Paul,
I have read and carefully reviewed your memo to Mark Stellato about doing part of the Comprehensive Plan Study in house.
Before any substantial work is done on an updated Comprehensive Plan, the Town must first update the 1980 Zoning Ordinance.
On December 11, 2006 the Town entered into a contract with BFJ Planning to assist the Greenburgh Planning Department in proposing updates to the 1980 Zoning Ordinance at an already budgeted cost of $105,000.
On March 28, 2007, the Town Board established an in house Zoning Code Revision Committee. Greenburgh taxpayers were told that this project would be completed before a new Comprehensive Plan was proposed. I understand that NYS Town Law actually requires that the existing Zoning Ordinance be completely updated before a Town can adopt a revised or updated Comprehensive Plan.
Councilperson Sheehan was appointed Chairman of the Zoning Code Revision Committee. Has the Committee submitted any reports ? If not, the Town Board should place a high priority on getting recommendation from the Zoning Code Revision Committee. Proposed revisions to the existing Zoning Ordinance would very likely be the nucleus for an updated Comprehensive Plan.
I recommend that, before the Town burdens Greenburgh taxpayers with any additional costs for outside consultants, the Town Board should evaluate and adopt, as appropriate, the recommendations of the Zoning Code Revision Committee.
I have not yet completed my review of the 2008 proposed tentative budget. However, it is readily apparent that, if the Town needs any consulting services during 2008, priority should be given to implementing better financial and accounting controls. There are many unanswered questions concerning the decision by the four members of the Town Council to override the previous conservative spending policy of the Town Supervisor.
I believe that Greenburgh taxpayers would support expenditures for this type of consulting services. A Town Financial Plan is needed much more urgently than a Comprehensive Plan. I understands that Ferrandino Associates does not specialize in financial and accounting consulting.
Please consider the financial needs of Greenburgh residents. As noted repeatedly in the local press, many Senior Citizen taxpayers can no longer afford to live in the Westchester Towns which they financially supported for many, many years. This fact is especially true in the Town of Greenburgh.
Robert F. Reninger
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17 comments:
who is this reninger person?
This man is an honest resident og Greenburgh who really does his homework .The same goes for Samis.
Two important citizens of the community who tell you just the way it is.
No lies ,no umpapa,just the facts .
If we had listened to Reninger from the beginning followed by Samis input we would not be in trouble with the library.
Whenever Reninger speaks the board should listen and keep quiet.
Maybe with this new board we will be getting not just to first bas but all the waqy home.
Paul pay attention to Reninger's comment.
Reninger is a very honest man who knows what he is talking about.
He is always looking out for ALL the residents of Greenburgh.
He is not like other civic leaders.
Paul he will never stear you in the wrong direction.
but when reninger spoke the truth about the health center, he was dismissed as a "racist"
what is truly racist was the perpetuation of a race based seat on the town board and in other government offices and positions has to end - we need merit based selection only.
rather - this has to end
He is not a racist,This is what I mean if you cannot take the truth then the person speaking is a racist.
Was he wrong or was he right.
The space is still empty so there must be something wrong with the planning.
From this week's The Scarsdale Inquirer:
"Village consultants to study stormwater" by Ilene Nechamkin
Guess what, April 15 hit Scarsdale too. Guess what, Scarsdale was unprepared also. Guess what, their system from the 1920s is now being viewed as inadequate.
Guess what, Greenburgh residents have been told to be envious of Scarsdale because Scarsdale already had a Comprehensive Plan.
If dey got a plan, all god's chil'ren need plans.
Guess what, your problems aren't all solved when you open that package marked "Comprehensive Plan".
And even if it is the most, complete, most up-to-the minute and all inclusive work (which I am sure this was not what was ordered, even from the beginning, but nevertheless marketed to residents as such), guess what is in store next?
Taxpayers will be asked to fund a hefty tax increase to afford to put into practice the CP recommendations. And how silly would it look (and dangerous to defend re liability) if Greenburgh spent $405,000 and didn't pursue the cures from what it has learned? If you think the current concern over a looming 23% increase is alarming, then consider what happens when the final $8 million of library bonding (30 years) is in place in 2009 and we're back to hearing about sidewalks, the court house/police station and in the midst of this, the CP arrives. That is after we've paid (2009) for the "unfunded" portion or an additional $200,000. Meanwhile, residents will, around then, be shelling out the start of an additional $500,000 for consultants and legal fees to study and litigate a proposed Tappan Zee plan which will likely be decided upon two years or so AFTER the Greenburgh CP has been delivered.
Oh, and taxpayers have begun to hear (worry? me not worry) about the increasing and unfunded pension liabilities as our town work force expands even while new hires continue to take part in the lucrative, existing union contracts. It is time to shut the spigot and start cutting back on benefits for new hires. We can't afford it. "And we're not gonna take it anymore".
And, the NYS Pension funds? We contribute our share based upon how well they've invested the contributions. Anyone think that they avoided entirely buying the risk portions (high yielding) of the CDO and CMBS obligations that Wall Street investment banks have been writing down every day? Anyone think that a downturn in the stock market is going to leave these Pension funds unscathed. Keep reading your newspapers. The wakeup call is coming.
Of course by then, the Greenburgh Police Department will already have requested, capital funding to implement its need to develop nuclear deterrent capability should Yonkers and White Plains continue to expand along Greenburgh borders.
But none of this matters when the only reason to spend the $405,000 now is the expectation that the CP will embrace and justify the concept that Edgement need not be burdened any more by new residential development along Central Avenue.
This Christmas, give the gift of love; send a $405,000 gift card to Bob Bernstein, Michelle McNally, Madelon O'Shea, Francis Sheehan, Eddie Mae Barnes, Steve Bass, Diana Juettner (hey Diana what's in it for the Villages?), Fran McLaughlin, Steve Belasco, Mark Stellato and Ella Preiser.
we already got a lump of coal fron feiner and his flunkies
Yes Paul after fifty years living here in Greenburgh we have to sell our home.
We can not live with the rise in taxes, school,town,and fire.
When we as senior citizens should be enjoying our home we are at the point of selling.
The school tax is going thru the roof,the town tax is going to kill us,and the fire taxes are getting out of hand.
The unions are to blame with the amount of monies that the fire and policemen get.
With town workers they should be gven an incentive to retire or let them pay for part of their benefits.
I do not think that we are the only ones contemplating selling.
If we sell now we will loose our shirt,so yousee living here is really a loosing proposition.
"With town workers they should be gven an incentive to retire or let them pay for part of their benefits."
Excellent idea, especially regarding a number of long-term dead-wood employees in the highway department who do so little in the course of the day.
Gee dnd,
Do you mean that the highway department won't wack your weeds?
Isn't that a little bit on the dramatic side?
In other words, you want tofire the dead wood that won't wack the weeds on the State's road (Central Avenue).
You have specific examples of such dead wood? Something that might be called...data?
Otherwise, let's spell it out.
D-R-A-M-A N-O-T D-A-T-A
Specific examples have been provided previously and have been reported to the DPW (which I'd bet the secretary chose to not pass on). In addition to weeds, we have many sewer grates that have been trash-covered for months, an increasing number of sinkholes, missing signage ... the list goes on and on. Yet we see six highway department employees working on private property during the workday (well, two working, four 'supervising').
D--
Whose/where private property were they working on during the working day?
I have seen DPW repeatedly picking up garbage from Patio.com. That is commercial property? Is that right
Dear Anonymous D,
So is the DPW picking up garbage at Patio.com the same complaint as the Highway Department working on private property?
But let's follow this one up.
Start by your making a complaint to DPW and let's track their response on this blog.
You already know that I'm not a fan of Al Regula & Co.
dpw (3 trucks 5 men) was also installing signs on odell house on ridge road - owned privately by the sons of the american revolution (a most arrogant group)
Contractors bring home their garbage from their jobs, place at curside and the DPW picks every thing up almost everyday.
This should be checked by the supervisors who drive arround making believe that they are working DOING NOTHING.
This should not happen.
Now getting to the leaves,where are the ones who should be giving out some tickets.
Are the gardners licensed?
They see to be throwing the leaves from one side of the street to the other,because some of the homeowners don't want the leaves on their grass.
This really does not fit the title of the comments, but someone started this sight for complaints.
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