Thursday, October 15, 2009

BUILDING DEPT EVACUATES HOME FOR SAFETY PURPOSES

Today, another multi-family house had to be evacuated for safety purposes. 88 Florence Avenue contained approximately 60 people, including children. There were so many appliances and extension cords that the apartments were heated to a point that was very noticeable. We met with the owner and attorney, who accompanied us to the premises to notify the inhabitants. We will continue to work with her to bring the house back into compliance so that some may move back.

38 comments:

Anonymous said...

60 people in a multi-family HOUSE? How many apartments? There are no APARTMENT building on this street if I recall correctly.

How does this happen? Violations? You don't mention any.

Anonymous said...

There are more illegal multi-family homes in Greenburgh than you can count! Wilson Street in Hartsdale has many - guess no one cares.

Paul hates Hartsdale families said...

Yep. Wilson St is the poster child for all things wrong in Greenburgh. Illegal multiple families housing shady people, traffic hazard nightmare at corner of EHA, Caserella driving cars the wrong way up the street and parking illegally. The best is the illegal 2 family right next to the school yard. Not built according to approved plans submitted to the town. Illegal curb cuts, vicious doberman roaming around and an owner who spews fifth at the school children playing in the yard at lunch period.

Oh wait! Forgive me. These children and their families deserve this. Right Paul?

Anonymous said...

Now if we can teach the building Department how to fight fires we can eliminate the that ugly fire tax. Do you know Greenburgh has the highest fire tax rate in the nation. Larger than any of the bigger cities and we dont have any fires.. Thats because the building department is doing there job.

Anonymous said...

Why does the building department have to have tips as to where there are many occupants in one home.
DO THEY NOT HAVE EYES?

We can drive thru many roads where we observe many homes that have multiple families living there.

They just have to check the amount of garbage recepticles being placed curbside four times a week .
There is no household that has four to five garbage tins that is being occupied by one family.

They should be checking where there is constant construction of the interior.
Do they have permits?
How long do these permits go for?
Years and years.

We have to put the blame where it belongs. The building department is not doing their job.
They seem to zoom into the immigrant households when there is much more going on in all areas.

We used to have inspectors that would drive arround to see what was going on.
Boy was he right on target when he caught someone in violation.
The town made money then.

Bring back the way things were done before by the way that was the correct and honest way of running a business.
Front yards were checked to see that they were clean. Today the department waits for a complaint.
Why is it thet some get away with filth while others get penalized for not cutting the grass.

Revamp your department to go after all.
Don't wait for complaints.
We all know that many complaints go to the wayside.

Anonymous said...

"DO THEY NOT HAVE EYES?"

Yes. Yes, they do. Eyes wide open.

Anonymous said...

check 110 prospect ave second floor. two familes two room each, eight people

hal samis said...

Don't you folks understand that Feiner wants to make any molehill into a mountain. He needs to blow up people doing the job they are paid to do into heroics and find someone to give a certificate of appreciation to.

Of course the Building Department knows about violators. The problem is they only take action when Feiner tells them to which occurs when Feiner needs a public relations boost.

Imagine if they were to get busy, take the gloves off and take all the necessary actions in one month's time. Then what would Paul have to tell us about next month? But he hasn't got a lot of other Departments to turn to for good news so that is why he's sticking with the Building Department.

You see DPW has a new Department head, the Police will have a new Department head. the Comptroller is new -- so not much is expected to be flowing from them. Assessor McCarthy and "Planning" Commissioner Madden are under deserved "enemy" fire, the TDYCC as a Department is always a touchy subject and that leaves the Town Clerk, the Library, the Parks Department and Legal.

You already know the story with the Library; the Town Clerk's only distinction is in booking entertainment and that season is over so she has nothing to fall back while dodging the bullets from the Cablevision contract and the lousy transmissions of town meetings over both Cablevision and Verizon networks -- so there's nothing to write (blog) home about from her. Parks doesn't have much going on after the Spookfest, the Town Attorney is busy protecting his Clients, the Town Board from my complaints to the Ethics Board, so that leaves the Building Department, those fearless and tireless workers who have done so little over the years other than raise money for Feiner's campaign war chest. Thus when they finally do something even if it is their job, it is news. Unfortunately with nothing else to brag about, Feiner has decided to parse their awakening from a 30 year sleep out in bits. The result: "Today another multi-family house had to be evacuated for safety purposes..." Yes safety is the engine driving the Building Department these days; however the safety concern is coming at a timed release of about one response every two months.
And instead of the Police Department's "what if someone were to die" Feiner is using the Building Department as the cynosure of concern "we saved someone from dying". What seems to be lacking is an explanation of whether 60 people exceeds standards for the unmentioned number of apartments; instead we read a mysterious "so that some may move back". In real estate multifamily is a definition that may indicate a building with a little a 5 units.

Come back again and again to this blog. This is ground zero for finding out something "good" in Greenburgh, the Supervisor being the original half-full kind of guy when it suits his needs.
However taxpayers need to also learn the half-empty side because it is Feiner's half-full side which is the one driving your taxes up.

samis makes it clear said...

what a shame samis is not on the ballot and someone like juettner is.

the local democratic party is bankrupt.

Anonymous said...

Hal: don't you think Paul is looking for a little attention and appreciation after his silent film role at last night's (very) well attended Hartsdale community meeting?

Anonymous said...

Can we get a recap of the meeting please?

Anonymous said...

how many of these comments are from the same person?

Anonymous said...

8:47 you don't know what you are talking about. The 3 fire dept's actually do all the fire inspections, on all of the commercial properties in their districts, every year. All 3 dept's have certified code enforcement officers and do not receive any money from the town. Even after someone gets fined, the town gets the money not the fire dept.

4 1/4% SALARY INCREASE IS OBSCENE said...

The 4 1/4% salary increase is obscene. This salary hike is awarded to Greenville fire fighters who earn substantially more than the Greenburgh cops. Compare calls police make with fire fighters. How many fires does Greenville put out every year without the help of other departments?

Anonymous said...

Where can we find a public post of the Hartsdale Community meeting? I was unable to attend. With Greenburgh's open government policy, surely it is public record?

Anonymous said...

The supervisor is pleased to announce the following:
U 2 will perform before the next Town Bd Mtg. Springsteen is not available.
Greenburgh C7 nursery school graduates will be honored after the U2 performance.
If there is any time left, some budget review and real debate may be done.

hal samis said...

Dear 8:42,

Actually it almost wasn't U2 due to a mistake in reading their contract by Town Clerk Judith Beville. She thought that she was signing them to a 10 year annual appearance at the Hartsdale Center Music Festival and that they would be performing pro Bono.
Thanks to a quick reading by Town Attorney Lewis, the contract was whittled down to an agreed 7 performances plus a two song preview at Town Hall as long as they were paid their standard fee for 10 shows plus 30%. What the Town did obtain in return was U2's agreement postponing the fee until the final 4 years so that the Supervisor would be able to keep tax increases for the first 3 years below 17% annually; however it is anticipated that these concerts will add an annual increase of 36% just to unincorporated taxes in each of the remaining 4 years.

In a related story, the Hartsdale Parking District announced today the appointments of Danny Gold, Richard Garfunkel and Ray Thomas to an expanded Parking Board. In conjunction with their appointments, the new Board announced the planned conversion of the train station Parking Garage to stadium seating so that Village residents would be able to attend these concerts and at the same meeting the Xposure Foundation was awarded the snack concession for a $100 contribution to the Greenburgh Public Library.

Putting the concert together had a somewhat rocky start with Hartsdale Center not being either the first or second choice of the newly formed Town Amazing Weekend Committee jointly headed by Alan Hochberg and Milo Minderbender. Originally the U2 concert was intended to be held at Hartsbrook Preserve however, the gatekeeper had already made non-refundable vacation arrangements for that week. When Hartsbrook fell through, Taxter Ridge Park was mentioned as a venue but Danny Gold pointed out that the event would bring too much traffic to East Irvington and disturb the natural vegetation, fauna and air quality and that his neighborhood civic association would email the Town Supervisor.

To stave this threat off, a now frantic search for a venue was undertaken with Hartsdale Center chosen not only because of its convenience to a flood plain, the warm response this summer by the three residents who attended the music series but also because there are sources for electric power so that the event can be broadcast live over the Town's two cable system franchisees. After fierce bidding between the two competing operators ensued, the matter was settled by an agreement to charge Verizon subscribers $25.00 and Cablevision subscribers $25.00. However it was decided that those residents with White Plains zipcodes would be not be charged any fee following a long standing tradition originating at the TDYCC that by allowing these childen to watch for free, they would stay home and not be tempted to commit street crimes or sell drugs during the performance.

It has been confirmed that Bruce Springsteen was mentioned as a possibility but he was never interviewed by the Town Board. Following this shunning he sent regrets and explanation through his agent that since he is well-known for supporting the working man and having read several blog postings that conveyed the news that uniformed firemen are not entitled to increases unless their district has had at least 3 fires in an 18 month period; Mr. Springsteen felt that the media would report his appearance as being in sympathy with ultra conservative right wingers who wear dirtied sheets and post as anonymous.

More on this story following the fulfillment of my FOIL request for the transcript of the Special Town Board meeting held December 31 at 11:00 PM to discuss the proposed concert and any other business that may come before the Town Board. However the Town Clerk's office is still trying to make sense working off the scrambled audio portion of the broadcast tape and estimates that it will be at least two more election cycles before the transcript can be assembled.

Anonymous said...

It was announced that Elmsford residents would be granted free access to all concerts in keeping with the Towns past practice to allow Elmsford free entrance to all town facilities and TDYCC programs.
Taxter Park was considered as a venue but upon realization of the lack of 1 parking space was deemed not viable.

Anonymous said...

Are salaries of the fire district employees posted on any website?

Anonymous said...

Are salaries of Greenburgh town employees posted on any website? Answer: They are not. If you want that information, you have to file a FOIL request. The TDYCC commissioner was asked last year how many employees worked at the community center. He didn't know, and you couldn't tell by looking at the TDYCC budget. Nor can you tell what each police officer makes. That information had to be culled to honor a special FOIL request by the Journal News.

Michael Kolesar said...

To 10:44 PM and 11:37 PM:

To those who are interested is getting some insight into compensation for employees of the State of New York and many of its sub-agencies and governments, follow the steps below:

1. enter www.seethroughny.net
2. Click “Payrolls”

Select whatever you are interested in – if the Town of Greenburgh, click on “Towns”, if a fire district, click “Special Districts”

3. I’ll do Greenburgh, so click “Towns”
4. Under the caption Pay years – highlight “2008 – 2009 (4/1/08 – 3/31/09)
5. Under Branch the box should already have “Towns”
6. Under Agency – scroll down and highlight “Greenburgh”
7. Click “Go”
8. Viola – a “complete” list of “full time” employees for the period.
9. If you want to download this information into an Excel table, look for the Excel icon in the lower left and click. Once you have the information in excel, one can sort it in descending order by compensation, if that is what you are interested in.
10. When the box comes up, click “open”.

Some words of caution. This list does not include “part-timers” and “seasonal” workers. It appears to include only those employees whose wages were reported to the State for pension purposes. It does not include certain components of taxable income that are apparently excluded for pension purposes. For example, Council members Juettner, Sheehan and Brown are all listed at $28,332. To the best of my recollection, Councilwoman Brown does not receive health coverage, nor has she received $2,000 annually paid to Council members Juettner and Sheehan for not taking the health coverage. What’s most interesting is that Council member Kevin Morgan is not included in the data at all.
Al Regula and Butch Nanna are also not there, so I am not sure how complete this is.

So use this with some skepticism. One may look up by individual name. Enter Kolesar and you will see that I was paid $134,143 for this period.

If you are interested in fire district data, highlight “Special Districts” and then select “fire and police” and then for the specific district, highlight Greenville, Fairview, Hartsdale, or whatever.

Finally to those who don’t want to “believe” the compensation reported in various topics in this blog, search for yourself and “believe”.

Anonymous said...

Dear Paul hates....

The owner of that overbuilt house on Wilson next to the Scared Heart schoolyard came up to the fence last year and told my child to "shut the F**K up" because he was too loud while playing in the yard.

I now know why this man thinks he can behave this way. From your remarks, it appears like the town gives him license to do what ever he pleases. Also, the dog is a direct threat to the kids. It's only a matter of time before there is a disaster.

Thank you Paul.

Anonymous said...

That man should have been arrested for such behavior towards schoolchildren, no less. True, he is on his own property, but he bought next to a school and should curtain his language and behavior! How can the school allow this? It is supposed to be a safe haven, no? Disgusting. Knock down the eyesore, take your dog(s) with you, and don't come back. Hartsdale doesn't need the likes of you.

Anonymous said...

Who is the owner of this home.
He must be a friend of Feiners or someone else in town.

Who ever gave him permission to built must have gotten plenty of money under the table.

Where was the building department????

Anonymous said...

Even before one shovel hit the ground to construct that monstrosity, the owner illegal cut down all of the trees on the slop that runs down to Central Ave. Every one, thus disturbing steep slope stabilization.

Now its a hill of eroding weeds. Why hasn't the town demanded that he replace the tress as I hear he was ordered to do years back? Why is the property facing Central in this awful overrun condition and the owner not required to clean it up?

Paul? Paul?
Zoning board? Building dept? Planning board?

Everyone at town hall knows exactly what's gone on there and what continues to go on.

But hey! It's Hartsdale! A community of predominately white, middle class, Christians. A property sitting right next to the catholic school! Why would town hall give a hoot?

They figure if your children attend the school there's a good chance you may be killed at the intersections of Central & Lawton or Wilson & EHA anyway, so why the beef with the property next door?
Be grateful that you & your kids arrived to the school alive!

Anonymous said...

Dear 1:20

You are mistaken. That was not the owner who yelled at your child at the school yard fence. That was Paul in disguise.

Anonymous said...

you people are all just pathetically jealous that this guy had the money to put up such an ostentatious home while you are all living in termite-invested 1910s woodframes. plus this guy pays $27K in taxes. how much do you pay? (no, i'm not the owner and i've never met him..i'm just sick of this whining).

Anonymous said...

How come he only pays $27k in taxes.
Who assessed the property?
My home is half of his and I pay $20k.
He he a friend of the assessor.

green with envy said...

Since when does paying taxes initial one to have no regard for rules or laws?

Are you suggesting that having more money (having a bigger home) means you are exempt?

As for being jealous, the house, while big is UGLY. It is tasteless. Money does not buy taste. Built on the UGLIEST street. In Hartsdale. The fact that this idiot pays 27K in taxes to live in this pile of tasteless junk is nothing for him or anyone else to be proud of. Casarella is a suitable gateway to his home.

I'm green with envy. lol. Now if it were a graceful tudor mansion in Bronxville........

greeeeeeeen said...

sorry ENTITLE not initial.

hal samis said...

re Wilson Street

Wait, the best is yet to come. The "home" was built to its permitted size by utilizing the allowed buildables of the entire parcel (Wilson to Central).

The economy is in the dog park and as a result, retail vacancies abound. Not the time to build new commercial buildings on Central Park Avenue.
But supposing it were a thriving economy.

Then you might see an application to the Town to subdivide the parcel so as to make use of the commerically zoned frontage on Central Park Avenue. Nevermind that the "house" already used up the FARs etc. allowed. The owner will argue that no one wants to see the property left as it is and that a building will provide the Town with more tax revenue.

Feiner will "react" and argue that allowing the additional development will be a win-win and after the report from Planning Commissioner/Consultant for hire, Thomas Madden, it will be approved. People who are upset with how the property looks now will support the owner so as to be rid of the weeds.

One might even wonder whether these comments are the start of a campaign to create a file of dissatisfaction with leaving the property untended in its natural state, like passive parkland that everyone says they want to have preserved and untouched. You know, a pocket of "greenspace".

However in this location, anonymous writers seem to prefer their parkland well groomed.

For friends, Feiner does not always shoot from the hip. Sometimes the desired end result follows working from a well turned out script.

As for illegal tree cutting, apparently if you do the work on the weekend it is legal.

Anonymous said...

Hal,

I've heard those wheels had already been set in motion some time ago. An application to subdivide that is. I could be wrong but that's what I hear.

The owner has been crying about a hardship and needs to sell the parcel. Oh woe is he!

Everyone knew the owner would attempt to do this before the foundation on the house was even poured. Years before our current financial climate.

He's in bed all right. I guarantee you the town will allow him to sell the parcel off. Eventually.

Anonymous said...

How many times does the building department followup on building permits.

NEVER.

If they did we would have completions done in time instead of going on for years.
Wake up you are loosing a lot of money in not going after home owners who refuse to adhear to the specified time to complete a project.

Anonymous said...

Don't you guys ever have something positive to say? You lose credibility being critical of everything and anything. Pick your fights!

Anonymous said...

Dear 10:44 aka Paul,

"Pick your fights!"

I doesn't matter what fight gets picked, you do whatever you like. This is why comments are "critical of everything" because the people have no "credibility" in your eyes on any issue.

Everything gets thrown at the wall in the hopes that something sticks. There is no reason for the public to not behave any differently. You have created this monster. You have to live with it.

hal samis said...

New item for the Planning Board. On the Agenda for Wednesday's meeting is a pre-submission conference to subdivide...Wilson Street/Central Park Avenue into two lots each permitting 10,000+ foot structures.

you put your two cents in
you put your two cents out
you put your two cents in
and you shake them all about
you do the hanky panky
and you turn the rules around
that's what it's all about

Anonymous said...

This is for the building dept. comm.

Has the town law changed concerning commercial vehicles parked in residential area?

If it hasn't there is a commercial construction vehicle hiding behind some bushes and the commercial trailer is back .Both are on Sprain Valley rd.

If the law has changed please put it on this blog this way you will not be bothered again.

Anonymous said...

do think that the building dept. refuses to answer the comment before this one.

They do know that they are falling behind in their every day duties.

We need revenue so check on all permits to refurbish or to reconstruct existing homes.
Some projects are going on for years. Could it be that these homes are being renovated into multiple dwellings??????
How long does a permit last five to ten years?
Why is it that some can do what they want with their property regardless of its appearance.
We all pay taxes and we have to look at properties that are in disarray for multi years WHY WHY AND WHY??