Preserve Ramapo

www.preserve-ramapo.com

Two Rockland debates slated for Wednesday

by

“The Journal News/lohud will host a candidate forum with candidates for Rockland County executive and Ramapo town supervisor, starting at 7pm Wednesday at Rockland Community College, in the Ellipse located in the Technology Center.

The general format follows the Editorial Board endorsement hearings: Candidates are given one minute at the beginning to introduce themselves, and one minute to make a closing statement. They will be asked about specific topics and are offered an opportunity, when the moderator finds it necessary, for a response to a challenger’s comments. [Read more…]

Ken Zebrowski: New Hempstead school should be closed until safety codes are met

by

Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski Photo Ricky Flores/The Journal News

“Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowski said Thursday that authorities should close down a private school that’s operating with an inadequate fire hydrant and without independent water and power, calling the approval the “most egregious example yet of the build first, ask questions later mentality.”

Zebrowski, a New City Democrat who has long advocated for pressuring schools to follow fire and safety codes, said he’s demanded the New York state Department of State investigate how the school got a certificate of occupancy to run a school, specifically with the apparent backing of the agency’s monitor assigned to review Building Department activities. [Read more…]

New Hempstead approves school without running water, power

by

Gorden Wren Jr. Director of Fire and Emergency Services for Rockland (Photo: Mark Vergari/The Journal News)

“A private school continues to operate without running water, without its own electricity and with a makeshift fire hydrant that a state monitor said doesn’t meet safety codes, but was allowed to give the operator a temporary permit to teach several hundred students, authorities said.

Rockland officials got involved Wednesday and said that if the Summit Park Road school doesn’t have an approved water source by Monday — such as a tanker with water — they will close down the school in violation of the county sanitary code. [Read more…]

The St. Lawrence Legacy: Monsey-controlled Planning and Zoning Boards that are 79% Non-compliant

by

The Ramapo Planning Board meeting July 25,2017The verdict “Guilty!” was read out loud 20 times in the Westchester courtroom on Friday, May 19. By Monday, the Journal News reported: “The glass window welcoming people to the Ramapo supervisor’s office in Town Hall was nameless, and all references to St. Lawrence had been removed from the town website, making him a persona non grata.” The most destructive Supervisor in Ramapo history was gone, yet his corrosive influence remains seated at the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals, composed of a majority number of Monsey representatives who are overwhelmingly non-compliant with the State regulations written for their positions. [Read more…]

Ramapo releases proposed 2018 budget

by

When Christopher St. Lawrence was Juggling the Books

Yesterday, the Ramapo Town Board released its proposed budget for 2018. To create a sound budgetary forecast, you need accurate numbers on the current fiscal state of Town’s finances. But the last set of complete numbers that now exist are the very same fraudulent figures that are sending the past Supervisor to federal prison and the finance and legal director to court facing SEC charges. A budget requires reliable information, not the felony-tainted figures that inspired the State Comptroller to classify Ramapo as “fiscally stressed.” A current, clean audit would help,  but the board and temporary supervisor say the current audit, and the one for the year before that, aren’t done yet. We know that because the interim supervisor has now said they won’t be ready until late November—that is, you’re not going to see the real picture until after the election is over. But you can come to the public meeting before those audits see daylight, and discuss the current budget. Anybody else smell something untoward here? [Read more…]

Ramapo: Judges uphold vote defeating ward system

by

Robert Romanowski and Michael Parietti    Photo:Steve Lieberman/Journal News

“A Preserve Ramapo activist and former supervisor candidate argued before a state appeals panel that town officials played political games with a 2014 ward system vote, almost secretly allowing unregistered voters to turn the tide against the change in government representation.

Michael Parietti said he and fellow activist Robert Romanowski “were delighted to have the opportunity to tell this tale of Ramapo to the Appellate Division in Brooklyn and describe to them the double standard we live with every day.” [Read more…]

Will post-Christopher St. Lawrence changes last past election?

by

Convicted Street SignNearly four months after Christopher St. Lawrence got booted as supervisor for his securities fraud convictions, Town Board members, once mostly publicly compliant to St. Lawrence’s wishes, are changing policies and hoping to remold the town’s negative image.

Skeptics remain, however, that the sincerity for change is short-term for the upcoming elections, even as board members offer zoning and planning reforms, such as  prohibiting zone changes until a master plan review is completed; a ban on using temporary trailers for classrooms; and moratoriums on construction in already heavily dense residential neighborhoods.  [Read more…]

Novartis property’s new owner: ‘No plan for housing’

by

Novartis Photo/LoHud

“One of the questions concerning the future of the vacant Novartis property is whether a sprawling housing development could spring up on the 162-acre campus.

The village’s mayor and the former pharmaceutical manufacturing plant’s new owner insist that’s not going to happen.

Amy Mele, an attorney for Suffern Partners LLC, which bought the site last week for $30 million, said the company had “absolutely no plan for any housing whatsoever.”

She also emphasized that the entire parcel would remain on the tax rolls. [Read more…]

Ramapo offers SEC a settlement to end fraud accusations

by

Seal of the US SEC“After months of negotiations and $1.7 million so far in legal fees, the Ramapo Town Board has offered to settle a civil case involving fraud accusations made by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The proposed settlement the Town Board approved 5-0 on Wednesday involves the town government and the Ramapo Local Development Corp., the town’s economic development arm that fronted the financing of the town baseball stadium and its Elm Street housing complex.

The SEC case continues — along with town legal costs — against former Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence, former RLDC Executive Director Aaron Troodler, Town Attorney Michael Klein, and Receiver of Taxes Nat Oberman. The town is required by public officer’s law to pay their legal fees. [Read more…]