Saturday, October 21, 2006
Joann Stabile states her case for Woodbury Village trustee
Joann Stabile states her case for Woodbury Village trustee
To the editor:
Joann Stabile is a candidate running on the CommUNITY party ticket for one of the new village trustee positions. She has lived in the Town of Woodbury for the last 34 years and is married 32 years to Peter, who as we all know, is the Woodbury Town Highway Superintendent.
Together they raised two children, Joann and Peter III, who are now grown and married.
Joann was a successful local business owner in Central Valley for 17 years, a former member of the Women of Woodbury and the Highland Mills Ladies Fire Auxiliary, as well as chairperson of Woodbury Community Day, a member of the Woodbury Parks Commission and FEMA-certified Crisis Manager and a member of St. Patrick Church in Highland Mills.
Joann is currently a regional safety and accident prevention manager with a regional trucking company in Newburgh, and the first woman to hold this position in the 88-year history of the company.
When the residents elect the CommUNITY Party as the new village board, they will work closely with the town board to ensure that all town services will stay intact and they will defend against anyone who tries to annex any land out of the village. Their goal is to minimize village taxes.
In recent years, the most commonly cited reason for seeking incorporation is the desire to control or limit local development, principally by getting more localized control over zoning. Local zoning powers are not absolute, and are limited by state law as well as court decisions. Those seeking to control and guide development through incorporation are well advised to proceed carefully to make certain that their wishes fall within the effects that are possible and legal and to be certain that they take actions that will not produce unwanted side effects.
So vote for the CommUNITY party on Nov. 2 at the Senior Center from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. You will find the CommUNITY Party on Row D Bottom line, so vote bottom line. That is where Woodbury’s future is.
Joann Stabile
candidate for trustee
Village of Woodbury
To the editor:
Joann Stabile is a candidate running on the CommUNITY party ticket for one of the new village trustee positions. She has lived in the Town of Woodbury for the last 34 years and is married 32 years to Peter, who as we all know, is the Woodbury Town Highway Superintendent.
Together they raised two children, Joann and Peter III, who are now grown and married.
Joann was a successful local business owner in Central Valley for 17 years, a former member of the Women of Woodbury and the Highland Mills Ladies Fire Auxiliary, as well as chairperson of Woodbury Community Day, a member of the Woodbury Parks Commission and FEMA-certified Crisis Manager and a member of St. Patrick Church in Highland Mills.
Joann is currently a regional safety and accident prevention manager with a regional trucking company in Newburgh, and the first woman to hold this position in the 88-year history of the company.
When the residents elect the CommUNITY Party as the new village board, they will work closely with the town board to ensure that all town services will stay intact and they will defend against anyone who tries to annex any land out of the village. Their goal is to minimize village taxes.
In recent years, the most commonly cited reason for seeking incorporation is the desire to control or limit local development, principally by getting more localized control over zoning. Local zoning powers are not absolute, and are limited by state law as well as court decisions. Those seeking to control and guide development through incorporation are well advised to proceed carefully to make certain that their wishes fall within the effects that are possible and legal and to be certain that they take actions that will not produce unwanted side effects.
So vote for the CommUNITY party on Nov. 2 at the Senior Center from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. You will find the CommUNITY Party on Row D Bottom line, so vote bottom line. That is where Woodbury’s future is.
Joann Stabile
candidate for trustee
Village of Woodbury
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Political happenings
Political happenings
Chester Councilman Steve Neuhaus will host a fundraiser at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Trailside Pub on Winkler Place in Chester. Tickets are $30. Call 469-2445.
The Mamakating Democratic Committee will host a public meeting to discuss town issues at 7 p.m. Thursday at Mamakating Town Park. Free.
The Woodbury Community Party will host an open house at 6 p.m. Thursday at its campaign headquarters at 509 Route 32 in Highland Mills. Log onto www.communityparty.net.
Citizens for the Preservation of Woodbury are hosting a free continental breakfast at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Savory Grill on Route 32 in Highland Mills to introduce its Village of Woodbury candidates. Call 928-2059.
Talk on the Street is the Times Herald-Record's weekly roundup of political events and anecdotes. Write to Talk on the Street, c/o Times Herald-Record, 1170 Route 17M, Suite 4, Chester, NY 10918. Call 783-2764, ext. 6308, fax 783-2604 or e-mail contributions to bscott@th-record.com.
Chester Councilman Steve Neuhaus will host a fundraiser at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Trailside Pub on Winkler Place in Chester. Tickets are $30. Call 469-2445.
The Mamakating Democratic Committee will host a public meeting to discuss town issues at 7 p.m. Thursday at Mamakating Town Park. Free.
The Woodbury Community Party will host an open house at 6 p.m. Thursday at its campaign headquarters at 509 Route 32 in Highland Mills. Log onto www.communityparty.net.
Citizens for the Preservation of Woodbury are hosting a free continental breakfast at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Savory Grill on Route 32 in Highland Mills to introduce its Village of Woodbury candidates. Call 928-2059.
Talk on the Street is the Times Herald-Record's weekly roundup of political events and anecdotes. Write to Talk on the Street, c/o Times Herald-Record, 1170 Route 17M, Suite 4, Chester, NY 10918. Call 783-2764, ext. 6308, fax 783-2604 or e-mail contributions to bscott@th-record.com.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Questions we should ask the candidates
The new Village Election a few weeks away I have some thoughts about the election and questions we should ask the candidates.
Questions
• What are the specific changes you want to make in our community?
• Is running for this office the best way to make these changes?
• Why are you the best person for the job?
• Are you ok with the current zoning or do you want to change it?
• Will you use all the Towns services?
• What is your plan to reduce taxes now that we have a Village and it will cost taxpayer more to live here?
• Will you use the Town Master Plan or re write your own?
• Do you have any Local Government experience?
• Do you have any budget experience?
• What do think the Village Officials salaries should be?
• What are your plans for a building or renting a Village Hall and what will this cost the taxpayers?
• Do you have any idea of what your 2007 budget will be?
• Do you really want the job?
• Are you absolutely healthy and sane? (You will
• be under tremendous pressure)
Questions
• What are the specific changes you want to make in our community?
• Is running for this office the best way to make these changes?
• Why are you the best person for the job?
• Are you ok with the current zoning or do you want to change it?
• Will you use all the Towns services?
• What is your plan to reduce taxes now that we have a Village and it will cost taxpayer more to live here?
• Will you use the Town Master Plan or re write your own?
• Do you have any Local Government experience?
• Do you have any budget experience?
• What do think the Village Officials salaries should be?
• What are your plans for a building or renting a Village Hall and what will this cost the taxpayers?
• Do you have any idea of what your 2007 budget will be?
• Do you really want the job?
• Are you absolutely healthy and sane? (You will
• be under tremendous pressure)
"We Cannot Let Down Our Guard"
"We Cannot Let Down Our Guard"
By Rudy Giuliani
USA Today, Sep 11 -
The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, continue to flood me with many memories. Some are sad, some are tragic, others are uplifting. But recently I have been reflecting on how the attacks are ongoing. The attacks of five years ago cannot be consigned to history.
The attacks did not begin on Sept. 11, 2001. They actually began sometime in the late 1960s, when Islamic radicals started hijacking planes and directing terror at civilians. The first attack that drew significant international attention was the slaughter of the Israeli wrestling team at the Munich Olympics in 1972. Numerous attacks followed, leading up to Sept. 11 and the deadliest ever attack on American soil.
The attacks have continued unceasingly since 9/11 and include those on Bali, Indonesia; Madrid; Beslan, Russia; London — and the recent interrupted plot in the United Kingdom, which might have been even deadlier than the attacks five years ago.
So the killing of innocent civilians by Islamic fanatics has been going on for some time. What was quite different about the attacks of five years ago is that Sept. 11, 2001, marks the day that our nation went on offense against the terrorists.
We broke the pattern of inconsistent response to previous attacks. We began a concerted effort to defeat Islamic fundamentalist terrorism.
'Safer, but not safe enough'
Five years later, the measures taken to improve safety in our country have made a difference. We are safer, but not safe enough. It might be tempting to lower our guard and allow our memories to fade into history. That's probably a natural tendency. But it would be a dangerous mistake for our country.
The people who consider democracy their enemy have not stopped fighting. They have not stopped killing. We cannot let down our guard.
This month brings us another sad anniversary, the second year since the siege at Beslan by terrorists. Imagine the kind of people who saw their intended targets — schoolchildren — enter for the first day of school laden with flowers for their teachers. Days later, those children would be so hungry they would eat those wilted flowers as the terrorists mocked them. Soon, many of the children and their parents would be dead.
Shortly after the siege ended, I happened to travel to the region. I was in Moscow on the day of the memorial gathering. Having recently endured a deadly takeover of a Moscow theater and the downing of commercial airliners, Russia's reaction was swift and overpowering. The war against radical Chechen Islamists continues, but Russia has won significant victories and seems to have turned the tide.
It is just over a year since the brutal bombing attacks in London that killed more than 50 innocent people on their way to work. I was visiting in London on that date, just a half block from Liverpool Street Station when the bombings occurred. These attacks made it clear to us that any place is vulnerable. Despite having perhaps the best intelligence services in the world, British authorities were not able to prevent the attack. They did, however, display superb skill in responding to the emergency. Their immediate action saved lives, reduced suffering and mitigated the shock the terrorists were attempting to achieve.
They had learned from years of terrorism how to handle an attack. The perpetrators were identified and their accomplices and plotters of further attacks were captured before additional planned attacks could be launched.
The British intelligence services learned a lesson from the bombings on July 7, 2005. They updated their methods and learned to identify new sources of danger. Then, homegrown British citizens planned and executed deadly plans without detection, possibly because the intelligence was focused on foreigners. By 2006, the security services had adapted. They were able to thwart a massive plot involving mostly homegrown terrorists.
The United States has successfully prevented domestic attacks over the past five years, but the terrorists have not relented. Think of the innumerable attacks from Israel to Iraq and the reported attacks planned by sleeper cells in Buffalo; Portland, Ore.; and Canada that were disrupted by alert authorities.
Some argue that the attacks continue because of the war in Iraq. But the attacks began decades before the Iraq war. Some argue that our enemies seek negotiation and understanding. But our enemies have made clear to us that what they seek is the annihilation of our most precious freedoms.
One of the main reasons for the founding of the United States was to establish freedom, particularly freedom of religion. Our enemies oppose freedom, particularly freedom of religion. This was made shockingly clear by the recent gunpoint "conversion" of two kidnapped journalists in Gaza. The terrorists don't want to understand and co-exist alongside Western democracies. There are those over the past 30 years, and even to this day, who want to negotiate with the fanatic Islamic terrorists. But the fanatics don't want to negotiate. They want to establish a world in which everyone practices a perverted version of their religion. They want to return to a time before the modern age, to a world in which women have no rights and religious dissent is met with death.
These attacks are about a radical form of Islam that views our very existence as a grave threat. This is not a debate over values or policies. This is not a border dispute. This is a war over the preservation and expansion of the modern world.
We must realize the depth of the danger we face and the determination of our enemy. We have increased attention on air security. We have extended the USA Patriot Act, which has given us a greater opportunity to detect terrorist plots before they occur. We now receive much more help from other countries, such as Pakistan, including banks sharing information about money flow inside terrorist organizations. That information was vital to revealing this summer's airline terror plot in Britain.
Secure our future
As we continue to focus on what we've learned, we must also focus on goals for securing our future. We must improve our intelligence. We must commit to restoring a human intelligence base. We must increase our port security and expand the cooperation of other countries. We must ensure at least a minimum level of emergency preparation in every community in America.
If we remain steadfast in our commitment to these goals, we will succeed. We will make the world safe for the practice of all religions, including Islam. After all, the majority of Muslims are peaceful and law-abiding — they too have been victimized by the radical minority.
On the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, I hope the world will visit the hallowed ground of the World Trade Center and see a soaring memorial to those who were killed there, as well as those in Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pa. A fitting tribute will pay honor not only to the victims of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but also to the spirit of freedom.
There is a reason thousands of rescue personnel rushed into enormous danger to save men and women who were strangers to them. The reason was respect for the value of human life. It can also be described as love — the kind of love expressed in a biblical phrase, "Man has no greater love than to lay down his life for his friend." This respect for human life and love for others, including strangers, form the core of Western civilization. It is the driving force that helped us create freedom.
What I learned from Sept. 11, 2001, is that free people have much greater strength than they realize. Ultimately, free people prevail over oppression.
Rudy Giuliani was the mayor of New York on Sept. 11, 2001.
By Rudy Giuliani
USA Today, Sep 11 -
The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, continue to flood me with many memories. Some are sad, some are tragic, others are uplifting. But recently I have been reflecting on how the attacks are ongoing. The attacks of five years ago cannot be consigned to history.
The attacks did not begin on Sept. 11, 2001. They actually began sometime in the late 1960s, when Islamic radicals started hijacking planes and directing terror at civilians. The first attack that drew significant international attention was the slaughter of the Israeli wrestling team at the Munich Olympics in 1972. Numerous attacks followed, leading up to Sept. 11 and the deadliest ever attack on American soil.
The attacks have continued unceasingly since 9/11 and include those on Bali, Indonesia; Madrid; Beslan, Russia; London — and the recent interrupted plot in the United Kingdom, which might have been even deadlier than the attacks five years ago.
So the killing of innocent civilians by Islamic fanatics has been going on for some time. What was quite different about the attacks of five years ago is that Sept. 11, 2001, marks the day that our nation went on offense against the terrorists.
We broke the pattern of inconsistent response to previous attacks. We began a concerted effort to defeat Islamic fundamentalist terrorism.
'Safer, but not safe enough'
Five years later, the measures taken to improve safety in our country have made a difference. We are safer, but not safe enough. It might be tempting to lower our guard and allow our memories to fade into history. That's probably a natural tendency. But it would be a dangerous mistake for our country.
The people who consider democracy their enemy have not stopped fighting. They have not stopped killing. We cannot let down our guard.
This month brings us another sad anniversary, the second year since the siege at Beslan by terrorists. Imagine the kind of people who saw their intended targets — schoolchildren — enter for the first day of school laden with flowers for their teachers. Days later, those children would be so hungry they would eat those wilted flowers as the terrorists mocked them. Soon, many of the children and their parents would be dead.
Shortly after the siege ended, I happened to travel to the region. I was in Moscow on the day of the memorial gathering. Having recently endured a deadly takeover of a Moscow theater and the downing of commercial airliners, Russia's reaction was swift and overpowering. The war against radical Chechen Islamists continues, but Russia has won significant victories and seems to have turned the tide.
It is just over a year since the brutal bombing attacks in London that killed more than 50 innocent people on their way to work. I was visiting in London on that date, just a half block from Liverpool Street Station when the bombings occurred. These attacks made it clear to us that any place is vulnerable. Despite having perhaps the best intelligence services in the world, British authorities were not able to prevent the attack. They did, however, display superb skill in responding to the emergency. Their immediate action saved lives, reduced suffering and mitigated the shock the terrorists were attempting to achieve.
They had learned from years of terrorism how to handle an attack. The perpetrators were identified and their accomplices and plotters of further attacks were captured before additional planned attacks could be launched.
The British intelligence services learned a lesson from the bombings on July 7, 2005. They updated their methods and learned to identify new sources of danger. Then, homegrown British citizens planned and executed deadly plans without detection, possibly because the intelligence was focused on foreigners. By 2006, the security services had adapted. They were able to thwart a massive plot involving mostly homegrown terrorists.
The United States has successfully prevented domestic attacks over the past five years, but the terrorists have not relented. Think of the innumerable attacks from Israel to Iraq and the reported attacks planned by sleeper cells in Buffalo; Portland, Ore.; and Canada that were disrupted by alert authorities.
Some argue that the attacks continue because of the war in Iraq. But the attacks began decades before the Iraq war. Some argue that our enemies seek negotiation and understanding. But our enemies have made clear to us that what they seek is the annihilation of our most precious freedoms.
One of the main reasons for the founding of the United States was to establish freedom, particularly freedom of religion. Our enemies oppose freedom, particularly freedom of religion. This was made shockingly clear by the recent gunpoint "conversion" of two kidnapped journalists in Gaza. The terrorists don't want to understand and co-exist alongside Western democracies. There are those over the past 30 years, and even to this day, who want to negotiate with the fanatic Islamic terrorists. But the fanatics don't want to negotiate. They want to establish a world in which everyone practices a perverted version of their religion. They want to return to a time before the modern age, to a world in which women have no rights and religious dissent is met with death.
These attacks are about a radical form of Islam that views our very existence as a grave threat. This is not a debate over values or policies. This is not a border dispute. This is a war over the preservation and expansion of the modern world.
We must realize the depth of the danger we face and the determination of our enemy. We have increased attention on air security. We have extended the USA Patriot Act, which has given us a greater opportunity to detect terrorist plots before they occur. We now receive much more help from other countries, such as Pakistan, including banks sharing information about money flow inside terrorist organizations. That information was vital to revealing this summer's airline terror plot in Britain.
Secure our future
As we continue to focus on what we've learned, we must also focus on goals for securing our future. We must improve our intelligence. We must commit to restoring a human intelligence base. We must increase our port security and expand the cooperation of other countries. We must ensure at least a minimum level of emergency preparation in every community in America.
If we remain steadfast in our commitment to these goals, we will succeed. We will make the world safe for the practice of all religions, including Islam. After all, the majority of Muslims are peaceful and law-abiding — they too have been victimized by the radical minority.
On the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, I hope the world will visit the hallowed ground of the World Trade Center and see a soaring memorial to those who were killed there, as well as those in Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pa. A fitting tribute will pay honor not only to the victims of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but also to the spirit of freedom.
There is a reason thousands of rescue personnel rushed into enormous danger to save men and women who were strangers to them. The reason was respect for the value of human life. It can also be described as love — the kind of love expressed in a biblical phrase, "Man has no greater love than to lay down his life for his friend." This respect for human life and love for others, including strangers, form the core of Western civilization. It is the driving force that helped us create freedom.
What I learned from Sept. 11, 2001, is that free people have much greater strength than they realize. Ultimately, free people prevail over oppression.
Rudy Giuliani was the mayor of New York on Sept. 11, 2001.
Berean-Weeks makes her case to be Woodbury’s first mayor
To the editor:
My name is Stephanie Berean-Weeks and I am seeking your support to be the first mayor of our new village.
My father was for many years active in the community I grew up in as a public official, including time as our town supervisor. I learned at an early age that the decisions made by our public officials have a direct impact on the lives of my neighbors and friends. Several years ago, I came to call Woodbury home after marrying my husband Cliff, who has been a longtime resident of Woodbury. I have come to love all that Woodbury has to offer and have come to realize, along with my husband, that it is a wonderful community to raise our daughter, Kelly.
Therefore, like many of you, who also realize Woodbury is a great community to raise a family, my husband and I struggle to pay the taxes and bear the high costs it takes to live here. We do it, however, because we feel the benefits far outweigh the negatives.
Recently, the voters of Woodbury created a village. There will be new costs that we must bear to live in this new village. I am concerned that this new village could very well break the budgets of many young couples raising families like my husband and I, or seniors who have for years paid more than their share in taxes.
Along with the financial impacts of this new village, we will also have to face the inevitable battles over annexation, issues regarding zoning, increased growth and how to handle the burdens of that on our community, among many others.
I believe that my team and I, running on the CommUNITY ticket, have the best interest of Woodbury at heart. We will attack the issues that Woodbury faces head on.
I look forward to talking to all of you on the campaign trail. If you have any questions or would like to speak to me, please contact me at 845-206-2090 or visit our Web site at www.communityparty.net to learn more about my platform.
Thanks and I look forward to your support on Thursday, Nov. 2.
Stephanie Berean-Weeks
Candidate for Village of Woodbury Mayor
Highland Mills
My name is Stephanie Berean-Weeks and I am seeking your support to be the first mayor of our new village.
My father was for many years active in the community I grew up in as a public official, including time as our town supervisor. I learned at an early age that the decisions made by our public officials have a direct impact on the lives of my neighbors and friends. Several years ago, I came to call Woodbury home after marrying my husband Cliff, who has been a longtime resident of Woodbury. I have come to love all that Woodbury has to offer and have come to realize, along with my husband, that it is a wonderful community to raise our daughter, Kelly.
Therefore, like many of you, who also realize Woodbury is a great community to raise a family, my husband and I struggle to pay the taxes and bear the high costs it takes to live here. We do it, however, because we feel the benefits far outweigh the negatives.
Recently, the voters of Woodbury created a village. There will be new costs that we must bear to live in this new village. I am concerned that this new village could very well break the budgets of many young couples raising families like my husband and I, or seniors who have for years paid more than their share in taxes.
Along with the financial impacts of this new village, we will also have to face the inevitable battles over annexation, issues regarding zoning, increased growth and how to handle the burdens of that on our community, among many others.
I believe that my team and I, running on the CommUNITY ticket, have the best interest of Woodbury at heart. We will attack the issues that Woodbury faces head on.
I look forward to talking to all of you on the campaign trail. If you have any questions or would like to speak to me, please contact me at 845-206-2090 or visit our Web site at www.communityparty.net to learn more about my platform.
Thanks and I look forward to your support on Thursday, Nov. 2.
Stephanie Berean-Weeks
Candidate for Village of Woodbury Mayor
Highland Mills
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Will it be to much government in Woodbury?
So it’s now election season in Woodbury and the field is set. Thomas Jefferson once said “My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government”. We do not know what the future will bring us but we do know for sure will have more government in Woodbury.
‘Embarrassed to live in the Village of Woodbury’
‘Embarrassed to live in the Village of Woodbury’
To the editor:
George Pederson writes, “Woodbury, take a bow” because your “yes” vote for the village of Woodbury showed you care about home and community.
Well, Georgie boy, I have a different view. I think the 2,094 people that voted “yes” should bow their head in disgrace, because they believed the misinformation, put out by groups in Woodbury, with the intent to scare them into believing that forming a village would keep men dressed in black coats and black hats from living next door to them.
In fear, they voted for an extra layer of government that we, the people, don’t need and, which is guaranteed to raise our taxes.
The misinformation stated “that forming a village” would place another layer to prevent the men in black from developing their land.”
Well, haven’t the events in the past few months proved that so wrong. The men in black coats and black hats have an answer to your obstacles.
Take the recent vote by our 17 biased legislators who voted against a water tower in a county park, denying a sect of people water needed to develop their land.
A great victory against the men dressed in black. Yet, only one month later, they buy the land a few feet away from the proposed location and they will build the two water towers.
And if anyone really believes that these legislators will prevent the men in black from getting the water line from New York City and if you believe a survival packet, sent out by the Citizens for the Preservation of Woodbury is going to stop the men in black from annexing Ace Farms, then I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
No, George, Woodbury shouldn’t be proud that they toppled a government and rendered it useless.
Like me, they should be embarrassed to live in the Village of Woodbury.
Frank J. Palermo
Highland Mills
To the editor:
George Pederson writes, “Woodbury, take a bow” because your “yes” vote for the village of Woodbury showed you care about home and community.
Well, Georgie boy, I have a different view. I think the 2,094 people that voted “yes” should bow their head in disgrace, because they believed the misinformation, put out by groups in Woodbury, with the intent to scare them into believing that forming a village would keep men dressed in black coats and black hats from living next door to them.
In fear, they voted for an extra layer of government that we, the people, don’t need and, which is guaranteed to raise our taxes.
The misinformation stated “that forming a village” would place another layer to prevent the men in black from developing their land.”
Well, haven’t the events in the past few months proved that so wrong. The men in black coats and black hats have an answer to your obstacles.
Take the recent vote by our 17 biased legislators who voted against a water tower in a county park, denying a sect of people water needed to develop their land.
A great victory against the men dressed in black. Yet, only one month later, they buy the land a few feet away from the proposed location and they will build the two water towers.
And if anyone really believes that these legislators will prevent the men in black from getting the water line from New York City and if you believe a survival packet, sent out by the Citizens for the Preservation of Woodbury is going to stop the men in black from annexing Ace Farms, then I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
No, George, Woodbury shouldn’t be proud that they toppled a government and rendered it useless.
Like me, they should be embarrassed to live in the Village of Woodbury.
Frank J. Palermo
Highland Mills
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Fourth village coming for Monroe?
News
Fourth village coming for Monroe?
By Chris McKenna
September 09, 2006
Times Herald-Record
Monroe — Now that village fever has taken hold in neighboring Blooming Grove and Woodbury, the first rumblings have begun about creating a fourth village in Monroe to shake up the political order.
The citizens group Save Monroe dips its toe in these turbulent waters in its latest newsletter, soon to be distributed to town residents.
"What do the citizens in the Towns of Woodbury and Blooming Grove know that Monroe doesn't?" the group asks.
"Isn't it time we investigate the pros and cons of a new village — one that would represent the 50 percent of Monroe's population that resides outside the Village of Kiryas Joel?"
No boundaries for this hypothetical village have been drawn. Save Monroe President Theresa Budich said yesterday that her organization is merely seeking input and has taken no position on the issue.
The idea comes on the heels of overwhelming votes by residents of southern Blooming Grove and Woodbury to incorporate villages.
In both places, voters wanted to prevent the high-density housing of Kiryas Joel from spreading into their towns.
In Monroe, the idea has arisen because of Kiryas Joel's dominance in town elections, not its potential expansion.
The Hasidic community's voting blocs have kept Monroe's Republican incumbents in power in the last several elections, despite huge support for their challengers in areas outside Kiryas Joel.
"Kiryas Joel has their own village, and obviously I don't vote in their elections," Budich said.
"They determine their own destiny. I think a large part of the population would like the same right to determine their own," she said.
The first step in creating a village would be to submit a petition signed by residents of the area that would be incorporated.
If the town supervisor determines the petition is valid, the proposal would then be put to voters in a referendum.
Fourth village coming for Monroe?
By Chris McKenna
September 09, 2006
Times Herald-Record
Monroe — Now that village fever has taken hold in neighboring Blooming Grove and Woodbury, the first rumblings have begun about creating a fourth village in Monroe to shake up the political order.
The citizens group Save Monroe dips its toe in these turbulent waters in its latest newsletter, soon to be distributed to town residents.
"What do the citizens in the Towns of Woodbury and Blooming Grove know that Monroe doesn't?" the group asks.
"Isn't it time we investigate the pros and cons of a new village — one that would represent the 50 percent of Monroe's population that resides outside the Village of Kiryas Joel?"
No boundaries for this hypothetical village have been drawn. Save Monroe President Theresa Budich said yesterday that her organization is merely seeking input and has taken no position on the issue.
The idea comes on the heels of overwhelming votes by residents of southern Blooming Grove and Woodbury to incorporate villages.
In both places, voters wanted to prevent the high-density housing of Kiryas Joel from spreading into their towns.
In Monroe, the idea has arisen because of Kiryas Joel's dominance in town elections, not its potential expansion.
The Hasidic community's voting blocs have kept Monroe's Republican incumbents in power in the last several elections, despite huge support for their challengers in areas outside Kiryas Joel.
"Kiryas Joel has their own village, and obviously I don't vote in their elections," Budich said.
"They determine their own destiny. I think a large part of the population would like the same right to determine their own," she said.
The first step in creating a village would be to submit a petition signed by residents of the area that would be incorporated.
If the town supervisor determines the petition is valid, the proposal would then be put to voters in a referendum.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Reverberations of a Baby Boom
August 27, 2006
Reverberations of a Baby Boom
By FERNANDA SANTOS
KIRYAS JOEL, N.Y., Aug. 22 — As the administrator of this village in southern Orange County, Gedalye Szegedin knows that much of his job revolves around a simple equation: the number of girls who get married is roughly equal to the number of new homes this community will need to accommodate its rapid growth.
Last year, Mr. Szegedin oversaw the construction of 200 houses and apartments, mostly on the outer-lying lots along the eastern edge of this 1.1-square-mile community, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish enclave about 60 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. By the end of this year, he said, the village will most likely have 300 new homes.
“There are three religious tenets that drive our growth: our women don’t use birth control, they get married young and after they get married, they stay in Kiryas Joel and start a family,” Mr. Szegedin said.
“Our growth comes simply from the fact that our families have a lot of babies,” he added, “and we need to build homes to respond to the needs of our community.”
But developable land is a finite resource here, and not much of it is left. And as Kiryas Joel pushes up against its borders, nearby neighbors in the towns of Blooming Grove and Woodbury are moving aggressively to prevent the community from expanding by incorporating into villages of their own.
“We still have huge tracts of open land in Woodbury, and we want to keep it that way,” said Woodbury’s supervisor, John P. Burke, who grew up in the Bronx and moved to Orange County in 1969.
“We want to make sure that no outside community is able to completely transform the character and the look of our town,” he said. “If we need a village to do that, so be it.”
Kiryas Joel’s population leaped to 18,300 last year from 13,100 in 2000 and 7,400 in 1990, making it one of the fastest growing places in the state, according to the most recent estimates by the Census Bureau. For two years, developers and local officials have been searching for private parcels in surrounding communities, hoping to expand the village through annexation for the third time since it was incorporated in 1977 as an offshoot of the Satmar Hasidic sect of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
After its incorporation, most of the growth was driven by migration from New York City. But now, new arrivals are mostly babies and grooms coming to marry one of the local women.
Worried residents in Blooming Grove, which lies northwest of here, and Woodbury, which lies east, have voted overwhelmingly in the past two months to approve the creation of two new villages. State law allows villages to be established within towns and to set their own zoning regulations, and area officials say the new villages would be able to restrict the multifamily, high-density building that predominates in Kiryas Joel.
Many of the families in those towns also fled the crowded streets of New York City, moving here for the cleaner air, the safer communities and the open spaces, where the closest neighbor may not be so close.
“We’re hard-working people who decided to move up here to pay less taxes and enjoy the quietness of country,” said Garry Dugan, a retired New York City detective and the president of the South Blooming Grove Homeowners Association, the group that began the drive to create one of the villages.
“It’s a shame that it has come to us and them, but we feel like we had to form a village for no reason other than preserving our quality of life,” said Mr. Dugan, who has lived in Blooming Grove for 26 years. “This has nothing to do with their religion.”
It is not the first time that Kiryas Joel and its neighbors have clashed.
Over the years, there have been disputes — over a water pipeline Kiryas Joel sought to build, for example, and whether the state should pay for a school system for its disabled students. There was also an argument in 1986 when 600 Kiryas Joel boys refused to board school buses driven by women. (The drivers are now all men.)
The Satmar Hasidim share what they call a deep mystical connection to Kiryas Joel. They were led here by their founder, the Grand Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, who saw in it the ideal place for his followers to raise large families away from the influences of the outside world. Hence the name of the village, which means Town of Joel.
About 3,000 families live here, many of them in boxy wood-frame homes built close to one another, with up to a dozen apartments stacked in four floors.
The village has no parks or public playgrounds, so children play with their colorful plastic toys on small front yards.
A network of sidewalks twirl across the village, so the women, who do not drive, are able to walk to the clinic and supermarket. Baby strollers seem to be everywhere: in the lobbies of buildings, on sidewalks, outside the stores.
“This is a great place to raise our children; it’s easy to keep them away from the distractions of the city,” said Judith Greenfeld, 34, whose family moved here from Williamsburg two decades ago.
All but 3 of her 12 siblings live here.
Mrs. Greenfeld and her husband, Joseph, 35, have five children, three boys and two girls, ages 3 to 13. The median age is 15, compared with 35 for the nation, according to the 2000 census. The village has one of the lowest median ages among communities nationwide with more than 5,000 residents.
The Greenfelds live on a dead-end street, in a third-floor apartment across from a girls’ school. Like most families here, they speak more Yiddish than English and have no radio, computer or television at home. Mr. Greenfeld owns a tile shop in Monroe, just outside the village borders.
His wife helps him run the business, which makes her a rare exception among Kiryas Joel’s women, who are married soon after they graduate from high school, work until they give birth to their second child and then become stay-at-home mothers. The men, meanwhile, board yellow school buses every morning and ride to New York City, to jobs in the diamond district or at B & H, the photo and video store near Herald Square.
Because of the sheer size of the families (the average household here has six people, but it is not uncommon for couples to have 8 or 10 children), and because a vast majority of households subsist on only one salary, 62 percent of the local families live below poverty level and rely heavily on public assistance, which is another sore point among those who live in neighboring communities.
“We just don’t understand why they have to keep pushing their expansionist ideas on us,” said Charles J. Bohan, who is the supervisor of the Town of Blooming Grove and a resident of the new village, named South Blooming Grove.
On Sept. 21, South Blooming Grove will hold its first election for mayor and for a four-member board of trustees. The state must still certify the results of the vote to create the village in Woodbury before elections there can be held.
Mr. Szegedin, Kiryas Joel’s administrator, said his community was not deterred.
"We have several different developers that want to sell land to Kiryas Joel, but if they can’t do it, we can build up,” he said. “We can change our zoning code to allow high-rise apartments. The creation of these villages are not going to stop the growth in the village of Kiryas Joel."
Mrs. Greenfeld agreed.
“People don’t understand the conception of our people, of our religion,” she said. “There’s no government or land or any other authority that can stop us from having babies,” she said while her husband put out a plate of cheese blintzes, strawberries and sour cream.
“If there’s not enough land, families will double up. There’s always going to be room for the new families,” Mrs. Greenfeld said. “And if I have to slice up my apartment in two, I’ll do it, without doubt or hesitation.”
Reverberations of a Baby Boom
By FERNANDA SANTOS
KIRYAS JOEL, N.Y., Aug. 22 — As the administrator of this village in southern Orange County, Gedalye Szegedin knows that much of his job revolves around a simple equation: the number of girls who get married is roughly equal to the number of new homes this community will need to accommodate its rapid growth.
Last year, Mr. Szegedin oversaw the construction of 200 houses and apartments, mostly on the outer-lying lots along the eastern edge of this 1.1-square-mile community, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish enclave about 60 miles north of Midtown Manhattan. By the end of this year, he said, the village will most likely have 300 new homes.
“There are three religious tenets that drive our growth: our women don’t use birth control, they get married young and after they get married, they stay in Kiryas Joel and start a family,” Mr. Szegedin said.
“Our growth comes simply from the fact that our families have a lot of babies,” he added, “and we need to build homes to respond to the needs of our community.”
But developable land is a finite resource here, and not much of it is left. And as Kiryas Joel pushes up against its borders, nearby neighbors in the towns of Blooming Grove and Woodbury are moving aggressively to prevent the community from expanding by incorporating into villages of their own.
“We still have huge tracts of open land in Woodbury, and we want to keep it that way,” said Woodbury’s supervisor, John P. Burke, who grew up in the Bronx and moved to Orange County in 1969.
“We want to make sure that no outside community is able to completely transform the character and the look of our town,” he said. “If we need a village to do that, so be it.”
Kiryas Joel’s population leaped to 18,300 last year from 13,100 in 2000 and 7,400 in 1990, making it one of the fastest growing places in the state, according to the most recent estimates by the Census Bureau. For two years, developers and local officials have been searching for private parcels in surrounding communities, hoping to expand the village through annexation for the third time since it was incorporated in 1977 as an offshoot of the Satmar Hasidic sect of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
After its incorporation, most of the growth was driven by migration from New York City. But now, new arrivals are mostly babies and grooms coming to marry one of the local women.
Worried residents in Blooming Grove, which lies northwest of here, and Woodbury, which lies east, have voted overwhelmingly in the past two months to approve the creation of two new villages. State law allows villages to be established within towns and to set their own zoning regulations, and area officials say the new villages would be able to restrict the multifamily, high-density building that predominates in Kiryas Joel.
Many of the families in those towns also fled the crowded streets of New York City, moving here for the cleaner air, the safer communities and the open spaces, where the closest neighbor may not be so close.
“We’re hard-working people who decided to move up here to pay less taxes and enjoy the quietness of country,” said Garry Dugan, a retired New York City detective and the president of the South Blooming Grove Homeowners Association, the group that began the drive to create one of the villages.
“It’s a shame that it has come to us and them, but we feel like we had to form a village for no reason other than preserving our quality of life,” said Mr. Dugan, who has lived in Blooming Grove for 26 years. “This has nothing to do with their religion.”
It is not the first time that Kiryas Joel and its neighbors have clashed.
Over the years, there have been disputes — over a water pipeline Kiryas Joel sought to build, for example, and whether the state should pay for a school system for its disabled students. There was also an argument in 1986 when 600 Kiryas Joel boys refused to board school buses driven by women. (The drivers are now all men.)
The Satmar Hasidim share what they call a deep mystical connection to Kiryas Joel. They were led here by their founder, the Grand Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, who saw in it the ideal place for his followers to raise large families away from the influences of the outside world. Hence the name of the village, which means Town of Joel.
About 3,000 families live here, many of them in boxy wood-frame homes built close to one another, with up to a dozen apartments stacked in four floors.
The village has no parks or public playgrounds, so children play with their colorful plastic toys on small front yards.
A network of sidewalks twirl across the village, so the women, who do not drive, are able to walk to the clinic and supermarket. Baby strollers seem to be everywhere: in the lobbies of buildings, on sidewalks, outside the stores.
“This is a great place to raise our children; it’s easy to keep them away from the distractions of the city,” said Judith Greenfeld, 34, whose family moved here from Williamsburg two decades ago.
All but 3 of her 12 siblings live here.
Mrs. Greenfeld and her husband, Joseph, 35, have five children, three boys and two girls, ages 3 to 13. The median age is 15, compared with 35 for the nation, according to the 2000 census. The village has one of the lowest median ages among communities nationwide with more than 5,000 residents.
The Greenfelds live on a dead-end street, in a third-floor apartment across from a girls’ school. Like most families here, they speak more Yiddish than English and have no radio, computer or television at home. Mr. Greenfeld owns a tile shop in Monroe, just outside the village borders.
His wife helps him run the business, which makes her a rare exception among Kiryas Joel’s women, who are married soon after they graduate from high school, work until they give birth to their second child and then become stay-at-home mothers. The men, meanwhile, board yellow school buses every morning and ride to New York City, to jobs in the diamond district or at B & H, the photo and video store near Herald Square.
Because of the sheer size of the families (the average household here has six people, but it is not uncommon for couples to have 8 or 10 children), and because a vast majority of households subsist on only one salary, 62 percent of the local families live below poverty level and rely heavily on public assistance, which is another sore point among those who live in neighboring communities.
“We just don’t understand why they have to keep pushing their expansionist ideas on us,” said Charles J. Bohan, who is the supervisor of the Town of Blooming Grove and a resident of the new village, named South Blooming Grove.
On Sept. 21, South Blooming Grove will hold its first election for mayor and for a four-member board of trustees. The state must still certify the results of the vote to create the village in Woodbury before elections there can be held.
Mr. Szegedin, Kiryas Joel’s administrator, said his community was not deterred.
"We have several different developers that want to sell land to Kiryas Joel, but if they can’t do it, we can build up,” he said. “We can change our zoning code to allow high-rise apartments. The creation of these villages are not going to stop the growth in the village of Kiryas Joel."
Mrs. Greenfeld agreed.
“People don’t understand the conception of our people, of our religion,” she said. “There’s no government or land or any other authority that can stop us from having babies,” she said while her husband put out a plate of cheese blintzes, strawberries and sour cream.
“If there’s not enough land, families will double up. There’s always going to be room for the new families,” Mrs. Greenfeld said. “And if I have to slice up my apartment in two, I’ll do it, without doubt or hesitation.”
Sunday, August 27, 2006
County gives motel tax break; Woodbury gets ‘bupkis’
County gives motel tax break; Woodbury gets ‘bupkis’
By Tony Houston
Woodbury - “It’s an outrage and a disgrace that this project that was approved by the Town will be granted tax abatement by another government.”
Those are the words of Woodbury Town Councilman Michael Aronowitz pertaining to the proposed financial assistance to the Hampton Inn hotel project by the Orange County Industrial Development Agency (OCIDA).
The three-story, 136-room, 80,000-square-foot hotel and related improvements are planned for a 16-acre parcel of land at 25 North Drive behind Kohl’s in Woodbury Centre off Route 17.
The OCIDA’s proposed financial assistance includes a sales and use tax exemption, a mortgage recording tax exemption and a partial real property tax abatement. The real property tax abatement would result in property taxes from zero percent (in the first year) to 90 percent (in the tenth year) of the otherwise full amount; there is an increase of ten percentage points each year.
This arrangement would result in the property owner paying only 45 percent of the full amount over the first ten years. Beginning with the eleventh year, the full amount would be paid annually.
“Orange County is sticking it to the Town of Woodbury again,” Aronowitz said. “It’s bad enough that we get so little from Woodbury Commons; now they are screwing us twice.”
Aronowitz is concerned that the County is not just exempting the project from county taxes, but from town and school taxes as well. Woodbury Town Supervisor John Burke and Monroe-Woodbury School District Superintendent Joe DiLorenzo have expressed the same concern.
The OCIDA is one of seven IDA’s in the County. There is a local IDA in one of the county’s villages, in two of its towns and in all three of its cities. The purpose of financial assistance from an IDA is to attract development and jobs to a location that would not be developed otherwise or would not be chosen otherwise by a specifically targeted developer.
“These tax breaks are not needed to encourage the Hampton Inn development,” said John Staiger, the assistant superintendent for Business and Management Services for the Monroe-Woodbury School District. “They would build here with or without the financial assistance being offered. The OCIDA is not acting in the best interest of the school district.”
This matter is especially galling to the school and town officials. The school district and the town both decided long ago not to participate in a statewide tax-incentive program — a program far less generous to developers that the one being offered by the OCIDA.
“The county wants more shoppers in order to get more revenue,” said Aronowitz, “A hotel goes up here to house the shoppers and we won’t get the full property taxes.
“Woodbury puts up with all the headaches like traffic and policing — and we get bupkis,” Aronowitz added.
The OCIDA will hold a public hearing on Monday, Aug. 28, on the matter of financial assistance for the Hampton Inn development at 1 p.m. in the Woodbury Town Hall at 511 Route 32 in Highland Mills.
OCIDA Administrative Director William Trimble will preside and OCIDA Attorney Philip Crotty will be present.
By Tony Houston
Woodbury - “It’s an outrage and a disgrace that this project that was approved by the Town will be granted tax abatement by another government.”
Those are the words of Woodbury Town Councilman Michael Aronowitz pertaining to the proposed financial assistance to the Hampton Inn hotel project by the Orange County Industrial Development Agency (OCIDA).
The three-story, 136-room, 80,000-square-foot hotel and related improvements are planned for a 16-acre parcel of land at 25 North Drive behind Kohl’s in Woodbury Centre off Route 17.
The OCIDA’s proposed financial assistance includes a sales and use tax exemption, a mortgage recording tax exemption and a partial real property tax abatement. The real property tax abatement would result in property taxes from zero percent (in the first year) to 90 percent (in the tenth year) of the otherwise full amount; there is an increase of ten percentage points each year.
This arrangement would result in the property owner paying only 45 percent of the full amount over the first ten years. Beginning with the eleventh year, the full amount would be paid annually.
“Orange County is sticking it to the Town of Woodbury again,” Aronowitz said. “It’s bad enough that we get so little from Woodbury Commons; now they are screwing us twice.”
Aronowitz is concerned that the County is not just exempting the project from county taxes, but from town and school taxes as well. Woodbury Town Supervisor John Burke and Monroe-Woodbury School District Superintendent Joe DiLorenzo have expressed the same concern.
The OCIDA is one of seven IDA’s in the County. There is a local IDA in one of the county’s villages, in two of its towns and in all three of its cities. The purpose of financial assistance from an IDA is to attract development and jobs to a location that would not be developed otherwise or would not be chosen otherwise by a specifically targeted developer.
“These tax breaks are not needed to encourage the Hampton Inn development,” said John Staiger, the assistant superintendent for Business and Management Services for the Monroe-Woodbury School District. “They would build here with or without the financial assistance being offered. The OCIDA is not acting in the best interest of the school district.”
This matter is especially galling to the school and town officials. The school district and the town both decided long ago not to participate in a statewide tax-incentive program — a program far less generous to developers that the one being offered by the OCIDA.
“The county wants more shoppers in order to get more revenue,” said Aronowitz, “A hotel goes up here to house the shoppers and we won’t get the full property taxes.
“Woodbury puts up with all the headaches like traffic and policing — and we get bupkis,” Aronowitz added.
The OCIDA will hold a public hearing on Monday, Aug. 28, on the matter of financial assistance for the Hampton Inn development at 1 p.m. in the Woodbury Town Hall at 511 Route 32 in Highland Mills.
OCIDA Administrative Director William Trimble will preside and OCIDA Attorney Philip Crotty will be present.
Friday, August 25, 2006
Woodbury hotel up for $1.5M tax break
News
Woodbury hotel up for $1.5M tax break
By Chris McKenna
August 25, 2006
Times Herald-Record
The developer planning a Hampton Inn hotel near Woodbury Common would save at least $1.5 million in property taxes over 10 years under a generous new tax abatement Orange County is dangling to attract high-paying employers.
With days to go before a public hearing on the proposed tax break, no one has released an official estimate of how much the Monroe-Woodbury School District, Woodbury and the county would lose in taxes, because no one knows how much the assessor will decide the proposed 136-room hotel is worth.
But you can calculate the bare minimum by taking the assessment of the 127-room Hampton Inn in Wallkill, translating it into Woodbury property values and plugging in current Woodbury tax rates.
By that yardstick, the discount totals $1.5 million — if tax rates remain where they are now until the abatement runs out.
The estimate is highly conservative because the Woodbury Hampton Inn will be larger than Wallkill's and because taxes will undoubtedly rise, even before the hotel opens.
Developer Martin Milano's Hampton Inn is one of the first projects in line for a juiced-up tax break for new businesses that the county adopted in May. The county's Industrial Development Agency — its economic development arm — created the incentive to compete with neighboring counties and states for big employers with high-paying jobs.
According to the agency, four or five businesses have already applied for the abatement, which waives property taxes for one year and then phases them in at 10 percent increments. The total savings over 10 years is 55 percent.
Hotels are explicitly excluded under the tax break, but Milano — the owner of a Hampton Inn in Newburgh and a Hilton Garden Inn that will soon open in the same town — is seeking to qualify as "tourism-related," one of many industries the policy targets.
Local officials are on the warpath because both the town and the school district eliminated a smaller, state-imposed tax break years ago but have no say over this new one.
Whether Milano gets it will be up to the Industrial Development Agency. Its seven-member board will hold a hearing on the proposal at 1 p.m. Monday at Woodbury Town Hall. The board is expected to make a final decision in September.
Woodbury hotel up for $1.5M tax break
By Chris McKenna
August 25, 2006
Times Herald-Record
The developer planning a Hampton Inn hotel near Woodbury Common would save at least $1.5 million in property taxes over 10 years under a generous new tax abatement Orange County is dangling to attract high-paying employers.
With days to go before a public hearing on the proposed tax break, no one has released an official estimate of how much the Monroe-Woodbury School District, Woodbury and the county would lose in taxes, because no one knows how much the assessor will decide the proposed 136-room hotel is worth.
But you can calculate the bare minimum by taking the assessment of the 127-room Hampton Inn in Wallkill, translating it into Woodbury property values and plugging in current Woodbury tax rates.
By that yardstick, the discount totals $1.5 million — if tax rates remain where they are now until the abatement runs out.
The estimate is highly conservative because the Woodbury Hampton Inn will be larger than Wallkill's and because taxes will undoubtedly rise, even before the hotel opens.
Developer Martin Milano's Hampton Inn is one of the first projects in line for a juiced-up tax break for new businesses that the county adopted in May. The county's Industrial Development Agency — its economic development arm — created the incentive to compete with neighboring counties and states for big employers with high-paying jobs.
According to the agency, four or five businesses have already applied for the abatement, which waives property taxes for one year and then phases them in at 10 percent increments. The total savings over 10 years is 55 percent.
Hotels are explicitly excluded under the tax break, but Milano — the owner of a Hampton Inn in Newburgh and a Hilton Garden Inn that will soon open in the same town — is seeking to qualify as "tourism-related," one of many industries the policy targets.
Local officials are on the warpath because both the town and the school district eliminated a smaller, state-imposed tax break years ago but have no say over this new one.
Whether Milano gets it will be up to the Industrial Development Agency. Its seven-member board will hold a hearing on the proposal at 1 p.m. Monday at Woodbury Town Hall. The board is expected to make a final decision in September.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Monday, August 14, 2006
Volunteers Needed!
There is a dramatic change in Woodbury these days and we need experienced leadership. We have a chance to make a tremendous difference. But it cannot happen without you. This is your campaign. Together, we're going to make the new Woodbury Village a better place to live, work, and play.
The success of any campaign relies not only on the candidate getting their message out to the community, but the volunteers who step up to help ensure the success of their candidate. We can not make this vision a reality without volunteers such as yourself. If you would like to be a part of our team and can spare a few moments of your time, please send me an email to maronowitz@gmail.com , so you too can make a difference. Thank you!
The success of any campaign relies not only on the candidate getting their message out to the community, but the volunteers who step up to help ensure the success of their candidate. We can not make this vision a reality without volunteers such as yourself. If you would like to be a part of our team and can spare a few moments of your time, please send me an email to maronowitz@gmail.com , so you too can make a difference. Thank you!
Volunteers Needed!
There is a dramatic change in Woodbury these days and we need experienced leadership. We have a chance to make a tremendous difference. But it cannot happen without you. This is your campaign. Together, we're going to make the new Woodbury Village a better place to live, work, and play.
The success of any campaign relies not only on the candidate getting their message out to the community, but the volunteers who step up to help ensure the success of their candidate. We can not make this vision a reality without volunteers such as yourself. If you would like to be a part of our team and can spare a few moments of your time, please send me an email to maronowitz@gmail.com , so you too can make a difference. Thank you!
The success of any campaign relies not only on the candidate getting their message out to the community, but the volunteers who step up to help ensure the success of their candidate. We can not make this vision a reality without volunteers such as yourself. If you would like to be a part of our team and can spare a few moments of your time, please send me an email to maronowitz@gmail.com , so you too can make a difference. Thank you!
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Why Woodbury needs one village now
Why Woodbury needs one village now
By Colleen Campbell
I believe that by voting for the Village of Woodbury, you are providing the best defense against the inevitable changes that will occur.
As a former councilwoman, I strongly supported the five local laws recently re-enacted. This was the first step toward maintaining our current style of housing. The second step is to incorporate as a single village. By voting yes for the current incorporation, you minimize the impact of future zoning and boundary changes to the territory we live in.
A perfect example is Kiryas Joel. It's own incorporation allowed its residents the ability to build as they chose without complying with Monroe's zoning. They built according to their own standards. KJ is up front about its need for high-density housing.
It needs additional lands to continue to grow, so it purchased Ace Farms. It is very likely that KJ will attempt to annex those lands into the existing village. If it can't, it could create another village in Woodbury. I believe if KJ created a village in Woodbury, you would quickly see other villages popping up throughout Woodbury.
Highland Mills, close to KJ "2," would most likely choose to create its own village to prevent further encroachment. Central Valley residents may then decide they need to create their own village to protect their interests. Not only would we now have three to four villages throughout Woodbury, but also only certain villages would contain the tax ratables. Most of the business district would be centralized in the Village of Central Valley, where most of the money would be. How would this impact the taxes of the other newly formed villages? What would they have for revenue?
The best way to prevent this dissection is to vote yes for the current village proposal Aug. 10. This village would prevent any future villages from popping up, because you cannot create a new village within an existing village. This proposal would allow all the revenue to continue to be shared equally by all. It would be the closest scenario to maintaining what we currently have.
While it is truly unfortunate that we are faced with this dilemma, faced with it we are. To sit back and do nothing is to allow forces beyond our control to control us. Working out the details of how a single village would operate within the Town of Woodbury is a heck of a lot easier than three to four villages vying for their piece of the pie.
Oh, and let's not forget that the village with the most inhabitants would control the vote. Just look at Monroe. We need to be proactive and seize our own destiny. We can do that by voting yes for the village incorporation Aug. 10.
Colleen Campbell of Central Valley is a former Woodbury councilwoman.
By Colleen Campbell
I believe that by voting for the Village of Woodbury, you are providing the best defense against the inevitable changes that will occur.
As a former councilwoman, I strongly supported the five local laws recently re-enacted. This was the first step toward maintaining our current style of housing. The second step is to incorporate as a single village. By voting yes for the current incorporation, you minimize the impact of future zoning and boundary changes to the territory we live in.
A perfect example is Kiryas Joel. It's own incorporation allowed its residents the ability to build as they chose without complying with Monroe's zoning. They built according to their own standards. KJ is up front about its need for high-density housing.
It needs additional lands to continue to grow, so it purchased Ace Farms. It is very likely that KJ will attempt to annex those lands into the existing village. If it can't, it could create another village in Woodbury. I believe if KJ created a village in Woodbury, you would quickly see other villages popping up throughout Woodbury.
Highland Mills, close to KJ "2," would most likely choose to create its own village to prevent further encroachment. Central Valley residents may then decide they need to create their own village to protect their interests. Not only would we now have three to four villages throughout Woodbury, but also only certain villages would contain the tax ratables. Most of the business district would be centralized in the Village of Central Valley, where most of the money would be. How would this impact the taxes of the other newly formed villages? What would they have for revenue?
The best way to prevent this dissection is to vote yes for the current village proposal Aug. 10. This village would prevent any future villages from popping up, because you cannot create a new village within an existing village. This proposal would allow all the revenue to continue to be shared equally by all. It would be the closest scenario to maintaining what we currently have.
While it is truly unfortunate that we are faced with this dilemma, faced with it we are. To sit back and do nothing is to allow forces beyond our control to control us. Working out the details of how a single village would operate within the Town of Woodbury is a heck of a lot easier than three to four villages vying for their piece of the pie.
Oh, and let's not forget that the village with the most inhabitants would control the vote. Just look at Monroe. We need to be proactive and seize our own destiny. We can do that by voting yes for the village incorporation Aug. 10.
Colleen Campbell of Central Valley is a former Woodbury councilwoman.
Hearing on cluster proposal set for Aug. 1
Hearing on cluster proposal set for Aug. 1
By Tony Houston
Highland Mills - The Woodbury Town Board, having passed five local laws this month amending zoning ordinances, is holding a public hearing Tuesday, Aug. 1, which may result in two more local laws affecting zoning.
The hearing is on the application by Legacy Ridge at Highland Mills, LLC, to build 287 single-family detached 4-bedroom homes on 749 acres. The proposed site is located on both sides of Trout Brook Road between Smith Clove Road and Route 32; the average cost of a home is expected to be $625,000.
A Draft Environmental Impact Statement, completed by the applicant and accepted by the Town Board, addresses the impact of both the proposed development and the two laws. Issues addressed in the draft environmental report include traffic, schools, water, sewers, grading the land, vistas and the impact on plants and animals.
“Legacy Ridge is not currently in front of the Planning Board,” said Planning Board Chairman George Sewitt in a telephone interview. “The project is in front of the Town Board as lead agency on a matter of conservation cluster development.”
One proposed local law would change the zoning of the Legacy Ridge site from R-3A to R-2A. The other would designate Legacy Ridge as a Conservation Cluster Development. The effect of the two laws would be an increase in the number of housing units allowed, the clustering of the 287 units on lots averaging 1.11 acres each on 319 developed acres, and the preservation of the remaining 430 acres as open space.
“The law relating to the Conservation Cluster Development deals, in part, with senior housing,” said Woodbury Supervisor John Burke, “but this project doesn’t include any senior housing.”
Woodbury Town Councilman Michael Aronowitz, whose change of mind resulted in the passage of this month’s five local laws, discussed the Legacy Ridge proposal in a recent interview.
“I will examine the application and local laws and listen to the public comment before I make my decision,” he said. “We must be sure of a benefit to the citizens of Woodbury and anyone else affected.”
One entity affected is the Cornwall School District, in which the Legacy Ridge site is located. Residents of other towns in that school district have complained that this project in the Highland Mills section of Woodbury would overload the Cornwall district.
“Many homes are going up in other towns within the Cornwall Central School District,” said Councilman Aronowitz. “We are not the bad guy.”
The public hearing will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the IBEW Training Center at 67 Commerce Drive South off Route 17 North in Harriman.
By Tony Houston
Highland Mills - The Woodbury Town Board, having passed five local laws this month amending zoning ordinances, is holding a public hearing Tuesday, Aug. 1, which may result in two more local laws affecting zoning.
The hearing is on the application by Legacy Ridge at Highland Mills, LLC, to build 287 single-family detached 4-bedroom homes on 749 acres. The proposed site is located on both sides of Trout Brook Road between Smith Clove Road and Route 32; the average cost of a home is expected to be $625,000.
A Draft Environmental Impact Statement, completed by the applicant and accepted by the Town Board, addresses the impact of both the proposed development and the two laws. Issues addressed in the draft environmental report include traffic, schools, water, sewers, grading the land, vistas and the impact on plants and animals.
“Legacy Ridge is not currently in front of the Planning Board,” said Planning Board Chairman George Sewitt in a telephone interview. “The project is in front of the Town Board as lead agency on a matter of conservation cluster development.”
One proposed local law would change the zoning of the Legacy Ridge site from R-3A to R-2A. The other would designate Legacy Ridge as a Conservation Cluster Development. The effect of the two laws would be an increase in the number of housing units allowed, the clustering of the 287 units on lots averaging 1.11 acres each on 319 developed acres, and the preservation of the remaining 430 acres as open space.
“The law relating to the Conservation Cluster Development deals, in part, with senior housing,” said Woodbury Supervisor John Burke, “but this project doesn’t include any senior housing.”
Woodbury Town Councilman Michael Aronowitz, whose change of mind resulted in the passage of this month’s five local laws, discussed the Legacy Ridge proposal in a recent interview.
“I will examine the application and local laws and listen to the public comment before I make my decision,” he said. “We must be sure of a benefit to the citizens of Woodbury and anyone else affected.”
One entity affected is the Cornwall School District, in which the Legacy Ridge site is located. Residents of other towns in that school district have complained that this project in the Highland Mills section of Woodbury would overload the Cornwall district.
“Many homes are going up in other towns within the Cornwall Central School District,” said Councilman Aronowitz. “We are not the bad guy.”
The public hearing will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the IBEW Training Center at 67 Commerce Drive South off Route 17 North in Harriman.
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