere. One of the House of Sports owners got up and said, “I am always serious about business.” Then another House of Sports owner got up and she questioned why the conditions The Paul was saddling on them was not done to GameOn 365? Everybody knows why, but the Board members won’t admit it’s because the House of Sports proposal was not the deal The Paul wanted. Fortunately for the House of Sports, they can meet with all the conditions The Paul throws in their path. During the night, The Paul could feel his grip slipping away. He began texting furiously to have supporters come to the meeting and speak for the proposal. They did. In fact, Town Clerk Beville pushed them to the top of the pile, forcing those who signed up earlier to speak to wait further into the night. That was wrong. Several residents protested. No matter for The Paul, the damage was done.
In the end, the neighborhood and the residents are the ones who will suffer. They will suffer with a bubble the is over eight stories tall. It will increase traffic congestion which will be compounded by additional traffic congestion from the Fortress Bible Church and School once it finally gets built nearby. The glaring issues of The Paul picking and choosing projects he favors, laws being broken, spot-zoning being done all pale to the bad shape the Town is spiraling into. It’s time for a change. We can only hope.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Come Out and Be Heard Wednesday Night
There is the regularly scheduled Town Board meeting this Wednesday night that promises an evening of many topics of interest and legal violations. For the uninitiated, two of the topics will be directly affecting all of the Town residents throughout Greenburgh. The first one is the GameOn 365 debacle that was created through the illegal actions of The Paul and his administration. See the agenda item below in blue:
TB 1 - 1/09/13
Resolution of the Town Board expressing its intent to enter into a Purchase and Sale Agreement ("PSA") with Game On 365, LLC to purchase Town owned property at the former Frank's Nursery site at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, for $1.65 million dollars for the purpose of constructing and operating a multi-purpose sport facility.
At issue with the bubble is a host of problems that this project creates for the neighborhood which The Paul bypassed by offering to hold an illegal referendum that he touted after it passed during the last election. Saying it was the “will of the people” he is now equally willing to disregard the public’s decision to consummate a rushed sale in hope of averting a scheduled court trial. This bubble sale will still include an 8-story high bubble, multiple leagues and tournaments, with the the subsequent traffic. They’ll install stadium lighting for the two outdoor fields which will contribute a glow to the area, as well as noise and traffic congestion creating a slow degradation of the neighborhood with increased bus and car traffic from the Elmsford, Ardsley, Greenburgh Central 7, Elmwood Day Care and Fortress Bible Schools. You may recall Fortress Bible just won the court case and the Town’s appeal was tossed to a tune of up to $8M. Finally, and more importantly, The Paul will illegally spot-zone this property from residential to commercial at the behest of GameOn 365. Operating within the technicalities of the law, The Paul and his merry band will bypass a Request For Proposal, the SEQRA study, open bids for the land and just hand it over to GameOn 365. Why? It’s what The Paul wants, it’s what he promised and it’s what he will do - residents be damned!
The second issue of importance is the Town is being asked to create a new zoning classification for Assisted Living Facilities that would violate existing zoning for similar facilities that simply doesn’t include the term Assisted Living Facilities. This change would allow four story buildings to be placed next to single family homes throughout the Town without any tangible limitations. This town-wide request is being made by the developer of the Brightview Assisted Living Center who has proposed a four story facility in a single-family residential neighborhood behind the gas station at Rt 119 and Benedict Avenue (across from the Sheraton Hotel). ABG is not against assisted living facilities in the Town. Quite the contrary, we encourage it. But, we don’t want our residential neighborhoods to suffer because of what a developer wants. See the agenda item below in blue:
Open government, developer collusion, done deals, special interests? Come and see for yourself. You decide. Let your voice be heard Wednesday night! We hope you’ll come out, get involved and stop this train from barreling through the station unchecked. We can only hope.
TB 1 - 1/09/13
Resolution of the Town Board expressing its intent to enter into a Purchase and Sale Agreement ("PSA") with Game On 365, LLC to purchase Town owned property at the former Frank's Nursery site at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, for $1.65 million dollars for the purpose of constructing and operating a multi-purpose sport facility.
At issue with the bubble is a host of problems that this project creates for the neighborhood which The Paul bypassed by offering to hold an illegal referendum that he touted after it passed during the last election. Saying it was the “will of the people” he is now equally willing to disregard the public’s decision to consummate a rushed sale in hope of averting a scheduled court trial. This bubble sale will still include an 8-story high bubble, multiple leagues and tournaments, with the the subsequent traffic. They’ll install stadium lighting for the two outdoor fields which will contribute a glow to the area, as well as noise and traffic congestion creating a slow degradation of the neighborhood with increased bus and car traffic from the Elmsford, Ardsley, Greenburgh Central 7, Elmwood Day Care and Fortress Bible Schools. You may recall Fortress Bible just won the court case and the Town’s appeal was tossed to a tune of up to $8M. Finally, and more importantly, The Paul will illegally spot-zone this property from residential to commercial at the behest of GameOn 365. Operating within the technicalities of the law, The Paul and his merry band will bypass a Request For Proposal, the SEQRA study, open bids for the land and just hand it over to GameOn 365. Why? It’s what The Paul wants, it’s what he promised and it’s what he will do - residents be damned!
The second issue of importance is the Town is being asked to create a new zoning classification for Assisted Living Facilities that would violate existing zoning for similar facilities that simply doesn’t include the term Assisted Living Facilities. This change would allow four story buildings to be placed next to single family homes throughout the Town without any tangible limitations. This town-wide request is being made by the developer of the Brightview Assisted Living Center who has proposed a four story facility in a single-family residential neighborhood behind the gas station at Rt 119 and Benedict Avenue (across from the Sheraton Hotel). ABG is not against assisted living facilities in the Town. Quite the contrary, we encourage it. But, we don’t want our residential neighborhoods to suffer because of what a developer wants. See the agenda item below in blue:
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Done-Deal Flatlines, CPR Performed
ABG has learned from our sources that there have been discussions with the Greenburgh Town Attorney, Tim “Remediation” Lewis about the latest twist with the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. Originally, The Paul and his minions on his Stepford Board, decided to lease the contaminated residential property to a corporation called GameOn 365. The owners consist of a group of stock brokers who seemed to be hoping to “cash out” of the über competitive and slumping stock industry and shift into a different arena, playing games. It almost rings of the celebrity who pines to own a nightclub or restaurant only to find out how much actual work it really requires and the cash intensiveness of it. Just ask Mariano about his New Rochelle venture.
Like other projects The Paul has covertly moved through his “friends and family network”, with rubber-stamp approval by his Board, this entire proposal reeked of collusion. He proposed leasing the property to GameOn 365 without so much as addressing the pollutants that are saturating and buried into this property. The Town acquired this property in 2011 after Frank’s Nursery filed for bankruptcy, abandoned the contaminated property, and the Town inherited it through foreclosure. Prior to the foreclosure, The Paul was secretly meeting with Robert Gould, of Game On 365, to finagle a deal before the property “went public”. The Paul, pro-developer and lacking any business acumen, all but guaranteed the property to GameOn 365, just as he did to Westhab in the Fulton Park section of Fairview, including the necessary spot-zoning they required.
A nearby resident to the property, Simon Cohen, mounted a campaign against the proposal by launching a website, HelpBurstTheBubble.com and sent a corresponding mailing to area residents. It was this mailing that got the attention of residents that had been purposely shielded from the proposal by The Paul’s duplicitous maneuvering of the process and system. Enter the ever-vigilant G-10, whom have raised numerous flags regarding the often suspect and illegal actions of The Paul and his unethical board. Following suit with questioning the actions of The Paul and his miscreant Board were the Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations.
Like other projects The Paul has covertly moved through his “friends and family network”, with rubber-stamp approval by his Board, this entire proposal reeked of collusion. He proposed leasing the property to GameOn 365 without so much as addressing the pollutants that are saturating and buried into this property. The Town acquired this property in 2011 after Frank’s Nursery filed for bankruptcy, abandoned the contaminated property, and the Town inherited it through foreclosure. Prior to the foreclosure, The Paul was secretly meeting with Robert Gould, of Game On 365, to finagle a deal before the property “went public”. The Paul, pro-developer and lacking any business acumen, all but guaranteed the property to GameOn 365, just as he did to Westhab in the Fulton Park section of Fairview, including the necessary spot-zoning they required.
A nearby resident to the property, Simon Cohen, mounted a campaign against the proposal by launching a website, HelpBurstTheBubble.com and sent a corresponding mailing to area residents. It was this mailing that got the attention of residents that had been purposely shielded from the proposal by The Paul’s duplicitous maneuvering of the process and system. Enter the ever-vigilant G-10, whom have raised numerous flags regarding the often suspect and illegal actions of The Paul and his unethical board. Following suit with questioning the actions of The Paul and his miscreant Board were the Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations.
With the exception of the East Irvington Civic Association, all of the represented civic associations were against this proposal. They were not against a sports bubble per se, but against the process (or lack thereof) through which it was sanctioned, the nefarious taking of residential property for commercial use, the lack of environmental remediation, State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) studies, etc. In favor of the proposal was the East Irvington Civic Association, led by The Paul’s minion, Daniel Gold, who routinely attends Town Board meetings and speaks in favor of most Town projects – as long as it’s not in East Irvington.
The HelpBurstTheBubble.com, the Worthington-Woodlands Civic Association and others decided to put their money where their mouth was and initiated a lawsuit against the Town and The Paul to stop this travesty. The points of the lawsuit were recently amended to expand the capacity of wrong-doing on the part of The Paul and his Board. The points of the lawsuit were: 1) The Town violated Westchester County and New York State Law and exceeded its statutory Authority by leasing the site to GameOn 365; 2) The Town illegally segmented the projects environmental review; 3) The project requires a full environmental impact statement; the Town’s restricted lease with GameOn 365 violates the residency restrictions of the Finneran Law; 4) The Town failed to comply with the mandatory notice requirements set forth in the Town law.
As is typical with The Paul’s administration, the members know to “tow the line” or be jettisoned, as seen with former Councilwoman Sonya Brown. So, once the lawsuit came about, Town Attorney Tim “Remediation” Lewis began his boss’ defense, saying the lawsuit had no merit. Even The Paul would say the same thing whenever it came up. ABG imagines they sat in their offices, cloaked from the phony “open government” The Paul always professes, speculating whether or not they had any chance of winning this lawsuit. Since Tim “Remediation” Lewis’ expertise is in hazardous materials remediation and abatement, we doubt he offered any input. Our best guess is the typically vociferous Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan was the lone voice advising The Paul with a simple shrug of his shoulders, realizing this was a no-win, Sonya Brown moment.
The Paul, ever the consummate politican/non-practicing lawyer, determined without the help of his consigliere, this would be yet another lawsuit he had no chance of winning. Critics of the lawsuit weren’t so sure. But The Paul needed this lawsuit to go away so he could put another notch in his win column against the G10, the neighborhoods, civic associations and the residents, all while helping his developer friend. But what to do? Finally, he gleaned the answer from the lawsuit he was so afraid of losing: sell the property. As mentioned earlier, the lawsuit had recently been amended to incorporate the County law, which says, “The supervisor shall sell, either at public or private sale, as the town board may by resolution direct, and upon such terms and conditions and for such sum or sums as the town beard shall by resolution approve, fix and determine, any property or any part or parts thereof acquired by the town by reason of any tax lien or transfer of tax lien and convey title thereof in the name of the town.”
Now that The Paul has announced the Town will sell the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road to Game On 365 for $1.55M, he has effectively thwarted another costly lawsuit which would have been avoided if he had simply followed the law to begin with. The Town is also circumventing the Request For Proposal (RFP) process, assuring that no other higher bids could earn the Town more money for this almost-open-government-sale, performing any real market value assessments, or have any other pesky fact or legitimate detail get in the way of The Paul delivering the promised property to the preferred developer. ABG is unsure of how The Paul set the $1.55M sale price, except that during the RFP process to lease the property, the Town was offered $1.5M to purchase the property. Apparently, the Town is allowing Game On to pay a hair ($500) over that price even though it’s an incredible gift for 7 acres of prime real estate. We are still waiting for the “problem solver” to solve the biggest problem we have in Greenburgh. We can only hope.
The HelpBurstTheBubble.com, the Worthington-Woodlands Civic Association and others decided to put their money where their mouth was and initiated a lawsuit against the Town and The Paul to stop this travesty. The points of the lawsuit were recently amended to expand the capacity of wrong-doing on the part of The Paul and his Board. The points of the lawsuit were: 1) The Town violated Westchester County and New York State Law and exceeded its statutory Authority by leasing the site to GameOn 365; 2) The Town illegally segmented the projects environmental review; 3) The project requires a full environmental impact statement; the Town’s restricted lease with GameOn 365 violates the residency restrictions of the Finneran Law; 4) The Town failed to comply with the mandatory notice requirements set forth in the Town law.
As is typical with The Paul’s administration, the members know to “tow the line” or be jettisoned, as seen with former Councilwoman Sonya Brown. So, once the lawsuit came about, Town Attorney Tim “Remediation” Lewis began his boss’ defense, saying the lawsuit had no merit. Even The Paul would say the same thing whenever it came up. ABG imagines they sat in their offices, cloaked from the phony “open government” The Paul always professes, speculating whether or not they had any chance of winning this lawsuit. Since Tim “Remediation” Lewis’ expertise is in hazardous materials remediation and abatement, we doubt he offered any input. Our best guess is the typically vociferous Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan was the lone voice advising The Paul with a simple shrug of his shoulders, realizing this was a no-win, Sonya Brown moment.
The Paul, ever the consummate politican/non-practicing lawyer, determined without the help of his consigliere, this would be yet another lawsuit he had no chance of winning. Critics of the lawsuit weren’t so sure. But The Paul needed this lawsuit to go away so he could put another notch in his win column against the G10, the neighborhoods, civic associations and the residents, all while helping his developer friend. But what to do? Finally, he gleaned the answer from the lawsuit he was so afraid of losing: sell the property. As mentioned earlier, the lawsuit had recently been amended to incorporate the County law, which says, “The supervisor shall sell, either at public or private sale, as the town board may by resolution direct, and upon such terms and conditions and for such sum or sums as the town beard shall by resolution approve, fix and determine, any property or any part or parts thereof acquired by the town by reason of any tax lien or transfer of tax lien and convey title thereof in the name of the town.”
Earlier, The Paul stated that instead of selling the property in a depressed market, the Town board opted for a 15 year land lease which will generate close to $5,000,000 for the Town in total for 15 years. They continually claimed there would be financial benefits to the Town by retaining ownership of a valuable property while receiving annual income that far exceeds any potential tax it would receive from selling the property. ABG doubts that would be the case if this property were remediated and properly marketed for sale. As is standard with a land lease, Game On 365 will begin paying full rent upon the issuance of building approvals and receive rental credits for all money they spend on the remediation. So with a quick reality check, the Town will be paying for all the remediation and not collecting any rental income for years!
Now that The Paul has announced the Town will sell the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road to Game On 365 for $1.55M, he has effectively thwarted another costly lawsuit which would have been avoided if he had simply followed the law to begin with. The Town is also circumventing the Request For Proposal (RFP) process, assuring that no other higher bids could earn the Town more money for this almost-open-government-sale, performing any real market value assessments, or have any other pesky fact or legitimate detail get in the way of The Paul delivering the promised property to the preferred developer. ABG is unsure of how The Paul set the $1.55M sale price, except that during the RFP process to lease the property, the Town was offered $1.5M to purchase the property. Apparently, the Town is allowing Game On to pay a hair ($500) over that price even though it’s an incredible gift for 7 acres of prime real estate. We are still waiting for the “problem solver” to solve the biggest problem we have in Greenburgh. We can only hope.
Friday, January 4, 2013
Forecast Called For A Dusting
Two days ago a suspicious package arrived at the Journal News’ new offices containing white powder. Most white powder calls are nothing more than a crackpot taking a stab at being threatening – without the nerve to actually confront someone face-to-face. Located on Westchester Avenue across from where their old facility had resided for years, this prompted a full police and fire response, the all-volunteer County Hazardous Materials Response Team, County Health and several others. Ultimately the white powdery substance was a dusting of a harmless powder. Haz-Mat responders took the call seriously but commented afterwards that it was just another hoax. The County’s all-volunteer County Hazardous Materials Response Team responds to approximately 100 white powder calls a year.
Today, Friday, found the White Plains police and fire units called to the White Plains Public Library for another white powder call. This time it was mail addressed to the Journal News, but because it was suspicious to them, their people drove it in a private car to give it to the White Plains Police. They parked in the below-ground library parking structure. ABG learned that they had put the mail in a plastic garbage bag and secured it. The police refused to do anything with it and called the Westchester County Hazardous Materials Response team to the scene to investigate. The determination by the police was to tow the car to the safety of the Valhalla campus to continuing to try to determine what the powdery substance is. As a precaution, the two responders in Tyvek suits who removed the package were decontaminated by the police under the watchful eyes of the HazMat Team, with water. At no point was the public at any risk.
It’s no wonder an upset public is lashing out at the Journal News after they printed their interactive map of gun owners in Westchester County. ABG is not happy about what the Journal News did but is equally unhappy that people are taking to threatening them in this way. ABG would ask those who are upset with what the Journal News did to take a different course of action against them. Those actions can include canceling your subscription, canceling your advertising in the paper, write a letter to their editor and complain that their actions were wrong, boycott advertisers in the paper and let the advertisers know it. But please, please do not threaten them this way. The bloggersphere that we work within and alternate forms of media will continue to grow. They will continue to shrink by their own accord because their actions aren’t sincere. Rather, they are trying to make the news with stories such as these. The media should never become the story. We can only hope.
Today, Friday, found the White Plains police and fire units called to the White Plains Public Library for another white powder call. This time it was mail addressed to the Journal News, but because it was suspicious to them, their people drove it in a private car to give it to the White Plains Police. They parked in the below-ground library parking structure. ABG learned that they had put the mail in a plastic garbage bag and secured it. The police refused to do anything with it and called the Westchester County Hazardous Materials Response team to the scene to investigate. The determination by the police was to tow the car to the safety of the Valhalla campus to continuing to try to determine what the powdery substance is. As a precaution, the two responders in Tyvek suits who removed the package were decontaminated by the police under the watchful eyes of the HazMat Team, with water. At no point was the public at any risk.
It’s no wonder an upset public is lashing out at the Journal News after they printed their interactive map of gun owners in Westchester County. ABG is not happy about what the Journal News did but is equally unhappy that people are taking to threatening them in this way. ABG would ask those who are upset with what the Journal News did to take a different course of action against them. Those actions can include canceling your subscription, canceling your advertising in the paper, write a letter to their editor and complain that their actions were wrong, boycott advertisers in the paper and let the advertisers know it. But please, please do not threaten them this way. The bloggersphere that we work within and alternate forms of media will continue to grow. They will continue to shrink by their own accord because their actions aren’t sincere. Rather, they are trying to make the news with stories such as these. The media should never become the story. We can only hope.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Report To The People Offers Little
As if schooled by The Paul, we received a recent “Report to the People” campaign piece that said little, but managed to produce a collage of pictures with the sender posing with several politicos and others from the public, all under the pretext of performing legislative service. The reality is, he is short on substance and long on hyperbole. By the way, we’re not using his name to keep from promoting his lame record and abuse of mailing privileges. We hope that others will view this and other campaign mailers with a more critical eye.
On the front page of the campaign piece is “his statement” in response to the Newtown murders of twenty-six people. These murders were truly horrible and ABG means no disrespect toward those victims, families and friends who are suffering from this. It’s a shame that he would use this as a political opportunity to issue a statement “in response” to the Newtown shootings, when nobody asked him for one and he has nothing to add. Sadly, it’s pure politics. His plan? Keeps guns away from those who would misuse them, ban military style weapons, register all guns, their transfer, mandate their secure storage, carefully license every gun owner, train them in gun safety, and check on them periodically. Then he wants to utilize more mental health professionals in the community to minimize the likelihood of violence. Of course, he fails to mention how to pay for all of this or any real strategy for implementation.
ABG is always saddened to see anyone injured or killed. In fact, several of our staff members volunteer in the Greenburgh community in different capacities and recognize first-hand the horrors that people inflict upon others. We also recognize that most of his talking points are strictly designed to appear to promote a call to action while merely promoting himself. The reality is nothing will happen and in particular, he will do nothing but continue to talk about it. The shooter in Newtown appears to have a history of mental illness. For that matter, his mother, whom he also killed, must have had something wrong too, since she legally purchased and kept weapons in the home, and took her mentally ill son to the firing range to “bond”. He didn’t use military style or assault weapons. In Webster, NY, the shooter of the two firefighters was obviously deranged and then killed himself. Could the talking points our representative have made a difference? We’ll never know. Lets examine his points individually.
1) Keep guns away from those who would misuse them. It’s great to say, but how to you propose to do this? Will he introduce another unenforceable law that he can brag he co-wrote or co-sponsored? You can’t control who gets a gun unless that person is a law-abiding citizen. It’s like putting locks on doors; hence the saying, ‘locks are for honest people’. The amount of people who own guns versus the amount being murdered is being disproportionately represented.
2) Ban military style weapons? They are. It was not a military style weapon that was used in the Newtown killings. It was an over the counter automatic rifle. But okay, ban military weapons. How?
3) Register all guns? Good luck making that happen. Handguns are currently required to be registered, rifles are not. Since the police are prohibited to enter your homes by the constitution, this would be a voluntary program at best, is unenforceable, and limited to the law-abiding. However, if we should attempt to have all guns registered, amend the current law to include rifles. It’s a start in the direction he claims we need. We agree it needs to start.
4) Regulate gun transfers. Again, how? An example was given by a friend whose grandfather gifted a shotgun to his teenage grandson. He took the time to train him in the proper use of the gun, the grandson took a gun safety class and became a remarkable target shooter – not a hunter. As a familial transaction, government would never know about it.
5) Carefully license every gun owner. We already have this law on the books and again, normal law-abiding citizens are never the issue. In fact, the Newtown shooter’s mothers guns were legally registered. Sometimes, bad things happen by bad people that no amount of legislation will stop.
6) Train them in gun safety. Good idea. And yet, government has mandated every new driver take an 8-hour driver safety class before they can take their driving test. Yet once licensed, many of these new drivers still drink, text, and drive under the influence even though they were told them it wasn’t safe to do it. And which group has the highest accident rates? New drivers. So, how much of government mandated training is going to produce the results he seeks?
7) Check on them periodically? Could this be more ambiguous? We hear of child abuse victims all the time who are neglected because a case-worker was overworked or unable to effectively investigate the parents. So, now he proposes hiring more people onto the government payroll that is already bloated? Can you say tax increase? His response, of course, will be, “If we save just one life, any cost was worth it.” That’s debatable.
8) Stop glorifying violence. Many talk about needing anti-violence, especially the Hollywood crowd. Aren’t they the same ones that make and star in the violent movies for gazillions of dollars? The movie industry’s been in a slump and then the action-packed, violent, James Bond “Skyfall” movie sets records for attendance. Add to that The Expendables, Transformers, Batman (repeatedly) etc., proving the law abiding public wants these films because movies are an escape from our everyday lives. Hollywood is being disingenuous, not wanting to bite the hand that feeds them. Good luck with stopping that.
9) The group he works with passed legislation requiring micro-stamping bullets to assist in tracing weapons back to their owner. Didn’t the police know who was doing the shootings in most of these killings. Feel good legislation? You decide.
There were several other items he “worked” on. Or did he? Actually, here’s some of the mailing’s legislatiive topics that was passed into law but not necessarily written by our legislator: DNA Databank, Domestic Violence protections, Cyber-Bullying, Micro-stamping, I-Stop (Internet - System for Tracking Over Prescribed drugs), Water Protection (accidental sewage discharge notification into waterways, sponsored by him), Health (prohibits smoking within 100ft of a school - because our police officers need to be busier), Hydro-Fracking (requires studies of the health impacts of hydro-fracking, co-sponsored by him).
Finally, to the back page of the campaign piece. He claims we need to replace ConEd as their Hurricane Sandy storm response was “totally inadequate, a management fiasco, a poor plan, poorly executed.” He’s calling for hearings into ConEd’s poor response. Why? We know their response was as good as it could be given the magnitude of damage and their current staffing. ConEd called in for help and the ConEd unions turned some of the non-union utility workers away. What results could hearings possibly render? The committee’s 30-page report summary will state that ConEd was woefully understaffed, the size of the storm was unpredictable, and the amount of damage into the billions of dollars and the federal government, along with FEMA must do more. This is strictly grandstanding on his part. The Paul will want to get in on the media frenzy and issue a press release commending the committee, berate ConEd again (he’s already done this), and say we should do away with county government.
He has introduced legislation for an idea that many have offered before him to put a height restrictor at the entrances of our parkways to deter trucks from accessing the roadways. He doesn’t even allude to how much will this cost? Regardless, it does have merit. Currently, the bridges that get repeated hits on the Hutchinson River Parkway cost us little if anything but time to address. When a bridge hit in Mamaroneck happens, the County Police respond (paid, on duty), the Mamaroneck Fire Department (no cost, volunteer) responds, a wrecker responds (big cost, insurance pays) and tickets and fines are issued. Virtually no cost to the tax payer except for the time delays. Now, we’ll be paying for some elaborate study, then prototype development, testing, changes and installation. Worth it, or another government boondoggle? Whatever the cost figures are that are presented to the public, triple the number and you’ll have the final cost. Watch for the federal and state subsidy slight of hand with the accompanying claims of low cost to the taxpayers because the feds are picking up the bill. YOU are the feds picking up the bill!
He also is requesting a discounted rate for all Westchester residents who use the Tappan Zee bridge. ABG, as well as everyone else we discuss this with, recognizes that the tolls will skyrocket once the bridge is completed, so this is highly unlikely to happen. He is still insisting on only building one bridge and keeping the original bridge as a park and bus use. Apparently, it’s been designated as maintenance-free and no longer needs demolition. He should pay more attention when he’s at his part-time job supposedly representing us to what’s already been decided. There will be two bridges, no park and dedicated bus lanes. But he’ll be able to say look what I tried to do for you – and with a straight face.
He brags that he was able to get legislation approved to allow Greenburgh (really The Paul) to lease Town property to a private, for-profit business, undoing the safety net provided by law to protect the Unincorporated residents of the Town. Another legislator from the other side of the building was participatory in the unraveling of this law. Then his last tidbit is that he joined with the Pleasantville mayor, other local officials and numerous residents to stop the installation of cell towers there. Funny, we wonder why he didn’t help the Irvington residents trying to accomplish the same thing? ABG’s guess is that The Paul wanted the towers and he was afraid to go against his eminence.
All of these talking points make for a nice generic mailer/campaign piece that does nothing but continue to aid incumbents with their off-season campaigning. Change a few pictures and this template will surely be used by other legislators. They keep their name out there, ensuring little chance that the electorate will vote for a new candidate come election time. Ultimately, they are doing little for the prized salary and perks they receive. It needs to change. We can only hope.
On the front page of the campaign piece is “his statement” in response to the Newtown murders of twenty-six people. These murders were truly horrible and ABG means no disrespect toward those victims, families and friends who are suffering from this. It’s a shame that he would use this as a political opportunity to issue a statement “in response” to the Newtown shootings, when nobody asked him for one and he has nothing to add. Sadly, it’s pure politics. His plan? Keeps guns away from those who would misuse them, ban military style weapons, register all guns, their transfer, mandate their secure storage, carefully license every gun owner, train them in gun safety, and check on them periodically. Then he wants to utilize more mental health professionals in the community to minimize the likelihood of violence. Of course, he fails to mention how to pay for all of this or any real strategy for implementation.
ABG is always saddened to see anyone injured or killed. In fact, several of our staff members volunteer in the Greenburgh community in different capacities and recognize first-hand the horrors that people inflict upon others. We also recognize that most of his talking points are strictly designed to appear to promote a call to action while merely promoting himself. The reality is nothing will happen and in particular, he will do nothing but continue to talk about it. The shooter in Newtown appears to have a history of mental illness. For that matter, his mother, whom he also killed, must have had something wrong too, since she legally purchased and kept weapons in the home, and took her mentally ill son to the firing range to “bond”. He didn’t use military style or assault weapons. In Webster, NY, the shooter of the two firefighters was obviously deranged and then killed himself. Could the talking points our representative have made a difference? We’ll never know. Lets examine his points individually.
1) Keep guns away from those who would misuse them. It’s great to say, but how to you propose to do this? Will he introduce another unenforceable law that he can brag he co-wrote or co-sponsored? You can’t control who gets a gun unless that person is a law-abiding citizen. It’s like putting locks on doors; hence the saying, ‘locks are for honest people’. The amount of people who own guns versus the amount being murdered is being disproportionately represented.
2) Ban military style weapons? They are. It was not a military style weapon that was used in the Newtown killings. It was an over the counter automatic rifle. But okay, ban military weapons. How?
3) Register all guns? Good luck making that happen. Handguns are currently required to be registered, rifles are not. Since the police are prohibited to enter your homes by the constitution, this would be a voluntary program at best, is unenforceable, and limited to the law-abiding. However, if we should attempt to have all guns registered, amend the current law to include rifles. It’s a start in the direction he claims we need. We agree it needs to start.
4) Regulate gun transfers. Again, how? An example was given by a friend whose grandfather gifted a shotgun to his teenage grandson. He took the time to train him in the proper use of the gun, the grandson took a gun safety class and became a remarkable target shooter – not a hunter. As a familial transaction, government would never know about it.
5) Carefully license every gun owner. We already have this law on the books and again, normal law-abiding citizens are never the issue. In fact, the Newtown shooter’s mothers guns were legally registered. Sometimes, bad things happen by bad people that no amount of legislation will stop.
6) Train them in gun safety. Good idea. And yet, government has mandated every new driver take an 8-hour driver safety class before they can take their driving test. Yet once licensed, many of these new drivers still drink, text, and drive under the influence even though they were told them it wasn’t safe to do it. And which group has the highest accident rates? New drivers. So, how much of government mandated training is going to produce the results he seeks?
7) Check on them periodically? Could this be more ambiguous? We hear of child abuse victims all the time who are neglected because a case-worker was overworked or unable to effectively investigate the parents. So, now he proposes hiring more people onto the government payroll that is already bloated? Can you say tax increase? His response, of course, will be, “If we save just one life, any cost was worth it.” That’s debatable.
8) Stop glorifying violence. Many talk about needing anti-violence, especially the Hollywood crowd. Aren’t they the same ones that make and star in the violent movies for gazillions of dollars? The movie industry’s been in a slump and then the action-packed, violent, James Bond “Skyfall” movie sets records for attendance. Add to that The Expendables, Transformers, Batman (repeatedly) etc., proving the law abiding public wants these films because movies are an escape from our everyday lives. Hollywood is being disingenuous, not wanting to bite the hand that feeds them. Good luck with stopping that.
9) The group he works with passed legislation requiring micro-stamping bullets to assist in tracing weapons back to their owner. Didn’t the police know who was doing the shootings in most of these killings. Feel good legislation? You decide.
There were several other items he “worked” on. Or did he? Actually, here’s some of the mailing’s legislatiive topics that was passed into law but not necessarily written by our legislator: DNA Databank, Domestic Violence protections, Cyber-Bullying, Micro-stamping, I-Stop (Internet - System for Tracking Over Prescribed drugs), Water Protection (accidental sewage discharge notification into waterways, sponsored by him), Health (prohibits smoking within 100ft of a school - because our police officers need to be busier), Hydro-Fracking (requires studies of the health impacts of hydro-fracking, co-sponsored by him).
Finally, to the back page of the campaign piece. He claims we need to replace ConEd as their Hurricane Sandy storm response was “totally inadequate, a management fiasco, a poor plan, poorly executed.” He’s calling for hearings into ConEd’s poor response. Why? We know their response was as good as it could be given the magnitude of damage and their current staffing. ConEd called in for help and the ConEd unions turned some of the non-union utility workers away. What results could hearings possibly render? The committee’s 30-page report summary will state that ConEd was woefully understaffed, the size of the storm was unpredictable, and the amount of damage into the billions of dollars and the federal government, along with FEMA must do more. This is strictly grandstanding on his part. The Paul will want to get in on the media frenzy and issue a press release commending the committee, berate ConEd again (he’s already done this), and say we should do away with county government.
He has introduced legislation for an idea that many have offered before him to put a height restrictor at the entrances of our parkways to deter trucks from accessing the roadways. He doesn’t even allude to how much will this cost? Regardless, it does have merit. Currently, the bridges that get repeated hits on the Hutchinson River Parkway cost us little if anything but time to address. When a bridge hit in Mamaroneck happens, the County Police respond (paid, on duty), the Mamaroneck Fire Department (no cost, volunteer) responds, a wrecker responds (big cost, insurance pays) and tickets and fines are issued. Virtually no cost to the tax payer except for the time delays. Now, we’ll be paying for some elaborate study, then prototype development, testing, changes and installation. Worth it, or another government boondoggle? Whatever the cost figures are that are presented to the public, triple the number and you’ll have the final cost. Watch for the federal and state subsidy slight of hand with the accompanying claims of low cost to the taxpayers because the feds are picking up the bill. YOU are the feds picking up the bill!
He also is requesting a discounted rate for all Westchester residents who use the Tappan Zee bridge. ABG, as well as everyone else we discuss this with, recognizes that the tolls will skyrocket once the bridge is completed, so this is highly unlikely to happen. He is still insisting on only building one bridge and keeping the original bridge as a park and bus use. Apparently, it’s been designated as maintenance-free and no longer needs demolition. He should pay more attention when he’s at his part-time job supposedly representing us to what’s already been decided. There will be two bridges, no park and dedicated bus lanes. But he’ll be able to say look what I tried to do for you – and with a straight face.
He brags that he was able to get legislation approved to allow Greenburgh (really The Paul) to lease Town property to a private, for-profit business, undoing the safety net provided by law to protect the Unincorporated residents of the Town. Another legislator from the other side of the building was participatory in the unraveling of this law. Then his last tidbit is that he joined with the Pleasantville mayor, other local officials and numerous residents to stop the installation of cell towers there. Funny, we wonder why he didn’t help the Irvington residents trying to accomplish the same thing? ABG’s guess is that The Paul wanted the towers and he was afraid to go against his eminence.
All of these talking points make for a nice generic mailer/campaign piece that does nothing but continue to aid incumbents with their off-season campaigning. Change a few pictures and this template will surely be used by other legislators. They keep their name out there, ensuring little chance that the electorate will vote for a new candidate come election time. Ultimately, they are doing little for the prized salary and perks they receive. It needs to change. We can only hope.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Monday, December 31, 2012
Aurora Borealis and SPF-40
We hope many were busy with family and friends enjoying the holidays and this time of year. A recent forage into the wonderlands of Eastchester brought us to an interesting version of their sports bubble, located at the Lake Isle Country Club and run by the infamous bubble kings, Sportime - sans The Paul. You’ll recall how The Paul petitioned his Albany buddies Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Tom Abinanti to covertly get the Finneran Law changed in 2012 in the wee hours of the legislative morning, allowing the Town (really The Paul and his Stepford Board) to install sports bubbles at will. This was a scheme The Paul had been planning since about 2005.
As we ventured southbound on Rt 22, we knew the Lake Isle Country Club would be on our left. Unsure exactly where it was, we were suddenly awed by what could only be considered Westchester’s version of the Aurora Borealis, aka our northern lights! With a marker like this, the space shuttle could have navigated a landing. As we pulled into the parking lot of the Lake Isle Country Club, we couldn’t find a roadway that led to the bubble. We decided to drive to the next street south of the entrance we had entered and see if we could access it from a different side. We could not. But as we got lost in a seemingly well-to-do neighborhood of middle to large sized homes, we were always able to get our bearings from “the glow” of the bubble.
We returned to the Lake Isle Country Club parking lot and decided to walk toward the bubble. The walkway was not illuminated by light fixtures and yet the amount of light provided by the bubble was more than adequate for us to proceed. As we got a bit closer, it got brighter and we discovered the bubble was in fact three bubbles! These were not as large as what has been proposed at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road by GameOn 365 and The Paul. The GameOn 365 bubble will be approximately eight and a half stories high in a residentially zoned neighborhood! ABG is realistic and knows that since The Paul wants this project at all cost, he will make sure his Stepford Board “rubber stamps” the zoning change to whatever GameOn 365 requests – and then some.
You may recall the proposal from GameOn 365 ends if the zoning or planning boards vote against it? Well, don’t hold your breath, especially now that The Paul is touting an unethical, but technically legal, sale of the property without putting it out to bid. He insisted on holding a referendum for the done-deal that many opposed stating that the referendum was needed to see what the people wanted of the property. The Paul’s reality has nothing to do with “the people” and everything to do with what he wants. He wants the bubble and so he’ll find a way to make it happen! Unfortunately for the residents that live in the area, The Paul discarded their opinions and opened the decision to the entire Town. This was an underhanded, low-blow to the Worthington Woodlands communities. The neighborhoods opinion toward decisions that directly affect them should always be paramount and respected by our “elected representatives” and not tossed aside to get the outcome The Paul sought. In a real version of Greenburgh, The Paul would work for us, not developers and campaign contributors!
Once we arrived at the bubble’s entrance, we joked about needing to apply SPF-40. We entered an empty lobby with a receptionist who said hello and went back to what she was doing. We ambled over to a window overlooking two tennis courts with what appeared to be a clay court. A young employee with a Sportime shirt came over to see if he could help us. We asked numerous questions, such as how high is the bubble? “Gee, I don’t know.” We guestimated the height to be between four to six stories at the pinnacle. What are the hours of operation? “It varies.” Do they own this facility? “No, Lake Isle Country Club does.” Do they operate it year round? “No, only during the winter when the bubbles are ‘up’.” Lake Isle operates it during the summer, although their goal is to take over the operation year round.” Do the neighbors complain about the light “No, it’s during the winter when they are inside and don’t see it.” Who owns the John McEnroe Tennis Academy; is it Sportime, Lake Isle, Eastchester, or John McEnroe? John McEnroe “owns” it and Sportime operates it.” As we talked he seemed personable, pleasant and knowledgable about the tennis program but nothing regarding the operational side of the business.
As we exited, this same young man walked with us toward our cars, continuing to answer what questions he could. One of us commented on the brightness of the illumination from the bubbles. He told us because of the transparency of the material, and its ability to transfer light, if the sun is out they don’t even turn the interior lights on because it provides enough light inside. ABG staffers in attendance commented that the luminosity of the bubble would be amplified with a larger-sized bubble.
ABG is not against a bubble if it is in the correct venue. The Sportime bubble in Eastchester is located in the middle of a country club and not surrounded by homes. Rather, it is surrounded by a golf course. Sportime was going to install their bubble model in the Anthony Veteran Park, but has decided not to. The Paul won’t discuss it, but ABG believes it was because The Paul and the Stepford’s placed so many mandates on them that they realized the project would not be cost effective. While The Paul doesn’t understand Return On Investment, Sportime does. It’s why they walked. So while The Paul was able to get his Albany cohorts to amend a law that at one time protected the Towns Unincorporated residents, the change has rendered the amendment counterproductive for the Town but not GameOn 365. ABG believes the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road should stay residential and be developed as such. If the GameOn deal is so good for the Town, it should be located on Town property, perhaps in Veteran Park. Sell 715 Dobbs Ferry Road through a legitimate assessment, bid process and then take the highest bid for the land, not a deflated price arbitrarily created by The Paul. For once, we’d like to see the Town to do the right thing. We can only hope.
As we ventured southbound on Rt 22, we knew the Lake Isle Country Club would be on our left. Unsure exactly where it was, we were suddenly awed by what could only be considered Westchester’s version of the Aurora Borealis, aka our northern lights! With a marker like this, the space shuttle could have navigated a landing. As we pulled into the parking lot of the Lake Isle Country Club, we couldn’t find a roadway that led to the bubble. We decided to drive to the next street south of the entrance we had entered and see if we could access it from a different side. We could not. But as we got lost in a seemingly well-to-do neighborhood of middle to large sized homes, we were always able to get our bearings from “the glow” of the bubble.
We returned to the Lake Isle Country Club parking lot and decided to walk toward the bubble. The walkway was not illuminated by light fixtures and yet the amount of light provided by the bubble was more than adequate for us to proceed. As we got a bit closer, it got brighter and we discovered the bubble was in fact three bubbles! These were not as large as what has been proposed at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road by GameOn 365 and The Paul. The GameOn 365 bubble will be approximately eight and a half stories high in a residentially zoned neighborhood! ABG is realistic and knows that since The Paul wants this project at all cost, he will make sure his Stepford Board “rubber stamps” the zoning change to whatever GameOn 365 requests – and then some.
You may recall the proposal from GameOn 365 ends if the zoning or planning boards vote against it? Well, don’t hold your breath, especially now that The Paul is touting an unethical, but technically legal, sale of the property without putting it out to bid. He insisted on holding a referendum for the done-deal that many opposed stating that the referendum was needed to see what the people wanted of the property. The Paul’s reality has nothing to do with “the people” and everything to do with what he wants. He wants the bubble and so he’ll find a way to make it happen! Unfortunately for the residents that live in the area, The Paul discarded their opinions and opened the decision to the entire Town. This was an underhanded, low-blow to the Worthington Woodlands communities. The neighborhoods opinion toward decisions that directly affect them should always be paramount and respected by our “elected representatives” and not tossed aside to get the outcome The Paul sought. In a real version of Greenburgh, The Paul would work for us, not developers and campaign contributors!
Once we arrived at the bubble’s entrance, we joked about needing to apply SPF-40. We entered an empty lobby with a receptionist who said hello and went back to what she was doing. We ambled over to a window overlooking two tennis courts with what appeared to be a clay court. A young employee with a Sportime shirt came over to see if he could help us. We asked numerous questions, such as how high is the bubble? “Gee, I don’t know.” We guestimated the height to be between four to six stories at the pinnacle. What are the hours of operation? “It varies.” Do they own this facility? “No, Lake Isle Country Club does.” Do they operate it year round? “No, only during the winter when the bubbles are ‘up’.” Lake Isle operates it during the summer, although their goal is to take over the operation year round.” Do the neighbors complain about the light “No, it’s during the winter when they are inside and don’t see it.” Who owns the John McEnroe Tennis Academy; is it Sportime, Lake Isle, Eastchester, or John McEnroe? John McEnroe “owns” it and Sportime operates it.” As we talked he seemed personable, pleasant and knowledgable about the tennis program but nothing regarding the operational side of the business.
As we exited, this same young man walked with us toward our cars, continuing to answer what questions he could. One of us commented on the brightness of the illumination from the bubbles. He told us because of the transparency of the material, and its ability to transfer light, if the sun is out they don’t even turn the interior lights on because it provides enough light inside. ABG staffers in attendance commented that the luminosity of the bubble would be amplified with a larger-sized bubble.
ABG is not against a bubble if it is in the correct venue. The Sportime bubble in Eastchester is located in the middle of a country club and not surrounded by homes. Rather, it is surrounded by a golf course. Sportime was going to install their bubble model in the Anthony Veteran Park, but has decided not to. The Paul won’t discuss it, but ABG believes it was because The Paul and the Stepford’s placed so many mandates on them that they realized the project would not be cost effective. While The Paul doesn’t understand Return On Investment, Sportime does. It’s why they walked. So while The Paul was able to get his Albany cohorts to amend a law that at one time protected the Towns Unincorporated residents, the change has rendered the amendment counterproductive for the Town but not GameOn 365. ABG believes the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road should stay residential and be developed as such. If the GameOn deal is so good for the Town, it should be located on Town property, perhaps in Veteran Park. Sell 715 Dobbs Ferry Road through a legitimate assessment, bid process and then take the highest bid for the land, not a deflated price arbitrarily created by The Paul. For once, we’d like to see the Town to do the right thing. We can only hope.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Disaster Preparedness - Talk Is Cheap
What’s been proven with Hurricane
Katrina in the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Irene along the eastern coast and
Hurricane Sandy in the northeast is that local governments, right on up through
the state and the federal governments, are not capable of handling emergencies
well, if at all! The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is little more
than a “front” for the federal government. Their “help” is nothing more than
pointing victims to someone else for assistance. Does this sound like any Town Supervisor we know? They, and our politicians, get
repeated publicity and in the end, the victims get little or no help at all. We’re
reminded of former President Reagan’s famous quote, “I’m from the government
and I'm here to help.”
Many in emergency services are used to responding and attacking
anything from a small, single incident to something of a larger magnitude,
including mass casualty incidents. The Fire Service trains in the routine tasks of hooking up to a hydrant to dealing with hazardous chemical spills. The
EMS Service spends time learning to ask the right questions to ascertain
whether aid is even needed.
The emergency services organizations need to be prepared for
any type of emergency. Our Town leadership should also be participating and leading the way. Sadly, they’d rather talk about it than actually do something about it. Last year the Town paid a hefty fee to have Jonathan Raser, to work with Police Chief DeCarlo, to develop a Greenburgh Hazard Mitigation Plan. It was adopted (and paid for) only for us to learn it is merely a vehicle to allow the Town to apply for grant money.
There are several phases to a disaster that include Mitigation,
Preparation, Response, and Recovery. This is the order to address emergency planning as well as infrastructure improvements as they relate to flooding, power outages, resident relocation, etc., if and when the Town choses to address our suffering residents during the yearly “100-Year” storms. Our Town Board is anxious to discuss doing something without actually implementing any improvements. Talk is cheap, isn’t it?
Mitigation is considered activities that either
prevent the occurrence of an emergency and/or reduce a community’s
vulnerability in ways that minimize the adverse impact of a disaster or other
emergency. Most communities have done little mitigation in preparation for an
upcoming weather event. This was never more apparent in Greenburgh with the onslaught
we received from Hurricane Sandy. Individually, many first responders and their
departments handled it well. Conversely, many of our respective Greenburgh communities were paralyzed and
unable to effectively receive aid. Residents abandoned? No quite. Thankfully, The Paul never missed a beat sending out emails, especially to those offline with no power.
Consolidated Edison, our “private”
public service utility was understaffed to respond to all the incidents that
befell them. The operational economics constraining ConEd cause them to not
have enough staff to address events the magnitude of a hurricane. How should we get past their staffing issues? The Paul knew a Citizens Committee meeting at Town Hall to “bash” ConEd wouldn’t really do anything, but it would make him seem to care. Ah, publicity. Everyone uses ConEd and no one likes paying their bill, so who wouldn’t want to “go after” the big bad utility company? Pure genius. If you insist on a quicker response from ConEd, with more workers, be prepared to pay higher rates!
The Preparation phase involves activities undertaken in advance of an emergency. Response or Normal
Operational phase consists of developing and revising disaster plans and hazard
analyses; writing operational mutual aid plans; cross training response
personnel to wear one or more of any “hats” as dictated by the event; improving
public information and communications systems; and conducting exercises
(drills) to validate the planning process. Putting all of these together into
an implementable plan is all well and good, but if it is never tested before an
actually event, it might ultimately be worthless. As with any critique after
this testing, it is imperative that the leadership recognizes and honestly
evaluates performances. Simply congratulating everyone so the practice appears
good on paper will be self-defeating when it comes time to engage during an event. We often see this kind of “atta-boy” backslapping at Town Board meetings, when they fall over each other, becoming a mutual admiration society.
An increased “readiness” (pre-planning) is also critical before an incident happens. Inspections
of critical facilities must be performed and categorized. Reviewing and
updating emergency plans and Standard Operating Procedures/Guidelines (SOP/SOGs) should be
an ongoing exercise for all Town personnel - not just emergency responders. This should enable them to have
increased operating knowledge, familiarity of what is expected by different
roles they may be asked to perform, an ability to enhance their performance. Equally
important will be their ability to critique the operation to offer a different perspective to
assist in making improvements. This personnel should also be updating resource lists
and becoming increasingly familiar with mobilizing resources, testing warning
and communications systems, disseminating accurate, timely, emergency public
information as well as recruiting additional personnel and disaster service workers
from the community, such as Citizen Emergency Response Teams (C.E.R.T.).
Responding to a disaster will require actions be taken to
save lives and protect property first and foremost. From there, other steps
must be taken, including disseminating warnings to be issued, emergency public
information to be broadcast, and other advice and action instructions to be
conveyed to the public. Perhaps dispatching teams to distribute information
will be all that is needed. Leaders will need to have boots on the ground surveying
and evaluating the emergency situation. ABG has suggested the Town utilize neighborhood civic associations as well as the CERT members for this task. With information at hand, they will be
marshaling, allocating, and positioning personnel and equipment and mobilizing
necessary resources. If available, they will need to activate their Emergency
Operations Center (EOC) using established guidelines.
Evacuating the public
from certain areas prone in communities that suffer may be necessary and need to be
implemented in stages for large areas or restricted access areas. In low lying,
flood prone areas for example, conditions may be static, necessitating no
changes for those people. Or, those same conditions may change swiftly and
require decisions that had been contemplated by not initiated to take effect.
All personnel should be well versed in what will be required of them to assist
in those actions. During Hurricane Sandy for instance, residents were evacuated to the Theodore Young Center, only to need to be evacuated from there due to storm related damage.
During the immediate emergency, emphasis must be placed on
saving lives, gaining as much control of the situation as can be controlled and
minimize the effects of the disaster to both the public and the responders.
Once an Incident Command Post has been established, they can work in or with
the EOC. Of course, sustained or long-term events/emergencies may dictate what
else must be done. Providing for the care and treatment of casualties, collecting,
identifying, and addressing the deceased, are part of the gruesome reality that
must be planned for. During that same period, providing for the mass care with food,
lodging, clean clothes, hygiene needs of displaced persons becomes a priority.
During the Hurricane Sandy, the Village of Elmsford highway department distributed firewood collected from fallen trees, to residents to
burn in their fireplaces. It allowed homeowners with fireplaces to heat their homes and dispose of the wood at no cost!
Once the recovery process is underway, our people or other
appropriate agencies must begin implementing health and safety measures for
both the short and long term. Additionally, you must begin protecting,
controlling, and allocating vital resources; restoring or activating essential
facilities and systems, ensuring the enforcement of police powers in
controlling the locations and finally, establishing access controls, erecting
traffic barricades, etc.
We do know that with proper planning, evaluation and activation addressing everything that is going on should provide a more organized and less chaotic environment for all. Ultimately, it will assist the victims with a level of calm and security during an extremely stressful event. We don’t currently have a pre-plan for major events and hope this article helps guide our leaders in the right direction toward starting one. We can be ready for the next event. We can only hope.
We do know that with proper planning, evaluation and activation addressing everything that is going on should provide a more organized and less chaotic environment for all. Ultimately, it will assist the victims with a level of calm and security during an extremely stressful event. We don’t currently have a pre-plan for major events and hope this article helps guide our leaders in the right direction toward starting one. We can be ready for the next event. We can only hope.
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
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