Some fun facts from tonights forum at the IBEW:
John (let the public speak) Burke was asked by the Fire Commissioners (who put together the forum) to broadcast it on channel 22. Big John's response "Absolutely not!" What makes this most interesting is that Burke doesn't have the power to make that decision - it's up to the whole town board - and Burke had since last Thursday to get their views - only it sorta slipped his mind.
Ralph (Committee for the Perversion of Woodbury) Caruso was whomped upside the head repeatedly for putting out his fact-free booklet. Seems he couldn't quite explain how he could claim to know exactly what the possible future village board would choose to do and exactly how much those imiginary decisions would cost.
Jonathan ("you're on your own") Swiller said that he couldn't tell anyone else how to vote but he was voting "no." Is that sorta, kinda, maybe like a hint?
We all learned one hell of a lot about fire departments, fire companies and fire fighting volunteers, only the Uncle couldn't follow most of it (nor could Ralph who kept confusing a coterminus town and village with a coterminus village and fire district).
We heard that a new village might well have to spend $200,000 a year just on insurance. We're not quite sure where that would fit into Ralph's total $140,000 village budget. (And that doesn't even begin to include the gazillion dollars in legal fees it would cost to set up the damned village).
No one asked about the rest of Ralph's wierd numbers like a projected $7500 a year for village clerk. Village clerks in even the most stripped down villages have full time, day to day responsibilities like recording village board actions, handling FOILs, keeping the village records, etc, etc.. They also have to run village elections which includes registering voters, receiving and verifying petitions, creating poll books, overseeing election day nicities like poll watchers and voting machines and such like, tabulating and reporting results. All that and more for $7,500 a year? Wow!
It turns out that Joe Ferguson is still alive.
Bob Reveille and John Baranowski were not visibly present. Rumor has it that Caruso's mind meld was wearing off so they had to be locked in a basement somewhere until they could be re-reprogrammed.
The Toad, the Rump Roast and the Ankle Biter were present and took turns confusing everyone.
Bubbles and Bo were AWOL.
Bubble's whereabout were unknown.
As to Bo, legend has it that during the full moon he turns into a normal person.
McKenna was there for the Record, a cutie named Caitlin was there for the Photo News and Channel 12 was there - hey wait - Channel 12 was allowed to have its cameras there, but the Town of Woodbury wasn't?
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8 comments:
Sorry I couldn't make it last night Unc, but how was the turnout? Was it as packed as they were expecting? Were the other Town Board members there? Could you get a reading on the overall atmoshpere- pro or con? Again, after weighing everything, I have to say my vote will be NO. I am less fearful of the known, as opposed to the UNKNOWN that Ralph and Co has to offer. I'd rather fight annexation with one board than watch the infighting between 2 boards, and my money flying right our my windows in taxes. I'd also rather see cooler heads draw up more reasonable boundaries and budget IF a new Village were to be formed. Finally, I'd like to say thanks to all who have TRIED to get the TRUTH our instead of the rubbish in the "Preserve Ralph Caruso" kit.
I find it interesting that Ralph and Co. never had their own experts on the village speak.
For two years they remained silent, never organizing a panel of experts to answer all the tough questions that people have. Instead at the eleventh hour they mail out this preservation kit and call it the bible!! NOBODY can predict what's going to happen to our taxes. He failed to mention insurance, legal fees etc. Someone last night said all the little things can be worked out later. These issues are not little things and who are we going to pay to work them all out?
My husband and I went last night to hear the information. My husband was for the village going into the meeting. I was sitting on the fence. We both agreed that we cannot vote for the village because
1. Ralph Caruso's behind it. After living in this town for 35 years and seeing the political games he has played, he CAN NOT be trusted.
2. Nobody has proven to me we need a village to protect the town. Is there the threat of another village forming in our town? Of course there is, but if we form a village they will only go to their plan B which is to annex the land. So what have we accomplished?
We have only raised our taxes, disrupted all the town employees lives, and divided a whole town for nothing.
I'd rather take my chances with KJ than go along with ANYTHING that Ralph Caruso says!
Uncle Betty,
How about the offer put out by the "Democratic Committee" and R.D. to unite with the Fire District so that they can come up with a slate for the Village?
Are you kidding???BD actually did that?? Let me guess- Bubbles, Bo, Grace and BD himself, right???? Do thaty actually think the public is THAT stupid??
To the anon, who said that Ralph didnt have experts there...thats becuase Ralph, Ankle Biter, and crew all thing THEY are the experts...but i think that got proven WRONG last night.
Ralph and friends want you ONLY to think of KJ when you go in to the voting booth tomorrow. Thats so YOU WONT ask questions of real experts. Thats so you will cast a blind eye to all the legal mess this village is gonna cause us.
Ralph wants us to all think Abe Weider, and Gedayle are hiding in our bushes ready to annex all our houses in to KJ. Everyone is scared shitless of KJ and mostly it is Ralph's fault!!
KJ may or may not try to form a village. Forming our village may legally stop that. However, Mr. and Mrs. Woodbury, you know as well as i do thats not gonna stop them from getting what they want in the end. All they will do is keep pouring their citizens across the border, try to influence elected officals and soon they will create here what exsists in Monroe.
All we can do is try to hold our ground at this point. I feel safer with the current Town Board (minus our Supervisor) to make the right decisions and to fight for our territorial integrity.
Also, isnt anyone here the least bit suspicious of why we are getting letters from Abe Weider?? The letters telling us to vote NO only want to make people vote YES. Either this is the stupidest political move in Orange County history....OR IS IT???
I would like to clear up some confusions from last nights meeting. I didn’t speak last night because i wanted to check my facts first.
There were mentions last night of Harrison. Harrison is a town-wide village in Westchester County. This, i believe, took place about 30 years ago when the Town of Harrison and the Village of Harrison merged together and formed one political entity.
Some would use this as proof that this form of government exists and works well. We'll here is the difference. There is only ONE government in the Town/Village of Harrison not TWO like there will be in Woodbury.
Therefore, in Harrison, the Town Supervisor and Town Board members serve jointly as the Mayor and Village Board. Therefore, this community speaks with ONE voice not TWO like we will have here.
The reason why we cant do this here is because there is an already existing village in the Town of Woodbury (Harriman) whose citizens would NOT be eligible to vote for the "village" officials of Woodbury. This is why and the only reason why we now have to have 2 separate governments. In reality, unlike in Harrison, we are NOT forming a town-wide village.
This is why I cant understand when people say this has been done before...yes, it has been, but much differently than it will be done here. No one has shown any examples of a similar Woodbury like situation anywhere in this state.
I also love the people that said "lets try it" i don’t think anyone understands quite the impact having two forms of government will have on this area.
Yes, villages are formed all the time, but not in this way. I understand the concerns people have about the formation of a KJ 2, but are we prepared to embark on such a potentially disastrous course because of KJ?? I am not quite sure at this point that that is necessarily the way to proceed.
I say vote NO...make Ralph and the organizers give us ALLOT more answers to our questions, then we can bring this up again. Maybe we can do it in a way that DOES NOT affect the fire district, by excluding the parklands and West Point lands from the new village.
I do not like making critical decisions without ALL THE FACTS PRO AND CON presented. That has not been done enough to my satisfaction.
Lets play it safe VOTE NO!!
Jim Booth
Republican Committeeman
District 4
The village will not protect against anne_ation of Woodbury's land... and people are right to be confused as heck from Ralph's inaccurate information, games and unanswered question.
But the fact which remains, and troubles me is that the formation of another village inside of Woodbury would be infinately more damaging than lands being anne_ed out of our town (sorry, broken key :)). If the lands leave Woodbury, they can be superdeveloped but at least their vote won't have any effect on our government. And we can fight the move for a variety of environmental reasons in court.
The creation of a new village cannot be opposed by our town in court over any concerns, evironmental or otherwise. It will leave our ta_ rolls, can be eaqually hyperdeveloped, BUT will still have a vote in the town of Woodbury. That means that we could lose control of our own government, just like Monroe has had for some time now. After that, we can kiss any control of our zoning goodbye.
I don't trust Ralph any farther than I can throw him... and he is taking full advantage of people's fears for his political ends. But the fact remains that there are some pretty serious things to fear out there, which is what makes this such an agonizing decision.
KJ also made some pretty embarassing proceedural mistakes in this last case. I don't forsee them doing that again, and getting a second, better village proposal through may be problematic at best.
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