Pete Swears

Woodbury official takes oath in Afghanistan
January 14, 2010 11:50 AM

Chris McKenna

It's official: Pete Stabile has been sworn in his for his fourth term as highway superintendent. But the ceremony took place far from the Town of Woodbury highway garage.

An army officer administered the oath somewhere in northern Afghanistan, where Stabile, a 58-year-old Army reservist, is serving a year-long tour of duty with the Army Corps of Engineers. He shipped out in October, about a month before he was re-elected.

In his absence, town Supervisor John Burke and Stabile's foreman, Johnny Jones, are running the 13-member department, which plows roads and collects leaves and branches, among other duties. Stabile has refused half of his $72,000 annual salary for 2010, according to a public affairs officer with the corps.

The corps is building army facilities, police stations, roads and other infrastructure in Afghanistan.

Stabile, who holds the rank of master sergeant, is planning to retire from the military when he returns in October.

Board of the Village

Since you asked here are the latest rumors that the Uncle just made up.

We give all of these a definite maybe:

Rich Jackson will not run again.

Neil Crouse will.

Lorraine McNeil will run.

David Sutz will run.

Ralph wouldn't dare run.

Destruction In Haiti

Any donation at all to the relief effort in Haiti will help.

You can link to a number of aid groups at this site.

or call one of these:

UNICEF: 1.800.FOR.KIDS (1.800.367.5437)
CARE: 800-422-7385
OXFAM: 800-77-OXFAM
Doctors Without Borders: 888-392-0392

A Ford In Our Future?

So, Harold Ford Jr. has made clear that he is looking at running against Kirsten Gillibrand for the US Senate.

Anybody got anything to say?

Heaven Forfend!

Auditors probe KJ school financing plan
Cite cost, conflict of interest
By Chris Mckenna
Times Herald-Record
KIRYAS JOEL — State auditors are questioning the decision by the Kiryas Joel School District to lease its new school from a landholding arm of the community's religious school system rather than build it itself.

The lease arrangement could inflate the total cost for taxpayers, and it posed a potential conflict of interest for two school board members who are also officers of the lease-holding organization, the state Comptroller's Office concluded in a report released late Tuesday.

Superintendent Joel Petlin strongly disputes the findings, saying the deal made good financial sense and raised no potential conflicts.

"We were able to build a building that we could afford to move into, without having a big tax increase every year," Petlin said.

At issue is a 44,000-square-foot school built on Bakertown Road to replace a smaller building the district had used since 1989, when it was created to serve handicapped children in the Hasidic community. Some 250 kids go there for classes and therapy, including part-timers and about 40 tuition-paying students from other districts, Petlin said.

Administrators say they initially planned to bond for the new building, but changed course when the cost estimate exceeded $16 million. In 2006, voters approved a 30-year lease that put construction in the landowner's hands.

State auditors estimated that rent, which rises each year with inflation, could total $38 million over 30 years, or about $3 million more than bonding might have cost. And they pointed out the district won't own the building when the lease expires.

Petlin replies that those calculations ignore the $7 million taxpayers could save over the first 14 years, when rent is expected to cost less than bond payments would have. They may also exaggerate the total cost, since inflation so far has been low, he said.

The conflict issue was raised in connection with Harry Polatsek and Simon Kepecs, the president and vice president of Kiryas Joel's board.

Auditors argue the two men should have provided a written disclosure of their interest in UTA of KJ SC Inc., the organization that signed a lease with the district before the new school opened in May 2008. That entity lists Polatsek as president and Kepecs as treasurer.

Petlin contends that no conflict existed because a different organization owned the property when board members chose to pursue a lease in 2006. The land later changed hands.

Shhhhh! Hibernating.

The Uncle is cold and tired and hungover (did I mention cold?).

The last thing he wants is to chat - online, off-line or even to himself.

So, continuing the current do-it-yourself nature of this blog - you want James' letter?

You got James' letter.

(and if you want something else point it out or send it to cuzzincookie@hotmail.com)

County needs a watchdog
Chairwoman Roxanne Donnery, Republican Frank Fornario and the other legislators who joined them ought to be applauded for their efforts in bringing a watchdog accountability office to Orange County. This independent agency would not only have rooted out any corruption, but also would have saved taxpayers a great deal of money by streamlining government.

It is a sad day, however, when County Executive Ed Diana tells the voters who just re-elected him that he is above transparency and scrutiny and will instead veto the legislation. Diana and his supporters' opposition is so blatantly politically motivated that a majority of his legislative caucus chose not to even show up and cast a "no" vote, presumably because most of them know they are on the wrong side of this issue and instead want to hide from a roll call. I wonder if these same Republican legislators would've voted in favor of the office if there were a Democrat in the county executive seat.

At a time when the public's trust of politicians is at an all-time low, it is equally insulting as it is astounding that so many of our representatives in Goshen are against such a commonsense measure.

James Skoufis
Woodbury Town Councilman