Townsend Outside The City Limits

The Uncle has received a flash news report from the Chester Forum on the Future of Camp LaGuardia. Our report may be slightly less creative than the Times Herald Record’s in that our staffer attended the entire meeting, while the Record’s John Sullivan showed up late and left early.

Greg Townsend (County Legislator from Monroe) chaired, which gave him the perfect opportunity to prove that he can’t speak English (“I’d like to introduce Charlie Bohan, which is the Supervisor of Blooming Grove”), can’t read (mispronouncing or otherwise mangling the name of almost every speaker) and, after almost two years in the legislature, doesn’t know the names of his twenty colleagues (inventing a legislator named “Tom Paduch”).

Everyone present expressed disgust with the idea of selling Camp LaGuardia to Easy Equities (that’s NYC slumlord Jacob Selechnik). Flipping was on many minds.

Last week the sale was OK’d by the County Legislature’s Physical Services Committee by a vote of 4 to 1 (the minutes are not yet available online, as far as we can determine Committee Chairman Mike Paduch voted yes, James Kulisek voted no, Alan Seidman and one other member were absent and so the other yes votes came from three of the following four: Mike Pillmeier, Dan Depew, Wayne Decker and Tom Pahucki).

By the way, Mike Paduch (Committee Chairman, remember) was asked who the members of his committee were. The only one that he could remember was Noel Spencer, who isn’t.

Eddie Diana bet his life (then hedged) that when the vote comes before the full legislature on Wednesday, the sale to Easy Equities will be shot down. Eddie then called on the Leg. to immediately accept the offer from one of the other two bidders – Mountco and Aristotelian University. In other words, the Physical Services Committee was wrong to rush into accepting Easy Equities’ bid, so let’s cancel that and accept some other bid as fast as possible. Eddie then assured the crowd that after going to contract we would have lots of time to do due diligence. Oy! (As we say in Latin America)

One argument in favor of Eddie’s rush to sell off Camp LaGuardia is the Town of Chester’s decision to put the property back on the tax rolls, meaning that it will cost the County $500,000 a year until a sale goes through.

Chester Supervisor Steve Neuhaus and two other Town Board Members (sorry, we didn’t get the names) all claimed ignorance of this.

In that three quarters of the property is in Chester, and so they had the greatest reason to want the County to buy it from NYC and the greatest reason to want the County to get it right when they pick a buyer, it would seem to be in Chester’s interest to work out a deal with the County along the lines of Blooming Grove’s deal which defers taxes until the property is sold (and only if the County sells it for a profit).

Other highlights included Rich Randazzo getting up and making a campaign speech that had little or nothing to do with the subject at hand. This prompted Nancy Calhoun to take the podium to get in her own licks.

We regret to report that Bob Lawrence did not show up and so no one was denounced as a Nazi.

Maybe It's A Plot To Get The Homeless Back

Camp La Guardia concerns spur Chester forum
By Chris Mckenna
Times Herald-Record
June 28, 2008 6:00 AM


CHESTER — County and local officials will hold a public forum Monday night to discuss the proposed sale of Camp La Guardia and let residents air their concerns.


Controversy has rippled through Chester and Blooming Grove since an Orange County Legislature committee voted Tuesday to sell the former homeless shelter and its 258 acres to Easy Equities, one of four entities bidding for the property.


That man behind that corporate name has since been revealed to be Jacob Selechnik, an apartment mogul with a history of thousands of housing-code violations in his New York City properties. He's offering $10.5 million up front with no building approvals in place — an unusual risk that has stoked suspicion among residents.


The Legislature is supposed to vote on the proposal Wednesday. But elected leaders involved with the upcoming forum said they'll urge lawmakers to postpone a decision until getting more information about the prospective buyers.


"We should not hastily make any decision to move forward until we have all the answers," said Legislator Greg Townsend, R-Monroe, who initiated the forum.
The gathering will take place at 8 p.m. Monday at the Chester Academy at 64 Hambletonian Avenue.


Chester Supervisor Steve Neuhaus said he plans to urge legislators to vote against the Easy Equities offer — which he opposes — and to extend deliberations over the sale, this time enlisting county Planning Commissioner David Church as a participant.


"My residents are very concerned," he said.


He said he wants to use the forum to correct misinformation that has gotten out and explain how the intended sale of the tract has been handled since the county bought it off New York City last year.


Philip Valastro, mayor of the Village of Chester, had been an enthusiastic supporter of a proposed development that would include a 5,000-student university. But he said Thursday he now wants more information about all of the projects.


"We've got to make sure we're picking the right one," Valastro said.


The Village Voice
NYC's 10 Worst Landlords
Jacob Selechnik


'Sometimes they don't open the windows and let the walls breathe'
by Ryan Vu and Joanna Raccuglia

When the Voice got Jacob Selechnik on the phone recently, the 62-year-old landlord with 15,260 housing-code violations on 110 properties immediately announced that he was retiring. He said he would do it "any day now." Asked why, Selechnik, who has been sued five times by HPD since 2004 and probed by the Department of Investigations, said simply: "I'm too old." In any event, his daughter Ellen and son-in-law Michael Goldberg have been increasingly involved in the vast, Bronx-based family business for years.

As astronomically high as Selechnik's current 2.2 violations per unit is, he had an even more shocking 23,127 violations, or 3.6 per apartment, until he was forced in the past two years by one court order after another to try to correct them. A printout of these violations could wallpaper an entire apartment. He also owes HPD $91,428 for emergency repairs made on 68 of his buildings.

Selechnik's other specialty is stealth. The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation blacklisted him a few years ago, refusing to sell any of its foreclosed properties to him. So other landlords who were not on the "exclusionary list" bought properties Selechnik coveted and then flipped them to him. Similarly, when the family of an infant allegedly damaged by lead paint in one of his buildings sued him, he tried to get the case tossed by distancing himself from the ownership of the property. Bronx Supreme Court Judge Patricia Williams said his deposition was "rife with statements of ignorance" about the building, but she found enough evidence of ownership to sustain the suit.

Mold is still another specialty. Maria Fonseca is suing him for the chronic asthma and dermatitis she's suffering from stachybotrys, a toxic mold caused by excessive moisture that was described by an expert witness in the case as "highly allergic" and that has apparently contaminated the bedrooms and bathrooms in her Bronx apartment. Selechnik's response? "Sometimes they don't open the windows and let the walls breathe," he told the Post. Meeka Bhattacharya, an organizer with the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, connected the Voice with tenants in other buildings whose kids got sick, allegedly because of mold. "Northwest and HPD have done building-wide inspections" in specific Selechnik properties, Bhattacharya said, "and found multiple violations, years of violations. We have been trying to work with Selechnik but he never responds." The history is also bleak: HPD sued him 20 years ago for a failure to provide heat and hot water and had to buy heat in 40 of his buildings.

Nicknamed Jake the Snake by the Coalition, Selechnik was described in an article in The Bronx County Historical Society Journal in 2002 as having "an alleged 20-year history of tax foreclosures" and "poor management and inadequate services to tenants," a one-man wrecking crew who's left his mark on the city's most blighted borough for decades on 110 properties")

Who's Really Who

Orange Magazine, a publication with which the Uncle is unfamiliar, is compiling a list of "Who's Who in Orange County" ( orangemagazineNY.com ).

The Uncle has always taken issue with "Wh0's Who" lists. It should be "Who's Whom."

But, more to the point, it generally seems that the real powers are the very one's who don't end up on the list, because they generally operate from behind the scenes.

So here is the Uncle's list of Who's Really Who (or Whom).

Ralph Caruso - pulling the strings on Anthony Incanno and Rich Randazzo from the shadows.

Bill Larkin - pulling the strings on Ralph Caruso from deep in the shadows.

Gedalye Szegedin - certainly "guiding" Bill Larkin, if not exerting absolute control.

Aron Teitelbaum - the Mad Rebbe behind Gedalye Szegedin.

Meir Hirsch - the real power pulling the strings on KJ and beyond.

The Rules (Woodbury Edition via Ralph Caruso)

Woodbury is a wonderful place to live as long as you understand the rules.

There are various types of rules.

There are the rules which only apply in certain places. For example:
"Two acre zoning is high density, but my 1/3 of an acre lot isn't."

There are rules which only apply at certain times. For example:
"Creating a village will prevent annexation and will not change the fire company until everyone finds out that that isn't true at which time I, retroactively, never said it."

And then there are the unchanging rules: development is bad and so is selling your house. This is most clearly stated as:
"If you don't live here you can't come and if you do live here you can't leave."

Just follow the rules and all will be well.

Until Ralph changes them again.

Camp Cramp

We'll start with the second story first, because a) it's shorter, b) it's important and c) you folks have short attention spans and may never get to it.

Officials schedule forum Monday on Camp La Guardia sale

By Chris MckennaTimes Herald-RecordJune 27, 2008

Elected officials have organized a public forum at the Chester Academy Monday night to let residents air their concerns about the proposed sale of the Orange County-owned Camp La Guardia property.

County Legislator Greg Townsend, R-Monroe, initiated the gathering and will conduct it with the Chester and Blooming Grove town supervisors and the Village of Chester mayor – the leaders of the three host municipalities.

Controversy has erupted since a county Legislature committee voted Tuesday to support an unusual offer to buy the property for $10.5 million – all paid up front. The bidder is a New York City apartment mogul with a shady reputation.


The full Legislature is supposed to vote on the offer Wednesday. But Townsend and Chester Supervisor Steve Neuhaus both say they will urge lawmakers to postpone the sale. Neuhaus opposes the offer endorsed this week.

NewsCamp bidder has bad rep

Mogul made Voice's list of 10 worst landlords

By Chris MckennaTimes Herald-RecordJune 27, 2008

The mysterious bidder with a stunning offer to pay Orange County $10.5 million up front for Camp La Guardia is an apartment mogul with a huge empire and a tarnished reputation.

County officials Thursday identified the man behind the recently incorporated Easy Equities as Jacob Selechnik, who was described in June 2006 in an annual Village Voice feature as one of the 10 worst landlords in New York City.

At the time, Selechnik had 15,260 housing-code violations on 110 properties, according to the newspaper. And that was an improvement over the 23,127 violations tallied two years earlier, the article stated.

Selechnik couldn't be reached Thursday at two Bronx offices with phone numbers listed in his name. His Long Island attorney, Mark Matiash, didn't return a call for comment.

His bid for the former homeless shelter and its 258 acres leaped to the front of the pack when a committee of county lawmakers voted 4-1 Tuesday to send Easy Equities' proposal to the full Legislature for approval next week.

What made Easy Equities' offer unique was its willingness to pay the full price up front, without waiting for building approvals — something unheard-of in commercial development. The three rival offers would have been paid off over a number of years.

But whether it can muster the necessary 14 out of 21 votes next week is far from clear. At least one lawmaker from the project area had turned decisively against the proposal Thursday after reading articles about Selechnik.

"I'd vote 'No,'" said Frank Fornario, R-Blooming Grove.

John McCarey, the county's real property director, said he couldn't comment on Selechnik's credibility as a landlord but could vouch for his financial security. He said he'd been told Selechnik owned 2,500 apartment buildings throughout the New York City metropolitan area.

"His financial statement is extremely solid," he said.

Meanwhile, a previous front-runner — the first of three in what has been a topsy-turvy competition for the property — pressed its case to the public Thursday with a half-page ad in the Times Herald-Record.

That developer is Mountco Construction and Development Corp. of Scarsdale. Its president, Joel Mounty, said in an interview that the company has raised its price to $12 million from $10.5 million and linked up with Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh to propose continuing education classes at the site.


The college addition was an effort to eclipse the second front-runner — a proposed 5,000-student university that had proved popular among legislators and local officials.

Show Him The Money

SWILLER ANNOUNCES THAT HE'S FOR SALE

The Pieman has announced that he is willing to sell out.

In fact, he says, he was always willing to sell out but no one has made any offers.

The asking price is $5,000,000 and if Szegedin, Caruso, Hirsch, Larkin or anyone else is willing to chip in to meet that figure he is prepared to retire completely from politics.

Cash only.

Can We Talk?

The Uncle actually has a practical matter to discuss.

What is your cell phone company?

What reception or other problems do you have?

What do you like about it?

Shangri-La? Really? Wow!

From the N Y Times Escapes section, Friday. June 20, 2008

Day Trip Monroe, N.Y.
A Spirit-Friendly Retreat in the Catskills
By Tammy La Gorce

FOR those whose ideal day trip hinges on the possibility of returning home aglow with a lingering sense of tranquillity, Monroe, N.Y., which sits in the foothills of the Catskills, can feel like a small Shangri-La.

A little over an hour north of Manhattan, Monroe is child-friendly, adult-friendly and, perhaps most important, spirit-friendly.

Life Beyond Woodbury

There exist - honest - places beyond Woodbury and, even, beyond Orange County.

And whenever the Uncle or anyone else posting here mentions it, half of you go ape-shit!

SO

When the urge to speak of that dreaded outer zone becomes irresistable, the Uncle will go somewhere else.

Where else?

Here: http://ubwv.blogspot.com/

There's also a link button over there in the left hand column (Uncle Betty's World View)

That way those folks who refuse to believe such foreign lands exist will remain untroubled in their deep Woodbury-centric slumber and spared the heebie-jeebies by any mention of that other stuff.

Oh, So That's Why.

OK, so now we know why the Pieman was looking for tough women. Here's his email:

Tomorrow, Wednesday, there is an election in Kiryas Joel for two seats on the Village Board.

In past there have been a great many concerns about the honesty of the voting. There were reports of young men being sent in again and again to vote under different names. Further, they were sent in in waves, pushing and shouting, in order to fluster the local women who worked as poll watchers.

This year OCEAN asked the dissidents for the right to supply the poll watchers. We have assembled a group of strong women who will be able to handle whatever comes at them.

Our goal is for KJ to have as honest an election as we can help provide. We're trying to even the playing field so that the challengers have a fair shot at getting their candidates elected.

Tomorrow night we'll know how it went.

Jonathan Swiller

By the way, we can still use some more men and women, so if you can give us any time at all, up til 9 PM, call me - 845-325-0561