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General News: Village Acts to Fund DPW Repairs

February 15, 2012

By Charlie B. Scirbona

Almost two years after the Village’s DPW building was closed because it lacked a certificate of occupancy, the village board of trustees voted to put up money to begin renovations on the building.

The board voted three-to-two to approve transferring $189,000 into the building maintenance budget to pay for the first part of the renovations needed to reopen the DPW building on Shore Road. The board also moved to award the bid to Highland Falls contractor Eugene Di Lorenzo Inc. When both resolutions were approved, signs of content could be heard from a group of DPW employees at the back of the room.

Village Mayor Brendan Coyne said that $100,000 of the money came from the contingency fund, and $24,000 came from rent paid by the Water Department for use of the building. Coyne added that money saved from not having a police chief, a crossing guard at St. Thomas or a code enforcement officer for most of the year was also part of the budget transfer.

The decisions did not come without an argument however. Village Trustee Barbara Gosda called the budget transfers insulting to village residents.

“I’m absolutely appalled by this,” said Gosda “We have $189,000 that we could have pulled out of the budget, and we couldn’t have used it in the next budget to offset the tax rate? This is outrageous,” she said.

Village Trustee Kane fired back at Gosda’s comment and claimed she was against getting back into the building.

“What’s outrageous is that every step we try to take to get back into this building you are against every single move,” said Kane. “We’ve done an enormous amount to get to this point and no matter what we do, you don’t want long-term bonding, you don’t want short-term financing, you don’t want it either way. So we know where you sit. The bottom line is this: you don’t want us to reoccupy this building.”

Village Trustee Andrew Argenio claimed that the rest of the board had been unwilling to work with him and Trustee Gosda.

“You do not collaborate, you do not cooperate, you could not work with us to get the bonding you wanted so you just steamrolled,” said Argenio.

Deputy Mayor Mark Edsall commented that the board had collaborated with the village department heads to find the money available so village wouldn’t have borrowed money for this section of the project.





Comments:

I hope everyone understands and reads the current comptrollers report that just came out. One of the things that it speaks of is over 200,000 dollars that's missing from originally building this garage. it makes it clear the due diligence was not done. the same is happening now. the public did not get to know that money was being transferred.
Here is the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnmVGMFkFHc&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Please watch all of the videos for this evening


posted by Andrew Argenio on 02/15/12 at 3:22 PM

Please go to the new york state comptrollers website to get your own copy it's your money! It also speaks to 5.8 million dollars in transfers were not approved by the board


posted by Andrew Argenio on 02/15/12 at 3:24 PM

What's outrageous is that the building was constructed and occupied in a fashion that led to all this mess in the first place. Mr. Kane has a lot of nerve lecturing people about being obstructionist when it was he and certain others who fought tooth and nail against getting to the bottom of what was wrong with the building and who was responsible for it.

Hopefully Mr. Lorenzo is not related to, or golfing buddies with, anyone on the board.

Enjoy paying your higher taxes in order to fix this incompetence, Villagers.


posted by Ted Warren on 02/15/12 at 4:10 PM

Kudo's to Mayor Coyne, Deputy Mayor Edsall, & Trustee Kane. Certain people have been obfuscating this matter for far too long at the village's detriment. Finally we can begin moving forward although I'm certain we will continue to hear the empty cans being banged by the same small group of people.


posted by P W on 02/15/12 at 4:11 PM

It is very sad to say the least that it has taken this long to get to the point of finally getting started on repairs to the highway garage. So many people get missled into believing things they hear or are told by people who point blank want nothing more then to see this project go down the drain. Words directly from one persons mouth was..quote - over my dead body will you ever work out of that garage again.. Why? is the big question are there a handfull of people so eager to have this facility closed is beyond me. The Village has spent numerous amounts of money to get to this point so why are we still trying to shoot it down. Tests have proven , inspections have proven and engineers and architects have come to resolutions to remedy the problems and time after time the handfull still try to have reasons to close the door on this project.


posted by JIM SEBESTA on 02/15/12 at 9:47 PM

You are the reason along with the hand full of followers that the Village continue to spend money to do what you want done and you still come up empty handed with only yet more reasons why the work shouldn't be done. If it it so unsafe for the employees and staff to work there then I really think higher authorities would have pulled the plug long ago, and nobody would be down there at all. Stop the blame shifting and grow up and work together like adults, without Edsall, Kane and Mayor Coyne working together and trying to accomplish what they have done we would still be on step one with nothing to show. I only wish the people who thought that Edsall ,Kane and Coyne are the bad guys , knew the real truth because they would see this all from my point of view and would have a completely different thought to the progress they are making.


posted by JIM SEBESTA on 02/15/12 at 9:48 PM

Jim who said that to you.? Barbara and I are trying to do due diligence. something that was not done in the past. we are trying to be responsible with our funds and provide a safe working environment. something that wasn't done in the past. this is confirmed by the comptrollers report. I think it is all polling data over 200,000 dollars is missing from the original transaction. we had engineer report saying that the foundation would not hold up and what happened? the foundation did not hold up I'm were going to spend more and more. got dumped is a bottomless pit for the village to throw money in. we need to listen for a better solution


posted by Andrew Argenio on 02/16/12 at 8:59 AM

The same group who railed how the park on dock hill road was a dumping ground are at in again. The DEC has dug two four foot trenches and guess what. Clean as a whistle. Lets stop this political grandstanding because that is just what it is. You can't fool everyone but you can sure make it difficult to run a village government. Let's cut the crap and elect someone sensible in March. Peter Russell and James Kane.


posted by P W on 02/16/12 at 1:08 PM

Kane defended the improper actions that led to 207,000 dollars ending up missing. he has known it for months and done nothing.Russell dident bother to show up to the last meeting.I am shure they are happy to have you collect signitures for them.


posted by Andrew Argenio on 02/16/12 at 4:53 PM

Our teachers in Cornwall must be embarrassed by the spelling seen here!


posted by Philip Connolly on 02/16/12 at 6:44 PM

I do know James Kane and Peter Russell do not go ballistic and act appropriately in matters. They think things through clearly which is what we need in the village. We do not need dividers who drive a wedge between others. TRUSTEE Kane is a man I know can be trusted and to malign him is just plain wrong.


posted by P W on 02/16/12 at 9:27 PM

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