HomeMy WebLinkAbout1992-03-24 - Board of Trustees Meeting Public Hearing j: P,CO
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PUBLIC HEARING
Re: Pool in Rye Brook
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Port Chester Diddle School.
Bowman. Avenue
Part Cheater, New York
March 24, 1992
8 : 00 P.M.
Pamela Pandisci.o,
RPR-CP
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
TOTAL P.Al
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A P P E A R A N C E S
SALVATORE CRESENZI, Mayor
MICHELLE DALY, Trustee
JOSEPH PELLINO, Trustee
RANDY SOLOMON, Trustee
KEANE & BEANE, P. C.
Attorneys for Village
11 Elm Place
Rye, New York 10580
BY: EDWARD F. BEANE, ESQ.
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2 THE MAYOR: I' d like to call
3 this meeting to order, please. I' d like to read a
4 statement on behalf of the Village Board of Trustees
5 and then get on with the meeting tonight .
6 The purpose of this evening' s
7 public hearing is to gather information, both from
8 and for the community, concerning the current pool
9 proposal . This is an informational meeting which
10 most likely will need to be continued to at least
11 another hearing date, and possibly longer, if the
12 Board needs further input to come to a decision. To
13 put this process in perspective, it is important to
14 restate the decision that the Village Board must come
15 to . That decision is whether or not to vote in the
16 affirmative and simultaneouslyput this proposal
17 before the community in the form of a referendum. if
18 this Board ultimately believes this is not the right
19 time, location, or both for a municipal pool complex,
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20 this Board will take no action on that matter.
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21 The public hearing will be
22 conducted as follows : Mr. Larry Raffaelli will give
23 a brief overview of the proposal that is now before
24 the Village Board. Once Mr: Raffaelli completes his
25 presentation, all organized . groups will be given the
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2 opportunity to speak-and present any additional
3 information to both the Village Board and the
4 community. Each group will be given five minutes to
5 speak.
6 Because the meeting is being
7 videotaped, and a stenographic record is also being
8 produced, it is required that anyone wishing to speak
9 must approach the podium and state their name and ..
10 address . In order to prepare an accurate record of
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11 this evening' s hearing, it is essential that only one
12 person speak at a time . We can' t have any cross-
13 conversation, or our record will not be an accurate
14 one . Individuals will be given up to three minutes
15 to make a statement .
16 And I' d like to state now that
17 we' re in the school cafeteria. This hearing will
18 close at 10 p.m. because the custodians need to reset
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T 19 thisroom for tomorrow' s schoolday.
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20 At this time I would like to turn
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°d 21 the meeting over to Mr. Raffaelli to begin the
22 proposal that was put in front of the Village Board.
23 I know there' s a lot of emotion in the room. I would
24 ask that everyone remain calm. Everybody will be
25 given every opportunity to speak.
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2 The groups that I'm going to < '
3 recognize tonight will be - - obviously, Mr. Raffaelli
4 will go first . The Pool Committee will be given five
5 minutes . The Rye Hills Homeowner' s Association is an
6 organized group and will be given five minutes . The
7 Committee Against Pools will be given five minutes.
8 And the Rye Hills Park Study Committee will be given
9 five minutes . When those presentations are
10 completed, we will take statements from the floor,
11 again, as I said, for three minutes .
12 Mr. Raffaelli .
13 MR. HALEY: Mr. Mayor, would it
14 be all right for the Pool Committee to go first, take
15 our five minutes first?
16 THE MAYOR: That' s fine .
17 MR. HALEY: Can everyone hear
18 me? My name is John Haley. I live on Betsy Brown
19 Road, and I am one of the members of the Pool
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20 Committee which was an official committee appointed
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21. by the Village Board to look at the pool proposal and
22 come up with a proposal . I' d like to just spend a
23 very quick minute - - we have got a lot of material to
24 go through. We would like this evening to be as
25 informational as possible .
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t 2 The Pool Committee, unlike other
3 committees in the village, was a group of people who
4 got together about two years ago to look at this . We
5 didn' t have much knowledge or information, but we
6 organized and we came to the Village Board at a
7 meeting and asked to become an official committee .
8 The Board granted that request . We did a lot of
9 research and determined that the leading pool
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10 consultant in the northeast is Larry Raffaelli, who
11 is here tonight . And at our request, the Board
12 retained him for $3 , 000 to do a feasibility study and
13 serve as a consultant .
14 The uniting factor among the
15 people on the Pool Committee was a strong desire to
16 do something good for the village, to improve the
17 quality of life in our village . That was really our
18 only agenda. That ' s the only agenda we have had, and
19 we have had no hidden agenda of any kind but in
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20 trying to do something good for the village.
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21 While I hesitate to say anything
22 negative, because I don' t want to cause divisiveness ,
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23 I do want to encourage you to look at the Rye Hills
24 Community Association. Their agenda, which they
25 don' t talk about , is really to stop development of
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2 Rye Hills Park, as they have done for years . There' s
3 another group out there who is composed of members 'of
4 the Greenwich Country Club who, for some reason, see
5 this as a threat to their existence . That' s
6 nonsense . This is not a country club, and certainly
7 would not compete as one . So please do think of the
8 reasons that people are here before you tonight .
9 To move right on, we have a little
10 slide show that I' ll go through very quickly.
11 There' s a lot of information here, but I ' ll go as
12 fast as we can.
13 Most people don' t know where Rye
14 Hills Park is, we found out. This is a little map .
15 It ' s got a lot of topographical lines . But the
16 square in the middle is Crawford Park, and over to
17 the right is Ridge Street. You can see the Crawford
18 Park in the middle of the screen. It you go below:
9 19 that, there' s a roughly rectangular area with an
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20 arrow pointing down on the right side . That is Rye
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21 Hills Park. It' s owned by the village . It' s 6 . 5
22 acres . It was the subject of a recommendation of the
23 Clark Associates report in 1987 that found it to be
24 the best place for recreational development in the
25 village . Our Pool Committee study looked at all
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2 available sites in the village and also concluded
3 this is the very best site for development . It' s
4 hardly used. Most people don' t even know where it
5 is . It now has public street access, which it never
6 had before . It' s plenty large enough for the pool
7 proposal and many other good uses . It ' s an excellent
8 site .
9 Switch signs now.
10 I urge all of you to walk up and
11 look at it . Our pool consultant gave us some
12 computer-generated drawings that are little
13 renderings for which we could see what sort of
14 proposals we would use . These are not formal plans;
15 these are merely sketches . '.
16 As you see, we have a 100 -car
17 parking lot on the one side of the land, and on the
18 other side - - this was the optimal proposal that the
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19 Pool Committee passed over . There is a small wading
20 pool for children. We feel strongly there should be
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21 a training pool for children too big for the kiddy
22 pool , but too small for the adult recreation pool .
23 The children are right at the age where they' re
24 learning to swim. That' s a relatively inexpensive
25 pool . You save very little if you don' t build that .
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2 One of the main .uses- is the adult recreational pool .
3 The uses there are incompatible with certain other '
4 important aquatic uses , which consist of lap swimming
5 and diving . You don' t want diving in your recreation
6 pool . And this one which we investigated had a
7 separate diving pool . It was felt that this wasn' t
B justified. We felt it could be combined, the
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9 competition, lap swimming and diving pool .
10 We have all heard before about the
11 pool proposal . You've got two kiddy pools . You' re
12 really talking two adult pools . They are not
13 extremely large pools that you might see. down at the
14 Rye Golf Club. This is a very flexible, good pool
15 design, allowing you to shut down one of the
16 facilities when you don' t need to use it, and yet it
17 allows for plenty of . overflow on the largest days .
18 These smaller pools are much easier to lifeguard,
19 much more economical to use. It ' s a very practical ,
20 flexible plan that.: covers all the uses . Larry
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21 Raffaelli will continue with that .
22 . Just to get through these quickly,
23 there was an L-shaped pool we looked at . That has a
24 number of bad features in it . The main one is the
25 serious compromise of the rec pool for no good
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2 purpose . You save very little money with that .
3 Flip to the next one .
4 This was really inadequate . This
5 limits it down to just the kiddy pool and an adult
6 rec pool . But it' s much too small . Our village
•7 would swamp this pool . It would be full at 9 : 00 on
8 Saturday morning, and nobody would get in. .
9 Flip to the next one .
10 If one eliminated the fourth
11 pool - - this is a larger drawing that is not the
12 entire park - - you' d have to have something that
. 13 looks like this . There' s two kiddy pools , the wading
14 and training pool . You must have a pool of . about
15 that size to accommodate a village of our size for
16 strictly a recreational pool . There' s no diving,
17 there' s no competition possible, and there' s no lap
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18 swimming; yet you must constantly keep the labor for
19 that pool, if there' s one person in it, to guard the
20 whole area. You've eliminated many uses , and haven' t
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21 saved much. The cost differential is $2 per average
22 assessed house in the village . We' re going to get to
23 the cost in a minute .
24 Flip to the next thing.
25 This is an enlargement of the pool
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2 the committee settled on' as the best use; the most
3 flexible . And Larry after will tell us much more
4 about these pools .
5 Flip to to the next one, please .
6 Here' s some facts and figures .
7 It' s tough to read here under these circumstances .
8 The annual cost to maintain it is $100, 000 . Those
9 are Larry' s figures which he can expand on for you.
10 The users pay the feesl`through membership fees , and
11 that splits it to a very reasonable number.
12 THE MAYOR: Time is up .
13 ' MR. HALEY: If anyone would like
14 to see the budget estimate, that one' s next .
15 I am going to give the floor over
16 to our pool expert , Larry Rafaelli, who may want to
17 tell you about the budget . We also have cost figured
18 out . It' s available in the material . Thank you very
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19 much. -
20 THE MAYOR: Everybody got to
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21 show their signs once. Let' s not do it again, okay?
22 Let' s not do it again.
23 A couple of things I should have
24 pointed out earlier. The fire exits are in the rear
25 and at the front . I must do that by law. There are
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2 two police officers outside, if anyone needs
3 assistance with anything, medical problem or
4 whatever, they are available for you.
5 At this time Mr. Raffaelli is
6 going to make his report . I've allotted 15 minutes
. 7 for his report to be presented tonight .
8 Mr. Rafaelli .
9 MR. RAFAELLI : Good evening, Mr.
10 Mayor, Board, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for
11 having me here . I want to share with you some of my
12 experience and tell you some things you may not know
" 13 about pools . I' d like to discuss with you what a
14 pool complex should do for you . What should you
15 expect from a pool complex? What should you expect
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16 the aquatic facility to do for you?
17 You need one, folks . You need to
18 recreate . You need to acquaint your youngsters , your
19 toddlers with water. You need to train them so they
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8 20 know how to swim. That' s almost as important as
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21 learning to walk. We want to learn. We want to
22 exercise . We want to have instruction. We want to
23 have instruction for learning to race, learning to
24 dive . We may want to have scuba instruction. There
25 are many things we can do with a pool complex.
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2 There are many facilities around
3 that can provide some of these functions , but not all
4 of them. For a town, for a municipality, for a
5 village your size, you' d be well to have your own = -
6 to conduct your own programs . These various programs
7 can be assembled in perhaps two pools, and it' s been
8 done before . These two pools are not the best way to
9 construct a facility, however, and they save very
10 little .
11 Where do we start? Well, first of
12 all , we start with the toddlers . As we look at a
13 toddler, we want to acquaint him with water, make him
14 feel comfortable in water. And to that extent , .we
15 want to have water which is safe for him, which is
16 readily accessible for the mother, for the guardian,
17 to protect, to encourage him, to reach out and enjoy
18 the water. And these water depths run from six
19 inches perhaps to a foot to a foot and a half . You
20 need this wading pool so children will not be
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� 21 frightened when they get into other water. :They
22 won' t be frightened to learn to swim.
23 From there you want the youngster
24 to go into a pool wherein he can learn to swim, and
25 this requires a little greater depths . It .requires
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:• 2 depths of perhaps a -foot and a half to perhaps two
3 feet six to three feet . There he can learn to swim.
4 It' s not over his head . He' s easily protected.
5 Another pool that we need will be
6 a recreational pool where the people that are paying
7 for this pool can go in and bathe and enjoy the
8 water. This water is relatively shallow water; by
9 that , I mean it' s less than five feet, so you can
10 walk around in the pool . You can relax. And you can
11 swim if you want to.
12 And then we have a deeper pool,
13 which we' d like .to keep separate for obvious safety
14 reasons, wherein you will have lap swimming, you will
15 dive, you will conduct competition if you so elect to
16 do it .
17 These comprise four different ,
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18 separate functions . They should be separate pools .
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19 We don' t save very much by joining one to the other.
20 It' s generally a sense of false economy. In this
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21 respect, we have looked through this community, we
22 have discussed the problems and the aspirations of
23 the Pool Committee,% and we have come up with a
24 facility that I think best suits the community. It
25 is similar to pools, in sizes of communities with your
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2 population elsewhere .in this county; pools that have
3 worked well ; pools that serve the community -and are
4 affordable . In this 'regard, we probably should take
5 a look at the complex we have suggested here on the
6 site that we have suggested.
1 You will notice that at the very
8 right-hand side we have a parking area that we come
9 into . From that parking area, we' d normally pass
10 through the bathhouse. This is required bye the
11 Health Department, incidentally. The required access
12 is through the bathhouse so we have the opportunity
13 to shower, to .use the toilets of the facility. And
14 from there we go into a couple of controlled areas .
15 One area would be the wading pool ,
16 which is completely surrounded by a fence . You
17 notice it has a large area around it that' s grass
18 where the guardian, the mother the father, whoever it
19 is , can sit and relax while watching the youngster.
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8 20 It has a large perimeter where the guardian can also
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21 attend the needs of the child. The fence around it
22 is perhaps four feet high - - it is four feet high
23 with a special gate that closes by itself and latches
24 automatically.
25 The youngster, as he grows older,
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2 no longer wants' to swim with his baby brother. ` He
3 doesn' t want to go in this little puddle . He wants
4 to strike out' for himself . Many facilities do not
5 have the intermediate pool , the training pool . This
6 training pool is often omitted as an economy. So
7 what happens after the child decides he will not go
8 in the wading pool , he goes over to the main pool ;
9 and the main pool will be at least three feet six
10 deep . It will run oto five feet deep . And we' re
11 going to have a youngster three, four years old who
12 doesn' t know how to swim. Where does he go? He goes
13 and hangs on the steps, the railings , the edge of
14 pool in water that is over his head. This is
15 dangerous . It is difficult for him to learn to swim,
16 and he often becomes frightened. So we want an
17 intermediate pool which we call a "training" pool .
18 We have one, again, that is relatively large, where
19 the youngsters can get in the pool , they can be
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20 taught . They can have a "whole class in there,
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21 whether it' s a day camp or a class that' s conducted
22 by the village itself , where you can teach these
23 youngsters to swim. It is also an area where these
24 youngsters can go that ' s not over their heads; so
25 they can recreate in this pool , and they don' t
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2 collect over by the .ingress..and the egress from the
3 main pool . It takes a big load off the main pool .
4 It also makes life a lot easier ,for the people that
5 are using the main pool : They don' t have the
6 competition with all the youngsters .
7 The main pool itself is
8 essentially a bathing pool . By that, I mean it' s a
9 pool that' s one that you could walk in or that you
10 k an swim in. It is not a good one for any
11 competition, because it is too shallow for that
12 purpose . The competitors will want something at
13 least four feet six in depth; atleast that depth,
14 and go deeper. So that would be inconvenient to use ,
15 and you would not be happy with it . The recreational
16 pool therefore starts at three feet six, which is a
17 minimum allowed by the State Health Department, and
18 runs to about five feet in depth.
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. 19 Going from this point on, we have
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20 something to do with the youngsters that are ten to
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21 perhaps 18 years of age who have a lot of energy, who
22 wish to do something more active . We also have
23 people that want to do lap swimming for exercise . So
24 we find that an overflow pool, a multi-purpose pool,
25 a competitive pool , is all of those things ; is a very
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2 useful adjunct . - The- pool, • of Course, is .
3 a multi-purpose pool , but must be designed for
4 competitive standards so you can use it for meets, if
5 you so wish. It' s particularly handy. It' s
6 particularly useful . When you have a large crowd at
7 the pool , it serves as an overflowpool . it also
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8 permits you to conduct your aquatic programs , the
9 classes that you have at such times when you also
10 want to have recreational bathing. It will not
11 interfere with people in the recreational pool ,
12 obviously, because it' s a separate pool .
13 Again, sometimes these . two;,pools
14 are combined. Again, I feel this is a false economy:
15 We' re saving one wall of a pool, but we' re creating
16 problems of high activity. We' re creating problems
17 of conducting programs and also trying to recreate .
18 We have two different purposes, and therefore the
19pool should be kept separate . All of . these pools
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20 would be surrounded by a concrete deck. The deck is
21 used primarily for ingress and egress .
22 We have a very comfortable site .
23 It' s a large site, beautiful site. It has a good
24 barrier around the entire perimeter of trees ,,, which
25 protect it from the neighborhood; protects the
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.2 neighbors from being_ bothered by the pool . The deck
3 areas are used, as I said, for ingress and egress .
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4 . The grass areas are used generally
5 for lounging . The concept, of course, is to come to
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6 a pool complex - - it ' s for family orientation. You
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7 can come to the pool complex. You can . come for the
8 day. You can bring your children. You ,can bring
9 your family. You can swim. You can relax. You can
10 sunbathe . And you can stay there for most of the
11 day.
12 To further aid this , augment this,
13 we also have a concession area adjacent as part of
14 the bathhouse so that if you want to have snacks - -
15 or if your child or youngster is there for the day,
16 he doesn' t have to come home for lunch; he can stay
17 there, have his lunch, and go back into the pool
18 again. It gives a family orientation to the entire
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19 complex.
20 With regard to the site itself , we
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21 have looked at a number of sites . This one seems to
22 have A good location: It has a good barrier; it' s
23 adjacent to another park; it has relatively good
24 accessibility for many people in town who can walk to
25 the site . I think that? is important . The intent of
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2 my study here was to review the site, the size of the
3 complex that you would need for a community of this
4 size . What we have prepared is in conformance with
5 what many of the communities in this county have. I
6 think it will work well for you. I'm available for
7 questions .
8 We have established a budget for
9 looking at the pool sizes , and based on my experience
10 for pools of this type in this county, the numbers
11 that we have generated here are numbers that I've
12 seen over the years that occur time and again in the
13 County of Westchester. We have a number of things to
14 cover. We have site work to do; the general work.
15 There' s site work to do; there' s general work to do,
16 which includes clearing up of the site some,
17 demolition work, which is minimimal ; we have clearing
18 of the area; we have a bathhouse to construct, which
19 should accommodate the various functions we want to
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8 20 occur, and I've listed those . We obviously need
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a 21 toilets, showers ; we need offices; we need storage
22 areas; we need a filter room. And we have put into
23 this thing a concession area. The numbers that we
24 have come up with I think are reasonable, and they
25 are representative of numbers in here in the
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2 community, and not too,.unsimilar to what. you might
3 pay for a house in that area .
4 We also have site utilities to
5 bring in, the plumbing work, the water, sewer, et
6 cetera. We have put those numbers together. We feel
7 that we have a reasonable number which you can
8 reasonably expect to meet with this installation. It
9 is $2 . 1 million. Those numbers I think are
10 realistic .
11 I think that the costs have been
12 worked out . I think that Mr. Haley has numbers that
13 he has generated . as to ,.the. impact of this cost upon
14 the community. We have the bonding. We have the
15 interest . We have the yearly cost . We have divided
16 that into the number of homes into the property
17 itself of the community. And the average cost
18 impact , I guess, is based on six and a half percent .
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19 Six and a half percentwould be an impact of slightly
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20 less than $40 per year for a home in the community
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21 for that 2 . 1 million. And that would be on a 20-year
22 basis .
23 THE MAYOR: Larry, could you sum
24 it up, because the 15-minute timer just went off . So
25 wrap it so we can get into the other groups .
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2 MR,. RAFAELLI,: ;, What I . was trying
3 to get to is my experience regarding a complex that , a
- 4 community with this size, with -this type of people
5 with your interests deserves and should have . I
6 think it ' s a reasonable complex which can provide for
7 your needs today and in the .foreseeable future . And
8 I think the timing is good as far as costs are
9 concerned, because we' re getting very good prices in
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10 construction today. Thank you .
11 THE MAYOR: We' re going to hear
12 from three other groups, and then people from the
, . 13 floor. . And you' ll probably, handle some questions in
14 about 20 minutes or so .
15 Next organized group to speak will
16 be the Citizen Against Pools . Mr. Paniccia.
17 MR. PANICCIA: Thank you all
18 very much. I wish I had this kind of support when I
19 ran for counsel .
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I 'm Dan Paniccia, 14 Wilton Road.
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21 I' m here as a spokesman for CAPP, the Committee
22 Against Public Pools . The Committee Against Public
23 Pools was organized by residents from all parts of
24 the village. I think we' re all outraged at this
25 proposal , particularly at this time, for a number of
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.2 reasons We have a -common goal to defeat this. .
3 curriculum proposal . We feel it' s the wrong proposal
4 at the wrong site at the wrong time, despite what
5 they say.
6 The Pool Committee and the
7 feasibility study were not thorough, in our opinion.
8 They did not evaluate, first of all , whether Rye
g Brook needs a facility; and none of us were asked our
10 opinion. No pool survey was conducted. In fact ,
11 apparently a pool survey was discussed among the
12 group, as referenced in their report, but they ruled
13 it out due to costa Instead of doing a .costly
14 survey, they spent $3 , 000 of our money on a
15 feasibility study. It seems we have got the cart
16 behind the horse . In fact, a survey was done, though
17 not for the pool , but a general recreation survey,
18 and applicable particularly to the Rye Hills Park.
• � 19 Now later on, another group will present their„ ,
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20 findings and recommendation, though not the survey
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21 results , because we have to completely compound them.
22 I'm a member of that group, also.
23 The study and the committe.ee
24 report did not present all the possiblities for
25 various proposals , I'm saying. Only an outdoor
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2 facility was considered. ,The needs of the seniors
3 were not considered; the needs of a teen center, a .
4 village hall or mulit-purpose facility. A study such
5 as this , where we' re paying money to have it done,
. 6 should be comprehensive and complete . The needs of
7 all of us should have been evaluated, not just 'a
8 select group that wanted to build a pool "club, "
g basically, in our view, with public money.
10 To our knowledge, the Planning
11 Commission has not reviewed or commented on this
12 proposal , which I think is inappropriate . When the
.1'3 Hidden Falls project .was constructed using the same
14 egress and ingress as this particular facility, they
15 went through all sorts ' of problems just to construct ,
16 I believe, 60 to 65 homes . The traffic impact alone
17 of this proposal on Ridge Street will be greater than
18 any Hidden Falls proposal, yet that went through the
19 Planning Commission. ::` The Recreation Commission, to
20 : my knowledge, has note commented publicly on what were
21 their needs . The director has not commented.
22 We know we need a study, yet we
23 spent money to do afeasibility study. I don' t think
24 it was a balanced study or report by the group . Were
25 the needs of the school system addressed? Perhaps a
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2 system .or. a facility_ combining the needs of both
3 school districts would make sense, and maybe that' s.
4 something that some of -us would agree upon, and maybe
5 even work on a study group. T don' t think that was
6 looked at .
7 : As I said, it was not a balanced
8 study or report . Many issues were not examined.
9 Cost estimates for alternate sites were not given.
10 Perhaps spending a little bit more money and
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11 purchasing a better site which is larger and can
12 serve our future .needs, such as a village hall , would
13 make more. sense, iTl.;the grand ,scheme of things .
14 There ' s no forward planning here
15 down the road. There' s a very short-term approach.
16 The site will have insufficient parking, as evidenced
17 by Mr. Rafaelli' s report . He says that under the
8
18 worst case analysis, the parking for that situation
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9 19 : will be very costly and could not be supported by
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8
20this site .
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21` This site is clearly unsuitable .
22 We will lose parkland by constructing a facility
23 here . It can only be used two to three months out of
24 the year . The rest of the year, we lose a park.
25 It ' s one of the larger, if not the largest park,
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 26
2 other than Crawford, _ whichjs...a town park. .
3 We have many other opportunities
4 to swim, and this proposal .does not address our
5 aquatic needs; despite what the report says . People
6 want to swim or be trained in swimming year round.
7 That is a two-to-three-months-out-of-the-year
8 facility. It does not address our aquatic needs . We
9 have other facilities : The YMCA, which is under-
10 utilized. There.. are other private pools : Arrowwood;
11 there' s Saxon Woods Pool with the county; there' s Rye
12 Beach. There' s many other opportunities which
13 weren' t really looked at .- - SUNY pool, . also. So we .
14 don' t feel that this study was complete .
15 Also, we know that there are
16 subsurface conditions present on the site which was
17 recommended which will cause problems such as
18 rockledge and existing foundation from the old Noble
a
19 School , which was demolished before this was a park.
8 20 We know those exist; it' s been brought up in public
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21 meetings . Yet this was not factored into the cost
22 impacts , nor within an Environmental Impact Study.
23 We question the cost estimate based on the $2 . 1
24 million.
25 They' re saying your village taxes
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1 27
2 . . will increase four percent . .That' s using ;their .
3 numbers, not our numbers . In a brief time, we have.
4. . investigated the cost with a couple .of .different pool
. 5 consultants and construction people, adding . in site
6 conditions we know to exist : . Rock problems;
7 Environmental Impact Study . ,. .We project , this_ is .
8 probably a $3 million project . That' s very
9 preliminary. They have had three years to look at
t
10.. this . Alternate cost estimates for other sites which '
11 were considered aren' t part of this package . We' re
12 getting very limited information..
13 THE MAYOR: . I can' t understand .
14 how you lost the election, Danny. It boggles my
15 mind.
16 Next group we will hear from is
17 the Rye Hills Homeowners ' Association.
18 MR. VERNON: Thank you. Good
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19 evening, Mr. Mayor and Trustees . My. name is Allen .
rl
8 20 Vernon. I live at McFarley Lane in the Rye Hills,
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21 Rye Brook section that we' re discussing. I'm just
22 below the site: they have proposed for the pool .
23 For the last one and a half years
24 I've been directing the Homeowners' Association. Our
25 association, consisting of 186 houses, is especially
4
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1 28
2 proud of the fact that we' re 'a watchdog operation -- .
3 and apparently we need to watch - - as well as the
-s4 sounding board forourvillage government . They have
5 questions, they come to us . If we have questions, we
6 come to them.
7 CAPP evolved actually from the'
8 last meeting that was conducted on March''10 . A
9 neighbor nudged a neighbor, a neighborhood
10 organization nudged another neighborhood
v
11 organization, and we got together to oppose this . It
12 is not a committee . It is made up of the citizens of
13 the Village of Rye Brook. We have those who are
14 against it from the north, from the south, from the
15 senior citizens , from the Arbors, and I see also from
16 Hidden Falls . We pooled our efforts and our
evening, I believe I can speak
rce So this P
17 resources . 9
18 for a cross section of the Village of Rye Brook.
a
19 I've been asked to speak this
8
20 evening to tell the Board we do not want and we do
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21 not need a pool . We do not want a pool because of
22 what it will cost us immediately and down the road.
23 Immediate costs - - have you got your pencils ready?
24 Would somebody tell me what a referendum' s going to
25 cost us? Would somebody tell me what the cost is for
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INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
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1 29
2 borings - to test whether the . ground they selected is
3 suitable? Because they haven' t been taken. Yes ,
" 4 sir, I know they cost money. , ' Soil analysis must also
5 be conducted. I understand that the soil that ' s
6 there now has been used to fill up sink holes from
7 the old property and is useless as a basis for a
...8 pool . And I 'm not an engineer, ladies and gentlemen.
9 Environmental Impact Study. I
{t.
10 feel embarssed for some of these people here this
a
11 evening. That has not even been mentioned, and I
12 understand from the experts , and only by listening,
13 that it .will cost us $150 , 000 to conduct an
14 Environmental Impact Study.
15 Blasting . Anybody know anything
16 about blasting? Drainage and retention basins , I
17 understand we' ll need. What if we suddenly have a
18 drought? Where is our water going to come from?
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19 Construction. We have heard 2 . 1 million, and all the
20 others with it . Please.
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21 Parking . I understand we' re going
22 to have 500 people bathing in our pool complex.
23 Where are all the cars going to be, based on what we
24 we have seen so far?
25 We don' t want a pool because of
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30
1 _
2 the long-term costs . _ .20 years for everybody. who is
3 paying taxes here at $40 and $50? I met one resident
4 on the road. He said . to..me, !'Allen, .J.'m going .
5 through my subscriptions at $40 a shot . I'm out of
6 work. " • $40 a year? We don' t need it.
7 $250 per annum if you wish to be a
8 member of this club - - I 'm sorry. Swimming pool .
9 Providing we have 400 members, it will float . I
10 question whether they can get 400 members .
11 What about insurance costs? No
12 mention, no projection, no guesstimates - - . not even
13 estimates . Police . The police have been denied an
14 increase of their budget this year. They won' t get
15. their 24th officer . I' d rather have the 24th officer
16 than three months of dipping in the pool .
17 Where are water costs coming from?
18 The heating. You are going to tell me that that
N 19 pool ' s going to keep warm in our weather? They are
20 going to a lay. electricity lines . There' s no mention
21 of those costs . We don' t want a. pool and what it
22 will do for our neighborhood, environment .
23 And the air pollution. 100 cars .
24 Noise pollution. I'm a teacher by profession. Has
25 anybody every been in a cafeteria like this at lunch
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2 time? Forget the pool . I feel sorry for .the people ,
3 who live around there. They may as well give their
4 houses away.
5 I hear .the bell . In all fairness
6 and correctness, we do not want a pool,. We do not
7 need a pool .
8 . . ..THE MAYOR: Thank you, Allen.
9 The next group will be the Rye
10 Hills Park Study Committee .
11 MS . ADLER: Hi . My name is
12 Marlene Adler. I live on Meadowlark Road. And I
13 chair the Rye Hills Park Study Committee along with
14 Sharon Perna who lives on Wilton Road.
15 The Rye Hills Park Study Committee
16 was officially formed in July of 1990 following
17 several months of informal discussions that were
18 initiated by the Recreation Superintendent and
a
19 several member of the Recreation Commission. , The
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20 committee met regularly and has studied several
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21 recreation plans that exist - - they are dated 1966 ,
22 173 , and 187 - - and then prepared ';a community park
23 survey instrument which was distributed in the fall
24 of 1991 in the village newsletter. A village staff
25 worker has entered that data, and; a committee member
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 32
I
:. 2 - who is an expert in the field of study research has
3 donated his time and that of one of his staff
-.. -4 analysts to .prepare the analysis . The committee met
5 last night and reviewed this data on a very
6 preliminary. basis for the first time . We' ll meet .
7 several more times in the coming weeks in hopes of
8 presenting a final recommendation on or about June
9 15 .
10 It' s important to note that the
11 committee' s discussions and development of that
12 survey instrument took place separate and apart from
13 the discussions regarding a pool . It was our.
14 understanding during our deliberations that Rye Hills
15 Park was not the site under consideration by the Pool
16 Committee, and therefore our discussion didn' t center
17 on that issue in any great depth.
18 The focus of our discussions
� 19 concerned the issues of access, safety, usage and
8
20 aesthetics at Rye Hills Park. As people have
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21 mentioned, it' s a park that' s not highly used. It' s
22 because o.f these issues . The preliminary
23 recommendations are as follows : Availability of an
24 access road from Ridge Street that will permit
25 police, tire, Highway Department and Recreation
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INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 33
2 Department ready access to the park to ensure that
3 it ' s a safe, clean, and well-maintained recreation
4facility: The Recreation Department should develop" a
5 number of planned activities for the use of that park
6 that would encourage greater utilization, not only
7 for the immediate neighborhood, but also for all
8 segments of the village . The village must act
10
9 promptly to stop vandalism, a serious problem that' s
;i-
10 taken place in the past; to ew, ure that the equipment
i`
11 and facility are repaired properly. Existing debris,
12 fallen trees , leaves , broken park equipment, should
13 be removed in order to give the park a clean and "
14 inviting appearance .
15 It' s the general consensus of our
16 group on a six to two vote last night that the Rye
17 Hills Park is not suitable for a large recreational
18 complex, but rather should be refurbished as a low
19 density park appealing to the immediate Rye Hills
8
20 neighborhood, as well as the community at large. A
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21 detailed analysis of our committee' s findings,
22 including the results, along with specific usage
23 recommendation will be presented to the Board as soon
24 as it' s available. Ron Zykowski, who is a member of
25 our committee and the expert that we referred to,
s
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1 34
2 will tellY ou ,a .little..bit more. about .the survey and
3 how we can use it in the future .
4 MR. ZYKOWSKI : Thank you. I
5 know you' re going to have trouble hearing me . I hope
6 I can get through these few words . It' s ironic that
7 we have two village.-appointed committees that are
8 apparently on a collision course regarding the
9 recommendations for a park' s development to the
10 Villae Board. It ' s unfortunate that our detailed
11 recommendations are not ready yet . As Marlene said,
12 we hope to have them ready by June 15 .
13, . I, just wanted to say, a word. or two
14 about what we did. Besides reviewing all previous
15 study recommendations and related materials, we
16 developed a community survey for obtaining community
17 input . In other words , we asked for your opinion.
18 We didn' t bring in an outside consultant to tell us
19 what we need. Survey responses representing the
20 recreational interest areas of 608 residents from
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a 21 approximately 200 households were obtained. We have
22 just completed the analysis and will be reviewing the
23 results in detail before making our final
24 recommendations . And hopefully, these will be
25 representing the opinions of all the residents . Our
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
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2 survey did not include the pool ,as. a focus of our
3 response; and therefore, contrary to the findings
4 that are reported in the Pool Committee study,
5 there' s no support in our study for pool . Thank
6 you.
7 THE MAYOR: - Thank you, Ron.
g If there are any individuals
9 wishing to make a statement, form a line or stand
10 behind the podium and we will take you one at a time .
11 You will be afforded three minutes for a statement .
12 If no one is interested in making a statement and we
13 want to get into a question and .answer period, we can
14 entertain that , also. But first , is there anyone
15 that would like to make a statement as an individual?
16 Please come up and form a line on the side, and we
17 will take you one at a time.
18 Your name and address for the
19 stenographer .
rs
20 MR. HILLARD: My name is Ken
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21 Hillard, 22 Lincoln Avenue, Rye Brook, New York.
22 I 'm going to repeat some of the
23 things that were said before . First of all , we're a
24 Sound- shore community. We have access to numerous
25 water resources . Rye Brook should be planning on a
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 36
2 long-term basis .` It' s been talked about- we need a
3 village hall . We need recreation facilities . We .
4 need a bowling alley. We need' a
Youth cen
er: 'And
5 believe it or not, the one spot which is available to
6 this village which everybody has ignored is the
7 current bowling alley, which I believe with the"
8 proper negotiations , could be bought by this village
9 not only for a recreation and a youth center, but
10 also the village hall ; and we' d save a tremendous
11 amount of rent that we' re paying over on South Ridge
12 Street . So the first thing is we' re not planning.
Y .• : lg The second thing I want to talk
14 about is the site itself . Many of us are swimmers .
15 We know a great deal about ,swimming. We know a great
16 deal about pools . Without heating a pool over 80
17 plus degrees , most people will not go and stay in the
18 water. Last year, for instance, swimming was very
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19 limited. We had very few'hot days in which people
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8
20 used the pool . Secondly,., if you notice the location
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21 of the four pools on the site, most of the existing
22 tall pine trees will have to be removed in order to
23 keep the pool heated by natural resources . Almost
24 all of the pine trees, all of the covering within the
25 neighborhood, will have to be taken down. We' re
l
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37
1
" 2 destroying a natural environment for a limited use .,
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3 The traffic, all the other
4 problems, the cost factors - - if we' re going to have
x1
5 a pool , let' s get the input first and then make a
6 final decision. My suggestion, we have a Rye Town
7 park that' s called Oakland Beach. Four communities
8 use it . Maybe that is the place that all of the
9 communities should build a pool for the use of all of
10 the people . Thank you.
0
11 MR. POHAN: My name is Richard
12 Pohan. I live at 424 North Ridge Street . I lived in
13 this community since 1969 . My kids have grown up -
14 over here, and are very active in swim and
15 competition activity. Even today, I swim on a daily
16 basis, laps, as quite of number of my friends in the
17 audience . Having been active here, being active in
18 the , community in fund raisers, and communicating with
19 people on the need for swimming; having the YMCA in
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20 Port Chester, SUNY, YWCA; being very active in
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21 competition swimming; seeing all this pools around
22 here which are under-utilized, I ask myself : What' s
23 the need for an additional unUer-utilized pool?
24 Thank you.
25 MS . ROSS : My name is Cindy
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1 38
2 Ross . I live at, .622- Treetop Crescent ..
3 When all this came up, I was
4 really alarmed. And a group.-of us went out on a very
5 quick basis this weekend and selected a number of
6 sites and conducted a poll . The way it broke down in
7 terms - - and we hit everybody - - we hit people that
8 had kids ; people that were retired; people that had
9 jobs ; people that didn' t have jobs ; people that had
10 kids . You name it , we hit them. If they walked and
11 talked, we hit them. And basically it broke down to
12 this : 94 percent were flatly opposed based on the
13 cost . of , this project . . There was, a great deal of
14 concern that our state aid that we' re trying to get
15 more of would be . laughed at in our face if we can
16 float a bond issue of this size. What' s going to
17 happen with school taxes and other things? What
18 about the size and cost and the elitisim that this
19 project creates? . Four . percent were undecided, and
8
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20 two percent were for.
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21 In the petition that we have
22 gotten right now - - I've got four in my possession.
23 These figures, incidentally, were before tonight, so
24 there' s no chance of it being lopsided, even though
25 it kind of speaks for itself right now. I have
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39
j 2 petitions with 192 ; 17 , 160 , and 192 signatures . I
3 think the community has spoken that they don' t want a
4 pool . .
5 MR. FLORIO: Thomas Florio. I
6 live on Windsor Road. .
7 I ' d like to ask more questions . .
8 than speaking about the project . In your pamphlet ,
9 your report, the committee for the pool says there' s
10 going to be 400 members . Well , don' t hold your
11 breath when you get 400, because it' s impossible .
12 Mr . Rafaelli contradicts that when he states in his
13 report on page one, the size and type of swim
14 facility for this size community is six to eight
15 percent of the residents for a municipal pool . And
16 he states there would be only 480 to 640 members; not
17 family memberships . These are individual members .
18 Since the average American family consists of the
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19 mother and father and 2 . 3 children - - that' s the
8
20 statistics , I didn' t make it up - - therefore we can
a
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21 only get 450 members in an 8 , 000 member community,
22 and we have - -
23 AUDIENCE: And that' s the club.
24 MR. FLORIO: And that' s the
25 club, right . Now, the question that I want to ask is
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 40
2 this , since we have a current budget, a yearly budget
3 to run this pool for $100, 000 - - even that is wrong,
4 because Mr. Rafaelli asked for $10, 000 more in
5 contingency funds, which brings it up to almost
6 $111 , 000 . That' s to run that pool yearly, to be paid
7 by the members of this pool . Now my question is
8 this : If they don' t, come up with the $110 , 000 , who
9 is going to pick up the deficit? Does that go into
10 the yearly budget of the Village of Rye Brook?
11 Somebody give me their time,
12 please .
13 MR. MAYOR: Mr. Florio, you've
14 got to go to the back of the line . We can' t lose
15 control of this meeting. We can' t let that happen.
16 MR. LEVINSON: My name is Paul
17 Levinson. I live at 312 Betsy Brown Road, and it' s
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18 impossible to follow an act like that man. However,
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19 I want to address this very differently and
20 philosophically, and talk about what kind of
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1 21 community and what kind of nation we live in.
12
22 We don' t live in a nation that
23 votes with signs . We vote at the polls . All of you
24 go ahead and holler. We have young children here .
25 What kind of example do we set for them if we °say no,
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9
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
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1 41
2 let' s not put it to referendum, because we want to '
3 intimidate the Trustees into not putting it to a
4 vote? Yes , there are first amendment rights . We' re
5 a nation of laws , and a nation that votes not with
6 our voices but with our feet, and we go to the polls .
7 I look around the room and I see .
8 many men and women, most of whom I think are probably
i
9 veterans . And those of you who fought for this
10 country did not fight to suppress democracy. There' s
11 no reason why this cannot be put to a vote . The cost
12 of a referendum will be minimal . It will cost
13 nothing if the vote is in November when the
14 presidential election is held.
15 THE MAYOR: We have to maintain
16 order.
17 MR. LEVINSON: If you don' t need
18 the pool , and if you havo. the votes , you will
19 prevail; and that' s the way it should be . If you
20 don' t have the votes ; then that' s the other way it
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21 should be.. If those of you who want to shout me down
22 now, think about what you' re doing. You' re running
23 away from the very things people were fighting in the
24 street for, in Russia and elsewhere. If you' re
25 really right , then vote it down. Don' t shout it
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 42
y 2 down.
3 MR. NARDI : Mr. Mayor and
4 members. of the Board, my name is Mario Nardi . I live
5 at 11 Maywood Avenue in Rye Brook. I'm here to
6 register my opposition, first of all , to the pool
7 issue, and also to state what I consider to be a
8 fact : That the entire issue of the pool is based on
9 a false premise . As I read through the various
10 reports , I keep seeing reference to a recreational
11 study prepared for the village in 1987 which evealed
12 a strong support for a pool . And if I recall
13 correctly, and my memory serves me right , that was a
14 recreation questionaire that went out that got an 11
15 percent response . And of the 11 percent of the
16 people who responded, a majority of those people
17 indicated some desire for a pool , or a study for a
18 poo .
l If I recall again, the mathematics on that
19 made the response in the village less, very much less
8
� 20 than 10 percent . I hardly call that strong support .
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21 And furthermore, I understand from
22 the beginning, your beginning comments , that this
23 meeting might lead to further meetings and studies ,
24 ; and eventually perhaps to a referendum. I think if a
25 = a referendum were to be had, it should have been had
is
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 43
2 last Tuesday as, an advisory question on the ballot .
3 It would have cost the village nothing, and we
4 wouldn' t be here tonight, because I think it would be
5 obvious .
6 Secondly, I would like to
7 recommend very strongly - - and I think I speak for
8 the majority in the village - - that you have a
9 referendum right here tonight . I don' t think you
f-
10 need any further referendum. I don' t think you need
a
11 any further meetings . And I really think that the
12 people in the community- would like to see this Board
13 get back to the action of dealing with essentials
14 that we need and keeping them in a very cost
15 effective manner, and to put this pool issue behind
16 us . Thank you .
17 MS . ADELSBERG: My name is Janet
18 Adelsberg. I live at 28 Dorchester Drive in Rye
19 Brook.
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20 For the record, I am for the pool ,
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21 and believe it should be brought up for referendum.
22 The reason I'm up here talking is when we went in the .
23 room, while we waited in the room we were told to
24 sign something . It wasn' t until afterwards we
25 realized what we were signing was a petition opposed
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
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1 44
2 to the pool .
3 I think it' s really sad that this
4 is a room of adults that have to treat each other in
5 such a disgusting way. But what I will say is anyone
6 who thought that they were signing something, and if
7 you made a mistake, just take your name off . That ' s
it
8 all I'm saying .
9 MS . GALLAGHER: My name is Joan
t..
10 Gallagher, 11 Jennifer Lane.
s'
11 I'm against the pool . But I want
12 to make some comments about people who talked to me
13 why they wanted a pool . I want to comment on some of
14 the remarks people made to me why they want a pool ,
15 though I'm against it myself . One person said they
13
16 wanted it to be social . We' re all here now. Are we
17 very sociable right now? No . We can be sociable at
18 Crawford Park, and it would cost about $2 , 000 if we
19 really want to meet our neighbors all over Rye Brook.
20 I'm talking about all over Rye Brook, not just
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21 certain sections .
22 Someone said it will bring their
23 home value up. My gosh, why did they move here?
24 Because their home wasn' t worth very much until we
25 had a pool . And the third thing is , when I was an
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 45
2 eight-year old child; I didn' t have a pool . I feel
3 sorry for all the children eight years old. Where
4 are they going to swim? We have a beautiful shore . .
5 We have pools all over. Are people cramming to use
6 those?
7 THE MAYOR : Mr. Florio, one
8 second. I just want to ask you something. We' re not
9 into a question phase yet . We ' re still taking
10 statements . So if you have questions, they will have
11 to wait a little while until we' re finished with the
12 statements from the line .
13 MR. FLORIO: You' re being so
14 technical .
15 THE MAYOR: I 'm trying to run a
16 meeting.
17 THE SPEAKER: Why don' t you run
18 the village?
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19 THE MAYOR: Mr. Florio. ;
8
20 MR. FLORIO: Why doesn' t this
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21 Board stand up and be counted? You go around - - a
22 handful of people come to this community, they want a
23 pool . You give them $3 , 000 . Is that fair?;
24 THE MAYOR: Mr. Florio, please .
25 You' re out of order. I would request that you sit
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 46
2 down.
3 Next speaker, please .
4 MR. ZVERIN: My name is Allen
5 Zverin. I live at 16 Deer Run. And when I came here
6 tonight, I came with an open mind. I pretty much
7 thought I would be for the pool , but I wanted to 'hear
8 what all the facts are, what the costs were . And
9 when I walked in the room, I see a lot of people who
10 probably don' t know what the costs are who are mad
11 because $3 , 000 was given to somebody to do something .
12 They were mad because they say what does a small
13 group of people need something for?
14 All I want everybody to do is look
15 at the facts . If after the facts are analyzed, if
16 after everybody says what the real costs are, after
17 the Board sees is $2 . 1 million real , or is it $3
18 million, then maybe people should think about it and
19 then make a decision; not come in here preconceived,
8 20 because it' s a thing to do . Whether you have a sign
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21 and you' re against the pool , whether you' re for the
22 pool , look at the facts . This is the meeting where
23 the facts were going to come out, and it was going to
24 be discussed.
25 If the facts are right as
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INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
' 47
1
2 presented, if a $2 . 1- million cost of a bond can be
3
floated, the cost that I learned tonight is about $40
4 per household.
I don' t mean to diminish this if
5 somebody cannot afford $40 . $40 is real . I am an
6 accountant . I see a lot people who don' t have jobs,
7 who don' t have money. But if this is something that
8 a group of people want; if this is something that 400
9 people will belong to; if this is something that
10 would be for the good of the whole . communiity in the
it long run, whether it ' s an increase in property
12 values , whether it' s having a nice fun day with the
13 family and friends next summer, $40 a year might be
14 something that could be money well spent . But I
least listen, think about the
15 think. people should at
16 proposal , and not come here and just make decisions
17 before they know the facts , before they have studied
18 the facts . Thank you.
19q MR. MOROH: My name is Ira
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S 20 Moroh, and I 've been a resident of the village for
a
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21 the last eight years . I 've lived here for eight
22 years, and one of the things I find most amazing is
23 we have no center of the village . And if you want to
24 call the Food Emporium or the Finast Center the
25 center, that' s great . But one of the things the
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 48
2 village is lacking is a center where people can come,
3 congregate, swim, sunbathe; whatever they want to do .
4 I know a lot of people are here tonight and they are
5 very opinionated one way or the other. But I think,
6 like some of .the colleagues we have had before,
7 people should listen to the facts . $2 . 1 million
8 sounds like a lot of money, and I agree it is . But
9 when you divide it out over a number of people, $40 a
10 household - - that' s an average household. Some of
11 you will be paying less, some more . $40 today is
12 going out to dinner for two people . That' s all we' re
13 talking about .
14 A lot of other people who spoke
14
15 before me I feel gave some slanted views . First of
16 all, when you live next to a project that' s going up,
17 you' re not going to want it to be built; and that' s
18 for people who live in and around Rye Hills Park.
N 19 Where I live right now . there' s some new construction.
20 When I was before the Board about maybe six months
V
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21 ago, I was against it, also . But I see the value now
22 that it' s meaning to myself and my family having
23 other neighbors in and around the area.
24 Another thing that really bothers
25 me is that people are always complaining about
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f 1 49
!+' 2 everything is going up. I see a .lot of senior
- 3 citizens here, and I assume a lot of 'you have lived
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4 here a long time . We' re paying increased school
5 taxes and other kinds of taxes . If you look at your
6 property values over the last ten years, they have
7 skyrocketed. Oneofthe reasons they skyrocket is
8 the people in the - village and town have provided
9 education for the children of this area and made it a
10 more desirable place to live . The pool will do the
11 same thing. Just think. Listen.
12 There' s a lot of senior citizens
13. . here . Wouldn' t it be . nice .to have your grandchildren
14 come over once in a while to spend some time with
15 you?
16 AUDIENCE : No .
17 MR. MOROH: Well, then, you can
18 send them to the pool by themselves .
19 Just listen to the facts and give
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20 everybody a chance to speak. And one thing I might
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21 say: You know somebody also mentioned about the
22 referendum possibly being last week. If anybody was
23 at the last Village Board meeting - - and a lot of us
24 from the Pool Committee were - - you would find out
25 that we' re the ones who wanted the referendum early.
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1
1 50
2 It was the people at- the Board who decided they
3 needed more time to study the report . And in light
4 of the fact that it' s a Tuesday. night, a lot of ,.
5 people who would probably be in favor of the pool,
6 people I've spoken with, have young children who .
7 could not find a sitter. We should have another.
8 meeting to voice some of our opinions just like I am
9 here right now.
10 MR. SCORDINO: Mr. Scordino . I
11 live at Bell Place .
12 $40 is a case of formula for my
13 infant baby. On a personal basis, I 'm just making .
14 ends meet now. I moved to this community because of
15 my children, and for the schools and whatever. But
16 my wife is home . She takes care of the children and
17 I' m the sole income; and we' re just making ends meet,
18 but we ' re trying.
a
19 Talking about the pool in general,
8 20 just to fill the pool up with water' s going to cost a
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21 lot of money. Do these prices include water rates
22 we' re paying now? Maybe we should be focusing on
23 that . Other parts of my family get service by
24 Westchester County Water Works and paid'1' $16 for three
25 months . Mine was $80 .
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a
1 51
2 'I also received an election flier
3 right before the election last Tuesday, and on it it
4 stated that there would be 'no rise in taxes. Yet the
5 Board is entertaining a proposal that would raise our
6 taxes . I see that as contradiction. I was glad to
7 see in the paper this evening that there will he a
8 slight drop in taxes . Whatever it is , it' s better
9 than going up every year, and I was glad to see that .
10 Also, I have another point that
11 hasn' t really been brought up that much. What would
12 happen if someone were to get seriously injured or
13 killed? A lawsuit . Insurance is only usually ,
14 covered up to a cap, and there ' s no telling what a
15 judge or a jury might grant a defendant in this case .
16 And the village would be liable. I don' t see why we
17 need that liability when we have other areas where we
18 can swim.
19 In reading through the proposal,
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20 one of the sentences was "We need a showplace . " Who
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21 are we going to show it to? In closing, as you can
22 see, I 'm against the pool . I don' t see why we need
23 it, and that' s it . Thank you.
24 MR. APPLEBAUM: My name is Gerry
25 Applebaum. I live at One Country Ridge Drive in Rye
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1 52
i
2 Brook.
3 I've been listening to what' s been
4 going on here, -and earlier, I thought we were going
5 to be treated to a show. It sounded like the Music
6 Man. And we came up here talking about an pool . No
7 76 trombones, though. What we have instead is it
li. 8 seems to me a very ill -prepared report . There are a
9 lot of questions that just weren' t addressed. The
• 10 previous speaker referred to it, and that is ongoing:
11 You have a tremendous liability. I think the
12 insurance alone might very well eat up the whole
13 budget that was allowed for future operating costs .
1J
14 The 3 , 000 I guess would have been better spent for
15 some lawyers to oppose some of the certioraris that
16 have been going on that could have lowered taxes .
17 And we' re not in the middle of the Arizona desert .
18 We have got SUNY, a couple of pools there; we have
19 got the Y, under-utilized; neighboring communities
20 have Y pools available . You can even go to Greenwich
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21 and use their Y.
22 It seems to me that we do need a
23 village center. And for those that haven' t been here
24 this long, I've lived in the vililage 30 years . The
25 reason we don' t have a center, we used to be an
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1 53
2 unincorporated town.— We incorporated, and as a
3 result, we don' t have a center . I think the center
4 would .be better served as a , true center: A senior. .
5 citizen center, town offices , a teen center; and I
6 think that ought to come first.
7 MR. SCHILLER: My name is Harvey
8 Schiller. I live at 26 Meadowlark Road.
9 I was born and raised in this
10 area. I raised my family in this area. And I 'm a
11 swimmer against the pool . I swim five days a week,
12 lap swim, at the YMCA. It' s completely under.-
13 utilized. Some of ;us are there at times that are .
14 convenient for anybody from 6 : 30 in the morning to
15 9 : 00 at night . There are classes there for six-month
16 old swimmers year round. It' s a place that can be
17 utilized 12 months of the year.
18 We have two olympic-size pools at
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19 SUNY that you are paying for ,as taxpayers of . New York
20 State . I just want. to point out something, that your
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21 community here has a population of 2 , 800 people, I
22 believe families . I don' t know if you realize it,
23 but 10 percent of those people have backyard pools .
24 One other thing' I'd like to point
25 out in the record. Rye Brook PoolaCommittee on page
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1 54
2 six, :.paragraph four,- "Alternatives For .Future
3 Development : The site of the property and the pool
f v
,. 4 layout allows for future development and construction
5 of : One, a teen community center; two; a separate
6 diving pool, if desired; ,three, basketball and/or
7 volleyball courts; or four, other various .
8 recreational facilities . " : That is not included in
9 that $40 a year tax package that they presented.
10 Thank you.
11 MR. KRAUSMAN: I'm Harry
12 Krausman. I live on Candy Lane, and I'm a pool
13 supporter.
14 ' The first thing I ' d like to say is
15 that a pool is not for everybody. Some people have
16 their own pools; some people belong to country clubs;
17 some people to go the beach. I don' t think we will
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18 ever find any ;one thing that' s going to be good for
19 everybody. Everbody' s got their own opinions , and
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8 20 that' s the way it should be.
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21 I think to me what the pool
22 represents 'is a central point . I was a member of the
23 Pool Study Committee, and I went into this thing with
24 an open mind. I 've got three kids , and I send my
25 kids to camp. That costs me a lot of money to send
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2 my kids to camp. I'-d much rather have my kids go
3 into a municipal pool similar to what other
4 communities have .`
5 I think one of the things about
6 Rye Brook is that it ' s a big cross section of
7 different interests and different types of people and
8 different types of needs . And I think if we had more
9 meetings like this and there were IL some different
10 groups and populations , there would be different
11 opinions swinging one way or the other . I think that
12 all we' re trying to do is do. what' s best for the
13 majority of the people in Rye Brook. If the majority
14 of the people turn out to be in favor of the pool ,
15 then the majority should rule and we should have one .
16 The 30 or $40 a year that it might cost in increased
17 property taxes is what everybody would pay for the
18 town to have the pool for the village . The people
- 19 who would be using the pool - - whether you want to
20 call those people a club, or whether you want to call
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W 21 those people socializing, or whatever you want to
22 call those people - - those are the people that would
23 be paying the $40 a year plus the two or $300 , or
24 whatever that number turns out to be, for the dues of
25 the pool . And those are the people picking up the
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1
56
2 brunt of it, the people using it, not the people in
3 general .
4 ..I also believe one of the things I
5 would like to see, and I think a lot of other people
16
6 would like to see, is - - people in a lot of
, 7 communities like Rye Brook, they do their own ,.thing.
8 If they want to swim, they to go the SUNY. If they
9 want to go horseback riding, there' s somewhere to go .
k-
10 Whatever they want to do, they have the right and the
4
11 freedom to do. But there' s no central - - whether you
12 want to call it a recreational area, a central
13 village, a central meeting place, a town hall .
14 There' s no such thing. Now, if there were a Town
15 Hall Study Committee, if there was some master plan
16 that would talk about what we' re planning to do, how
17 we' re planning to do it, how the various facilities
18 could fit into this master plan, that would be great .
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19 As far as I know, there is no such thing. So I
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20 decided, along with some. of our other neighbors , "Try
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21 one thing. " We have tried the pool . You support it
22 or you don' t . It' s a free country. Thank you.
23 MR. FILPOWSKI : My name is Frank
24 Filpowski, and I live in the renovated house on the
25 corner of Betsy Brown and North Ridge.
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57
1
2 I'm also a member of the Pool
3 Committee, and spent time working on this . And I
4 believe that one thing , if anything, that what we
5 have done is let everyone know about one of the
6 biggest secrets in Rye Brook. Where is Rye Hills
7Park? Because ' now -there' s no question about where it
I . . 8 : is and what can be done with it . So many people have
9 asked questions about, "Isn' t this part of Crawford
10 Park? " And we would say, "No, it' s separate . It' s
11 owned by the village . "
12 Back in 1987 it was recommended as
13 a place for development as either a recreation center
14 or a pool center . And from that point in time,
15 nothing really has happened to try and find out, do
16 we want it? And how extensive of a pool complex, if
17 any, do we want? The recommendation that we have
18 made is not the be all and end all of what can
° 19 happen. But I am feeling the same way that a number
20 of others felt, that we don' t have a common center.
a 21 If you call the Rye Ridge Shopping Center our center,
22 it' s not really Rye Brook. What do we have? I' d
23 like to try and find that . And there is room for a
24 recreation center or a village hall in this area. If
25 you say it' s not included in the price, you' re
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ry M ,
1 58
2 absolutely. correct, but that' s something to be .
3 addressed in the future. Right now, this is a start
4 to try and give something to Rye Brook that will .
5 enhance our quality of life.
6 Yes , there are people out of work,
7 yes; it' s probably. not a good time for some people .
8 But when is it a good time? Five years ago we spent
9 $10, 000 for a study. It was not just a mail-out
10 survey; and it had recommendations . It' s time to
11 start. It is time to look at what can be done . But
12 one thing that was mentioned in terms of this being
13 our referendum, or why didn' t we .have an advisory
14 referendum? It must be stated that the village could
15 not legally hold the advisory referendum that Mr.
16 Nardi asked for. It could not possibly be done. It
17 must take the form that it does . And we ' re here to
18 try and give information, and we' re available to
19 share that information in. termsibf what the costs
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8 '
0
20 are .
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21 Right now, for many of the houses
22 down on Franklin, Ellendale and other areas, the
23 average assessments are in theneighborhood of
24 $7 , 000 . The projection up here at $40 a year is for
25 a home at $12 , 300 . So for a lot of people, you must
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1 59
2 look at that tax bill and find out what is it? For
3 many people in here, it is not even $40 a year as a
4 cost . That' s an average . ' We"have houses that run
5 from approximately $5 , 900 'in assessed value to over
6 $30 , 000 . So at 12, 300 you can see what the '
7 assessment is . Thank you.
8 MS . SUTKOWSKI : ... My name is
9 Lorraine Sutkowski, and I live at Two Bell Place . I
10 live on a street that borders Rye Hills Park, and I'mr
4
11 here to speak about it, because I think it ' s been
12 maligned tonight . Rye Hills Park is an exceptional
13 place, and its site has an exceptional history. I
14 just want to tell you a little bit about it .
.15 In 1909 , a huge concrete mansion
16 was erected on that site . I moved into this village
17 in 1970 . In walking over to that acreage, my husband
18 and I saw that the mansion had been vandalized and
1�
19 abandoned for many years . It was possible for us to
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20 walk in through open doors . What greeted us was
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21 beyond expectation. There was a huge entrance, a
22 grand staircase . I'm sure most of us have seen the
23 movie "Gone With the Wind. " Think about Rhett and
24 Scarlet'. There was a huge spiral staircase in that
25 mansion'_, that wound up with red burgundy carpeting to
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1 60
2 the second floor. There .was a pipe organ. There
3 were walls three feet in width. That was all knocked
4 down when the house was leveled. The rubble was
5 hauled away, and the massive foundation remajns
6 intact under that ground. The park was covered with
7 just topsoil . The park also sits on natural bedrock.
8 Some of the ideas that .Mr.
9 Rafaelli proposed show that this was a very poor and
10 flawed plan. The expenses would be phenomenal . .
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11 Blasting was a major expense for the Hilton, for
12 General Foods, and for Hidden Falls housing. It
13 continues to be. , Neighboring Rye Hills families have
14 heard all that blasting, and now we would have to
15 endure our municipal government spending $100 , 000
16 more to blast to put in a concrete pool complex.
17 The other thing about Rye Hills
18 Park as it is now is that it is a gem if you like
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N 19 trees and nature . The wealth of the early families
8
20 there permitted them to landscape it with exotic
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21 trees . Ten years ago a rep from the Department of
22 Environmental Conservation came and walked that land
23 with me. He said there are prize specimen trees not
24 native to this area. This is why the site was chosen
25 as a quiet nature sanctuary. These people who talk
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1 61
2 about developing it are not giving us, who like quiet
3 and peace, a place to just come up and spend quiet
4 time enjoying ourselves . Why do we always have to be
5 busy? I invite you all to come and see the park.
6 Thank you very much.
7 MS . CARLUCCI : I'm Pam Carlucci';
8 94 Grant Street, Rye Brook. Grant Street is that
9 lower section of Rye Brook, I was told. I love it .
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10 I've been in Port Chester and Rye Brook 36 years , and
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11 I love my neighbors . My four children did not need a
12 pool then, and they sure don' t need it now. I 'm so
13 pleased that the majority here tonight are using
14 their God-given common sense and realize that that we
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15 do not need a pool .
16 MR. PETRILLO: My name is Paul
17 Petrillo . My home is at 39 Longledge Drive . I'm
18 sort of softspoken; you are going to have to bear
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19 with me.
8 '
20 I came here tonight with these
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c6
21 carefully prepared notes that I went over all
22 weekend. I methodically worked them out, and I was
23 going to mention things such as hidden costs in this
24 project; inaccessiblity of the land to the main
25 street of Ridge Street; traffic problems that would
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1 -
62
2 be caused at, Ridge. .Street by the proposed pool .. And
3 those have all been mentioned. I just mentioned them
4 again, actually. . .. :
5 But what I think I' ll do with my
6 time is talk about some things that haven' t been
7 mentioned. I see here a number of different
8 scenarios under which a bond would be floated to pay
9 for this pool . My questions concerning this bond
1? 10 offering are : Have you - - have we retained an
11 investment advisor to tell us the feasibility of
12 writing this kind of bond? Have we been to a rating
13 agency to get this . bond, rated? Are we going to sell
14 the bond? To whom will we sell it? Will it really
15 cost six, six and a half percent? Will it be a
16 general obligation or revenue bond? I assume it will
17 be a revenue bond using the proceeds of the pool , the
18 concession stand, membership, and the like to support
19 the timely payment of principal and interest . If
20 this is the case, do we have projections that will
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21 show that the issue can be supported? You know, do
22 we have pro formas that show that enough people will
23 become members ; that enough people will buy soda at
24 this concession stand that this thing can generate
25 enough revenue that a bond issue can be supported?
s
Y
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1 63
2 I don' t think' any of these have
I
3 been addressed. I don' t know that the village has
4 any other municipal debt . And my understanding is
5 this will probably be a first-time offering of debt;
6 and you don' t have any clue as to what you guys are
7 in for here . I also see no mention here of
8 underwriting costs. You have to pay someone to sell
9 the bonds for you. Typically, investment banking
18
10 firms are not eleemosynary institutions . They do not
11 do things for free . They will cost you between two
12 and three points . On a bond issue of this size,
13 you' re talking somewhere in the .neighborhood of 60 to
14 $80, 000 additionally, just to underwrite the bond.
15 This is just one example . Obviously, you can tell
16 I'm a bond trader by nature . And I came up here to
17 speak on something I knew about, as opposed to the
18 cost of building a pool .
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19 I also have one other question.
20 This is more a question. I know questions are for
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21 later; but one thing we should think about is the
22 village Commission hired Mr. Rafaelli to do this work
23 and they paid him a fee. I am assuming that if the
24 town goes through with the proposal ,and the pool is
25 built, that Mr . Rafaelli will also have a consulting
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1 64
2 fee . So obviously, as was stated to us. earlier .in
3 the evening, these people do not have interests that
4 are totally unbiased. Thank you.
5 MS . KAPLOW: Good evening,
6 everyone . My name is Pam Kaplow. I live at 20 .-
7
0 .7 Dorchester Drive . I'm in full support .of .the. pool .
8 I am on the Pool Committee, and I would . like to take
9 this opportunity to thank the Village Trustees and
10 the Mayor for having this hearing tonight . I think
11 it was very important that everybody was able to come
12 out and listen to Mr . Rafaelli , hear what the
13 committees have to say, , and all„ the various groups
14 within our community.
15 What I' d like to talk about
16 tonight are a few things that have been of interest
17 in the community, and one is in relationship to the
18 Rye Hills Park. I know how important that Rye Hills
d
19 Park is to the 186 families that probably have a
20 representative here tonight from each one of those
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21 families . If I were in the Rye Hills community, I
22 would be here today. I have fought issues in the
23 community. I have worked hard for the community.
24 I've worked hard at times against the community, and
25 I know how important it is to you.
e
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
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1 65
' 2 I 1 ook at this whole issue as a
3 pool for our community. I am not a person who lives
4 in one area of ,the community. I am a person who
5 lives in the Village of Rye Brook. The Rye Hills
6 Park is a piece of property that belongs to this
7 entire village, not just to 186 families that have
8 possession of this , because there has been no
9 accessibility to this property until the development
10 of Hidden Falls . With the development of Hidden
11 Falls, the nature of that property has changed to a
12 degree . There have now been studies in the Rye Hills
13 group . I was part of that, but I did leave that
14 group early on. And I do believe that we have to
i5 realize that there ' s accessibility to Rye Hills. It
16 is one of the only pieces of property centrally
17 located in our community that can service the needs
18 of our community for recreation.
19 This evening we have brought to
20 you this pool study, and Mr. Rafaelli to discuss this
K
� 21 proposal . Actually, it' s not just this proposal ;
• 22 it' s the concept of a pool . It' s the concept of what
23 a pool could mean to the Village of Rye Brook. I
24 think we have to take ourselves out of our
25 neighborhoods for a few minutes , whether you' re from
i
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. r r
1 66
r. 2 the north, south, east or west . .1 never saw those
3 boundaries , nor do I know them after being here for
4 13 years . And I think we have to look at our
5 community as a whole, and I think we have to see what
6 is it that ' s important for . our ,community, for our .
7 seniors .
g Referring back to one of the
9 studies that was done tonight, we as a pool committee
10 did look at every possible aspect of this community:
11 Our senior citizens; our middle age citizens ; our
12 youngsters ; our toddlers . We tried to accommodate
13 everybody in order to provide a concept for this
14 community that our village can vote on at some later
15 date . I think public hearings are very important . . I
16 think it was very important that everybody from this
17 Rye Hills area and from CAPP are out tonight to
1s discuss at this village hearing how they feel . I
a
N 19 also feel it ' s very important to get the breakdown,
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20 when you have various committees , to find out what
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21 makeup those committees are . .
22 One other aspect I' d like to
23 discuss are our youngsters in our community. The
24 youngsters in our community are very important . I am
25 for a pool . I hope that you' ll come out for more
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 67
f 2 meetings as will all the supporters also come out for
3 meetings .
4 MR. COHEN: My name is Gary
5 Cohen. I live at 11 Park Ridge Court .
6 Most of what I wanted to say has
7 already been said, including the part about the
19
8 floating bond issue that my friend over here already
9 made . So I' d just like to elaborate on one
.3
10 particular point that' s been brought up several
11 times, but not in any detail .
12 I wonder how many of you have
13 actually gone up through the Hidden Falls complex,
14 taken a ride up through there and taken a look at the
15 transportation access to this area. It is a very
I
16 narrow residential road. How it could ever support
17 400 , or even 200 , or even 100 people going up to such
18 a complex, I can' t imagine . Plus the
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19 already-mentioned problems of egress and access to
8 20 North Ridge Street . The safety factors haven' t been
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21 brought out in conjunction with that . If there was
22 ever to be, God forbid, a serious problem in the pool
23 complex, and for some reason there was a traffic jam,
24 or a tree fell across the narrow single access road
25 going up there, or what have you, there would be a
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's
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
n
1 68
2 very, very serious problem in trying to get the
3 proper aid in there and get the person to a hospital
4 and/or whatever help was appropriate .
5 I bring this up because I've lived
6 in the past in communities with pool complexs that
7 have gone through exactly what all of us have .gone
8 through here tonight . And being a newcomer to your
9 community, and now my community, I just wanted to
10 share that experience with you, because believe. me,
11 the access to such a facility is absolutely critical ,
12 and the ability to park in it is absolutely critical .
13 And I can only say, hopefully objectively from what
14 little I 've seen tonight of this - - and I did do some
15 homework, since I 'm new. As one of the speakers
16 suggested, I actually read through the
17 recommendations and financials and everything. And I
18 have to say that I cannot believe that the idea of
ffi
19 the pool complex was looked at without taking into
8
20 consideration the various safety factors and
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21 transportation access into it; because I honestly
22 believe if you look at the residential area there,
23 the number of children that are there, and the ones
24 that are to come and so on, it is just asking for a
25 lot of safety problems . Thank you.
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 69
1 2 MR. LATANZIO: • . My. name is Paul
3 Latanzio . I live at 9 Park Ridge Court, Hidden
4 Falls .
5 Gary stole most of . my thunder. _
6 But there' s a couple of things I ' d like to point out .
7 One is for those,.,pool supporters who weren' t able to
8 come here tonight .because they couldn' t get
9 baby-sitters . My wife and two-month-old baby are in
10 the back. When things are important, you make it
11 happen.
12 Reiterating something Gary said.
13 When you take. a look at these access streets , if you
14 look at the construction of "off-road parking" is
15 what they called . it in the drawings of the facility
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16 here - - you have parking that is off the main area of
17 the road. And the reason for that is the road is too
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18 narrow for cars to park on it. So in the development
19 of Hidden Falls, that was taken into account .
20 Clearly, . the:' size of . the road is at issue with the
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21 safety issues, and the limited traffic that is in
22 that community.
23 I grew up on a street similar to
24 Ridge Street and the amount of traffic, and I vowed
25 that I wouldn' t have my kids grow up on a similar
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1 70
.. 2 type of street . I bought ,here because it' s a quiet
3 cul-de-sac without traffic that I wouldn' t have to
4 fear for my kids going out in the street . If you
5 take a walk or a drive through that, you' ll notice
6 that with all the turns , you cannot see what ' s going
7 on around the corner. People who live there know to
8 take it slow: - People in the pool complex won' t
9 neccesarily know that this is an accident waiting to
10 happen. And anyone who has kids and�a conscience
11 wouldn' t want this to go through their yard.
12 THE MAYOR: Is there anyone that
13 would like to make a statement? That would be your
14 second time . Is there anyone that would want to go
15 and make a first statement? You got it .
16 MS . ROSS : A couple of things .
17 It' s my basic - - I understand that when we elect you
18 people, you are to discuss the various things, and
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19 that it' s not up to any one group of people to come
20 in and demand a referendum; that you decide if a
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21 referendum is in order or not . So I think it' s
22 presumptuous for one group to come in and demand a
23 referendum.
24 I'm sorry if people misunderstood
25 and didn' t read what they were signing. If anyone
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2 has signed a petition here tonight and would like
3 their name taken off it, please feel free to come up.
20
.4 However, if - you haven' t signed it and would like to
5 sign it, please come up.
6 MR. ROBINSON: My name is Gerry
7 Robinson, 31 Longledge_Drive . For the benefit of one
8 of our previous speakers , I am a Veteran, and I'm in
9 favor of democracy. The Russians can' t afford a
10 pool . We can' t either. Mr. Rafaelli, with all due
11 respect for this hogwash, you've left out all kinds
12 of costs . I don' t see anything for heating up these
13 pools . It costs a homeowner with a 20 by 40 foot
14 pool $600 a month to keep the water at 80 degrees .
15 All of this is being done at a time when our economy
16 is in shambles . We can' t afford to increase or
17 police force . We' re going to need not the policeman
18 we couldn' t hire, but three more to conduct the
19 traffic going in and out of Hidden Falls onto Ridge
8
20 Street .
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21 Besides the traffic, there' s no
22 provision in this for blasting. Any gentlemen here
23 from Hidden Falls know what the blasting costs have
24 been so far?
25 AUDIENCE: Over a half million
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2 dollars .
3 MR. ROBINSON: over a half
4 million dollars in blasting costs , and he'.s only. . .
5 built 13 houses . What are you going to do if this is
6 on top of a rock hill? This is hogwash. Mr.
.7. Raffaelli, what will you be charging as . a fee if the
8 referendum goes through? What do you stand to
9 personally gain from this?
10 MR. HILLARD : Ken Hillard, 22
11 Lincoln Avenue . First to start, probably last .
12 Believe it or not, in my 50 years of living in this
13 community, this is probably. one of the best turnouts .
14 It ' s the first time that the Village of Rye Brook has
15 met in District Four. We have made history. We
16 brought the people out, and the people are speaking.
17 And this is important, and no one should denigrate
18 the fact whether or not somebody read some papers
19 before or not . The citizens have come out . The
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20 citizens have personal interests . They have village
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21 interests . And I think the citizens should be heard.
22 Thank you.
23 THE MAYOR: Come on, Mr. Florio.
24 Welcome back.
25 MR. FLORIO: You know, this
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2 report made up by the Pool Committee does not give us
3 all the. facts . We' re here talking about this pool
4 complex is going to cost $2 . 1 million. Some people
5 already brought it out, but I already had it in my
6 . notes . . We' re going to have the bond, the issuing of .
7 . the bond.. We' re going to have the interest . - - 20
8 ._ years on this $2 . 1 million bond. Last week, the City
9 of New York sold two bonds ; one .bond went for 8 . 8
10 percent, the other bond went for 9 .3 percent .
11 Somebody tells us we' re going to get a bond here for
12 six and a half percent? When you start adding the
13 interest of 20 years on a $2 . 1 million bond, you come
14 up to close to the whole complex costing almost $4
15 million. Over 20 years , that' s $200; 000 a year that
16 we, the taxpayers who are not going to have any
17 interest in that pool , are going to have to pay.
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18 All these people talk about a
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� 19 pool . I' d like to ask a .number of questions to Mr.
20 Rafaelli . You know .this young lady over here talked
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21 about a place up there, the mansion. Well , I happen
22 to know something about that mansion, because my
23 family did all of the work for Mr.. Edgar F . Price,
24 president and general manager of well , anyway, a
25 large corporation. And I was brought up there by my
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2 grandfather when. :I was.. a young child. ..
3 .. Now coming down to the cost . I
4 didn' t see the cost .breakdown by Mr. Rafaelli .
5 Again, I want to. reiterate that there was no cost
6 factor about rock; . no cost factor for drilling to
7 find out how much .rock. .That' s rock country up
8 there, all of it . You know, we have had two large
9 reports here, but the most important report that was
10 needed in this report was the cost breakdown of this ;
11 and we did not have it, and we still don' t have it .
12 And I ask Mr. Rafaelli to give us a cost breakdown of
13 all the costs of this thing, down to the bolts and
14 nuts ; down to how much his fee is going to be for
15 this . When we talk about $2 . 1 million, does that
1
16 include his fee? And how much is his fee? Is it six
17 percent, eight percent, ten percent? which is the
18 common engineering fee . We don' t have that here .
19 How about the cost - - I happen to
20 know a little bit about construction, because I've
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21 been in it all my life . I only retired two years
22 ago. And I .worked for one of the largest
23 construction firms in the world. I was a chief
24 administrator, for your information.
25 This says engineering, ten
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1 75
2 percent . So now, when we start. subtracting all
3 the - - I don' t see anything here for contingencies .
4 I don' t see anything here for rock blasting.
5 Now, what happens if we run out of
6 money, just like they did down in Rye� last year?
7 They had an overrun of $300 , 000 because somebody
8 didn' t spend a few dollars to do some drilling for
9 rock. And they still got a lawsuit there .
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10 In conclusion, I just want to say
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11 this - - and I say this as a good citizen; one that is
12 born and brought up in this municipality and has
13 lived here all his life, between Port Chester and Rye
14 Brook. You know, members of this Board, I don' t
15 think it ' s fair that a handful of people come to you
16 with an idea, and then you people go ahead and tell
17 them, "We' ll give you $3 , 000 to make a report . "
18 That ' s not right . You people are sitting there to
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19 make a decision. You people are sitting there to say
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20 whether this is right or wrong and make a decision on
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21 your own. Don' t be fence straddlers . It' s not fair
22 to spend the taxpayers ' money in this way, and - - I'm
23 sorry. I just get all worked up about this, because
24 we have to save money, because we' re getting - - the
25 people in the Fourth District of the school district
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1 76
2 have got a 14-percent increase in their taxes . We' re
3 going to get - - in Rye Brook area we' re going to get
4 a ten percent increase . How much taxes do you think
5 we can afford? Talk to these people . Go around and
6 talk to people .
7 THE MAYOR: Thank you, Mr.
8 Florio.
9 I am just going to say a few
10 words, and then, Frank, you' re going to be the last
11 speaker, because we've got to be out of here by 10
12 o' clock.
13 Mr. Florio, with regards - - and
14 the audience, too - - we have heard about taxes . The
15 village will have a zero tax increase . You can' t
16 hang the school tax issue on the Village Board;
17 that' s a separate problem that you have to fight .
18 Believe me, I'm well aware that the money comes out
19 of one pocket up and down the line . The taxes in the
20 country are right now, I believe, out of control .
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21 However - - part of that has to do with this tax
22 statement, but the other part of it is the Village
23 Board, in order to make an informed decision, has to
24 approach things with an open mind, and that means to
25 get input from the community. And that' s exactly
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1 77
2 what we' re doing is _listening to you tonight with
3 your questions , your statements . And there will be ,
4 another . hearing„or. he.arings .
5 But this is village government in
6 action. I mean, where can you go and beat up on your
7 Board for free? If you go to a County Board of
8 Legislators meeting, they won' t even give you time to
9 talk. And this is what makes village government
10 special . So this is government in action. We' re
11 seeking input . We want your input . I hope at the
12 next hearing there are twice as many people there.
13 We ' re going to move it from here to either the Ridge
14 Street School or the Port Chester High School, where
15 we can accommodate more people .
16 Frank, you finish up your three
17 minutes, and we will wrap it up.
18 MR. FILPOWSKI : I don' t even
hree minutes . I just wanted to make one point,
8 19 need t
20 if I could have everyone' s attention.
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21 I believe there' s been a lot of
22 personal maligning of the consultant who has been
23 here tonight . ,,We' re here to make statements . It' s
24 free for everyone to make statements . But to malign,
25 someone who, if he' s never hired to do anything, is
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1 78
f 2 not going to gain anything . . There' s no hidden
3 agenda . Come on. There' s been a lot of pointed
4 personal statements made . ,. That' s not what this
5 hearing was for. If we can be decent, we can
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6 understand that he didn' t come here and volunteer to
7 take a lot of. grief . He came here to try and
8 explain. He was paid for a report that he produced.
9 And he' s not here for anyone to malign him
10 personally . And I should hope that Mr. Rafaelli will
11 go away from this village not thinking that everyone
2
12 here is of that mind. Thank you .
13 THE MAYOR: I 'm going to ask the
14 Village Board to adjourn this hearing until April 27,
15 7 : 30 . We' re not sure yet whether it will be Ridge
16 Street School or Port Chester High school . It will
17 be on village cable and in the' newspapers . Thank
18 you .
19 (Hearing adjourned. )
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e,
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STATE OF NEW YORK )
COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER )
I , PAMELA PANDISCIO, Registered
Professional Reporter and Notary Public for the State
of New York, do hereby certify:
That I reported the proceedings in the
within entitled matter, and that the within
transcript is a true record of said proceedings .
I further certify that I am not related
to any of the parties to this action by blood or
marriage and that I am in no way interested in the
outcome `.of this matter.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set
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my hand this 7th day of ril , 1992 . ..
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INDEPENDENT REPORTERS