Section: Croton-on-Hudson The Croton Follies
September 30, 2007
What the Hell is Going On Here? Why the Rush to Contaminate Croton's Water Supply?
This was originally intended to be a traditional satirical report on the most recent Village Board meeting. Instead of something humorous, what Crotonblog witnessed was old-fashioned skullduggery at the crossroads. Imagine our surprise to learn that an informal proposal by an engineering firm suggesting that Croton consider altering the composition of Croton’s water by injecting it with a foreign substance has morphed in the space 14 days into a resolution to be offered at the Oct. 1, 2007 meeting. It would authorize an engineering study by the same firm without any preliminary citizen input.
As someone who has witnessed many a crooked three-card monte game, Crotonblog gets the feeling that Mayor Schmidt is moving the cards too fast for the eye to follow. Readers who are concerned about the speed with which this revolutionary proposal is being railroaded through are urged to make their feelings known at the Oct. 1st meeting. If you value the purity of Croton’s special water, turn out at this meeting and tell the village to slow down in its mad rush to despoil this remarkable natural resource.
Everyone, it seems, is familiar with the joke that begins: “Two men knocked on the door to a home and announced to the homeowner, ‘We’re from the government, and we’re here to help you.’” Croton experienced something like that on Sept. 17, when two representatives of The Chazen Companies made a sales pitch to the village to consider adding a foreign substance to Croton’s highly praised and envied water for the purpose of corrosion control.
Complete with charts and statistics, the sales pitch—and that is exactly the proper phrase to describe it—was smooth and impressive, and obviously successful to judge from the number of surrounding communities that may have succumbed to similar pitches.
This sales pitch was prompted by the village manager and village department heads who see The Chazen Companies’ planned offer of services as a solution to the longstanding problem of a Croton water distribution system nagged by so-called brown water as a result of corrosion of cast iron pipes.
The substance, zinc orthophosphate, created by the addition of phosphoric acid and zinc oxide to the water system, will literally “coat the pipes” and so represents a form of corrosion control within the village’s water distribution system. What was not discussed was the effect of this additive on—and in—the human body, not to mention its effect on pets and who knows what else. Will it also “coat our bodies’ pipes”?
What we witnessed was a blatant attempt to scare Croton residents about the quality of their water, reminiscent of the “weapons of mass destruction” ruse that panicked the country into the Iraq war. Under the guise of the village acting proactively, Mayor Schmidt assured watchers that nothing had been decided, the presentation was merely informational. He was aided and abetted by Trustees Tom Brennan and Charley Kane, who rushed to sound warnings about the dangers of lead in water when they should have known better.
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September 17, 2007
The Croton Follies. A Report on the Village Board Meeting of September 4, 2007
Crotonblog has long intended our reports on bi-monthly village board meetings to be satirical in tone. Any work in which human folly or vice is attacked through irony, derision or caustic wit can be considered satire. But satire can also use irony or sarcasm to expose official folly, stupidity or venality.
The September 4th meeting’s agenda featured a series of resolutions. The fourth resolution caught our attention because the village’s agenda described it as “authorizing the grant application to the Greentree Conservancy for a grant to receive $5,000 matching funds for the Kaplan’s Pond Train Construction and extension.” We decided that a train at Kaplan’s Pond costing only $5,000 would have to be a toy or miniature train. Alas, the discovery that the word “train” was a typo came as a disappointment. The intended word was “trail.”
The fifth resolution next caught our attention. It authorized the Village Manager “to sign the proposal from AKRF for a Phase One Site Assessment Update and a Phase II Subsurface Investigation at 1A Croton Point Avenue.” The form proposed by AKRF opens with the phrase, “Whereas, the Village is considering acquiring the property at 1A Croton Point Avenue etc.” This caused Crotonblog to raise its collective eyebrows. Rumors have been circulating widely in the village to the effect that the village is either preparing to exercise its right to resort to eminent domain to appropriate this private property or is in negotiations with the present owners, Greentree Realty. From discreet inquiries, Crotonblog has not been able to discover the village’s intentions. Mum’s the word about what the village is up to.
Two such disparate courses of action raise serious questions. Suddenly the subject of our report ceases to be funny and susceptible to satirizing. If the course of action is to be eminent domain, Croton taxpayers should be told what costs will be incurred, particularly legal fees, and how long the process will take. If negotiations for purchase are under way with the present owners, taxpayers should be told how much money in costs and lawyer’s fees is involved.
But, should the latter be the action taken, think of the money that could have been saved over the years had the village been wise enough to resort to negotiation and purchase initially! No matter what action is eventually taken, the big question for Croton taxpayers is this: Why are we being kept in the dark, and why are matters relating to 1A Croton Point Avenue now being conducted behind a shroud of secrecy? Mr. Mayor, whatever happened to your boast of an open government?
Then there’s another inevitable question: What’s the rationale for and the propriety of letting a contractor write the terms of a study on behalf of the village. Shouldn’t the village decide what it wants from a contractor instead of the other way around? No part of this proposal was put out for competitive bidding, which may explain why the contractor agreed to perform the work at a total estimated cost of $28,700. But the village set aside $50,000 to cover the cost. This indicates that the village anticipates, and has prepared for, contractor’s cost overruns of up to $21,300, or almost 75 percent. Crotonblog will be interested to learn what the actual cost will be when AKRF’s final bill comes in.
Where the hell is Croton’s self-appointed fiscal watchdog Bob Wintermeier when we need him?
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September 4, 2007
The Croton Follies: Report on the Village Board Meeting of August 6, 2007
This meeting offered slim pickings, a term rodeo cowboy Louis Burton Lindley, Jr. altered and adopted as a name before breaking into movies. He is best remembered as the Air Force Captain in the Dr. Strangelove movie who rode an accidentally released atomic bomb down, bronco-busting cowboy style, on a Russian city.
Residents from the perennially flooded Batten Road neighborhood, Charles Trendell and Thomas Szoboszlai, spoke. The gist of their complaint was that the Village was moving the shells too fast in connection with a proposed subdivision. Crotonblog predicts that this one has a very long fuse.
Michael Goetz, a resident of Irving Avenue, appeared and offered a series of rapid-fire but poorly researched suggestions as solutions to Croton’s empty storefronts. He proposed that the former Croton Dodge property could be converted into something like the Jacob Burns theater complex in Pleasantville. But that ambitious project had the former 1925 Rome Theater as the core for its conversion into an 18,000-square foot group of three theaters with a total of 456 seats, and adequate parking.
What he did not mention was that, based on Croton’s code, a three-theater equivalent to the Jacob Burns complex would require a minimum of 114 off-street parking places—a physical impossibility for the Croton Dodge property. (Croton’s outmoded code requires one off-street parking place for each four theater seats.) Therefore, cars would wind up being parked along South Riverside Avenue and adjoining streets, an arrangement totally unsatisfactory to residents or neighborhood merchants. Anyway, how many identical complexes offering short-run specialty films can this part of Westchester support?
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August 6, 2007
The Croton Follies: A Report on the Village Board Meeting of July 16, 2007
Again demonstrating that the mills of government not only grind exceedingly slow but also extremely small, the evening was marked by an extended discussion that created little light but very much heat. Half of this evening’s long village board meeting was given over to a presentation about two local laws mandated by the state. Under the circumstances, the resulting exhaustive comments really had about as much pertinence as medieval theologians’ niggling arguments over how many angels could dance on the head of a pin or on the point of a needle.
The laws were titled “Wetlands and Watercourses” and “Storm Water, Drainage, Erosion and Water Pollution Control.” The main sticking point was the rules intended to govern the application of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers to properties in buffer zones adjacent to wetlands but it all seemed academic when the village engineer testified that similar existing rules in the village code were never enforced—in fact, he could not find that requests for permits to apply such materials were ever made. Moreover, it seems that wetlands may exist on some properties without their owners being aware of that fact.
It was quite evident that the mayor wanted the laws passed that evening and without significant changes. Planning Board member and Finney Farm resident Fran Allen fought a determined but losing battle against the stipulation that it must be demonstrated that professional applicators of chemical substances exceeded manufacturers’ recommendations before action would be taken. Trustee Charlie Kane was equally unsuccessful in convincing board members that homeowners should not be allowed to apply such materials to their properties “as a right.” The twin laws were finally approved largely on the strength of the argument that it is better to have laws on the books that may be unenforceble than to have no laws at all. Trustee Brennan characterized the proposed laws, as “living laws” subject to change at a later date—but isn’t this true of all laws?
Crotonblog suspects that the long friendship between Ms. Allen and Ms. Gallelli may have been severely strained by the stubborn attitudes each displayed about the new laws. Ms. Gallelli went to extraordinary lengths to explain how conflicted she was and to justify her vote by recalling the anguish she went through in making her decision. Anyway, the Mayor pointed out that the laws may be ineffectual since water contaminated by deleterious substances obeys the laws of gravity, not of man—a comment that rendered most of the evening’s discussion moot.
The pre-vote discussion was also enlivened by Trustee Brennan’s coinage of a new verb converted from a noun. Comparable to similar abominations, “The bride was gifted with a silver service” and “He authored three books in a single year,” Trustee Brennan’s latest contribution to the English language was his conversion of herbicide from a noun to a verb in his depiction of “people who herbicide after it rains.” To the Mayor’s visible relief, an incipient bout of indecision that swept board members was quelled and the two laws were passed,
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July 13, 2007
The Croton Follies: A Report on the Village Board Meeting of July 2, 2007
As if to underscore the fact that the summer doldrums are upon us, the meeting of July 2nd could easily have been conducted in the mythical town of Dullsville. By its paucity of highlights, it underscores the wisdom of the adage about the mills of government (our interpretation), grinding not only slowly but exceedingly small.
The meat for Croton Follies is always to be found in the two segments called “citizen participation.” Robert “Squirrel Trapper Bob” Wintermeier and his sidekick, Richard Pellicci, the self-appointed “village horticulturist,” can always be counted on to have something to say so regularly one could set one’s watch by their appearance. Okay, one’s calendar watch.
Unfortunately, Messrs. Wintermeier and Pellicci were not present to give their regular lecture to the village board. Present was, however, Croton’s oldest citizen—but he was at the meeting in the mistaken impression that the subject to be discussed was the Croton River. Board members quickly disabused him of that misconception and he departed, but not before heaping praise on members for their good works, encomiums that were returned profusely in kind by the solicitous members.
In response to Mayor Schmidt’s request for an update about what’s happening at 1A Croton Point Avenue, village attorney James Staudt reported an interesting but not disquieting development. At the direction of the Supreme Court in White Plains, the village is processing an application for a special permit. In addition, the applicant has recently deposited $25,000 as a fee to reimburse a special consultant who will advise the village on this application. The Supreme Court in Albany will also hear an appeal in the case involving this property in the fall. It would seem that 1A Croton Point Avenue will be spending the summer in that uncharted country known as Limbo.
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July 2, 2007
The Croton Follies: A Report on the Village Board Meeting of June 18, 2007
In the Northern Hemisphere, the summer solstice occurs around June 21 and marks the time of the year when the days are the longest. The solstice also ushers in the summer period when attendance at village board meetings in Croton is at its nadir. As if jumping the solstice gun, when the camera at the June 18th meeting panned the audience fewer people were present than could be counted on the fingers of one hand.
A letter on the agenda from Nancy and Steve Buckley of Melrose Avenue sought financial assistance from the village in ridding their property of foraging groundhogs that were wreaking havoc on their garden. Our culture makes a celebrity out of groundhog Punxsutawney Phil when he makes his annual debut on February 2. But, as soon as spring arrives, we turn on our cuddly friend, and every groundhog in every suburban community becomes an enemy of humans and their gardens.
Groundhogs, also known as woodchucks and whistle-pigs, are likable and chubby rodents that lumber away upon being approached by humans. But they don’t have to be regarded as enemies of our gardens. Simple measures can exclude them from plantings, enabling humans and groundhogs to co-exist. Unfortunately, neither the mayor nor the members of the village board could offer any practical suggestions other than to refer the Buckleys and other victims of groundhog predation to the Internet or to professional animal experts.
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June 18, 2007
The Croton Follies: A Report on the Village Board Meeting of June 4, 2007
If for nothing else, Croton’s village board meeting of June 4 was notable for the speed and alacrity with which the business at hand was dispatched. It was almost as though board members, unhappy with the mishugas of the previous meeting on May 21, had decided to get the business over quickly. (For readers who do not know the meaning of mishugas, it is a Yiddish word meaning craziness or nonsense, and admirably fits the previous meeting’s performance.)
But back to the highlights of the June 4 meeting: During so-called “citizen participation,” John Harbeson arose and paid tribute to village clerk Peggy Keesler, who is retiring after long years of dedicated service. Young Kevin Davis, as usual, spoke at great length, and insisted on again bringing up Mayo’s Landing, a topic of bitter memory, by bemoaning the defunding of the so-called “police boat” to patrol the Croton River in the vicinity of Mayo’s Landing. He was assured that adequate funding would always be available.
But the stellar performance was by Robert Wintermeier, who chided board members about the fast pace of the evening’s proceedings compared to earlier meetings. It had almost caused him to miss his chance to lecture the board. There followed a colloquy about Mayo’s Landing in which Mr. Wintermeier reported that he had inspected the site from a distance because of his fear that another pair of shoes—his—might irreparably damage the trail leading down to the river. He then brought up the subject of the financing for the police boat.
Mr. Wintermeier called attention to the fact that the town of Cortlandt had contributed either $10,000 or $20,000—he wasn’t sure—toward the police boat. He is one of those people who feel that the briefest acquaintance with someone puts him on a first-name basis with them. True to form, Mr. Wintermeier, who contributed all of $25 to State Senator Vincent Leibell’s reelection campaign, pointed out to the board and the audience that “Vinnie” Leibell had gotten the state to contribute another $10,000 toward the cost of operating the police boat. After some brief back-and-forth wrangling it was decided that the town had contributed $20,000 and the state, through Senator Leibell’s good offices, had contributed $10,000. Way to go, Vinnie!
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June 3, 2007
The Croton Follies: A Report on the Village Board Meeting of May 21, 2007
The dictionary defines follies as an elaborate theatrical revue consisting of music, dance and skits. At previous meetings we have become used to getting the usual song and dance and jolly patter from the Mayor. The dictionary also defines follies as “perilously or criminally foolish action.” The May 21st village board meeting (video) certainly lived up to the second definition to the nth degree—that is to say, the Republican majority did the Mayor’s bidding without a whisper of protest. The standout issue that attracted Crotonblog’s attention concerns a plot of land with frontage on the Croton River.
As a prelude to discussion of this property, the four board members (Ann Gallelli was absent) passed a resolution setting up a Croton-on-Hudson Conservation Area. This resolution sailed through with nary a hitch. It was followed immediately by another resolution that had far from smooth sailing. This second resolution would designate a selected area of the village as the first newly created Conservation Area. So-called spot zoning is a no-no and taboo in planning circles. But planning texts say nothing about spot zoning masquerading as conservation legislation. And spot zoning under the guise of conservation legislation is exactly what this second resolution turned out to be. The eye-opener was the peculiar way in which use of the area was to be diminished.
The village manager led off with a brief history of the property acquired by the village in 1946 to provide access to the Croton River “for fishing and boating.” He identified the site as Mayo’s Landing (it is also sometimes referred to as Dickie’s), and its official designation is Section 79.10, Block 1, Lot 14. When they took this property off the tax rolls, little did the village fathers foresee the immense headache it would become for the village and particularly for residents on or near that section of Nordica Drive.
Swimmers and picnickers at Mayo’s Landing, May 25, 2007.
A veritable parade of village residents trooped to the microphone and recalled their long-term use of the village-owned property—chiefly for swimming. A Nordica Drive resident, one Ms. Phyllis Morrow who had previously suggested fencing off the area, spoke eloquently and at length about the problems engendered by living in close proximity to this popular recreation site. She sounded warnings about the village’s proposed solution to the problem of overuse and covered everything from inept use of a large log to inhibit parking (it became the designated pick-up spot—a veritable “bus stop”) to inappropriate signage. She also cautioned about the dangers of unsupervised swimming.
Although the reason cited for singling this property out for special attention was the evident environmental impact of overuse, the Mayor’s solution made no pretense of being based on any study or survey. Rather it was solely based on immediacy and expediency. The Mayor’s solution can hardly be called Solomonaic since it represents no solution at all. It calls for limiting access to village and school district residents with photographic I.D. and to anyone with a New York state fishing license. Holders of fishing licenses who wish to cross common lands to gain access to public waterways cannot be denied access to them. As it turned out, in trying to please everybody, Mayor Schmidt somehow managed to please nobody and, in the process, completely ignored an explosive situation.
Trustee Kane fought a lone and losing battle against the Mayor’s Teutonic juggernaut. Herr Doktor Schmidt wanted to hear no more about the wisdom of keying usage restriction to the carrying capacity of the land, which would have restricted usage even more severely. This device is used by many national parks to limit damage to the land. Nor did he want to hear about public trust doctrine, which guarantees access to common lands to all. His mind was made up, and that was that. If this were a Robert Ludlum novel, it would have been titled The Schmidt Solution.
Cautions about swimming are notably absent from this unposted village signage seen at Mayo’s Landing, May 25, 2007.
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May 21, 2007
The Croton Follies: A Report on the Village Board Meeting of May 7, 2007
Crotonblog has been wracking its collective brain to find a phrase that sums up the May 7th village board meeting. We think we have found the most appropriate expression to describe the tone of this meeting. Coined by newspaper editor Benjamin Russell on the occasion of President James Monroe’s goodwill visit to Boston in 1817, the phrase of choice was first used in the Columbian Centinel [sic], Russell’s newspaper.
Students of history will immediately recognize the term. “The Era of Good Feelings” was Russell’s way of describing the period that started in 1815 and lasted until about 1824. Following the War of 1812, the Federalist Party was dissolved and no longer attacked the president, nor was it being attacked in return. With the nation united behind the unusually named Democratic-Republican Party, the American political scene would never again see the amicability of this uncommon period.
Fast forward to the May 7, 2007, village board meeting in the Stanley H. Kellerhouse Municipal Building. As an indication of the low level of public interest in Croton’s affairs of state, when the camera panned the audience, it revealed once again that the number of attendees could be counted on the fingers of one hand. With the return to the dais of Trustee Tom Brennan and with his majority now securely in place, formerly tense and grumpy Mayor Greg Schmidt was a model of good manners and decorum. Gone was the domineering Teuton ogre, interrupting the comments of others and riding roughshod over their words to impose his views on them. Instead, he was almost giddy over his newly returned power, thanks to the presence of one sometimes obstreperous trustee and the other pliable “whatever you say, Boss” trustee. On several occasions he was so pleased with the situation in which he found himself, he emitted a high-pitched giggle like a kid with a new Christmas toy.
The evening really belonged to the two speakers. Nancy Shatzkin explained the financial ins and outs of the Housing Network’s project called Symphony Knolls. By now, she is an old hand at the game of shepherding these low-income projects through the quicksands of governmental red tape. Crotonblog salutes her for her quiet competence in the face of uncounted hazards in which something could go wrong—and often does.
Crotonblog could not help noticing that the recent overpainting of the wood-veneered walls of the meeting room in which official municipal business is conducted had entirely altered the room’s atmosphere. The change was, therefore, not entirely unwelcome. Walls that should have been clad with antique pine or dark mahogany in keeping with the age and venerable quality of the building had been inappropriately covered with el cheapo pecan-veneered paneling. Such woodwork would have been more appropriate in a suburban home’s basement recreation room complete with New York Yankees pennants, a Ping-Pong table and wet bar plus a pair of pink plastic flamingos outside on the lawn.
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May 7, 2007
The Croton Follies: A Report on the Village Board Meeting of April 16, 2007
The mid-April storm that wrought so much damage in southern Westchester also left its mark on Croton. This was evident in the disappearance under water of half of the village’s station parking lot, most of Senasqua Park and the so-called Seprieo property. Crotonblog has to wonder why the village has not considered building a berm, or dike, of sandbags like those so commonly seen along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers when floods threaten. Such a project, perhaps with volunteer citizen participation, could grant Croton a respite from inundation at least until the engineering firm of Dvirka and Bartilucci can come up with plans for remediation that will fit the village’s limited funds.
Flood waters at the Croton Harmon commuter parking lot on Monday, April 16, 2007.
A crowd that could be counted on the fingers of one hand attended the April 16th village board meeting. It was opened with the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, a ceremony whose history is recounted in great and embarrassing detail in Crotonblog’s posting of May 3rd. The absence of a trustee, Tom Brennan, busy with his janitorial duties required by the recent heavy rains, was duly noted.
Among the items on the agenda was a resolution to allow the village to engage the services of Peter Woodcock to review the plans of the Hudson National Golf Course to remove certain trees from its property. Planning Board member and Finney Farm resident Fran Allen rose to express concern about the qualifications of Mr. Woodcock, pointing out that Croton is not an urban area and wondering what an urban forester would know about a suburban “forest.” Crotonblog would like to think that someone with the name of a bird that lives in forests would be an appropriate choice. One could say that Mr. Herbek praised Mr. Woodcock, if not to the skies, at least “to the treetops.” He hastened to assure Ms. Allen that Mr. Woodcock has a Master’s degree from the University of Massachusetts, is a highly experienced and widely respected expert and the village, familiar with his qualifications, believes he is the right person for the job. Ms. Allen left the microphone not entirely persuaded.
Another resolution authorized the village manager to make a contract with the Special Services Bureau. The name sounded ominously like something out of a James Bond novel, but it turns out that the SSB is not a bunch of hired mercenaries but an outfit that has been used in the past to police the Senasqua waterfront at night. The SSB is headquartered in the Bronx, a neighborhood that even the intrepid James Bond would not dare to enter.
Next came the resolution that can best be described as the pièce de résistance—and we do mean resistance, because it immediately generated heated opposition. The subject was the village’s new master schedule of fees. Trustee Gallelli suggested that the proposed fee schedule be divided into two sections, with the station parking fee schedule being treated separately from the more mundane fees and fines. Mayor Schmidt, his gorge swiftly rising, would have none of that suggestion and quickly shot it down. Now that he is back in the saddle with a majority, the mayor has acquired the habit of interrupting trustees and talking over their comments, making discussions sound more like a contentious segment that might be heard on former Congressman Joe Scarborough’s program, Scarborough Country, or the even more contentious McLaughlin Report (see video clip at 24:37 minutes).
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