Uncle Betty Explains It All

Action!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2012-01-20T13:26:00.005-05:00

Coumcilman James Skoufis; Action Alert!

Dear Friends & Neighbors,

We in Woodbury are continuing our strong push to make the Route 32/Thruway improvement project happen and happen on time but we need your help. It is critical that our state and federal representatives hear from as many residents as possible about just how important this is to our quality of life here in town so please call the elected officials below and spread the word to your friends to do the same.

When you're done, please fill out this quick response form so I know how many people called and what the response you got was: Survey

When federal and state reps hear from many local residents, it makes a *huge* difference - so, if you're fed up with the traffic on Route 32, please call the list below. And thank you very much for fighting for a better Woodbury for us all.***

Senator Chuck Schumer: 914-734-1532Thank the senator for coming to Woodbury yesterday and fighting on our behalf and encourage him to do everything he can to pass Senate Bill 1813, also known as MAP-21 (Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century) and get Albany the funding to begin our improvement project in 2013, not 2017.

Congresswoman Nan Hayworth: 845-206-4600Encourage the congresswoman to introduce a version of Senate Bill 1813 in the House. It's believed that passage in the House will be difficult so it's important you explain to the congresswoman's staff how important this project is to you and Woodbury.

Senator Bill Larkin: 518-455-2770Encourage the senator to do everything he can to lobby the Department of Transportation to put Woodbury's improvement project back on the 2013 schedule and make it a priority.

Assemblywoman Nancy Calhoun: 518-455-5441

In today's news, we found out that Assemblywoman Calhoun is working against our interests and is pushing for an alternate improvement plan that a) would start us back at ground zero in a process that has taken us a decade to get to where we are and b) has already been looked at by the Department of Transportation and deemed unfeasible. Tell her to back the plan that every local official is supporting and not go on a renegade mission that stands no chance of becoming a reality.***

If you need some background information when calling these offices: After about a decade of work, the Department of Transportation approved a plan that would construct a ribbon loop out of Woodbury Common directly onto the Thruway, eliminating the need for Common traffic to exit onto Route 32, eliminating the need for those left hand turns, and eliminating a number of traffic lights. This work had long been planned to start in 2013 until, just recently, we found out that the DOT has slated to push it back to 2017 due to lack of federal funding. Given the tremendous amount of sales tax both the Town of Woodbury and Woodbury Common generates for the state, this is simply unacceptable and we residents deserve better.

Again, when you're done, please take the very quick time to fill out the survey so we can track how many people have called and what kind of responses we are getting: Survey

Yours,

James

Unle Betty Presents...

2012-01-17T19:08:00.002-05:00

ASAP's Fables

A fox wanted some grapes, but because they were unavailable he disparaged their quality.

Cold!

2011-12-15T16:46:00.001-05:00

Lowe's has just dropped out as sponsor of NBC's annual telecast of Frosty the Snowman.

They were acting in response to a letter they'd received from the Freedom Families for Democracy and Diligence Association of America.

The FFDDAA had objected to FtS's "slanted depiction of snow as a happy friendly substance while ignoring the countless deaths due to blizzards, avalanches and hypothermia."

Lowe's's CEO, who asked not to have his name used, stated that the company was not taking sides on this issue, but was merely interested in not offending their customers.

A Reverie On Ralph

2011-11-20T18:32:00.002-05:00

That dear, dear Ralph.

That small, grey man, with small, grey desires; slightly bent physically, spiritually somewhat more so.

What have you gotten up to now?

We have just heard from the Pieman that the councilmen's debate, sparsely attended though it may have been, almost didn't take place at all.

It seems that Ralph contacted the charming and delightful Ms Kathy Finnerty at the school business office to object to the use of the elementary school auditorium.

Why would Ralph choose to do such a thing?

Perhaps his reflexive desire to keep the electorate ignorant of anything and everything got the better of him.

After all Ralph, rats and roaches all do their best work in the dark.

But perhaps I am too harsh.

Is it Ralph's fault that he is so unlovable and thus so unloved?

Probably it is.

But we must all do what we can to give him one more shot at redemption.

The next time that you see Ralph, give him a hug, lean in close and whisper "God loves you, even if no-one else can."

The Uncle Throws His Head Into The Ring

2011-11-04T20:50:00.004-04:00

Ralph Caruso, the aging don (oops, dean) of Woodbury politics, somehow forgot, once again, to put up a candidate to run for Supervisor.

Doesn't he realize how being ignored in such a way must hurt John Burke's feelings?

And so, out of respect for Big John and the office that he holds so tenaciously, the Uncle has agreed to run as a write-in candidate.

So write in Uncle Betty for Supervisor.

Do it for John.

Won't that make Burke's inevitable victory so much the sweeter?

Fear the Pepper

2011-10-31T14:09:00.000-04:00

Happy All Hallows Eve!

Arctic Life

2011-10-30T17:37:00.003-04:00

If memory serves, we still had snow on the ground in April.

That means we'll have had four snow-free months this year.

Bring on the polar bears!

It's on

2011-10-21T01:28:00.002-04:00

The Pieman informs us that there will be a debate among the four Town Council Candidates on Friday, November 4th, 7:30 PM in the auditorium of the Central Valley Elementary School.

He mentions that it's sponsored by OCEAN and the Woodbury Chamber of Commerce.

He says nothing about putting together a mud-wrestling match between the two candidates for Highway Superintendent.

With Gadhafi dead...

2011-10-20T14:39:00.002-04:00

we may never learn how to spell his name.

Elsewhere On The Menu

2011-10-10T15:59:00.005-04:00

I seem to recall that one or two opinions of the upcoming contest for Highway Superintendent have already been posted.

So let us now turn our attention to the rest of the ballot.

The powers that be (Ralph and John perhaps) have decided that we shouldn't trouble our pretty little heads worrying about Town Supervisor.

So, for the moment, lets focus on the councilmanic (or is it manic council?) elections.

Incumbents Carlton Levine and Bo Haviland will be facing off against Tim Arone and Marilyn Prestia.

So, what say you?

That Was So Much Fun, Let's Do It Again!

2011-09-13T23:51:00.003-04:00

OK, so the results are in, and the winner is...US! 'Cause we get to do it all over again in November.

Rob won the Republican line 253 to 129 (with 5 write-ins, presumeably for the Uncle). He also won the Ind line (That runs to Coney Island, doesn't it?) 12 to 9. Pete won the Conservative line with 21 (there were 6 write-ins, possibly Rick Parry, with an "A").

So, Pete's and Rob's people get to bash each other for another two months.

Who says there's no fun in the 'burbs?

And pay attention Pieman, you Democrats get to vote this time.

Be Sure To Vote (or Not)

2011-09-13T01:09:00.002-04:00

Today you get to vote (or not). If you are a Republican or an Ind (Independence? Independents? Indiana? Indubitable?) Party member you can vote for either Pete or Rob. If you are a Conservative Party member you can vote for Pete or whomever. If you are a Democrat, Green, Right To Life, Right To Death, Working Families, Vegetarians For Dolphin Safe Veal or any other Party member, don't forget to stay home.

Polls are open 6 AM 'til 9 PM.

By the way the Board of Elections web site says :"Election Inspectors Needed – Pay $200 for Election Day!"

Who knew you had to pay to do that job?

Cui Bono

2011-09-02T17:40:00.005-04:00

Howdy, the Uncle has returned from his wanderings and (YAY) so have Woodbury dirty politics.

As mentioned somewhere below, someone has created a "Do Not Elect Rob Weyant" website.

Gee, wonder whom it could be.

Whomever it is is so proud of his work that he paid Go Daddy extra in order to hide his identity. That way you can be certain that whatever he writes absolutely, positively must be true.

I guess Caruso has graduated from taping stuff to garbage cans and gone right to electronic garbage.

More fun facts about the web site:
If you want to post a comment you have to register (that way they'll know who you are, while making sure you can't see who they are).
And, of course, say the wrong thing about the wrong candidate and your comment will be eveaporated into the ether (where is the ether anyway? I'd love a hit).

More fun stuff to come before election day.

Count on it!

'f Only

2011-06-19T15:50:00.002-04:00

Federal case could dissolve Kiryas Joel
Lawsuit claims village violates Constitution
By Chris Mckenna
Times Herald-Record
Published: 2:00 AM - 06/19/11

Kiryas Joel dissidents rolled the ultimate grenade into their enemies' tent last week with a federal lawsuit questioning the very existence of the village that the Satmar Hasidic community created 34 years ago.

Their argument — laid out by civil-rights attorney Michael Sussman and sharply disputed by village leaders and their supporters — is that the village discriminates against them because of religious differences, and that public and religious authority are so entwined in Kiryas Joel that it violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

But even if the plaintiffs prove they've been thwarted and unfairly treated as they allege, a big question is whether a judge would ever order the drastic remedy they proposed: dismantling the Village of Kiryas Joel.

The answer depends on whom you ask.

Ralph Stein, a Pace Law School professor who teaches constitutional law, sees no chance of that happening, based on what he read in the court complaint.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's a political polemic," Stein said. "It doesn't provide a legal basis for which the relief can be provided."

If the allegations are true, Stein said, what the dissidents are complaining about amounts to political corruption no different than Tammany Hall-style tactics, even if cloaked in religious garb. And corruption, he said, is no reason to dismantle a municipality.

If it were, Stein said, "I can't imagine how many times places like Boston, New York and Chicago would have been dissolved."

But Nomi Stolzenberg, a University of Southern California law professor who's co-writing a book on Kiryas Joel, argues that a political in-group abusing power for non-religious reasons is different under constitutional law than a "religious in-group that uses political power to suppress religious dissenters."

"Whether that in fact is what's going on in Kiryas Joel remains to be proved," she said. "But the idea that a religious group could capture political power and abuse its power by discriminating against groups that don't adhere to the beliefs of the dominant group — that is a very specific danger that the religion clauses were designed to combat."

Stolzenberg contends the case could hinge on which of two constitutional readings the judge uses.

The prevailing approach would likely find that the institutions of church and state are separate in Kiryas Joel, and therefore, permissible, she said. But a competing doctrine — she calls it the "get real" approach — might take a less lenient view.

"It's actually hard to predict how the federal judges are going to react to this," she said.

The dissidents' lawsuit tries to show unequal treatment in law enforcement, tax exemptions, elections and other areas through a series of examples. Village leaders say the claims have no merit, and insist they provide services to all residents without discrimination.

Joseph Waldman, a plaintiff in the case and a longtime thorn in the side of the village's leadership, brought a similar case in 1997 to try to get the village dissolved. A federal judge and then an appeals-court panel rejected his demand — but strictly because most of his allegations had just been tried in two previous lawsuits.

The appeals-court judges wrote that Waldman's claims didn't "establish the sort of pervasive and otherwise irremediable entanglement between church and state that would justify a drastic remedy like the dissolution of the village."

But they added: "All this is not to say that a series of future actions evincing an enduring and all-encompassing domination of the Village government by the Congregation could not at some point suffice to create a new cause of action for the dissolution of the village."

cmckenna@th-record.com

city of rajneeshpuram

One of the few precedents for the constitutional challenge Kiryas Joel dissidents have brought against their village is a 1983 case involving Rajneeshpuram, a religious enclave incorporated as a city in Oregon the previous year.

The community started in 1981, when followers of a spiritual leader named Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh bought a huge ranch in Wasco County. Within only three years, their commune grew into a city of 7,000 with its own police and fire departments, businesses and bus system.

By that time, the state had sued Rajneeshpuram in federal court, arguing that it had no obligation to recognize the municipal status of a city controlled by a religious organization.

A federal judge ruled in favor of Oregon in 1985. But the decision had little impact on Rajneeshpuram, because state and federal court battles had so depleted the group's resources that the city was soon bankrupt and empty.

A Fun Time Was Had By All

2011-05-17T17:21:00.000-04:00

Monroe assessor, KJ condo owners discuss valuations
By Chris Mckenna

KIRYAS JOEL — Property owners whose tax assessments may soon go up streamed into the offices of the Kiryas Joel Community Council on Monday to learn about a change in condominium values that has had broad impact in Kiryas Joel.

For more than two hours, Monroe Assessor Steve Ruelke and his assistant sat with laptops at a kitchen table and chatted one-on-one with each visitor, scrolling through maps and property data as they compared information.

The bottom line, amid all the detailed discussions about condo sizes, rental prices and storage space, was reassuring.

"Our primary purpose here is to gather information," Ruelke clarified at one point. "And we'll make a correction."

The council had requested the informal meeting — the first of two scheduled in Kiryas Joel on Monday — because Ruelke recently altered how condominium values throughout the Town of Monroe are calculated. Instead of basing assessments on the cost of building the units, he's looking at the rental income condo owners earn.

That caused a blizzard of adjustments in Kiryas Joel, where most people live in condos. The owners of more than 1,000 units lucked out with lower values, but nearly 1,800 others wound up with higher assessments. The net result — excluding 110 new units that had no values in 2010 — was an 11 percent increase in condo assessments in the village, according to a spreadsheet Ruelke provided.

Solomon Leimzider was shocked to learn that the values of two rental units he owns had each increased by about 50 percent. He was one of the first owners to sit down with Ruelke on Monday, explaining afterward, "I wanted to understand the basis of his re-evaluation."

But he got even more: He corrected information about the size of his condos and expected lower assessments as a result.

"It looks like he's ready to look into it," he said.

Others faced only modest increases, but came anyway to plead their case and submit a grievance form — the usual method for contesting property-tax values. The Monroe assessment board will review grievances next week.

"It's worth 10, 15 minutes to come down and talk," said one man who gave only his first name, Joel.

Ruelke acknowledges having limited information about Kiryas Joel rents — properties there aren't marketed through the Multiple Listing Service — and promises to lower assessments across the board if shown that typical prices are lower than he assumed.

He said the purpose would be to benefit all condo owners, not just those who file grievances.

"I want there to be equity," Ruelke said. "If we don't do this fairly and equitably, then we have wasted our time."

Keeping Up With Our Congresswoman

2011-04-22T23:34:00.000-04:00

Last week Nan Hayworth voted for the Ryan Budget Plan which would end Medicare for those currently under 55 - replacing it with a voucher which future seniors could use towards buying private insurance.

Good idea, bad idea or "let's only talk about Kiryas Joel"?

The Spiritual Self-Deception of Matthew Continetti

2011-04-22T23:24:00.001-04:00

Kiryas Joel and the redefinition of ‘poverty’
By Matthew Continetti

Continetti is guest-blogging for The Post.

I can't be the only person who’s absolutely fascinated by this New York Times story on Kiryas Joel, N.Y., the poorest community in the United States. More than 70 percent of Kiryas Joel's residents fall beneath the poverty line — but the social pathologies we typically associate with deprivation are practically nonexistent.

The reason is that Kiryas Joel is populated almost entirely by Hasidic Jews. Here's Timesman Sam Roberts:

Poverty is largely invisible in the village. Parking lots are full, but strollers and tricycles seem to outnumber cars. A jeweler shares a storefront with a check-cashing office. To avoid stigmatizing poorer young couples or instilling guilt in parents, the chief rabbi recently decreed that diamond rings were not acceptable as engagement gifts and that one-man bands would suffice at weddings. Many residents who were approached by a reporter said they did not want to talk about their finances.

The social workers quoted in the piece seem flummoxed by Kiryas Joel. They realize that the community’s lack of income and its surplus of unusual occupations (i.e., Talmudic scholar) make residents eligible for cash transfers and grants. But the social workers also seem to suggest that the Jews of Kiryas Joel don't deserve welfare benefits because they aren’t, well, miserable.

I e-mailed Hudson Institute scholar Tevi Troy to get his take. “Seems to me that the people of KJ have made a conscious decision to pursue religious fulfillment over wealth pursuit,” Troy wrote back. “In doing so, their community is following a more 19th-century model, with strong community support for poor members of the community, and low tolerance for drugs, crime, or out-of-wedlock childrearing. Our current social service system was not designed with this type of community in mind, which is why some people in the NYT grumbled about social service dollars going to people who appear poor but happy.”

Articles such as Roberts’s lend support to research by Arthur Brooks and Derek Bok. They’ve both shown that, past a certain point, happiness is completely unrelated to income. As you read stories like these, you begin to wonder whether poverty is more a spiritual than economic condition. And if that’s the case, the residents of Kiryas Joel are as rich as Croesus.

The Times Notices KJ

2011-04-21T23:50:00.000-04:00

A Village With the Numbers, Not the Image, of the Poorest Place
By SAM ROBERTS

The poorest place in the United States is not a dusty Texas border town, a hollow in Appalachia, a remote Indian reservation or a blighted urban neighborhood. It has no slums or homeless people. No one who lives there is shabbily dressed or has to go hungry. Crime is virtually nonexistent.

And, yet, officially, at least, none of the nation’s 3,700 villages, towns or cities with more than 10,000 people has a higher proportion of its population living in poverty than Kiryas Joel, N.Y., a community of mostly garden apartments and town houses 50 miles northwest of New York City in suburban Orange County.

About 70 percent of the village’s 21,000 residents live in households whose income falls below the federal poverty threshold, according to the Census Bureau. Median family income ($17,929) and per capita income ($4,494) rank lower than any other comparable place in the country. Nearly half of the village’s households reported less than $15,000 in annual income.

About half of the residents receive food stamps, and one-third receive Medicaid benefits and rely on federal vouchers to help pay their housing costs.

Kiryas Joel’s unlikely ranking results largely from religious and cultural factors. Ultra-Orthodox Satmar Hasidic Jews predominate in the village; many of them moved there from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, beginning in the 1970s to accommodate a population that was growing geometrically.

Women marry young, remain in the village to raise their families and, according to religious strictures, do not use birth control. As a result, the median age (under 12) is the lowest in the country and the household size (nearly six) is the highest. Mothers rarely work outside the home while their children are young.

Most residents, raised as Yiddish speakers, do not speak much English. And most men devote themselves to Torah and Talmud studies rather than academic training — only 39 percent of the residents are high school graduates, and less than 5 percent have a bachelor’s degree. Several hundred adults study full time at religious institutions.

The concentration of poverty in Kiryas Joel, (pronounced KIR-yas Jo-EL) is not a deliberate strategy by the leaders of the Satmar sect, said Joel Oberlander, 30, a title examiner who lives in Williamsburg. “It puts a great strain on their resources,” he said. “They would love to see the better earners of the community relocate as well to balance the situation, but why would they?”

Still, the Census Bureau’s latest poverty estimates, based on the 2005-9 American Community Survey released last year, do not take into account the community’s tradition of philanthropy and no-interest loans. Moreover, some families may be eligible for public benefits because they earn low salaries from the religious congregations and other nonprofit groups that run businesses and religious schools. Nearly half of the village’s residents with jobs work for the public or parochial schools.

“If people want to work in a religious setting and make less than they would earn at B & H, that’s a choice people make,” said Gedalye Szegedin, the village administrator, referring to the giant photo and video retail store in Manhattan whose owner and many of whose employees are members of the Satmar sect.

“I don’t want to be judgmental,” Mr. Szegedin added. “I wouldn’t call it a poor community. I would say some are deprived. I would call it a community with a lot of income-related challenges.”

Because the community typically votes as a bloc, it wields disproportionate political influence, which enables it to meet those challenges creatively. A luxurious 60-bed postnatal maternal care center was built with $10 million in state and federal grants. Mothers can recuperate there for two weeks away from their large families. Rates, which begin at $120 a day, are not covered by Medicaid, although, Mr. Szegedin said, poorer women are typically subsidized by wealthier ones.

One lawmaker, Assemblywoman Nancy Calhoun, a Republican who represents an adjacent district in Orange County, has demanded an investigation by state officials into why Kiryas Joel received grants for the center. “They may be truly poor on paper,” Ms. Calhoun said. “They are not truly poor in reality.”

The village does aggressively pursue economic opportunities. A kosher poultry slaughterhouse, which processes 40,000 chickens a day, is community owned and considered a nonprofit organization. A bakery that produces 800 pounds of matzo daily is owned by one of the village’s synagogues.

Most children attend religious schools, but transportation and textbooks are publicly financed. Several hundred handicapped students are educated by the village’s own public school district, which, because virtually all the students are poor and disabled, is eligible for sizable state and federal government grants.

Statistically, no place comes close to Kiryas Joel. In Athens, Ohio, which ranks second in poverty, 56 percent of the residents are classified as poor.

Still, poverty is largely invisible in the village. Parking lots are full, but strollers and tricycles seem to outnumber cars. A jeweler shares a storefront with a check-cashing office. To avoid stigmatizing poorer young couples or instilling guilt in parents, the chief rabbi recently decreed that diamond rings were not acceptable as engagement gifts and that one-man bands would suffice at weddings. Many residents who were approached by a reporter said they did not want to talk about their finances.

“I cannot say as a group that they are cheating the system,” said William B. Helmreich, a sociology professor who specializes in Judaic studies at City College of the City University of New York, “but I do think that they have, no pun intended, unorthodox methods of getting financial support.”

All of which prompts a fundamental question: Are as many as 7 in 10 Kiryas Joel residents really poor?

“It is, in a sense, a statistical anomaly,” Professor Helmreich said. “They are clearly not wealthy, and they do have a lot of children. They spend whatever discretionary income they have on clothing, food and baby carriages. They don’t belong to country clubs or go to movies or go on trips to Aruba.

“They’re not scrounging around, though. They’re not presenting a picture of poverty as if you would go to a Mexican neighborhood in Corona. They do have organizations that lend money interest-free. They’re also supported by members of the community who are wealthier — it’s not declarable income if somebody buys them a baby carriage.”

David Jolly, the social services commissioner for Orange County, also said that while the number of people receiving benefits seemed disproportionately high, the number of caseloads — a family considered as a unit — was much less aberrant. A family of eight who reports as much as $48,156 in income is still eligible for food stamps, although the threshold for cash assistance ($37,010), which relatively few village residents receive, is lower.

Joel Steinberg, who lives in the village with his family and works as a comptroller for a real estate firm, said that before Passover, “the No. 1 project in the community was raising funds for food.”

Mr. Steinberg recalled encountering a neighbor soliciting help door-to-door last fall: “He had received two shut-off notices from his utility company, he’s behind with tuition and that his food stamps gets used up before the end of the month. He’s paying too much for transportation to his job, and he had had an unexpected expense that forced him into debt.”

William E. Rapfogel, chief executive of the Metropolitan Jewish Council on Poverty, said, “Sure, there are probably people taking advantage and people in the underground economy getting benefits they’re not entitled to, but there are also a lot of poor people.”

Mr. Szegedin, the village administrator, said critics tended to forget that state taxpayers were generally spared because thousands of village children are enrolled in religious schools. Nearby, the Monroe-Woodbury school district, with roughly the same school-age population, spends about $150 million annually, about one-third of which comes from the state. (Albany provides about $5 million of Kiryas Joel’s $16 million public school budget.)

“You also have no drug-treatment programs, no juvenile delinquency program, we’re not clogging the court system with criminal cases, you’re not running programs for AIDS or teen pregnancy,” he said. “I haven’t run the numbers, but I think it’s a wash.”

Pipeline Greenlighted

2011-04-02T14:02:00.002-04:00

The New York State Court Appelate Division has denied an appeal by Woodbury and Harriman to reopen their lawsuit against the KJ Pipeline.

This appears to open the way for construction to begin.

Now what?

Vote

2011-03-03T20:40:00.000-05:00

The Double Dip

2011-02-21T16:16:00.001-05:00

Student fights state double-dipping
Montgomery native wants loophole cut
By John Sullivan
Times Herald-Record
Published: 2:00 AM - 02/21/11
Montgomery — With recent news of double-dipping state legislators igniting reader anger in newspaper opinion pages and elsewhere, Colin Schmitt half-expected a revolution in state government.

But no such upheaval has come among the majority of rank-and-file state Senate and Assembly members, so Schmitt has decided to lead the way on his own.

"Maybe sometimes a public outcry is enough, but sometimes you need continuous pressure," Schmitt said about his grass-roots campaign to eliminate a loophole that allows certain elected officials to earn pensions as well as full salaries.

The campaign — "Stop NY Double Dip" — is a special project of Schmitt's political action committee, New Dawn, formed in May to help a new generation of leaders take office.

Schmitt, a Montgomery native who became a legislative aide for Assemblywoman Annie Rabbitt, R-C-Greenwood Lake, when he was just 14, hopes to be among those who fill a representative position one day, he said.

He launched stopnydoubledip.com last week to promote a petition drive to close the loophole allowing elected state officials serving before 1995 to concurrently collect their pension and full salary.

Schmitt would also urge creating a retroactive change requiring elected leaders collecting both incomes to choose one or the other.

He would also support a pending bill sponsored by state Sen. Greg Ball and Assemblyman Mike Fitzpatrick to remove politicians from the pension system and move them to 401(k) plans.

State legislators, such as Assemblywoman Nancy Calhoun, R-C-Blooming Grove, and Sen. Bill Larkin, R-C-New Windsor, collect both pension and salary. They contend they are utilizing a benefit available to all state employees.

The payment of pensions in addition to salaries is considered a necessary evil in the public sector, as agencies compete for talent with private-sector jobs that pay a lot more, acknowledge some public policy experts.

But the perception of unfairness is hard to argue with.

"I've talked to a lot of people, who are struggling, and seeing someone who can just snap their fingers to get additional benefits without having to work a second job or anything is really disheartening," said Schmitt, a junior studying politics at The Catholic University of America in Washington.

There are currently 16 members of the state Senate and 46 members of the state Assembly eligible to collect pensions and salaries at the same time, according to Schmitt's research.

"If all those 62 cashed in, it would cost the state nearly $3.5 million a year," he said.

Schmitt plans to spend a good part of his non-study time collecting signatures for his campaign, he said. Saturday, going door to door in the Village of Montgomery, he collected some 50-55 signatures, adding to a list of some 250 responses he's gotten to his website, he said.

"Whether I'm the lone voice standing in the field or not, I'll be talking about this and kicking dirt about it until the next state election in 2012," he said.

Our School Districts (seen from Upstate)

2011-02-13T21:14:00.001-05:00

From Websterpost.com

By Matt Schaertl

From WebsterCanandaigua, N.Y. — There is a need for serious review of school funding, but if you think there is waste in the Finger Lakes, take a look downstate.

In Assemblywoman Annie Rabbitt’s district, just northwest of New York City, is the Kiryas Joel School District. The district was founded by the ultra-orthodox Jewish community to educate special-needs children. On their website, they say they provide a “broad array of services in an efficient, professional and expeditious manner” and that the school “has truly been an exemplary partnership, which has made this such a successful American experiment.” Yes, it is a very successful experiment — in showing how not to run a school district.

Kiryas Joel collects $15,000 less from the local residents, per student, than the average school district. Why? They don’t need it. They collect $19,000 per student in state aid — which is 700 percent more than New York’s average school district receives. Worse, they collect $39,000 per student from the federal government every year. Blood boiling yet?

With Victor at $13 and Canandaigua hovering around $50 for “unclassified employee benefits” per pupil, KJSD is spending a whopping $11,543 per year, per student.

I am only speculating, but perhaps teacher benefits there include free mortgage payments. On the plus side, they do have only one-quarter the debt per student as the average district. Hey — kudos to KJSD for almost balancing your checkbook!

In total, America spends $110,884 per student per year for every public school student in that school district. That equates to $1,441,492 of taxes to produce ONE high school diploma. It would be less expensive to pay every student what an enlisted soldier earns from the time they enter kindergarten until they turn 75. It would be cheaper to educate those students by providing each their own individual teacher, plus allow that teacher to spend twice the state’s average cost.

Three miles from that district is the Monroe-Woodbury school system. They too spend more per pupil than any of our local districts, but at $19,088 per student I’d take it. The average home in that district is valued at $250,000 with an average family income 60 percent higher than the state average. Yet the residents pay $2,000 less per student locally than the typical school district. As far as “unclassified employee benefits,” they are similar to Red Jacket and Victor at $9 per student and have the normal amount of debt.

So while Assemblywoman Annie Rabbitt (Conservative by party affiliation, not by action) is, according to her website, trying to save the $8.2 million in funding for the Lake Placid Olympic facility, my question for her is why a school district that is smaller than DeSales is spending $10,000,000 more annually than Red Jacket, has 21 staff members with salaries above $100,000 (as compared to three at Red Jacket, four at Midlakes, five at Bloomfield and 18 at Canandaigua) and why the lowest-paid bus drivers, janitors, aides, office assistants, and cafeteria workers are all making more than $52,000 per year? (Source: www.seethruny.net.)

And by the way, for people like Annie Rabbitt, the Winter Olympics have not been here in three decades — and the committee lets you know eight years in advance if they are coming back. That’s another $240 million we could have saved since 1982. Lease it; take the cash.

The Uncle Predicts

2011-02-09T23:06:00.002-05:00

There is a very good chance that Mike, Tim and Tom are going to win re-election in the next village election.

One reason for that is their's were the only petitions turned in to Desiree.

Has Ralph lost hope?

Is he hibernating?

Has he recognized reality? (We just through this last one in as a joke)

So, barring a major write-in campaign, the election's outcome is pretty clear.

Can any of you spell U-N-C-L-E?

The Uncle Goes There

2011-01-12T17:50:00.003-05:00

Let's admit it, Woodbury has become boring.

And the Uncle even more so.

And while hackles are raised whenever Dear Old Uncle Betty pretends that there is a world beyond our borders, it may be time to look there.

So, if you hate and despise it, at least that's more of a response than talking about snow would evoke.

So, let us begin with some words of wisdom from Governor Sarah Palin, who today posted a video in response to the shootings in Tucson. Two things that she said particularly caught our attention:

1. "Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the criminals who commit them."

2. "Especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn."

Now, one can take the position that heated rhetoric is never to be blamed for acts of violence or one can posit that it might, in fact, incite them.

But how in the world is it possible for both to be true?

Just asking.

Hey, It'll Be A Bargain In 2042

2010-12-16T12:40:00.004-05:00

Sen. Larkin, Assemblywoman Calhoun collect pensions early
Payments go to pair while still on the job
By John Sullivan
Times Herald-Record

State legislators Nancy Calhoun and William Larkin are among 11 legislators who recently filed retirement papers, which will allow them to receive pensions while still working and collecting public paychecks.

Calhoun, R-C-Blooming Grove, a 10-term assemblywoman, said she will be collecting a $60,400 annual pension starting next year. Larkin, R-C-Cornwall-on-Hudson, a 10-term state senator and former state assemblyman, declined to reveal his pension payment amount.

The payments come on top of the lawmakers' base salaries of $79,500 and the stipends they collect for other legislative duties. The arrangement is permitted under a pension-law loophole.

"It is legal, but it looks terrible," said Blair Horner, legislative director for the New York Public Interest Research Group. "We're at a time when the economy is tanking and state employees will be laid off; I think it rubs salt in the wounds of taxpayers when state officials exploit rules for their own benefit."

In addition to her base salary, Calhoun collected an additional $18,000 this year for serving on committees. Larkin said he did not know his current-year stipend. He received $20,500 in 2007. He currently serves as the Senate whip, as well as on eight legislative committees.

Legally collecting retirement benefits while still working is a perk for civil service workers in New York state. Hundreds of workers have received waivers allowing them to earn more than the $30,000 salary limit on their second civil service job after retiring from their first one.

State and local politicians are exempt from the waiver requirement, though they do have to be at least 65 years old to return to their previous jobs after filing for retirement.

Calhoun turned 65 in July. Larkin is 82.

Both emphasized the legality of their actions under state pension rules.

"This is something that can be done by any government official of New York state," Calhoun said. "I'm not the only person doing it."

"The people who say it's not right, then they should try to change the law," Larkin said. "I earn every single penny I make. I don't have to take a backseat to anybody on my hours of work or on serving my constituents."

Asked why he waited so long to file for the benefit, Larkin said, "I'm just preparing myself for whatever might happen in the future."

Calhoun said that by collecting now, her pension payment will be smaller, thus saving the state money. If she waited until the end of her upcoming two-year term, she said, the payment would be some $4,000 higher per year.

Based on the numbers Calhoun provided, the state will break even and begin saving money in roughly 2042, when Calhoun would be about 97.

Rep. NANCY CALHOUN
R-C-Blooming Grove

Pension: $60,400

Base salary: $79,500

Payment for serving on committees: $18,000

Luck and Gratitude

2010-11-24T18:02:00.003-05:00

I hope that all of us are lucky enough to have some reason to be thankful.

Discuss Amongst Yourselves

2010-11-18T13:13:00.000-05:00

Elections board gives victory to Calhoun in 96th Assembly DistrictBy John Sullivan
Times Herald-Record

Goshen — Ten-term incumbent Nancy Calhoun said she felt "vindicated" after discovering that she won yet another two-year term as 96th District assemblywoman.

An official from the Orange County Board of Elections reported Calhoun, R-C-Blooming Grove, with 633 of the 1,200-or-so absentee ballots by the end of counting at 1 p.m. Wednesday.

The results left Calhoun with a 541-vote margin over Democratic challenger Roxanne Donnery. The results of the election won't be certified until Wednesday at the earliest. Calhoun said she was "very happy, very relieved and very vindicated. The people who really know me through the years still supported me," she said.

She had reason to worry. By the end of election night, Nov. 2, Donnery led in Orange County by 320 votes. Calhoun has enjoyed decades of support in the Orange County portion of her district. Uncertainty about Calhoun's support in Orange County arose after she lost the support of Republican Frank Fornario, the Blooming Grove supervisor. Donnery still ended up ahead of Calhoun in Orange County by a total of 16,990 votes to Calhoun's 16,566.

But that was not enough to overcome Calhoun's substantial lead in Stony Point, in Rockland County.

The overall tally at the end of the day Wednesday was 19,460 votes for Calhoun and 18,919 for Donnery.

Heavily conservative Stony Point has traditionally been a roadblock for Calhoun's challengers, who have very little chance to make themselves known there. Donnery said newspaper coverage of her accomplishments as a 12-year Orange County legislator never reached Stony Point.

"Many had never heard of me," she said.

Despite her loss, Donnery took heart from the hard-fought campaign.

"I think it (the close race) was quite incredible if you think about what it's like to run against a 20-year-incumbent in an anti-Democratic year," she said.

Waiting On The Women

2010-11-11T16:35:00.003-05:00

The Board of Elections expects a final count next week.

License To Bitch

2010-10-31T23:41:00.000-04:00

The Uncle has a modest suggestion.

On election day, when you show up at the polls, you'd get a card that says "I Showed Up."

You needn't actually vote, mind you.

You just have to get off your ass and go down there.

Then, anytime in the following year, when you're in a bar or at a party or wherever, and you bitch about the state of things, anyone there can ask to see your card.

If you have one, well and good.

But if you're flapping your lips but can't prove that you at least took the time to show up at the polls, the rest of us have the legal right to beat the crap out of you.

As I say, just a suggestion.

Choose or Lose, Snooze or Booze. Part Deux

2010-10-29T15:49:00.003-04:00

Governor
Andrew M. Cuomo (Dem/Ind/Wor
Carl P. Paladino (Rep/Con/Taxpayer)
Howie Hawkins (Grn)
Jimmy McMillan (RDH)
Warren Redlich (LBT)
Kristin M. Davis (APP)
Charles Barron (FDM)
Jack Bauer (24H)

We were going to skip Lieutenant Governor due to a case of the “who cares?” but then we remembered the high turnover rate in the governorship.

Lt. Governor
Robert J Duffy (Dem/Ind/Wor )
Gregory J Edwards (Rep/Con/TXP)
Gloria Mattera (Grn)
Alden Link (LBT)
Tanya Gendelman (APP)
Eva M. Doyle (FDM)
Carter Hall (JSA)

Comptroller
Thomas P. DiNapoli (Dem/Wor)
Harry Wilson (Rep/Ind/Con)
Julia A. Willebrand (GRN)
John Gaetani (LBT)
Bernard Madoff (FCI,Otis)

Attorney General
Eric T. Schneiderman (Dem/Ind/Wor)
Dan Donovan (Rep/Con)
Carl E. Person (LBT)
Ramon J. Jimenez (FDM)
Hikaru Sulu (UFP)

US Senator 2 year unexpired term
Kirsten E. Gillibrand (Dem/Ind/Wor)
Joseph J. DioGuardi (Rep/Con/Txp
Cecile A. Lawrence (GRN)
Joseph Huff (RDH)
John Clifton (LBT)
Vivia Morgan (APP)
Bruce Blakeman (TRP)
Charles Camel (LSMFT)

US Senator 6 year term
Charles E. Schumer (Dem/Ind/Wor)
Jay Townsend (Rep/Con)
John Entwhistle (Tom/Quad/TWSO)
Lt. Governor
Robert J Duffy (Dem/Ind/Wor )
Gregory J Edwards (Rep/Con/TXP)
Gloria Mattera (Grn)
Alden Link (LBT)
Tanya Gendelman (APP)
Eva M. Doyle (FDM)
Carter Hall (JSA)

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Choose or Lose, Snooze or Booze. Part 1

2010-10-16T18:31:00.003-04:00

OK, let's have a civilized discussion - just kidding.

Whom do you hate more and why?

Congress

John Hall vs Nan Hayworth

State Senate

Bill Larkin vs Harley Doles

State Assembly

Nancy Calhoun vs Roxanne Donnery

Next up: County Wide and State Wide

Uncle Betty's Thought For The Day

2010-09-18T17:42:00.002-04:00

If marriage is outlawed
only outlaws will have in-laws.

Welcome To Woodbury

2010-09-17T16:53:00.002-04:00

Welcome To Woodbury

Please respect our local customs. Be polite. Drive carefully. Do not litter. Do not disrupt any weddings. Please do not set any homes or vehicles on fire. Do not involve our police officers in political disputes.

If you are shopping, please wait your turn and do not use the 10 items or fewer checkout if you have over thirty items.

If you are a registered voter here please attempt to vote only once and remember to use you own name.

Primarily

2010-09-13T17:18:00.004-04:00

Elections Hoorah!

Any chance more than 2% of you will get off your asses and vote?

If so, do so between 6 AM and 9 PM Tuesday, September 14th.

Here’s who you get to choose amongst:

Republicans

Governor:
Rick Lazio
Carl Paladino

Lieutenant Governor:
Gregory Edwards
Thomas Ognibene

US Senate Full Term:
Gary Berntsen
Jay Townsend

US Senate Unexpired Term:
Joseph Dioguardi
David Malpass
Bruce Blakeman

19th Cong. District:
Neil DiCCarlo
Nan Hayworth

Democrats

Attorney General:
Richard Brodsky
Eric Schneiderman
Sean Coffey
Eric Dinallo
Kathleen Rice

US Senate Unexpired Term:
Kirsten Gillibrand
Gail Goode

Conservative

Governor:
Rick Lazio
Ralph Lorigo

Doles Rolled

2010-08-19T18:06:00.002-04:00

Doles' Independence Party petitions invalidated
By Michael Randall
Times Herald Record
Published: 2:00 AM - 08/19/10

A state Supreme Court ruling has removed Harley Doles from the Independence Party primary for the 39th state Senate District because of an insufficient number of valid petition signatures.

That means the incumbent, Bill Larkin, who also filed Independence petitions, will appear on that line in November. Larkin is also on the Republican and Conservative lines. Doles will still be on the Democratic and Working Families lines.

Doles said Monday that he was a victim of a deliberate attempt at fraud. Doles noted State Supreme Court Justice Thomas McNamara ruled he was blameless in the matter.

Larkin campaign manager Ralph Caruso said in addition to problems with individual signatures, the court invalidated a witness to a number of Doles' petition pages.

It seems that Doles was played by the powers that be in KJ and by Larkin.

The KJ leaders offered to get signatures for Harley's petition.

Oddly enough, it appears that:
a) many were invalid
and
b) Larkin knew that they were invalid and immediately challenged them.

It looks like Doles was set up.

Why aren’t we surprised?

The Ladies Square Off

2010-07-04T18:54:00.004-04:00

OK, So it's Roxanne taking on Nancy.

What are your bets and why?

King Eddie and Our Water

2010-06-10T18:31:00.003-04:00

Fron the Pieman:

The Orange County Water Authority is proposing to amend its Water Master Plan into the County Comprehensive Plan.

Some of us are concerned that this may give the County the ability to over-rule the Home Rule of towns and villages and take over municipal water resources.

On Monday, June 14th, there will be a public hearing on this at 7 PM at the Central Valley Elementary School.

Please come.

See You In Court

2010-06-04T21:00:00.000-04:00

3 municipalities to sue Kiryas Joel, Orange Ccounty over pipeline, sewage
By Chris Mckenna
Times Herald-Record
Published: 2:00 AM - 06/04/10

Three municipalities plan to sue Orange County and Kiryas Joel over the village's plans to tap the Catskill Aqueduct and its legal deals with the county involving that water project and the Harriman sewage treatment plant.

The Villages of Harriman and Woodbury and the Town of Woodbury are expected to file a lawsuit in state Supreme Court on Friday that would revive the concerns about sewage treatment that the county deemed settled when it surrendered its objections to Kiryas Joel's pipeline proposal.

"All the stuff that's in there is still extremely valid," Woodbury Supervisor John Burke said Thursday, referring to the pipeline lawsuit that the county dropped in February. "All that was pushed aside."

Burke's Town Board was expected to vote Thursday night to proceed with the litigation. Woodbury village trustees voted 4-0 at a special meeting a week ago to sue and hire lawyers James Bacon and David Gordon to handle the case.

Municipal leaders saw Friday as their deadline to sue because they had 120 days to challenge two environmental documents that county lawmakers approved on Feb. 4, enabling County Executive Ed Diana to withdraw the pipeline lawsuit less than two weeks later.

Both documents amended the environmental review that preceded the last expansion of the county-run sewer plant in Harriman.

A key addition was the requirement that the county provide more sewer service once its current system reaches 85 percent of its capacity.

Burke argues that before dropping the suit, county officials should have consulted with the municipalities that use and pay for the Harriman plant and given at least a rough plan for how additional treatment capacity would be provided.

Woodbury Mayor Michael Queenan concurred: "They're making deals with no regard to anyone else. They don't listen, and there's no communication."

In an op-ed piece in the Times Herald-Record on Sunday, Diana defended his decision to end the pipeline litigation, saying it was part of a settlement that freed up additional treatment capacity for Woodbury and other contractual users of the Harriman sewer plant.

Kiryas Joel had sued to block those communities, but dropped its case when the county stopped its pipeline suit.

When the Shit Hits the Harriman Sewage Plant

2010-05-08T01:00:00.002-04:00

Camp LaGuardia swamped by sewer issues
Kathy Kahn
Wesrfair Onlione

More than Canada geese are flying over Orange County these days. Lawsuits have also taken wing.

Orange County is currently enmeshed in two lawsuits regarding sewer capacity, one of which could conceivably send a plan to redevelop New York City’s former homeless shelter down the drain. The second suit involves Kiryas Joel and its quest for greater capacity.

Mountco Construction of Scarsdale, the successful bidder for the county-owned parcel, needs triple the property’s current sewer capacity in order to move forward to develop the 260-acre site.

Mountco’s proposed project calls for more than 800 homes, nearly a quarter-million square feet of retail/commercial space and a “town square” that would be the focal point of the new community. Mountco is also negotiating to have a satellite campus for Mount St. Mary College at the site, pledging to give the school an initial 10,000 square feet of space and more if the college needs it going forward.

But nothing can move forward unless Mountco has the sewer capacity for the project, “and we don’t have it to give,” said town of Chester Supervisor Steve Neuhaus.

When the sewer bill came due for Camp LaGuardia, both Blooming Grove and Chester refused to pay what the county considered to be the municipalities’ portion, sending the county to court to recover a total of $65,400 on the $140,000 in charges.

“We’re all upset,” said Neuhaus, referring to himself, town of Blooming Grove Supervisor Frank Fornario and developer Joel Mounty. “Rather than sit down and discuss this in a healthy manner, the county filed a lawsuit.”

Fornario said he would confer with Neuhaus over how to proceed with the county.

Neuhaus said the county cannot put Mountco into Sewer District No. 1, the county’s recently expanded sewage treatment plant in Harriman, because others have waited for sewer capacity before Mountco’s project was proposed. “We can’t give away sewer capacity pledged to others so this project can proceed. It’s not only a bad precedent, it’s literally opening the floodgates for more litigation,” said Neuhaus. “There’s a real lack of communication going on here. Why can’t we all just sit down and discuss this?”

Camp LaGuardia’s need for more capacity is not the only hurdle the county is facing. It is being sued by the village of Kiryas Joel for more sewer capacity in the same sewer district.

Mountco did not return calls for comment, nor did the county executive’s office.

Hoorahs, Horseshoes and Handgrenades

2010-03-17T21:13:00.002-04:00

Congratulations to Neil Crouse and David Sutz, and in Monroe: James Purcell, Teddy Wright and Wayne Chan, winners in their village elections.

Congrats also to Lorraine McNeil, John Karl, Charlie Lesser and Inda Stora, both for past service and their willingness to put themselves out there.

Congrats, lastly, to the few hundred who managed to get down to the polls and vote.

And to the vast majority, who couldn't be bothered, who knew for a fact that one vote doesn't make any difference, we'll point out that David won by eight votes and James won by two.

If you'd voted the winning margins might have been larger or the outcomes different, no one will ever know because it just wasn't worth your time.

To quote Ken Starr as he logged Monica's dress into evidence: "Clothes, but no cigar."

Village of the Damp

2010-03-16T22:30:00.002-04:00

The Election Results:

Crouse: 237
Sutz: 177
McNeil: 169

Write Ins:
Meyers: 1 (see I told you)
Kling: 2

Vox Populi

2010-03-15T16:41:00.002-04:00

Anyone who may wish to complain about the Village of Woodbury during the next 12 months has to earn the right to do so by dragging his or her ass down to Village Hall (above the Highland Mills Fire House), Tuesday, March 16, between noon and 9 PM and vote.

If you are writing-in, remember it must be done with a Crayola Crayon.

Natural Splendour

2010-03-12T00:45:00.003-05:00

Woodbury is about to undergo one of the most beautiful transformations of the year as Winter ends and Mud Season begins.

This weekend, when we turn our clocks sideways and rotate the batteries in our smoke detectors, torrential rains will melt the remaining foot and a half of snow and magically transform the saturated layer of earth, sitting atop the impenetrable frozen layer of earth, into soup.

Come witness nature at its most wondrous. Hip waders a suggestion.

Guarding The Border

2010-03-09T21:37:00.004-05:00

By the by, why are the Citizens for the Perversion of Woodbury so interested in "the Ancestry of People in Woodbury" and "Place of Birth of People in Woodbury?"

It concerns them enough to link to that data from their Home page:
http://www.preservewoodbury.org/

As a Damned Furriner himself, the Uncle finds those perversionist folks to be just a tad spooky.

Invisible Writing

2010-03-07T16:40:00.004-05:00

Can you run a write in campaign without telling anyone?

If you're Ralph Caruso the answer may be: "yeah, well, sort of."

Ralph is that rare creature who would be more successful as a candidate if hardly anyone knew he was running.

Here is how it would work:

First, you have your herd of zombies memorize how to spell Ralph's name.

You keep mum about the whole deal.

On election day you cart all your zombies down to the voting booths and have them write in Ralph and make sure they don't also vote for anyone else.

Then, when it turns out that hardly anyone else got off their butts to go vote --- you win!

Why keep mum?

Well, aside from the zombies, pretty much no one else wants to see Ralph on the village board.

If folks thought there was any real chance that Ralph could win they might actually drag themselves down to Village Hall to vote for someone else.

Low turnout + dedicated zombies = Trustee Caruso.

Just a thought.

A Couplet

2010-02-26T20:07:00.000-05:00

Paterson a no-go
Clears the way for Cuomo

Any thoughts?

Great News

2010-02-24T22:52:00.001-05:00

It's not expected to snow on Sunday.

A New Topic -- as requested

2010-02-16T21:39:00.001-05:00

Diana would be good choice for Gillibrand's seat, GOP says
Orange exec brushes off Senate talk as 'a rumor at this point'
By Chris Mckenna
Times Herald-Record
February 16, 2010
GOSHEN — Diana for Senate?

Only six weeks into his third term as Orange County executive, Ed Diana is being talked about as a potential candidate for the U.S. Senate seat that Kirsten Gillibrand was appointed to fill just over a year ago.

He brushed aside that chatter as "a rumor at this point" when reached by phone on Monday. But the Republican chairmen of Westchester and Rockland counties both said that Diana, a Republican, is thinking about challenging the Democratic incumbent.

"I understand that he is," said Rockland County Republican Chairman Vincent Reda, who is also first vice chairman of the state Republican Committee. "He'd be a great candidate. I think Eddie Diana would be on anybody's short list."

A plethora of state and federal offices at stake in New York this fall, combined with a sense that incumbents are in trouble nationwide, has emboldened a wave of candidates. Republicans, buoyed by recent election victories, seem especially confident.

"The Republican brand is good right now," said Douglas Colety, the Westchester County Republican chairman. "Everybody wants to run."

Six Republicans have stepped forward to challenge Rep. Nita Lowey, a Democrat who represents parts of Westchester and Rockland, Colety said. And the Republican field for the neighboring congressional district represented by Democrat John Hall has three declared candidates and other potential ones, including Orange County Republican Chairman William DeProspo.

Jonathan Jacobson, chairman of the Orange County Democratic Committee, dismisses the GOP enthusiasm as misguided.

"I think they're overreading the status of American politics," said Jacobson, arguing that frustrated voters don't necessarily want a power shift in Washington.

"People don't want Congress to be controlled by people who just say 'No,'" Jacobson said.

Diana, 61, a former gym teacher and restaurant owner with 26 years in politics, has also been mentioned in recent weeks as a potential candidate for lieutenant governor. Supporters consider him a strong candidate for higher office because of his experience and fiscal record. He handily won re-election in November.

If Diana were to run for higher office and win, the county Legislature — now firmly in Republican hands — would appoint a successor to serve until an election could be held a year later, according to the county charter.

Gillibrand, a former attorney elected to Congress in 2006, had just begun her second term when Gov. David Paterson appointed her in January 2009 to the Senate seat Hillary Clinton vacated when she became secretary of state. Gillibrand must run for election in November to serve the last two years of Clinton's term.

Harold Ford, a former Tennessee congressman, is considering challenging her for the Democratic nomination. The only declared Republican in the race is Bruce Blakeman, an attorney and former county legislator from Long Island; at least five GOP county chairmen have endorsed him.

The New York Times reported Friday that Mort Zuckerman, the Daily News publisher, may seek Gillibrand's seat, either as a Republican or an independent. Republicans George Pataki and Rudy Giuliani have both ruled out running.

Because of the special election, this is a rare year in which contests are held for both of New York's U.S. Senate seats. Sen. Charles Schumer will seek his third six-year term.

Sewer Suit Update

2010-02-12T16:12:00.003-05:00

Woodbury role may be moot if sewer, water suits settled

By Chris Mckenna

Times Herald-Record

February 12, 2010

Woodbury officials have refused to settle a lawsuit with Kiryas Joel over additional sewer service because they say it would involve them in a legal deal over Kiryas Joel's proposed water pipeline.

But their refusal may have little impact on efforts to resolve entwined litigation over the $30 million water project and the Orange County sewage treatment plant in Harriman.

Attorneys for Orange County and Kiryas Joel have been negotiating to end two court cases. In one suit, the county had blocked the pipeline proposal by challenging the village's environmental study; in the other, Kiryas Joel had stopped the county from selling expanded service at the Harriman plant to Woodbury and other communities.

Woodbury officials were enlisted in settlement talks for the second case because they joined the county in a court appeal. But they have rejected the proposal — even after lawyers revised it three times — because each draft tied the sewer agreement to one involving the pipeline.

"We decided we're not going to be roped into it," Mayor Michael Queenan said. "We're not going to sign it."

But last week, a divided Orange County Legislature approved two documents that could resolve both the sewer lawsuit — regardless of Woodbury's opposition — and the main objection to Kiryas Joel's planned connection to the Catskill Aqueduct.

The papers amended a 2001 environmental review that preceded a $26 million expansion of the Harriman plant. The new wording — accompanied by an analysis of current plant use and expected population growth — declares that the project added enough sewer service to share with Woodbury and other contractual users of the plant.

The documents also state that the county will expand the plant again once it reaches 85 percent of its capacity. That stance answers the county's own concerns in its pipeline lawsuit about how it would treat additional sewage resulting from Kiryas Joel's enlarged water supply.

County Attorney David Darwin said Wednesday that those environmental statements will be filed in court to resolve the sewer dispute. That, in turn, could clear the way for a pipeline agreement.

"Resolution of the sewer capacity issue would resolve that issue in both of the lawsuits," he said, adding that the county and Kiryas Joel are working to resolve a secondary pipeline issue involving wetlands.

Pete Swears

2010-01-23T19:29:00.001-05:00

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

2010-01-18T14:08:00.004-05:00

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

2010-01-13T18:10:00.004-05:00

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?

2010-01-13T16:22:00.006-05:00

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!

2010-01-07T23:34:00.002-05:00

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.

2010-01-03T17:54:00.002-05:00

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

Guest Posting (Plagiarism, Laziness or Both?)

2009-12-19T16:09:00.003-05:00

The Uncle is, shall we say, in low energy mode.

Young James Skoufis is not. He has put together a newsletter. We take the liberty of presenting it here. Mr. Skoufis shall be paid the Uncle's going rate of one grudging grunt of thanks:

"argh."

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Even when it isn't the holiday season with so much going on in our lives, it's easy to lose track of what's happening here in town. In addition to keeping you abreast of local news and events, this email newsletter that I'm starting can also serve as a way to engage you in your local government and offer a chance to send me your ideas and suggestions to bring to the town board. Likewise, if you ever need assistance with something in town or navigating through our government, absolutely do not hesitate to get in touch with me.

Finally, if you would like to include something in the next email, please send it along - this presently goes out to over 150 Woodbury families so it's an easy way to get the word out to people if you have news or an event you'd like to share. Enjoy the first issue of the Woodbury Bulletin Board and, of course, have a very happy holidays alongside those you love.

Always,
James Skoufis

Your Local Government

First and foremost, we say goodbye to one of the hardest working and admirable public officials in Woodbury, Geraldine Gianzero, who finishes up her eight years of service on the town board this month. Even in my few months sitting alongside her, I have learned a tremendous amount and gained a perspective and understanding of our local issues and government that I simply would not have if it weren't for her. She truly and exclusively has always had the best interests of the town in mind and heart and will be sorely missed going forward.

With the town re-organizational meeting around the corner we not only welcome the return of Councilman Frank Palermo to the board, but we also usher in new committee assignments. Though I urge people to serve on any and all committees that pique their interest, I want to particularly put out a call to serve on two that I will be sitting on: the Environmental Conservation Committee and the Technology Committee. Both will offer opportunities to make a tremendous difference for the town and your neighbors, make Woodbury a greener, cleaner, and safer community, and present a chance to lower our tax burden in ways that have, to date, not been explored. If you are interested in serving on either of these committees - and you certainly don't have to be an expert in the fields by any stretch - please email me at this address or call me at 347-406-3387; meetings will likely be held once a month.

The Village Board will be holding a continued public hearing on the dedication of Brigadoon's roads to the village at the December 29th meeting. All, especially Brigadoon residents, are encouraged to attend.

Finally, though I will be hitting the streets again in a few months to hear what is on residents' minds, forward along this email to friends and family in town that may be interested in receiving this newsletter going forward. Likewise, have them send me their email address to be included on the email list.

Woodbury Calendar

December: It's not too late to brighten the holidays for a child in need - toys are still being collected at the Woodbury Police Department, Mario's, Modell's, and Toys R Us (Woodbury Commons). Additionally, a special thanks is in order to the Highland Mills United Methodist Church and everyone else who have made collections this season.

Saturday 12/19: Santa visits the Highland Mills Fire Company at noon, immediate following a magician act at 11am. Donations of a non-perishable food item is requested; call 845-928-6070 for more information. While you're there, be sure to support our fire fighters and pick up a Christmas tree if your family still needs one - they are on sale until 12/24, Thursdays-Sundays.

Saturday 12/19: Groovy Tuesday plays at one of my favorite local establishments, Palaia Vineyards. If you've never been, it's highly recommended.For their full schedule of events check out their website at www.palaiavineyards.com. Must be 21+; call 845-928-5384 for more information.

Monday 12/21: The Highland Mills branch of the Woodbury Public Library teaches an Intro to the Internet from 9am-11:30am. They have regular computer courses throughout the year and those interested are encouraged to attend this great service provided by them ($10 deposit); call 845-928-6162 for more information.
Tuesday 12/22: The Central Valley branch of the Woodbury Public Library hosts their regular knitting and needlework night at 7:00pm. They meet the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of every month; call 845-928-2114 for more information.

Thursday 12/24: The Central Valley United Methodist Church hosts a candlelight service at 7:30pm in celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ; call 845-928-6177 for more information.

Thursday 12/31: Charlie's Pub in Central Valley hosts a New Years Eve party ($5 cover charge) - music, food, and a champagne toast at midnight; call 845-827-5039 for more information.

Getting Piped

2009-11-25T01:27:00.002-05:00

Chris McKenna

Kiryas Joel's plans to tap the Catskill Aqueduct are moving forward despite a second lawsuit by Orange County challenging the environmental review for the water project.

Shortly after the county filed suit July 30, village officials submitted an engineering report anticipating no apparent delay in their schedule: They planned to begin designing and getting permits for the 12.5-mile pipeline this fall and to start construction in 2010.

Officials filed that report with the state Environmental Facilities Corp. in August as part of an application for a short-term loan for the project, now estimated to cost $29 million.

A month earlier, the village bought a road and 21.5 vacant acres near Riley Road in New Windsor, where it plans to tap New York City's underground water tunnel and build a pump station.

And in recent weeks, a contractor began tinkering with a long-dormant well field in Cornwall that could prove to be a critical backup water source for Kiryas Joel.

The village obtained the four wells — once the water supply for the defunct Star Expansion factory in Cornwall — in 2005 and may need them to satisfy a requirement that it keep as much water in reserve as it would draw from the Catskill Aqueduct, in case the tunnel is ever closed for repairs.

Village officials have previously suggested that they could add the Star Expansion wells to their supply by connecting the former factory's pipes to the aqueduct pipeline, which would pass nearby on Route 32.

The pipeline would cross Woodbury and Cornwall, carrying New York City's upstate reservoir water to a new treatment plant off Seven Springs Road in Woodbury and then to Kiryas Joel, according to the August engineering report.

The report indicates that the village's 16 wells just barely meet its normal water demands, since two wells are inoperable and two others cannot be used until they are drilled deeper.

For almost a decade, community leaders have pursued the aqueduct connection as a long-term water source for Kiryas Joel's booming population, but they hit a legal snag in 2004 when opponents persuaded the county to challenge the environmental review in court.

Both then and this year, the county has contended that the village has failed to adequately explain the project's impact on wastewater treatment and other environmental issues.

An Avuncular Puzzle Page

2009-11-15T18:30:00.002-05:00

Can you spot the 4,239 things wrong with this article?

The Chronicle > News
Sharing the water wealth: County proposes regional loop
Published: November 13, 2009
Chester — Hudson Valley has long been known for its abundant water supply. It has enough to supply New York City. Right?

Actually, in recent years Goshen, parts of Blooming Grove and Chester, Middletown and Washingtonville have all had water problems. With the economy creeping back up, and developers showing their wares again, the county is proposing countywide improvements in infrastructure (including “water loops”) for both water and sewer services for the 816 square miles for which it has primary responsibility.

In last year’s State of the County speech, Ed Diana said, “The best and the only way to achieve the goals in the (county’s) master plan is to develop regional water and wastewater systems.”

In September, the county planning commissioner, David Church, presented the legislature’s Physical Services Committee with a draft of the water authority’s new master plan.

It is a massive document with a wealth of information, maps and resources about the county’s water resources, collected and reviewed in a series of regional seminars of the Moodna Basin. But some legislators are wary of towns giving up home rule to the county about a resource they hold near and dear. Church gave them assurances the water authority will not plan any changes to a municipality’s water system without their full participation and agreement.

He cautioned that a list of municipalities have been desperately asking for help with shared water projects. “Don’t doubt for a minute that moving forward this is going to be important,” he said. “You need it to survive. You can’t live without water, and right now a bottle of water costs more than a bottle of gasoline.”

He presented the water master plan for their review, and given its size, predicted it need a month or two for study. After that it will be posted online and presented at public hearings and possibly a public information session.

The water plan is a part of the county’s new Master Plan that concentrates on aquifer protection, sewer provisions and affordable housing, but it can and probably will be reviewed and voted on separately.

Concerned about the potential for abuse of power, legislators asked county attorney David Darwin if the water authority had the legal right to impose their decisions on a municipality. He said “Yes, but they wouldn’t do that.”

Further, they have the ability to bond without legislative approval. Delving into the voluminous document (available now at http://waterauthority.orangecountygov.com) critics found the standard — but also disturbing wording that they do have the authority to do whatever is necessary for the health and welfare of residents, and to override a municipality if necessary.

Even legislative Chairwoman Roxanne Donnery was skeptical, recalling fees her own district in Highland Mills were charged for a water loop to provide for Woodbury.

“We were taxed without receiving any benefit,” she said.

Sheila Conroy, a former supervisor of Woodbury who is a member of a citizens committee arguing against the amendment agreed, said that when she was supervisor it became very difficult to balance the budget because of hidden fees — including a lawsuit Woodbury was not even aware they were involved in.

“We don’t need a water czar,” she said.

But from the county’s perspective, there is great pressure to centralize for the sake of efficiency and cost savings.

They have an overwhelming responsibility to account for welfare of the county’s citizens. Poor functioning of sewer and water plants puts their citizens at risk. Even routine maintenance is made easier when one of these water loops makes it possible for a town to borrow from a neighbor while their own tank is repaired. But many think that upgrades can be made without a new document that gives belt and suspenders to the powerful authority the county already has.

“Don’t doubt for a minute that moving forward this is going to be important,” he said. “You need it to survive. You can’t live without water, and right now a bottle of water costs more than a bottle of gasoline.”’

David Church, planning commissioner

“This sets a legal precedent and we have to look at it carefully,” Donnery warned.

Another legislator said he would want it in writing that the county would not take any action without participation and agreement by the municipality. Sheila Conroy, Robert Fromaget of Democratic Orange; Lorraine McNeill, former Woodbury councilman; and Jonathan Swiller, chairman of OCEAN are calling for an oversight committee such as Rockland County has found to be helpful. Fromaget pointed out in particular that even the mayors of Washingtonville and Blooming Grove disagreed with the water and sewer figures in the plan that might justify creating a loop to the already stressed Cornwall wells.

A presentation on the Moodna Creek Conservation and Management Plan will be given at the Blooming Grove Town Hall at 7 p.m. on Nov. 30. The water authority has given Nov. 30 as a deadline to submit questions and comments.

The Envelope Please

2009-11-04T00:51:00.002-05:00

So, as far as we can tell, here are the results:

Town Councilman

James Skoufis - 944
Frank Palermo - 906
Ralph Caruso - 827
George Pedersen - 791

Yes, Ralph beat Georege. Amazing!

For the uncontested seats (except by write-in)
John Burke - 1050
Pete Stabile - 1064
Dwsiree Potvin - 1049
Carol Herb - 1164

We don't have the write in numbers yet.

David Levinson 1355 (unconfirmed)
David Hasin 970 ( appx, unconfirmed)

Some Legislature Contests

Roxanne Donnery 1750

Townsend is reported to be 13 votes ahead of Kemnitz.

Castricone beat Spencer.

Hines Beat Randazzo and Fromaget

In Monroe, Sandy Leonard won but her team-mates Weeks and Martin lost.

Caruso Made The Last Minute Flyers Run On Time

2009-11-01T18:18:00.004-05:00

Whew! Just made it. The last minute flyer from Caruso has shown up.

Interestingly, there are no out-right lies in it.

Instead it merely hints strongly at some back room manipulation and has a somewhat bizarre opinion regarding the KJ Pipeline.

Since it's a bit hard to read we have reproduced the text in the first post on this thread.

The hint of backroom manipulation: The Republicans ran no one against Burke. The Democratic Committee (including Burke) was very muted in its comments about Ralphie. Was this a quid pro quo? We R's won't run anyone against our pal Burke, you D's put up some sacrificial lambs for council seats and Burke and Caruso will sail in on a shared victory?

Just conjecture, but with this cast of characters you never know what deals were struck.

As to that "bizarre opinion." that John, Ralph and George will "rigorously and relentlessly oppose the 13 mile pipeline." I'd certainly love to hear from (my supposed doppleganger) the Pieman on that one. Fighting the Pipeline has long been his balliwick.

Score the Snore

2009-10-28T22:00:00.002-04:00

So, if you were one of the 50 or 60 folks who showed up, how do you rate the debate?

Early word has that the major fireworks weren't between Frank and Ralph, as was expected, but between James and Ralph -- and that Ralph doesn't fare so well when he is on the receiving end.

Some other points from our staff on-scene:

Everyone wants to have automated garbage collection.
F and J would like to either end the village or find a way to merge it into the town. G is against merger and for he village and R is still saying that all services should be run by the town and the village should transfer them back.

Frank was pretty much laid back. George was pretty much asleep (we think he was added to the ticket to make Ralph look exciting). James was a spitfire who repeatedly tore into Ralph and Ralph let us all know that he is a notary public.

There was consensus on many issues. One of the few splits was in answer to the question "Did you read KJ's amended FEIS on the pipeline?" Frank - yes; James - yes; George - no; Ralph - I didn't read it all, but I looked at it.

Also "How can Woodbury be made a better place to live?" Frank - keep our businesses strong; James - strengthen businesses and have a plan for smart growth; George - improve our parks; Ralph - elect me.

Most curious answer: George suggests that we may have to cut services and raise tax revenue - but not by raising taxes.

Funniest answer(s): Ralph tied with himself for this one:
1) "I've always supported full disclosure." (this was shortly before he explained that Republican Committee meetings were open except for all the ones that aren't)
2) When James challenged him about all the former Republican Town Board members who have reported that whenever they voted in ways that Ralph didn't like the Brilliant One would call the next day to ream them out: "I think that my opponent has been lied to - but I can tell you for a fact that I don't call people to yell and scream at them. I never do that."

High point of the evening: The Junior Peewee Pop Warner Cheerleaders singing America.

Low point: Everything after that.

Degrade Debate

2009-10-07T17:55:00.004-04:00

The Pieman emerges from his slumber to inform us that there will, in fact, be a debate.

All four candidates for town council seats - Ralph, Frank, George and James - have agreed to meet on Wednesday, October 28th, 7:30 PM at the Central Valley Elementary School.

The debate will be sponsored by OCEAN and moderated by Gerri Gianzero.

The Pieman asks that people come at 7 PM to write out their questions for the candidates.

Black Ball

2009-10-03T22:07:00.002-04:00

OK

Here's our latest experiment.

No doubt it will fail as miserably as all the others.

Who are you against (primarily for Town Board) and - now here's the tricky part - why?

The goal (ha ha ha) is to be specific.

"Because he's a back-stabbing, mother-jumping, horse-stealing son-of-a-bitch" doesn't quite explain the animus.

The goal is to convince others that the candidate that you are denouncing is bad, bad, bad. Simply heaping denunciation upon insult upon invective may not accomplish that goal.

All that being said, we turn from Scylla to Charybdis. Getting specific may invite law-suits.

sooooooooooooooo, stick to what is on the record, or, if you are saying that you are a witness to some bad act, step forward and give your name (like that's gonna happen).

Oh, I already see that this ain't gonna work out.

Well, let's give it a shot and then try something else.

What "Signed" Means

2009-09-09T04:26:00.003-04:00

Primary election time is fast upon us.

Here, at this spot, on this thread, at this post, your Uncle invites signed endorsements, denunciations and general comments about the candidates (there ain't many).

The one rule, comments must be signed, with real names even.

Anonymous, pseudonymous or any other kinds of mouses will be deleted.

If no one steps forward, okeleydokeley. We'll try it all over again for the general election.

Let he amongst you who knows his own name cast the first ballot (shes too).

Election Connection

2009-09-06T16:15:00.001-04:00

There's chat going on further down the blog on the upcoming elections so I thought I'd supply a little conversation nook up here so everyone can follow along.

Oh, That Water Master Plan

2009-08-16T03:47:00.002-04:00

Water-plan foes make case
Say county could force municipalities to connect
By Chris Mckenna
Times Herald-Record
HIGHLAND MILLS —

Could Orange County force municipalities to connect their water systems if they don't want to?

Three people who believe it could made their case to local officials at the Woodbury firehouse Thursday night, the latest rumblings of opposition to a proposed plan for the county's public water supplies.

The part attracting criticism is a recommendation for 19 intermunicipal pipe connections, which are intended to let well-supplied towns sell water to needier neighbors and steer development to areas the county has marked for growth.

The county Water Authority, which developed the plan, insists these links would be strictly voluntary, and says it will help any communities that want to build them.

But critics fear the authority could push forward without consent.

On Thursday, three opponents who studied the plan and its supporting documents laid out their findings in a PowerPoint presentation to 11 invited officials from the eastern part of the county.

They argue the authority could seize local water systems through eminent domain and tax the whole county for its costs, using a countywide water district created years ago but never used.

They also claim some wording in the documents betrays a forceful intent.

"The Legislature has no control over this authority," said Sheila Conroy, a Woodbury Planning Board member and former town supervisor. "It's only answerable to the executive branch of government."

Conroy gave the talk with Jonathan Swiller, leader of the OCEAN citizens' group; and Robert Fromaget, a Blooming Grove resident and county Legislature candidate.

Authority leaders responded Friday by repeating the pipe links are merely suggestions and wouldn't be forced on anyone.

"The authority is there for the purpose of trying to facilitate the interconnections so that everybody has a sufficient supply of potable water," said Marcia Jacobowitz, chairwoman of the five-member authority board. "This is not something that would be mandatory."

County Planning Commissioner David Church, who serves as executive director of the authority, said the notion of seizing water systems through eminent domain is "so far-fetched I never asked anybody if we could."

He emphasized that the authority can amend its proposal in response to public input. For instance, it could consider stating that no connections would be forced through eminent domain, Church said.

It's already reconsidering some population projections that Fromaget questioned.

"We're professional and humble enough to admit that if we're wrong, we'll correct it," Church said.

cmckenna@th-record.com

Pipe connections
The Orange County Water Authority has suggested connecting local water systems in 19 places as part of an overall plan for meeting water needs as the county population grows.

The most immediate connections it suggested are:

• Town of Wallkill and Village of Goshen

• Middletown and the Town of Wallkill

• Villages of Kiryas Joel and Monroe

• Villages of Monroe and Harriman

• West Point and Highland Falls

• Washingtonville and Cornwall-on-Hudson

• New Windsor and the City of Newburgh

To read the full report, go to: http://waterauthority.orangecountygov.com/

The Pieman Predicts

2009-08-09T19:17:00.002-04:00

The Pieman is usually quite plain-spoken; however UB World Headquarters, nestled away in the swamps of Woodbury Falls, has now received the following rather cryptic email:

Unc,

As important as Woodbury Town Election, the KJ Pipeline and all the other things that we have been focused on are, they are small potatoes compared to the Orange County Water Master Plan.

This is the big one and it can have profound negative effects on all of Orange County. I'll have a lot more for you within a week or so.

Swiller

You Asked For It

2009-07-17T18:44:00.002-04:00

Anonymous said...

Uncle Betty how about changing the topic to the upcoming town board candidates?

Residents need to know the ugly truth about Ralph.

He is pursuing an article 78 against the Village Planning Board and other entities that is costing the residents that live in the town.

How many lawsuits does that make?

When was the last time he actually served in an official elected position?

How many times has he lost an election?

WTF - we don't need or want Ralph!

6:30 PM, July 17, 2009

"Tsunami Of Sewage"

2009-07-02T16:11:00.001-04:00

Orange County Legislature votes for 2nd suit vs. Kiryas Joel pipeline

By Chris Mckenna
Times Herald-Record
July 02, 2009
GOSHEN — Orange County lawmakers voted unanimously Wednesday night to support a second lawsuit against Kiryas Joel to challenge the environmental review for the village's proposed pipeline to the Catskill Aqueduct.

County Executive Ed Diana announced last week, as a public hearing and Legislature vote on the issue were looming, that he planned to file a suit, so the 20-0 vote was a purely symbolic show of support for that decision.

Litigation filed by the county in 2004 forced Kiryas Joel to elaborate on four parts of its environmental review but allowed the village to do so with no further public comment. Opponents contended the amendments made this year were inadequate and pressed for a second suit.

Legislators listened to two hours of arguments in support of a suit at a hearing in Central Valley Monday night and heard another round of public comments before voting.

Sheila Conroy of Woodbury reiterated her arguments that Kiryas Joel has underestimated its rapid population growth to play down the "tsunami" of sewage it will send to the county treatment plant if it's allowed to tap New York City's water supply.

"Supplying inaccurate responses just to say that it is done does not satisfy the intent of the court decision or SEQRA," Conroy said, using the acronym for the State Environmental Quality Review Act.

"Honest answers need to put out for all to look at," she added.

Jonathan Swiller, leader of a Woodbury citizens group called OCEAN, argued that allowing the amended review to pass without scrutiny means that "anything filed, a still-deficient document such as we have here, a phone book, a blank sheet of paper, must be accepted. That is absurd."

When it came time to vote, even Michael Amo, who represents Kiryas Joel on the Legislature, supported a lawsuit, saying, "Let's let the courts make that decision if it will satisfy people, and then let's move on."

Diana has until July 31 to file the suit, which will be funded with money left from the $250,000 lawmakers authorized in 2004 to challenge the pipeline study. His office said in 2007 that the county had spent $126,806 on an outside firm that handled the case.

Saving Face

2009-07-01T22:15:00.002-04:00

Tonight the County Legislature voted to endorse Eddie Diana's decision to file an Article 78 lawsuit challenging the Amended FEIS on the KJ Pipeline.

Jeff Berkman wanted to have the whole matter dropped so that he wouldn't have to go on record voting either way.

That was a non-starter.

When it became obvious that the endorsement was going to pass, Berkman, Amo, Pahucki and Paduch bowed to the inevitable and voted yes, passing the resolution 20 to 0 (one absent).

Tonight's The Night

2009-06-29T18:10:00.003-04:00

7 PM

Tonight

Public Hearing on

the KJ Pipeline

and the

County's Water Master Plan

at the

Central Valley Elementary School

Be There or Be Octagonal

The Thing That Would Not Die

2009-06-26T18:36:00.003-04:00

He's baaaaaack!

Yep

Petitions are making the rounds for the Republican candidates for Town Council.

Geaorge Pedersen and, honest to God, Ralphie!

This will be fun!

Diana Agrees To Sue

2009-06-26T01:15:00.002-04:00

Diana decides to sue Kiryas Joel again over pipeline project
By Chris Mckenna
Times Herald-Record
June 25, 2009
GOSHEN — Orange County Executive Ed Diana announced Thursday he plans to sue Kiryas Joel for the second time over the environmental review for the village’s proposed connection to the Catskill Aqueduct.

Diana said he believes the village’s amendments to the review still fail to address adequately the issues the courts identified in response to the county’s 2004 lawsuit.

His decision to sue comes four days before the county Legislature planned to hold a public hearing on the pipeline project and six days ahead of a planned Legislature vote on whether to sue.

The Pieman writes to say that it still very important that there is a huge turnout at Monday's Public Hearing at Central Valley Elementary School (7 PM) in order to send a message to the County Legislature.

Pipeline Public Hearing

2009-06-21T20:50:00.002-04:00

Latest from the Pieman:

Keep Paying Attention

2009-06-19T15:38:00.002-04:00

My View:
Water master plan contains wrong numbers, bad conclusions
June 19, 2009

The recently released Orange County Water Master Plan is not about planning but about taking total control of our precious water resource. It must be stopped.

Our communities need representation on a county level to participate in the management of the water resources in each of our towns. Currently the master plan is not the answer because:
* It is based on faulty population assumptions that either seriously exaggerate or understate population growth rates.
* It gives control of our water resources to the Orange County Water Authority without any oversight or local elected officials' input.
* It gives the water authority MTA-like government powers without proper oversight by our legislators or locally elected officials.

As an example, the growth projections the master plan uses for Washingtonville and Kiryas Joel are absolutely wrong, or have been fabricated to support the priorities identified in that document. The Kiryas Joel growth rate used in the plan conflicts with Kiryas Joel's own growth-rate projections as laid out in the Final Environmental Impact Statement in support of the aqueduct pipeline request.

The growth assumptions used suggest that Washingtonville will grow at almost the same rate as Kiryas Joel, which is not supported by the U.S. Census data. The Census shows a significantly smaller growth rate for Washingtonville and a significantly higher growth rate for Kiryas Joel.

The Census growth rates would cause Washingtonville to fall out of the "in need of water" category and thus eliminate the justification for the proposed link between Washingtonville and Cornwall.

The bottom line is that the plan improperly "moves" new population from Kiryas Joel, where it is expected, to Washingtonville, where it isn't. This phony "population transfer" has the effect of concealing the real reasons for the priorities identified in the master plan and that is to get access to 1.7 million gallons a day of Cornwall water for the users of those links.

There is the additional concern that the master plan will give the Water Authority unbridled powers over the control and management of our water once the plan is approved. The Authority will be able to 1) acquire right of ways using eminent domain, 2) sell bonds without legislative approval, 3) charge whatever fees they see fit to build and maintain the links they install and control, 4) once the water is in their system, send it to whomever is linked to that system.

The only involvement of our local elected officials will be powerless "consultation." The Orange County Sewer District is managed by the county; however, local elected officials have complained vigorously to no avail about how that facility is managed, how the capacity is distributed to its members and the lack of meaningful involvement in the budget process. We should assume it will be the same when the Water Authority seizes control of our water supply and decisions.

So I ask, should Cornwall allow the Water Authority to take its water without any oversight or controls in place to protect their own supply?

Since the Times Herald-Record reported in 2007 the wells in Monroe went dry when Kiryas Joel activated a number of wells illegally, this is a real concern. I urge the locally elected officials to resist the kidnapping of their oversight authority and their water supply.

We need to establish a board of commissioners with representation from all the impacted communities to manage our water. We need to resist giving it over to or the Water Authority to be managed like the Orange County Sewer District, where special-interest groups have the most influence.

Robert A. Fromaget lives in the Town of Blooming Grove.

Pay Attention, Folks

2009-06-19T15:31:00.002-04:00

Our View:
Surrounding communities concerned about Kiryas Joel pipeline
June 18, 2009

As supervisors and mayors in southern Orange County, we have heard from many of our citizens who are concerned about the impact of the Village of Kiryas Joel's proposed pipeline to hook into the New York City water system.

The pipeline would run 13 miles through many of our communities, causing major disruptions and impact to the environment. Five years ago when the pipeline plan was first submitted, the county went to court challenging the original Final Environmental Impact Statement on the grounds that it was deficient in a number of areas, including any real plan to deal with the increased sewage capacity that would be required.

The court agreed and ordered that the plan needed to address a number of issues, including wastewater, wetlands and population growth.

Unfortunately, the court did not seem to take the environmental impact review process seriously and allowed Kiryas Joel to file an amended impact statement that is not subject to further review.

The new amended statement most certainly does not answer the court's questions. In fact, the filing is still plagued with erroneous or missing information and miscalculations.

For example, on sewage, the plan claims that a new filtration system will be installed in the Harriman Sewage Treatment Plant, which will double its capacity, and that all of this new capacity will go to Kiryas Joel. In truth, the county has not yet decided if it will install this very expensive and experimental filtration system,. The most optimistic guesses say it might increase the capacity by 50 percent, not double it. Most egregious is Kiryas Joel's claim that all additional capacity, as well as all of the recent 2 million-gallon expansion of the Harriman plant, should go exclusively to its village.

This ignores the rights of the citizens of all the communities that have been involved in the expansion project and who have been on waiting lists for years to be hooked into the system.

To allow this project to proceed without further review will make a mockery of the State Environmental Quality Review process, because the issue is not the pipeline but the necessity that the environmental review be done properly to protect the environment and surrounding municipalities.

All we ask is that all towns and villages be treated fairly and equally when, in too many instances, this hasn't been the case.

The State Environmental Quality Review Act and the review under state General Municipal Law 239 are requirements mandated by law. The law's intent is to protect the environment and coordinate land-use decisions to mitigate intercommunity and countywide impacts. It is the state, county and court's responsibility to ensure that we are all treated fairly and equally under the law. If the laws are not going to be enforced equally across the board, then rescind the laws and put everyone on an equal playing field.

Lastly, there is the question as to whether this pipeline, which will serve only one community and enrich a small group of developers, is the best use of $30 million in taxpayer money.

Signed;
Charles Bohan, Supervisor of the Town of Blooming Grove
John Burke, Supervisor of the Town of Woodbury
Robert Jeroloman, Mayor of the Village of South Blooming Grove
John Karl is mayor of the Village of Monroe
Steve Neuhaus, Supervisor of the Town of Chester
Michael Queenan, Mayor of the Village of Woodbury
Kevin Quigley, Supervisor of the Town of Cornwall
Steve Welle, Mayor of the Village of Harriman.

2009-06-09T01:04:00.003-04:00

Pre-wedding melee erupts in Kiryas Joel; trooper cars pelted with eggs, plastic bottles
By Chris Mckenna
Times Herald-Record
KIRYAS JOEL — Young men shouted and pelted trooper cars with eggs and plastic water bottles Monday during a melee that erupted hours before an outdoor wedding that was expected to draw thousands of spectators.

Troopers say roughly 200 young men staged a rowdy protest as workers from Orange & Rockland Utilities removed decorative lights that had been strung from poles without permission. The lights were for the wedding of a granddaughter of Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, a Satmar Hasidic leader.

Protesters blocked the company’s trucks with metal pedestrian barriers and then climbed on the trucks, troopers said. Then they used the same barriers to block trooper cars as state police tried to escort the utility workers out of Kiryas Joel.

One trooper was treated for minor injuries. No police cars were damaged.
One man was arrested and was expected to face a felony charge. His identity and the charges were not immediately available.
....................................................................................................
Some background:
Moshe Witriol is head of KJ's "Department of Public Safety." That is to say, the enforcement arm of the people who run things.

The "buchers" are the yeshiva boys who act as Witriol's insta-mob.

The State Troopers are under standing orders that Witriol calls the shots. Laws (whether real or made up on the spot) that he wants enforced, get enforced. Laws that he wants ignored, get ignored.

Today, apparently, the buchers were pelting the O and R crew with eggs and bottles while Witriol stood nearby and watched.

O and R called the Troopers and the buchers turned their attention to them.

Right after the Troopers put one of the buchers in cuffs, Witriol sprang into action. He tried to get them to let the kid go.

Generally, the buchers are to be allowed to abuse whomever they want.

The problem is, the Troopers don't believe that that extends to allowing the buchers to abuse the Troopers themselves.

Live and learn.

And...

2009-06-03T01:50:00.000-04:00

Two From The Record

2009-06-02T14:35:00.001-04:00

Fired street sweeper seeks damages from Kiryas Joel
By Oliver Mackson
Times Herald-Record
June 02, 2009 6:00 AM
KIRYAS JOEL — Anthony Martin of Highland Mills says he lost his job because he blew the whistle on tax cheats in the government of New York's fastest-growing village.
In a suit filed May 22 in U.S. District Court, Martin says the village's public works boss fired him last year because he notified the state Department of Labor and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service that Kiryas Joel failed to deduct taxes from his paycheck.
Martin started as a full-time street sweeper in Kiryas Joel on May 26.
On Aug. 13, he reported the lack of payroll deductions to the state and feds, and on Aug. 22, the village fired him, according to his lawsuit.
"His speech addressed a matter of concern, i.e., municipal corruption, and is protected by the First Amendment," wrote Stephen Bergstein, the lawyer representing Martin.
Neither DPW Director Zalman Stern nor Donald Nichol, the village's lawyer, could be reached to discuss the suit Monday.
Authorities did not respond to a request for comment about what, if anything, they were doing about Martin's report.
Martin wants damages and compensation for lost wages. The suit doesn't name an amount.
He also wants to go back to work.
"Working for the government has its benefits," Bergstein explained. "The government doesn't go out of business."

Broker sues Orange County, claiming bid for La Guardia denied based on religion
By Chris Mckenna
Times Herald-Record
June 02, 2009 6:00 AM
GOSHEN — A real estate broker who tried to buy the former Camp La Guardia property has filed a lawsuit claiming Orange County rebuffed his offer because his clients were thought to be Hasidic Jews affiliated with the Village of Kiryas Joel.
Robert Lawrence, owner of Hudson Valley Realty Company in Goshen, is suing the county and County Executive Ed Diana in federal court for the $460,000 commission he said he lost, citing violations of the federal Fair Housing Act and the Fourteenth Amendment. Neither he nor his former client is demanding the 256-acre property, which the county recently agreed to sell to a Westchester County developer.
In the lawsuit, Lawrence claims his $11.5 million offer in March 2007 was rejected because Diana knew "the religious beliefs and affiliation" of the potential buyer and didn't want the former New York City homeless shelter sold to a developer with even a perceived connection to Kiryas Joel.
Diana spokesman Richard Mayfield said Monday that the county hasn't been served with the suit and doesn't comment on pending litigation.
The court papers identify Lawrence's client as "a major real estate developer of the Jewish faith." Michael Sussman, the Goshen civil rights attorney representing Lawrence, confirms the client was Isaac Rosenberg, a Brooklyn businessman and member of the Satmar Hasidic community.
Rosenberg is cooperating with the litigation but didn't join in suing because "he felt it would detract from his business opportunities," Sussman said.
Sussman said Rosenberg had hoped to build a mixture of homes and businesses, similar to what is now proposed for Camp La Guardia. But public fear that Orthodox or Hasidic developers would build "another Kiryas Joel" made his offer — conveyed anonymously through Lawrence — unpalatable to Diana and most county lawmakers, Sussman argues in the suit.
The county bought the property for $8.5 million in 2007 and ultimately chose Mountco Construction and Development Corp. of Scarsdale as the buyer, after a protracted Legislature debate over proposals by four bidders.
Rosenberg, who made his offer long before the county solicited bids for the property, didn't participate in that formal competition because he "determined that it would be entirely futile," Sussman said in the suit.

Somebody's Lying

2009-05-29T13:18:00.004-04:00

Orange County, NYC yet to sign off on KJ's water pipeline plan
By Chris Mckenna
imes Herald-Record

In an April 1 conference call with state officials, Kiryas Joel representatives let it be known that no more legal obstacles await their plans for a 13-mile water pipeline, for which they are seeking state financing.

Yes, Orange County sued over the project's environmental review, they acknowledged, but county leaders were satisfied with the revised version of that study "and said they won't challenge this," according to handwritten notes from that call.

But in truth, the possibility of a second county suit hasn't passed. "The county has made no comment to anyone involved in this process," county spokesman Richard Mayfield said. "There is no credibility to this statement. It's just not accurate."

County officials and their attorneys are still scrutinizing Kiryas Joel's amended review and have told no one, even in informal conservations, that they're satisfied with it.

Also, a top engineer with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection — the agency that must approve Kiryas Joel's request to tap the city's Catskill Aqueduct — has sent the village a litany of questions, raising issues about the village's projected growth, the amount of water it would draw, the sufficiency of its backup supply and the width of the proposed transmission pipe.

The engineer, who several years ago asked the village why it wanted a 24-inch-wide pipe when a smaller one would suffice, now wonders why the village has agreed to reduce the diameter to 18 inches without providing any supporting analysis.

"Please be reminded that the pipe size selection is not arbitrary," wrote Paul Aggarwal, section chief of community supplies engineering. "An engineering analysis supporting the desired pipe size for now and the future water demands must be submitted for our review."

Kiryas Joel officials want to start construction in January on what they now estimate to be an almost $30 million project.

Orange County lawmakers have discussed the county's legal position behind closed doors once since Kiryas Joel revised its environmental review and are likely to revisit the issue soon, as a July 31 deadline to file another lawsuit looms.

If anyone in their ranks deemed the amended study "satisfactory," it certainly wasn't Frank Fornario, the Blooming Grove Republican who helped lead opposition to the pipeline and now oversees a committee that would consider further litigation.

"I'm speechless," he said when told about Kiryas Joel's claim in the April 1 conference call.

So, where do we stand with the pipeline?

KJ claims that the County has no objections. A "spokesman" for the County say different. Eddie Diana says nothing.

Will the County go back to court?

How soon do they have to act?

Stay tuned...we'll let you know what's up.

Filling the Void

2009-05-15T13:45:00.003-04:00

Woodbury seeks input to fill town board vacancy

Highland Mills - The Woodbury Town Board is accepting inquiries from town residents who may be interested in serving out the remaining time of Michael Queenan’s Town Board seat.Queenan resigned as town councilman when he was elected mayor of the Village of Woodbury in March.

The term expires Dec. 31, 2009. In November, an election will be held for a new four-year term.All letters of interest will be considered by the Town Board. Those letters may be sent to the Town Clerk Desiree Potvin, 511 Route 32, PO Box 1004, Highland Mills, NY 10930.

So, any nominations?

Pond Bond

2009-05-02T00:12:00.002-04:00

Tuesday we get to vote on whether we will raise the cash to fix the pond?

So yes or no and why?

And, do any of you believe enough in your position to sign your name?

Independence? Prove it!

2009-04-18T13:31:00.002-04:00

From an article in today's Record:

Republicans and Democrats who want their names to also appear on the Independence line in November now must complete an online questionnaire that includes some hot-button topics, such as dissolving tiny towns and villages to save taxpayers money.
"We want to make it less of a popularity contest and focus it more on highly substantive issues," explained Orange County's Independence leader, Langdon Chapman.

OK, so the Independence Party is against uneccessary villages. Like, perhaps, the Village of Woodbury?

And who was one of the loudest voices in Caruso's "Let's Form a Village" Choir?

John Burke.

Now the Dems are nominating Frank Palermo for the Town Board so that he will give their slate, headed by Burke, the Independence line.

If Burke gets the endorsement it will mean that the Independence Party's claimed interest in eliminating extra layers of government is pure manure.

Wait and watch.

Or better yet, call Langdon Chapman and shout.

Catching Up

2009-04-14T13:10:00.002-04:00

Sorry, a brief sojourn to Maryland turned out slightly less brief than planned.

Tonight (Tuesday) the new members of the village board have their first meeting. Village Hall, 7:30 PM. This is to be their last meeting there. After tonight they move the show to town hall, which has the video equipment.

From the Record:
O’Dwyer set to announce Orange exec candidacy
By Chris Mckenna
April 14, 2009 6:00 AM
GOSHEN — Democrat Pat O’Dwyer has scheduled a news conference Sunday for what is expected to be her announcement that she will run for Orange County executive in November.O’Dwyer, a party activist and former Town of Goshen supervisor, said Monday she will announce her political plans at the Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame at 240 Main St. in Goshen. The event is open to the public and set to run from 1 to 3 p.m.County Executive Ed Diana, a Republican, has already announced plans to run for a third term this year.

The Uncle admits ignorance about O'Dwyer. Any thoughts, insights or slander from you folks?

Ralph Was

2009-04-01T15:50:00.006-04:00

Considering how much fun it has been to chat about Woodbury's own Gossip Girl, Ralph Caruso, the Uncle fears that that era may be coming to an end.

It appears that Ralph's sun is setting.

He hasn't won an election in decades, though not for lack of trying.

Not one of his Woodbury candidates has won in years.

His tenure as Chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeal is also ancient history.

His one-time playmates on the Democratic Committee are poised to give the nod to Frank Palermo for Town Councilman. This is a wet chatooie in Ralph's face. Suffice it to say that Ralph and Frank don't play well together.

And now, our esteemed State Senator, Uncle Billie Larkin himself, has decided that Ralph's services as a chauffeur are no longer required.

Ralph has been fired.

Gasp!

No longer will our pal be able to stand before us and introduce himself as "Ralph Caruso, Aide to Senator Larkin."

O, how the mighty have fallen and the grape made low.

Prioritize

2009-04-01T13:18:00.005-04:00

Ralph's attention was a bit diverted during the recent village election.

As attentive nieces and nephews will recall, Ralph set up THE CHAIRMAN'S CORNER in order to keep us all abreast of the pressing issues facing Woodbury.

http://www.preservewoodbury.org/ChCo.htm

He began with the "first in a series of Commentaries I will present as the Chairman of the Citizens for the Preservation of Woodbury for our community. They will cover a variety of subjects in no particular order, but will include Village, Town, County, State and Federal government matters."

From January 1st 'til now this appears to be a series of one.

And the only topic Ralph found noteworthy was the Pieman's living arrangements.

Hmmm.

Is Ralphie hoping for an invite?

And, the main (pretty much only) topic on the Perversionists home page is...guess who?

http://www.preservewoodbury.org/index.htm

We begin to think Ralph has a crush on the Pieman.

And now, as the flyer reproduced up above shows, Ralph has asked us all to join in.

He has invited us to the Planning Board's public hearing tonight (Wednesday, April Fool's Day appropriately) at 7:30 at Town Hall. The subject is, yet again, the Pieman's home.

Do try to come. Bring snacks. For shut-ins, the festivities will be on cable channel 22.

In case any of you have questions about any of this, Ralph has kindly included his number. Feel free to call.

Oh Ralphie, Ralphie, Ralphie. Did you ever consider sending flowers?

The (Sour) Grapes of Ralph

2009-03-27T20:45:00.003-04:00

I would like to thank all those who came out to vote in the Village of Woodbury election. I especially thank the voters who voted for the Preservation Team: Ben Meyers, George Pedersen and Fred Ungerer.

This election was riddled with misleading and outright misrepresented and undeliverable promises by the Common Sense Party. However, around 65 percent of the voters were able to see through the smoke and mirrors, with the Common Sense Party candidates being elected with around only 35 percent of the votes, clearly not a mandate.

Actually, there are 6,350 registered voters in the Village of Woodbury, with 1,298 voting in this election, about 20 percent, with and average of 470 voting for the Common Sense Party candidates. This means about 7 percent of all village registered voters elected the new mayor and two trustees.
This tells all of us that staying home and not voting is not a good idea. Why let the few tell the many how our village should be governed?

Keep an eye on your Village Board and make them accountable to you.

Ralph Caruso, Chairman
Highland Mills

Drip, Drip, Drip

2009-03-25T19:04:00.003-04:00

Kiryas Joel has come out with an amended FEIS on their pipeline plan. Now we're hearing about a proposed link up of water systems throughout Orange County (see below).

Good idea? Bad idea? Who's paying attention?

Orange County study calls for 19 water system links

By Chris Mckenna
Times Herald-Record
March 25, 2009 6:00 AM
GOSHEN — Orange County is proposing that 19 links be built among municipal water systems to help those with potential shortages, channel development and share supplies during droughts and other emergencies.

The so-called interconnections are among the recommendations in a plan the Water Authority has developed to safeguard the patchwork of wells, reservoirs and other resources that supply drinking water to almost three-quarters of the county's population.

The 245-page draft projects that municipalities will have plenty of water overall to keep pace with population growth through 2018, the endpoint of the study three consulting firms did for the authority.

But supplies will vary widely from one municipality to another by that time: Some will be flush with water while as many as seven could either run short or barely satisfy demand, according to the plan.

"We have plenty of water, but it's not necessarily in the right locations," said Planning Commissioner David Church, whose department oversees the authority.

The plan suggests erecting more storage tanks and strengthening conservation efforts. But it also provides the most detailed proposal to date for a series of regional water systems — or miniloops — that County Executive Ed Diana has long touted.

These scattered connections would be a more modest successor to a colossal water-loop idea the county conceived decades ago, only to see it collapse in the early '90s because of its high cost and lack of support from the municipalities.
The plan calls for immediate action on seven of those links, including one that would stretch 4.5 miles to connect the water-rich Village of Cornwall-on-Hudson with the Village of Washingtonville, which is expected to run low within a decade.

Shortages were also foreseen in the Villages of Goshen, Highland Falls, Monroe, Kiryas Joel and the cities of Middletown and Newburgh — although the plan acknowledges potential errors in the calculations for Newburgh, Middletown and Highland Falls.

To Resign or Not?

2009-03-19T18:27:00.002-04:00

The new Village Board members take office in early April.

Mike's term on the Town Board is up this November.

If Mike resigns then John, Bo and Carlton will handpick his replacement. If he stays on, it will be up to the voters.

There is no law against his holding both positions, but should he?

What do you folks think?

Go Vote

2009-03-18T00:26:00.001-04:00

Noon 'til 9 PM

Village Hall
(Above the Highland Mills Fire House)

Crapping In Your Ear

2009-03-17T22:08:00.001-04:00

Perhaps to conserve paper, the late hitting lie is traveling by word of mouth.

The lie: If one particular slate wins, the incoming mayor will invoke a little known state law and downsize the Village Board to three members.

There is no such plan.

Because

There is no such law.

This is the droppings left by the male cow.

Who started passing this around? We don’t know, we can only guess.

The Silence of the Uncle?

2009-03-17T15:44:00.004-04:00

A number of posters, or, likely, one poster, a number of times, has called on the Uncle to close up shop until after the election. He has gone so far as to claim that to do so would honor those who have fought to protect us.

The soldiers who took up arms (and too often laid down their lives) for this country did so to defend the people’s right to have these debates. It is no honor to them to seek to silence the voices we despise.

The best answer to lies and smears is truth, not censorship.

What drew me to this country was its ability to withstand lively, even ugly, debate without it leading to mobs in the plazas. I have seen enough of those.

I would hope that you are wise enough to tell baseless slander from supported fact. I would hope that you care enough about your community and your homes to decide your votes on something more tangible than anonymous accusations.

What appears here should never be the end of a search for truth, but, at best, a start. If you read something here that interests or disturbs you, make the effort to go find out more.

If you have questions, post them. If the answers don’t satisfy, look further.

But silence is never the answer.

The Bottom Line

2009-03-16T13:49:00.006-04:00

It comes down to this:

If you want Caruso to run Woodbury, vote for the Preservation Party.

If you don't want Caruso to run Woodbury, vote for the Community Party or the Common Sense Party.

And if you don't think that Caruso intends to pull the strings if his candidates get elected, wake up.

When Joan Caruso (no relation) was Town Supervisor, Ralph "informed" her that she was to clear all town appointments and hires with him. She ignored him.

When Sheila Conroy was elected Town Supervisor, Ralph told her how she was supposed to vote. She ignored him.

After that Ralph tried to make damned sure that his candidates understood who was boss.

He managed to hold onto Mike Aronowitz for quite a while, but in the end Mike started thinking for himself. Some of you may remember Ralph's public tirade against Mike in Town Hall.

John Burke remains content to let Ralph do his thinking for him.

In this election, Caruso is trying to stay deep in the shadows, but there is no way he would back Meyers, Pederson and Ungerer unless he felt secure that they would carry out his wishes.

If that appeals to you, go for it. If not, stop it. Either way, vote!

Ugly Betty

2009-03-15T16:16:00.003-04:00

This blog has gotten uglier than usual (if such a concept can be imagined).

The Uncle is not guiltless, nor does he have any desire to be so. But at least he has attempted to be stylishly offensive.

On Wednesday we vote for mayor and two trustees. Nine walk in, three survive.

Thursday will thus be recriminations day.

Do attempt to bear in mind that you all have to live here - at least until the real estate market stabilizes.

The Poison Pen of DePalma

2009-03-12T17:33:00.003-04:00

On the Clowning Around thread some posters have asked what we can expect from Caruso in the Late Hitting Lie category.

What's your guess?

In any case, as soon as you see one send it along to : cuzzincookie@hotmail.com

The End Of The Affair

2009-03-10T21:39:00.004-04:00

How do we break this to you? Are you sitting down?

Well, um, OK, Ralph doesn't love the Pieman.

We don't know how it happened - Did Ralph find him cheating with another main squeeze? Did a jealous Don Siebold muddy the water? Or was it just one of those things?

Who can say, but the love is gone. And when Ralph's love is gone, you're gone too.

So Ralph and the peanut gallery (Ankle Biter, Rump Roast, Mrs. Ralph) all trooped down to Village Hall and demanded that the Pieman be banished from Woodbury. Heaven forfend, a fate worse than death!

And if the Village Board shrinks from this command, well, Ralph's got his own brand spanking new Village Board waiting in the wings.

Oh what shall become of our dear Pieman? Sob, sob! Does this spell the end? Will he have to move in with John Burke? Does Burke snore? And will Amanda discover that Hermione is her long lost sister?

Keep tuned to this station for the next episode of

As The Stomach Churns

Clowning Around

2009-03-10T16:24:00.004-04:00

Considering all the depressing negativity being expressed on this blog of late, the Uncle would like to thank Don Siebold for his hilarious letter to the Times Herald Record.

Every once in a while we need a good laugh and there have been few things funnier this week than his reference to the Preservation Team as people "who have no hidden agenda and are not beholden to special interest groups."

Thanks again Don.

The Record's Editorial

2009-03-05T13:43:00.002-05:00

Opinion
The Woodburys look for ways to save money

March 05, 2009
This might not be the year that the Woodburys unravel their tangled governmental web, but at least most candidates for village office are talking about how to minimize the extra costs.

Three years ago, voters approved the creation of an overlay government, adding a village atop a town, in the hope that the new layer would provide more protection for any possible attempts by the nearby Village of Kiryas Joel to annex land and expand. No one knows if such extra protection was necessary, but all taxpayers now know that they are paying a price for the decision.

While many municipalities and school districts are moving, albeit slowly, or studying, albeit grudgingly, the possibilities of saving money by merging operations, sharing services or even dissolving one entity into another, Woodbury went the other way.

At first, there was lots of talk about how this would not cost any more. Now, there's some talk about how the extra costs that inevitably showed up could be reduced, although not eliminated.

There is one way to bring the costs back to where they were. That would be for the voters to conclude that one government offers enough protection and can provide services more efficiently than two.

It might take a few more elections, a few more years of realizing that no area the size of the Woodburys needs so many overlapping governments with their associated inefficiencies and costs. For now, talk of minimizing the damage for the misguided vote is refreshing.

A Bizarre Suggestion

2009-03-04T22:32:00.003-05:00

Most of the recent postings have consisted of calling someone or other an idiot, a liar, a bitch, a shithead or even something nasty.

While this elevated discussion is certainly valuable, just for a change of pace, does anyone have something positive to say about any of the candidates? And no, I don't mean "I'm POSITIVE that so and so is an idiot, a liar, a bitch and a shithead."

So, this lonesome thread will be kept free of vituperation and open to arguments favoring your candidate of choice.

Why should we vote FOR someone?

What makes me think that this will be a very quiet part of town?

Eyewitness, Nu?

2009-03-04T14:33:00.005-05:00

Merger idea heats up Village of Woodbury candidates' debate

By Chris Mckenna
Times Herald-Record
March 04, 2009 6:00 AM

CENTRAL VALLEY — The big question for nine Woodbury candidates Tuesday night was how to limit the cost of the extra layer of government residents brought upon themselves three years ago by voting to create a village within their town.

In a debate at Central Valley Elementary School sponsored by the citizens group OCEAN, three slates of contenders for mayor and two trustee seats threw out a litany of tax-cutting ideas that included reducing the use of consultants and more aggressive grant-seeking.

But the proposal promising the greater savings — and dominating much of the debate time — was the pledge by the Common Sense Party to seek to consolidate the town and village governments, thereby eliminating a board of paid elected officials and other duplications of costs.

"That would save you $600,000 to $700,000 a year," said Michael Queenan, a town councilman who's running for mayor on the Common Sense ticket. "That's currently what it's costing you to run the village right now."

In legal parlance, he and his running mates are proposing to create a coterminous town-village, similar to several other places in New York that have a town and village with identical borders operating under a single government.
The only problem for Woodbury: its town and village are not coterminous. Their borders are nearly the same, except that the town also encompasses part of the Village of Harriman, which also sits in the Town of Monroe.

The Common Sense candidates propose to rectify that problem with special legislation in Albany — but the other two contenders are uniformly skeptical.
"It's a pie-in-the-sky idea," said Sandra Capriglione, a trustee candidate on the CommUNITY Party slate.

The three mayoral candidates running on March 18 are incumbent Stephanie Berean-Weeks of the CommUNITY Party; Ben Meyers of the Preservation Party; and Queenan.

The six candidates for two trustee seats are: Tim Egan and Tom Flood of the Common Sense Party; George Pederson and Fred Ungerer of the Preservation Party; and Fred Lindlaw and Sandy Capriglione of the CommUNITY Party.

Any of you folks actually attend?

What are your impressions of what went down?