Monday, February 20, 2006
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Brotherly Bond Unites Hasidic Boxer, Black Manager
Brotherly Bond Unites Hasidic Boxer, Black Manager
NEW YORK (AP) -- The hometown fighter climbs into the ring to the thumping bass of Matisyahu, the Hasidic reggae singer. Orthodox Jewish men in black suits with long beards and unlit cigars bounce and chant to the rhythm.
``Dima!''
``Dima!''
``Dima!''
``Dima'' is Dmitriy Salita, a 23-year-old super lightweight from Brooklyn, by way of Odessa, Ukraine. He is also a Hasidic Jew.
He is 5 foot 9, and officially 143 1/4 pounds, with close-cropped brown hair and an unscarred alabaster face. His robe is black silk with white lettering: ``Dmitriy 'Star of David' Salita.''
It's a Thursday night. There's more money in a Friday night fight -- live TV and bigger crowds. But Salita doesn't fight on the Sabbath.
The Manhattan Center is packed anyway. Fans from Brownsville, Brooklyn, have come for Curtis Stevens, a hard-hitting middleweight backed by the hip-hop money of producer Irv ``Gotti'' Lorenzo and his brother Chris. Fans from Spanish Harlem are here for Edgar ``El Chamaco'' Santana, also fighting on the under card. They all mingle with the Orthodox crowd. They all scream for Dima.
Following Salita to his corner are his manager, Israel Liberow, who is the brother of the boxer's rabbi; Hector Roca, a Panamanian trainer of world champions and Hollywood stars; and Jimmy O'Pharrow, a black trainer well-known on the amateur circuit.
``With me, Hector and Israel, we've got a league of nations,'' O'Pharrow says.
O'Pharrow, known to friends as ``Jimmy O','' has been a mentor to Salita since he taught the young boxer to jab at the age of 13. Jimmy O' is 80 years old now. He's given up training on a daily basis, even with Salita, who works mostly with Roca now. But Jimmy O' follows Salita's moves closely. The boxer's career might be the old trainer's last project.
``Dmitriy and I became very close friends,'' he says. ``When he gets hit, I feel it.''
Jimmy O' wants the young boxer to be more aggressive, to follow a sharp jab or punishing left hook with combinations. Salita is the World Boxing Association's eighth-ranked fighter; his friend and trainer thinks that maybe, in a year or so, he'll be ready for a title fight.
___
Salita and his opponent touch gloves in the center of the ring. Salita knows little about Robert ``Red Hot'' Frankel. He's from Denver. He signed on for the fight at the last minute after another boxer dropped out.
It's Frankel's eighth fight of the year, another payday for a fighter with children and a day job installing carpet. He is 12-4 and said to throw 100 punches a round, which is a lot.
Salita is heavily favored, but a loss would be devastating to his chances of getting a title fight.
As the first round opens, Salita probes with jabs. The men circle, feeling each other out.
With two minutes gone, Salita bulls in close. Frankel clubs at him with an overhand right. Salita ducks, but the blow glances off the top of his head.
Salita pedals backward and lands on his back.
The referee begins to count.
``One.''
``Two.''
``Three''
Turns out, the dad from Denver has come to New York to win.
___
It's been more than 60 years since Jimmy O' first strapped on boxing gloves and 30 since he started training kids. He's tall, lithe and close to his old fighting weight. His beard and hair are gray and his long hands are wrinkled. But his jab is still quick. So is his mouth.
``Dmitriy looks Russian, he prays Jewish, he fights black,'' Jimmy O's likes to say. ``I came up with that. Don't quote it from someone else.''
Salita is focused on being a champion and Jimmy O' wants it for him. But he knows there is more to life than boxing.
In the unlikely relationship that began over 10 years ago when a smooth-faced kid walked into his gym, Jimmy O' has found a quest that gives meaning to his later years, and a second act in the sport he loves.
It sounds like a Hollywood story, and Disney has taken notice, with a screenplay in development and Eminem penciled in to play Salita.
___
In the third round, Salita starts clawing back.
He'd popped right up after hitting the floor in the first, claiming he had just tripped. But it didn't matter to the judges, who put Salita two points in the hole.
Salita is fighting like Jimmy O' taught him now. ``Hit and don't get hit,'' he always said. Jabs and hooks. Ducks, feints and dodges.
Frankel is awkward. He charges with his head down. Salita is worried about tripping again or knocking heads. An accidental butt could end the fight with a gash and douse a promising career.
___
Jimmy O's boxing story begins in the 1940's. He started fighting in the street. Then he wised-up and paid dues in Manhattan gyms, like Grubb's and the legendary Stillman's.
He's among the last who remembers seeing Jack Johnson, the first black world heavyweight champion, who occasionally visited Grubb's before he was killed in a car crash in 1946.
``He seemed in all of the pictures such a large man, but he wasn't much bigger than I am,'' Jimmy
O' remembers.
The gyms were filled with GIs returning from the war. He had wanted to sign up himself, but the Army medical examiner said he had a bad heart. At 80, he laughs remembering it.
After a brief amateur career, Jimmy O' hung up his gloves, got married and found a job at a corrugated cardboard factory.
But for 30 years, he never forgot his jab.
In the mid-'70s, he moved to Starrett City, a mostly white housing project in Brooklyn, where his family stood out ``like flies in the buttermilk.''
He wanted to start a gym and asked Starrett City's board.
``Who knows why,'' he says. ``But I used to look at people, who were older and thought about people in their 80s and 90s, who were accomplishing something.''
The board gave him a modest space below a parking garage with no windows and ``nothing but the four walls.'' He focused on giving poor kids purpose; many were brought to him by the police.
``It was not just about learning how to be a boxer. It was about learning how to live, how to grow up,'' he says. ``I couldn't save every person, but I tried.''
Jimmy O's four walls became one of the country's top amateur gyms, producing dozens of Golden Gloves champions and some notable professionals including heavyweight Shannon Briggs.
One day in 1995, four years after the Salitas moved to the United States, Dmitriy was led in by his brother Michael. Dmitriy was one of the few white kids in the gym, but he didn't even notice.
``It wasn't intimidating to me,'' Salita says. ``That's how I knew America, just like my public school.''
Some of the other kids were not so color blind.
``I would put him in the ring with black boys, who said, 'Let me beat on that white boy,''' Jimmy O' says. ``Then when Dmitriy started doing what he was told, they would say, 'Uh-oh.'''
___
In the seventh, Frankel tires. Instead of charging forward, he's backing up now. Salita zeros in, scoring with combinations: jabs, followed by rights and left hooks.
Then, bang, an uppercut right on the nose. Blood streams from Frankel's nostrils. Jimmy O' and Hector Roca scream: Finish him.
But Salita can't find the knockout.
___
Young Dmitriy Salita would come home from Starrett City shadow boxing. He watched fight videos. He talked about nothing else.
His parents, particularly his mother, Lyudmila, were not pleased. They wanted a doctor, a lawyer, a nice Jewish boy. Not a boxer.
Then they met Jimmy O'.
``He's a man of dignity, character and style and finesse. He's a gentleman,'' says Salita. ``For my mother, the fact that I was around Jimmy brought her a certain amount of calmness, because she knew that Jimmy would look out and take care of me.''
So when Lyudmila got cancer, she came to talk with Jimmy O'.
``She saw things in this kid that nobody saw, that I didn't see,'' he says. ``She said, 'Jimmy I want you to take care of him.' I told her that I was, and she said, 'No I want you to really take care of him.' She knew she was dying, you see.''
Salita spent countless hours with her in the hospital. One day he met an Orthodox man attending to his own sick wife, and they debated the godliness of boxing. Salita, who had not been raised Orthodox, wondered how could there be anything immoral about the sport he loved. The man suggested he visit a Chabad Lubavitch synagogue and ask a rabbi.
The rabbi, Zalman Liberow, encouraged Salita to strengthen his faith-- and to box.
Salita was glad he found the synagogue. He was bereft when his mother died. But it helped to go say ``Kaddish,'' the Jewish prayer of mourning.
At first, it was enough to pray. But gradually, he took little steps toward the Orthodox tradition, often marked by his matches.
After one fight, he stopped turning on his coffee maker during the Sabbath, from twilight Friday until sundown Saturday. After another, he gave up the phone and the Internet while observing the Sabbath.
Jimmy O', who is Catholic -- ``Irish Catholic,'' he likes to joke -- encouraged Salita's spiritual development, though it complicated his career. At the New York Golden Gloves tournament, Salita was scheduled for Friday. Jimmy O', who carries weight in New York, spoke to the management. They rescheduled.
Salita won his weight class, but Jimmy O' told him to skip other tournaments.
``They are not going to change the whole system for you,'' Jimmy O' told him.
Jimmy O' always thought there was more to Salita than boxing, anyway. Once, he visited the teenage Salita at his Hebrew school.
``Here's this young kid talking with these learned men, with their long beards, listening and talking. It reminded me of the passage in the Bible when Jesus was in the temple with the older men, schooling them.''
Salita oozes ambition to be world champion; Jimmy O' worries that his friend will be pushed too far, too fast. Salita, he says, is a ``scientific'' boxer who has not yet learned to be mean when necessary. But he thinks the boy who came into his gym is now a man doing God's work.
``I sometimes think that God put him down here for another reason. I don't think it's completely boxing.'' Jimmy O' says. ``The fights are a gathering, you have the blacks, the Hispanics, the Jews all coming together. He doesn't know he's a leader yet, but that's what he's going to be.
``I think his mother knew it and I think she's up in heaven now, looking down saying I put my son in Jimmy O's hands and he's going in the right direction.''
___
In the 10th and final round, the exhausted boxers tap their reserves, letting their fists fly to impress the three judges. The bell clangs. The crowd is tense.
The seconds crawl by as the judges scores are tallied and Salita's career hangs in the balance. Jimmy O' is confident, but disappointed that his boy left room for doubt.
The ring announcer booms the scores:
97-92.
96-93.
96-93.
``For the winner, by unanimous decision, Dmitriy 'Star of David' Salita.''
He raises a hand high to his fans and hugs Jimmy O'.
The men in the black suits and long beards resume their chant:
``Dima!''
``Dima!''
NEW YORK (AP) -- The hometown fighter climbs into the ring to the thumping bass of Matisyahu, the Hasidic reggae singer. Orthodox Jewish men in black suits with long beards and unlit cigars bounce and chant to the rhythm.
``Dima!''
``Dima!''
``Dima!''
``Dima'' is Dmitriy Salita, a 23-year-old super lightweight from Brooklyn, by way of Odessa, Ukraine. He is also a Hasidic Jew.
He is 5 foot 9, and officially 143 1/4 pounds, with close-cropped brown hair and an unscarred alabaster face. His robe is black silk with white lettering: ``Dmitriy 'Star of David' Salita.''
It's a Thursday night. There's more money in a Friday night fight -- live TV and bigger crowds. But Salita doesn't fight on the Sabbath.
The Manhattan Center is packed anyway. Fans from Brownsville, Brooklyn, have come for Curtis Stevens, a hard-hitting middleweight backed by the hip-hop money of producer Irv ``Gotti'' Lorenzo and his brother Chris. Fans from Spanish Harlem are here for Edgar ``El Chamaco'' Santana, also fighting on the under card. They all mingle with the Orthodox crowd. They all scream for Dima.
Following Salita to his corner are his manager, Israel Liberow, who is the brother of the boxer's rabbi; Hector Roca, a Panamanian trainer of world champions and Hollywood stars; and Jimmy O'Pharrow, a black trainer well-known on the amateur circuit.
``With me, Hector and Israel, we've got a league of nations,'' O'Pharrow says.
O'Pharrow, known to friends as ``Jimmy O','' has been a mentor to Salita since he taught the young boxer to jab at the age of 13. Jimmy O' is 80 years old now. He's given up training on a daily basis, even with Salita, who works mostly with Roca now. But Jimmy O' follows Salita's moves closely. The boxer's career might be the old trainer's last project.
``Dmitriy and I became very close friends,'' he says. ``When he gets hit, I feel it.''
Jimmy O' wants the young boxer to be more aggressive, to follow a sharp jab or punishing left hook with combinations. Salita is the World Boxing Association's eighth-ranked fighter; his friend and trainer thinks that maybe, in a year or so, he'll be ready for a title fight.
___
Salita and his opponent touch gloves in the center of the ring. Salita knows little about Robert ``Red Hot'' Frankel. He's from Denver. He signed on for the fight at the last minute after another boxer dropped out.
It's Frankel's eighth fight of the year, another payday for a fighter with children and a day job installing carpet. He is 12-4 and said to throw 100 punches a round, which is a lot.
Salita is heavily favored, but a loss would be devastating to his chances of getting a title fight.
As the first round opens, Salita probes with jabs. The men circle, feeling each other out.
With two minutes gone, Salita bulls in close. Frankel clubs at him with an overhand right. Salita ducks, but the blow glances off the top of his head.
Salita pedals backward and lands on his back.
The referee begins to count.
``One.''
``Two.''
``Three''
Turns out, the dad from Denver has come to New York to win.
___
It's been more than 60 years since Jimmy O' first strapped on boxing gloves and 30 since he started training kids. He's tall, lithe and close to his old fighting weight. His beard and hair are gray and his long hands are wrinkled. But his jab is still quick. So is his mouth.
``Dmitriy looks Russian, he prays Jewish, he fights black,'' Jimmy O's likes to say. ``I came up with that. Don't quote it from someone else.''
Salita is focused on being a champion and Jimmy O' wants it for him. But he knows there is more to life than boxing.
In the unlikely relationship that began over 10 years ago when a smooth-faced kid walked into his gym, Jimmy O' has found a quest that gives meaning to his later years, and a second act in the sport he loves.
It sounds like a Hollywood story, and Disney has taken notice, with a screenplay in development and Eminem penciled in to play Salita.
___
In the third round, Salita starts clawing back.
He'd popped right up after hitting the floor in the first, claiming he had just tripped. But it didn't matter to the judges, who put Salita two points in the hole.
Salita is fighting like Jimmy O' taught him now. ``Hit and don't get hit,'' he always said. Jabs and hooks. Ducks, feints and dodges.
Frankel is awkward. He charges with his head down. Salita is worried about tripping again or knocking heads. An accidental butt could end the fight with a gash and douse a promising career.
___
Jimmy O's boxing story begins in the 1940's. He started fighting in the street. Then he wised-up and paid dues in Manhattan gyms, like Grubb's and the legendary Stillman's.
He's among the last who remembers seeing Jack Johnson, the first black world heavyweight champion, who occasionally visited Grubb's before he was killed in a car crash in 1946.
``He seemed in all of the pictures such a large man, but he wasn't much bigger than I am,'' Jimmy
O' remembers.
The gyms were filled with GIs returning from the war. He had wanted to sign up himself, but the Army medical examiner said he had a bad heart. At 80, he laughs remembering it.
After a brief amateur career, Jimmy O' hung up his gloves, got married and found a job at a corrugated cardboard factory.
But for 30 years, he never forgot his jab.
In the mid-'70s, he moved to Starrett City, a mostly white housing project in Brooklyn, where his family stood out ``like flies in the buttermilk.''
He wanted to start a gym and asked Starrett City's board.
``Who knows why,'' he says. ``But I used to look at people, who were older and thought about people in their 80s and 90s, who were accomplishing something.''
The board gave him a modest space below a parking garage with no windows and ``nothing but the four walls.'' He focused on giving poor kids purpose; many were brought to him by the police.
``It was not just about learning how to be a boxer. It was about learning how to live, how to grow up,'' he says. ``I couldn't save every person, but I tried.''
Jimmy O's four walls became one of the country's top amateur gyms, producing dozens of Golden Gloves champions and some notable professionals including heavyweight Shannon Briggs.
One day in 1995, four years after the Salitas moved to the United States, Dmitriy was led in by his brother Michael. Dmitriy was one of the few white kids in the gym, but he didn't even notice.
``It wasn't intimidating to me,'' Salita says. ``That's how I knew America, just like my public school.''
Some of the other kids were not so color blind.
``I would put him in the ring with black boys, who said, 'Let me beat on that white boy,''' Jimmy O' says. ``Then when Dmitriy started doing what he was told, they would say, 'Uh-oh.'''
___
In the seventh, Frankel tires. Instead of charging forward, he's backing up now. Salita zeros in, scoring with combinations: jabs, followed by rights and left hooks.
Then, bang, an uppercut right on the nose. Blood streams from Frankel's nostrils. Jimmy O' and Hector Roca scream: Finish him.
But Salita can't find the knockout.
___
Young Dmitriy Salita would come home from Starrett City shadow boxing. He watched fight videos. He talked about nothing else.
His parents, particularly his mother, Lyudmila, were not pleased. They wanted a doctor, a lawyer, a nice Jewish boy. Not a boxer.
Then they met Jimmy O'.
``He's a man of dignity, character and style and finesse. He's a gentleman,'' says Salita. ``For my mother, the fact that I was around Jimmy brought her a certain amount of calmness, because she knew that Jimmy would look out and take care of me.''
So when Lyudmila got cancer, she came to talk with Jimmy O'.
``She saw things in this kid that nobody saw, that I didn't see,'' he says. ``She said, 'Jimmy I want you to take care of him.' I told her that I was, and she said, 'No I want you to really take care of him.' She knew she was dying, you see.''
Salita spent countless hours with her in the hospital. One day he met an Orthodox man attending to his own sick wife, and they debated the godliness of boxing. Salita, who had not been raised Orthodox, wondered how could there be anything immoral about the sport he loved. The man suggested he visit a Chabad Lubavitch synagogue and ask a rabbi.
The rabbi, Zalman Liberow, encouraged Salita to strengthen his faith-- and to box.
Salita was glad he found the synagogue. He was bereft when his mother died. But it helped to go say ``Kaddish,'' the Jewish prayer of mourning.
At first, it was enough to pray. But gradually, he took little steps toward the Orthodox tradition, often marked by his matches.
After one fight, he stopped turning on his coffee maker during the Sabbath, from twilight Friday until sundown Saturday. After another, he gave up the phone and the Internet while observing the Sabbath.
Jimmy O', who is Catholic -- ``Irish Catholic,'' he likes to joke -- encouraged Salita's spiritual development, though it complicated his career. At the New York Golden Gloves tournament, Salita was scheduled for Friday. Jimmy O', who carries weight in New York, spoke to the management. They rescheduled.
Salita won his weight class, but Jimmy O' told him to skip other tournaments.
``They are not going to change the whole system for you,'' Jimmy O' told him.
Jimmy O' always thought there was more to Salita than boxing, anyway. Once, he visited the teenage Salita at his Hebrew school.
``Here's this young kid talking with these learned men, with their long beards, listening and talking. It reminded me of the passage in the Bible when Jesus was in the temple with the older men, schooling them.''
Salita oozes ambition to be world champion; Jimmy O' worries that his friend will be pushed too far, too fast. Salita, he says, is a ``scientific'' boxer who has not yet learned to be mean when necessary. But he thinks the boy who came into his gym is now a man doing God's work.
``I sometimes think that God put him down here for another reason. I don't think it's completely boxing.'' Jimmy O' says. ``The fights are a gathering, you have the blacks, the Hispanics, the Jews all coming together. He doesn't know he's a leader yet, but that's what he's going to be.
``I think his mother knew it and I think she's up in heaven now, looking down saying I put my son in Jimmy O's hands and he's going in the right direction.''
___
In the 10th and final round, the exhausted boxers tap their reserves, letting their fists fly to impress the three judges. The bell clangs. The crowd is tense.
The seconds crawl by as the judges scores are tallied and Salita's career hangs in the balance. Jimmy O' is confident, but disappointed that his boy left room for doubt.
The ring announcer booms the scores:
97-92.
96-93.
96-93.
``For the winner, by unanimous decision, Dmitriy 'Star of David' Salita.''
He raises a hand high to his fans and hugs Jimmy O'.
The men in the black suits and long beards resume their chant:
``Dima!''
``Dima!''
Saturday, February 18, 2006
News from the seamy side of town:
News from the seamy side of town:
Will Dick run for the Assembly? Only time will tellBy Blithesome Spirit
Monday night's Town Board meeting was short and to the point. After a brief induction ceremony for some new auxiliary cops, Cornwall Supervisor Dick Randazzo ran through the remainder of his agenda in ½ hour. What I did find refreshing is that Chris Eachus, the newly elected representative for the Orange County 15th District, made it a point to show his face.
Dick Randazzo & Bill LarkinThis contrasts sharply with Alan Seidman, who represents West Cornwall in the Orange County Legislature. The only time you ever see Alan at a Town Board meeting is if there is a photo opportunity and he stands a chance of getting his name in the news. Dick is on his school tax reform kick again. He mentioned that it was his hope to get other towns and counties involved in the effort to change the method that is used by Albany to distribute aid to localities.I've said it before, and I will say it again. The only way school tax reform will work is if the electorate makes it clear to the members of New York State's Senate and Assembly that unless there is an overhaul in the system they'll be out of a job. Unless this happens, nothing will change. While I'm on the subject of the State Senate and Assembly I can't overlook the fact that this is an election year and all members of the Assembly will have their seats up for the taking. This brings me back to Dick.
As most folks know Nancy Calhoun (R - Blooming Grove) represents Cornwall in the 96th Assembly District. If you're remotely familiar with Nancy's Assembly record you'll also know she's not very effective. Dick has run against Nancy in the past and lost. This year, however, it may be different. Dick's been getting pretty good press lately and there' has been no inkling of improprieties in his administration (keep in mind though this is Cornwall and this can change at any time). If Dick decides to run for Nancy's seat in the Assembly look for him to make an announcement sometime in the spring. Where not to have a heart attack ...Okay, now I have a pop quiz for you.If Heaven forbid you or a family member had a heart attack and a heart needed to be restarted with a defibrillator (assuming that an EMT was not available), and the first responder was a cop, where do you think the patient would stand the best chance of survival?If you chose the New Windsor Police Department, you're right. New Windsor always has at least one car on patrol equipped with an AED (Automated External Defibrillator).According to Cornwall Police Chief Rusty O'Dell (as quoted in a memo I wasn't supposed to see), the CPD is able to equip all working vehicles with an AED (note the use of the word working - the CPD has a serious lack of vehicles that do not have excessive miles on their odometers). Rusty noted that not all officers are trained in the use of the AED, though he hoped to have this corrected by the end of April. Rusty also said that the CPD had a patrol car equipped with an AED on the road 80% of the time.Finally, if you live in the Village of Cornwall-on-Hudson, and you're experiencing symptoms associated with a heart attack, your best bet might be to drive to Cornwall, if not New Windsor.According to the memo which quotes Village Police Chief Charlie Williams, "We have one unit and it is the discretion of the officer working whether to take it on patrol or not."Have a good week everybody, and watch those carbs!
Will Dick run for the Assembly? Only time will tellBy Blithesome Spirit
Monday night's Town Board meeting was short and to the point. After a brief induction ceremony for some new auxiliary cops, Cornwall Supervisor Dick Randazzo ran through the remainder of his agenda in ½ hour. What I did find refreshing is that Chris Eachus, the newly elected representative for the Orange County 15th District, made it a point to show his face.
Dick Randazzo & Bill LarkinThis contrasts sharply with Alan Seidman, who represents West Cornwall in the Orange County Legislature. The only time you ever see Alan at a Town Board meeting is if there is a photo opportunity and he stands a chance of getting his name in the news. Dick is on his school tax reform kick again. He mentioned that it was his hope to get other towns and counties involved in the effort to change the method that is used by Albany to distribute aid to localities.I've said it before, and I will say it again. The only way school tax reform will work is if the electorate makes it clear to the members of New York State's Senate and Assembly that unless there is an overhaul in the system they'll be out of a job. Unless this happens, nothing will change. While I'm on the subject of the State Senate and Assembly I can't overlook the fact that this is an election year and all members of the Assembly will have their seats up for the taking. This brings me back to Dick.
As most folks know Nancy Calhoun (R - Blooming Grove) represents Cornwall in the 96th Assembly District. If you're remotely familiar with Nancy's Assembly record you'll also know she's not very effective. Dick has run against Nancy in the past and lost. This year, however, it may be different. Dick's been getting pretty good press lately and there' has been no inkling of improprieties in his administration (keep in mind though this is Cornwall and this can change at any time). If Dick decides to run for Nancy's seat in the Assembly look for him to make an announcement sometime in the spring. Where not to have a heart attack ...Okay, now I have a pop quiz for you.If Heaven forbid you or a family member had a heart attack and a heart needed to be restarted with a defibrillator (assuming that an EMT was not available), and the first responder was a cop, where do you think the patient would stand the best chance of survival?If you chose the New Windsor Police Department, you're right. New Windsor always has at least one car on patrol equipped with an AED (Automated External Defibrillator).According to Cornwall Police Chief Rusty O'Dell (as quoted in a memo I wasn't supposed to see), the CPD is able to equip all working vehicles with an AED (note the use of the word working - the CPD has a serious lack of vehicles that do not have excessive miles on their odometers). Rusty noted that not all officers are trained in the use of the AED, though he hoped to have this corrected by the end of April. Rusty also said that the CPD had a patrol car equipped with an AED on the road 80% of the time.Finally, if you live in the Village of Cornwall-on-Hudson, and you're experiencing symptoms associated with a heart attack, your best bet might be to drive to Cornwall, if not New Windsor.According to the memo which quotes Village Police Chief Charlie Williams, "We have one unit and it is the discretion of the officer working whether to take it on patrol or not."Have a good week everybody, and watch those carbs!
Friday, February 17, 2006
Residents challenge Woodbury rezoningBy Tony Houston
Highland Mills - To build or not to build, that is the question in the Town of Woodbury.
Zoning and land development, always a dominant issue there, has become white hot — with three of the town residents suing over the matter.
The year 1988 is as good a time as any to begin this tale, although the last two years are when the excitement takes place. Woodbury adopted its current Master Plan in March 1988.
The Planning Board, appointed by the elected Town Board, has the authority to approve or deny land development applications. In doing so, the Planning Board referred to both the zoning laws passed by the Town Board and the Master Plan written by the Planning Board itself.
An amendment to the Town Law of the State of New York changes the “Master Plan” to a “Comprehensive Plan,” which is to be prepared and adopted by the elected Town Board. This leaves the Planning Board with a narrower role of interpreting the zoning laws and Comprehensive Plan — both written by others.
Like the Master Plan, a Comprehensive Plan includes goals and objectives and the principles and practices to achieve them; finer details are left to the zoning laws. The Woodbury Town Board set out to write a Comprehensive Plan in July 2004.
That November, representatives of Rockland County developer Bill Brodsky of Carteret Group, Inc., asked the Town Board to amend the zoning law. The amendments, passed a year later on Nov. 3, 2005, as Local Laws 4 through 8, allowed for Brodsky’s Woodbury Suburban Project (WP3) located between Dunderberg and Nininger Roads and for increased development throughout the town.
It took 30 years, from 1973 to 2003, for Woodbury’s population to double from 5,000 to 10,000. Local Laws 4 through 8 would have the effect of an immediate pursuit of the 20,000 mark.
The allowed housing units on the 400-acre WP3 project would increase from 147 or 175 to 451, 460 or 652 — depending upon who is doing the counting. Among the other effects of the new local laws would be to allow 281 units on two-acre lots in the Legacy Ridge project, up from 164 units on three-acre lots.
Enough already, said John Seyferth, Karin Ungerer and Don Siebold, who on last Dec. 4 filed an Article 78 lawsuit against the Town Board, Planning Board and developer.
These Woodbury residents are asking a state Supreme Court judge to “annul, vacate, and in all aspects void” the Town Board’s enactment of zoning amendments contained in Local Laws 4 through 8 and the Town Board’s statement of findings pursuant to the State Environmental Quality Review Act for the WP3 project.
Siebold is an appointed member of the Town of Woodbury’s Zoning Board of Appeals and, like his fellow petitioners, Siebold lives in the vicinity of the WP3 project. “My only concern is to preserve the character of the Town by controlled growth and not over-development, and being able to afford to live in Woodbury,” said Siebold. “The Town never mitigated the traffic.”
The Woodbury Town Board passed Local Laws 4 through 8 while it was working not only on a Comprehensive Plan, but on an Open Space Plan as well.
Released during this time was a draft of the Southeastern Orange County Traffic and Land Use Study, which recommended that the Town of Woodbury “reduce permitted intensity of residential development on land located along the north side of Dunderberg Road/Nininger Road,” just the opposite of the new local laws.
Included in the Article 78 legal papers is a Nov. 17, 2005, letter from Orange County Planning Commissioner David Church, Orange County Commissioner of Planning, in which “the petitions to rezone the subject properties (Local Laws 6, 7 and 8)” were disapproved. Local Laws 4 and 5 were mentioned in the letter, but were neither approved nor disapproved.
“That was not an oversight,” said Church. “We often remain silent on some of the issues brought to us.”
The letter of disapproval was not received by the Woodbury Town Board prior to its passing Local Laws 4 through 8. A supermajority of four votes of the five-member Town Board is needed to override a recommendation of such a disapproval.
Church’s letter referred to “significant public and private speculation” surrounding the potential sale and annexation of the 400-acre WP3 properties to the Village of Kiryas Joel if the new Woodbury local laws were not enacted. Church favored the analysis of alternative “as a means of comparing and contrasting significant adverse and beneficial environmental impacts with that of the preferred 451-unit alternative.”
The town made no such analysis, although it would have improved its case for amending the zoning laws.
The petitioners list three courses of action. The first is that the Town Board acted too soon, despite the four yes votes, by not allowing 30 days to pass after its October 21 submittal to the county. The second is that Local Laws 4 through 8 do not conform to the Town’s 1988 Master Plan. The Master Plan remains in effect until superseded by a Comprehensive Plan that has yet to be passed by the Town Board. The third cause of action would be that the Town Board failed to comply with the procedural and substantive requirements of SEQRA.
Five days after the passage of Local Laws 4 through 8, a new supervisor and a new councilman were elected to the Woodbury Town Board. The new board was seated in January of this year.
If Local Laws 4 through 8 are voided by the court, a re-vote could be quite different.
Town Supervisor John Burke defeated incumbent Sheila Conroy, who cast one of the four “yes” votes. He said this week that he didn’t know how far the lawsuit had gotten in the legal process.
“I’ve heard nothing about it since the December filing of the suit,” said Burke.
When asked about a possible re-vote if the petitioners won in court, Burke said “that is speculation — we’ll cross that bridge if and when we get there. The Town Board will sit down and decide where to go once the court rules.”
Highland Mills - To build or not to build, that is the question in the Town of Woodbury.
Zoning and land development, always a dominant issue there, has become white hot — with three of the town residents suing over the matter.
The year 1988 is as good a time as any to begin this tale, although the last two years are when the excitement takes place. Woodbury adopted its current Master Plan in March 1988.
The Planning Board, appointed by the elected Town Board, has the authority to approve or deny land development applications. In doing so, the Planning Board referred to both the zoning laws passed by the Town Board and the Master Plan written by the Planning Board itself.
An amendment to the Town Law of the State of New York changes the “Master Plan” to a “Comprehensive Plan,” which is to be prepared and adopted by the elected Town Board. This leaves the Planning Board with a narrower role of interpreting the zoning laws and Comprehensive Plan — both written by others.
Like the Master Plan, a Comprehensive Plan includes goals and objectives and the principles and practices to achieve them; finer details are left to the zoning laws. The Woodbury Town Board set out to write a Comprehensive Plan in July 2004.
That November, representatives of Rockland County developer Bill Brodsky of Carteret Group, Inc., asked the Town Board to amend the zoning law. The amendments, passed a year later on Nov. 3, 2005, as Local Laws 4 through 8, allowed for Brodsky’s Woodbury Suburban Project (WP3) located between Dunderberg and Nininger Roads and for increased development throughout the town.
It took 30 years, from 1973 to 2003, for Woodbury’s population to double from 5,000 to 10,000. Local Laws 4 through 8 would have the effect of an immediate pursuit of the 20,000 mark.
The allowed housing units on the 400-acre WP3 project would increase from 147 or 175 to 451, 460 or 652 — depending upon who is doing the counting. Among the other effects of the new local laws would be to allow 281 units on two-acre lots in the Legacy Ridge project, up from 164 units on three-acre lots.
Enough already, said John Seyferth, Karin Ungerer and Don Siebold, who on last Dec. 4 filed an Article 78 lawsuit against the Town Board, Planning Board and developer.
These Woodbury residents are asking a state Supreme Court judge to “annul, vacate, and in all aspects void” the Town Board’s enactment of zoning amendments contained in Local Laws 4 through 8 and the Town Board’s statement of findings pursuant to the State Environmental Quality Review Act for the WP3 project.
Siebold is an appointed member of the Town of Woodbury’s Zoning Board of Appeals and, like his fellow petitioners, Siebold lives in the vicinity of the WP3 project. “My only concern is to preserve the character of the Town by controlled growth and not over-development, and being able to afford to live in Woodbury,” said Siebold. “The Town never mitigated the traffic.”
The Woodbury Town Board passed Local Laws 4 through 8 while it was working not only on a Comprehensive Plan, but on an Open Space Plan as well.
Released during this time was a draft of the Southeastern Orange County Traffic and Land Use Study, which recommended that the Town of Woodbury “reduce permitted intensity of residential development on land located along the north side of Dunderberg Road/Nininger Road,” just the opposite of the new local laws.
Included in the Article 78 legal papers is a Nov. 17, 2005, letter from Orange County Planning Commissioner David Church, Orange County Commissioner of Planning, in which “the petitions to rezone the subject properties (Local Laws 6, 7 and 8)” were disapproved. Local Laws 4 and 5 were mentioned in the letter, but were neither approved nor disapproved.
“That was not an oversight,” said Church. “We often remain silent on some of the issues brought to us.”
The letter of disapproval was not received by the Woodbury Town Board prior to its passing Local Laws 4 through 8. A supermajority of four votes of the five-member Town Board is needed to override a recommendation of such a disapproval.
Church’s letter referred to “significant public and private speculation” surrounding the potential sale and annexation of the 400-acre WP3 properties to the Village of Kiryas Joel if the new Woodbury local laws were not enacted. Church favored the analysis of alternative “as a means of comparing and contrasting significant adverse and beneficial environmental impacts with that of the preferred 451-unit alternative.”
The town made no such analysis, although it would have improved its case for amending the zoning laws.
The petitioners list three courses of action. The first is that the Town Board acted too soon, despite the four yes votes, by not allowing 30 days to pass after its October 21 submittal to the county. The second is that Local Laws 4 through 8 do not conform to the Town’s 1988 Master Plan. The Master Plan remains in effect until superseded by a Comprehensive Plan that has yet to be passed by the Town Board. The third cause of action would be that the Town Board failed to comply with the procedural and substantive requirements of SEQRA.
Five days after the passage of Local Laws 4 through 8, a new supervisor and a new councilman were elected to the Woodbury Town Board. The new board was seated in January of this year.
If Local Laws 4 through 8 are voided by the court, a re-vote could be quite different.
Town Supervisor John Burke defeated incumbent Sheila Conroy, who cast one of the four “yes” votes. He said this week that he didn’t know how far the lawsuit had gotten in the legal process.
“I’ve heard nothing about it since the December filing of the suit,” said Burke.
When asked about a possible re-vote if the petitioners won in court, Burke said “that is speculation — we’ll cross that bridge if and when we get there. The Town Board will sit down and decide where to go once the court rules.”
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Cornwall's "No Bid Zone
Cornwall's "No Bid Zone"By Tom SheppardMember, Board of Education
Have you noticed the "For Sale" signs that have been sprouting throughout Cornwall? I have, and I am concerned. While Cornwall Supervisor Dick Randazzo continues his crusade for school tax reform, his efforts are being undermined by our own Board of Education and its administration.Let me give you an example.
Aside from personnel costs, one of the largest contracts issued by the school district is for student transportation. For fiscal 2005-2006 approximately $2.6 million has been budgeted. In December private discussions were begun by the Board of Education with regard to the continuation of its transportation contract with the district's sole provider. There has been no effort made to secure bids from other vendors. On Thursday, February 2nd a potential competitor for a piece of the district's transportation contract met with Superintendent of Schools Tim Rehm. This well qualified and respected vendor made a commitment to transport special education students with equal or better service than the current vendor, and at a lower cost. On Friday, February 3rd Mr. Rehm sent a memorandum to Board members recommending that the vendor not be considered. Mr. Rehm did not explain his reasons and frankly I cannot see how he could make such a recommendation within a few short hours without doing his homework. My colleagues will undoubtedly agree with Mr. Rehm's recommendation, they always do. The point I am trying to make here is that it's the Board of Education's job to make your tax dollars do more by going further. We're making no such effort if we fail to seek alternatives that can save the district money. My other concerns are personal and pertain to my friends and neighbors. My heart aches when I hear my friends tell me they can no longer afford to pay their taxes, and the need to cut their medications in half so that they can save enough money to purchase oil to heat their homes.I am also tired and disgusted hearing the school district's administration claim recommended cost saving strategies will not be considered due to one reason or another. The people we have running our school district don't live here. We do, and we're the ones paying the bills. I applaud Dick's efforts in his crusade for school tax reform. Sadly Dick's efforts will be naught, however, if we don't take control of our own school district and demand reform from within.
Have you noticed the "For Sale" signs that have been sprouting throughout Cornwall? I have, and I am concerned. While Cornwall Supervisor Dick Randazzo continues his crusade for school tax reform, his efforts are being undermined by our own Board of Education and its administration.Let me give you an example.
Aside from personnel costs, one of the largest contracts issued by the school district is for student transportation. For fiscal 2005-2006 approximately $2.6 million has been budgeted. In December private discussions were begun by the Board of Education with regard to the continuation of its transportation contract with the district's sole provider. There has been no effort made to secure bids from other vendors. On Thursday, February 2nd a potential competitor for a piece of the district's transportation contract met with Superintendent of Schools Tim Rehm. This well qualified and respected vendor made a commitment to transport special education students with equal or better service than the current vendor, and at a lower cost. On Friday, February 3rd Mr. Rehm sent a memorandum to Board members recommending that the vendor not be considered. Mr. Rehm did not explain his reasons and frankly I cannot see how he could make such a recommendation within a few short hours without doing his homework. My colleagues will undoubtedly agree with Mr. Rehm's recommendation, they always do. The point I am trying to make here is that it's the Board of Education's job to make your tax dollars do more by going further. We're making no such effort if we fail to seek alternatives that can save the district money. My other concerns are personal and pertain to my friends and neighbors. My heart aches when I hear my friends tell me they can no longer afford to pay their taxes, and the need to cut their medications in half so that they can save enough money to purchase oil to heat their homes.I am also tired and disgusted hearing the school district's administration claim recommended cost saving strategies will not be considered due to one reason or another. The people we have running our school district don't live here. We do, and we're the ones paying the bills. I applaud Dick's efforts in his crusade for school tax reform. Sadly Dick's efforts will be naught, however, if we don't take control of our own school district and demand reform from within.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)