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.
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.
29 comments:
To be fair to Greg Townsend, it appears that he was the one who pulled the forum together.
Can someone find out why when the written offer to purchase finally came over from the County to the Towns Diana is trying to rape the Towns with a 9.5 million dollar price tag to buy a property he paid 8 million dollars for?
Remember, any profit made over the price that the county paid the NYC economic development corp, is shared with the corp, like over 50%!
The written offer from the County got out to the Towns and Village via fax at 5:00 PM on July 1. I got confirmation on this from one of the Chester town councilmen.
I posted video of the arguments and the vote from last night's legislative session on youtube. Lot's of pressure from legislators for the municipalities to "finally make up their minds" (paraphrase). Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=HudsonValleyVoices&p=r
The county reps were merely trying to pass the buck because they did not do their homework on the slumlord!!!!
They DO have a responsibility to look into the background of the potential purchasers of the camp.
That's correct, anonymous. But for a few, it was a CYA-fest and a backpedaling competition until the vote. Realizing they were caught with their pants down, they voted "No" except for Michael Amo. I thought his comments and questions to be the lamest of the evening.
By the way, in what way would it serve his district to be the only one to vote "yes" on this offer, given the revelations about the man behind easy equities? Wouldn't his constituency rather such a dastardly developer not take possession of this parcel?
So they can have 490 homes on 200-acres but Woodbury cant?
By Michael Randall
July 04, 2008
CORNWALL — If you plan to speak at Monday’s Planning Board public hearing on the Cornwall Commons, you don’t have to rush to get there.
The board will hold that hearing last, instead of at the beginning of the meeting with other public hearings, as is usually done. Two hearings and discussions on four other applications will precede the Commons hearing. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m.
Mark Edsall, the board’s consulting engineer, recommended the switch out of consideration for other applicants, “so that the poor soul who may have a five-minute application doesn’t have to sit for four hours to get to it.”
The Commons plan for building 490 homes for active seniors on about 75 percent of a 200-acre site off Route 9W near the Route 218 intersection is both complex and controversial, and the hearing is likely to be a long one.
Plans for the other 50 acres haven’t been submitted yet.
Considering the number of cars that Cornwall Commons will put onto Rt 32 and Mineral Springs Rd and send through Woodbury, I suppose that Woodbury should look into filing an Article 78 lawsuit against Cornwall.
We all know that what's good for the goose (Cornwall) is NOT necessarily good for the gander (Woodbury).
Just some more of Ralph-style logic.
So does Ralph and crew support the Cornwall plan?
Wow, how rumors can start! And, wow, how many people hear rumors and take them as facts.
Here's a fact for you: Ralph, along with Holly the former Woodbury Councilwoman and other select Ralphlings, were part of a lawsuit to sue Woodbury. Does he support the Cornwall plan, we don't know and that is not the point anyway. The point is that while Ralph does not want certain developments in Woodbury and is getting support from Cornwall on that, Cornwall is developing in their town, doing the exact thing that they criticize Woodbury for. Oh, they will say that it is because of the additional kids to the schools, but we all know that it is not true because if it were, they would also be suing New Windsor and themselves, because of the additional students to the schools that those two communities are contributing.
How's that for facts, you moron!
"Wow, how rumors can start! And, wow, how many people hear rumors and take them as facts."
11:38 AM, July 05, 2008
This was probably the same person who pretended that they didn't know what a ralphling was, all innocent like. Next they will probably post something like: "Gee, golly why does everyone hate Don so much..."
What Ralph wants for Woodbury and what Cornwall does are two different things. How many bloggers does Uncle Betty entertain? 5 or 10? Sure don't speak what I hear the people saying. Oh, and what's with the name-calling?
I am blogger 5,341.
Look to see how many hits this site gets, then divide by 54 multiply by the square root of 3 added to Planck's constant and you will have a rough approximation of how many bloggers there are on this site.
5-10 doesn't fit within those parameters.
54 x 1.7320508 + 6.626068 × 10-34 m2 kg / s
Neither does 5341. Intellectual moron!
Sarcasm is definitely lost on you.
Gotcha! Mr. Farma.
We really do get a higher class of flamers on this site.
And on you, Anonymous!
Here's a fact for you: Ralph, along with Holly the former Woodbury Councilwoman and other select Ralphlings, were part of a lawsuit to sue Woodbury. Does he support the Cornwall plan, we don't know and that is not the point anyway. The point is that while Ralph does not want certain developments in Woodbury and is getting support from Cornwall on that, Cornwall is developing in their town, doing the exact thing that they criticize Woodbury for. Oh, they will say that it is because of the additional kids to the schools, but we all know that it is not true because if it were, they would also be suing New Windsor and themselves, because of the additional students to the schools that those two communities are contributing.
How's that for facts, you moron!
It is a fact that Holly's name was not a part of the Article 78 against Woodbury. Ralph is not against certain developments in Woodbury; he is against the zoning changes that were made to accommodate the developers. As for Cornwall doing the exact same thing that they criticize Woodbury for, that's not a fact. There are notable differences. So, where are the facts, Simple Simon?
So you speak for Ralph or are you Ralph?
I speak for me.
Didn't Holly have a fund raiser to support the lawsuit? Wasn't is a garage sale at he home in Cornwall?
Your memory is selective and your credibility is shot, you little Ralphling!
"I speak for me" but do you "think for me"?
Supporting a cause and initiating a cause are two different things. Holly lives on a main road and has lots of space, hence the location. With your reasoning, anyone who was part of the garage sale is part of the lawsuit. That would include all who shopped there. That's quite a few people who, by the way, raised enough money to fund the lawsuit. Swiller was there, too (not to shop, but to discourage and nose around). Also the court's decision was in favor of the garage salers. There are still many people who think the town was wrong in allowing the zoning changes. Oh, and anyone who knows me knows that I always think for me and I only speak for me. In the case of the recent zoning changes, I can only hope and pray that I am wrong and you are right. Time will tell.
Yes, I did stop by. And no, I did nothing to discourage anyone. I went out of curiosity.
Holly, of course, had every right to support the law-suit, but it is ridiculous to claim that someone who lends her home for a fund-raiser to pay for a law-suit isn't a supporter of that suit, whether or not she initiated it.
As to what Mr. "anyone who knows me knows" -- no one knows anything about you because you are unwilling to sign your name to your words, so what credibility do you have?
On a different note...
THR 7/12/08
KJ developer to buy Arden Hill campus
Plans for 30-acre Orange Regional site unclear
By Michael Levensohn
Times Herald-Record
July 12, 2008
GOSHEN — A deal is being finalized to sell the Arden Hill campus of Orange Regional Medical Center to a Monroe planner and developer with ties to the Village of Kiryas Joel.
The buyer is Simon Gelb, said Goshen Mayor Bob Weinberger, who learned of the deal from an Orange Regional official Friday morning.
Gelb, who works out of an office in Monroe, has not indicated what he plans to do with the 30-acre site, which sits at the southeastern gateway to the village, just off Route 17's Exit 125.
"They are just investors, and they may just sell it again," said Weinberger.
Gelb, reached Friday at his Monroe office, declined to comment. He has been linked over the years to a number of high-profile development projects throughout the region:
In 2004, he was involved with a plan to annex large amounts of neighboring land to the fast-growing Village of Kiryas Joel.
Last year, he proposed building 2,000 homes across three towns in Sullivan County, rankling local officials and environmentalists. He later reduced the proposal by half.
Weinberger is worried that Gelb or a successive buyer might try to keep the Arden Hill property off the tax rolls, exacerbating Goshen's ongoing struggle for ratables. Roughly half the properties in the village, as well in as the Town of Goshen, are tax-exempt.
Weinberger is also miffed that the sale is being conducted without input from the community it serves. Weinberger first learned of the deal with Gelb when a reporter asked him about it.
Arden Hill is owned by a local development corporation created to help Orange Regional unload its current buildings as it moves ahead with a new $330 million hospital in the Town of Wallkill.
Orange Regional worked with the Gerry Foundation and The Community Foundation of Orange and Sullivan to establish two local development corporations, one for Arden Hill, the other for Orange Regional's Middletown campus.
Orange Regional then sold the hospitals to the two corporations. Money for the purchase came from the Gerry Foundation in the form of a $4 million gift and a $6 million mortgage.
Gelb is represented by Realtor R. J. Smith, who is also president of the Community Foundation, one of the three nonprofits that set up the corporation now on the verge of selling the property to Gelb.
The three board members of the local development corporations — lawyer Phil Dropkin, who does some work for the Gerry Foundation; Maureen Halahan, of the Orange County Partnership; and Rich Rowley, former owner of Rowley Building Products — all declined to comment for this story, as did Smith. An Orange Regional spokeswoman said no one was available to comment Friday.
mlevensohn@th-record.com
NOW WHAT????
What is going on in this county? Is this place a den of corruption or what????
Speaking of shoppers, Flipper aka Mike A. our former town council left the state after he was voted out of office. Does anyone know if he left in the middle of the night?
Oh Man! here we go again, the "innocent, gee-golly" approach wasn't getting you what you wanted so the direct stupid attacks are back. When are you going to learn, little ralphling, that you can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool ALL of the people ALL of the time!
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