HomeMy WebLinkAbout1992-04-27 - Board of Trustees Meeting Public Hearing i
0 � aa 4
X - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - X
PUBLIC HEARING
Re : Pool in Rye Brook
% - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - X
Ridge Street School
Rye , New York
April 27 , 1992
8 : 00 P .M.
MAY 'L Qlll Pamela Pandiscio,
RPR-CP
RKOS OFFICE
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
81
A P P E A R A N C E S
SALVATORE CRESENZI, Mayor
MICHELLE DALY, Trustee
JOSEPH PELLINO, Trustee
RANDY SOLOMON, Trustee
REGA ZUCKERMAN, Trustee
KEANE & BEANE, P. C.
Attorneys for Village
11 Elm Place
Rye, New York 10580
BY: EDWARD F . BEANE, ESQ.
000
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 82
2 MR. MAYOR: At this time I ' d
3 like to call the meeting to order, please . First
4 thing I ' d like to point out is the two fire exits; we
5 must keep those open at all times this evening .
6 I ' d like to begin by reading a
7 brief statement . This evening' s meeting is a
8 continuation of last month' s public hearing
9 concerning a proposal to develop a municipal pool for
10 the Village of Rye Brook. The purpose of this
11 hearing is to gather information from the community
12 and to answer questions raised at last month' s
13 hearing . It is important to restate the decision
14 that the Village Board must come to . That decision
15 is whether or not to vote in the affirmative and
16 simultaneously put this proposal before the community
17 in the form of a referendum.
18 The public hearing will be
19 conducted as follows : The pool committee will be
20 given 20 minutes to respond to statements and
21 questions raised at the last public hearing . Once
22 the pool committee completes this response,
23 individuals will be given the opportunity to ask
24 questions . The course of the meeting is being
25 videotaped, and a stenographic record of it also
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
I
1 83
2 being produced . It is required that anyone wishing
3 to speak approach the podium and state their name and
4 address . Individuals will be given three minutes to
5 ask questions . Once they complete their questions ,
6 they must return to their seat or take a place at the
7 end of question line . The appropriate Pool Committee
8 representative will then approach the podium to
9 respond and will also be given a three minutes limit .
10 This evening' s hearing will close promptly at 10 p .m.
11 When the Village Board feels it
12 has enough information, it will close the public
13 hearing process . And once we have reviewed the
14 transcript and tape of the final hearing, the Board
15 will promptly render a decision. After the 20 -minute
16 response to the questions raised at the last hearing,
17 anyone wishing to ask a question, please line up
18 along the wall on the side so we can keep an orderly
19 fashion in tonight ' s meeting .
20 John, do you want to begin?
21 MR. HALEY : I thought you would
22 have changed the color from the last hearing.
23 Hold them up . Let me see them.
24 Thank you.
25 I 'm just going to introduce Frank
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 84
2 Filpowski, former Village Trustee, who is going to
3 give us the 20 -minute response to questions raised
4 last time .
5 MR. FILPOWSKI : Honorable Mayor
6 and members of the Board of Trustees in November
7 1991 . The pool study committee presented our
8 proposal for a pool complex for the Village of Rye
9 Brook. Thereafter, in February we then approached
10 the Board to say what could be done . We sought to
11 find out what this village wanted; if it did, in
12 fact , want a pool recreation facility. After that
13 meeting, the Village Board then had an agenda meeting
14 on March 10 . And with that agenda meeting, they
15 scheduled a public hearing for March 24 ; and after
16 March 24 , they scheduled the next meeting for
17 tonight .
18 Now again, we did not in any way
19 have any control over that scheduling. Again, we did
20 not ask for public hearing. We wanted to present all
21 of our information before the public to try and find
22 out if we could obtain a referendum to deal with the
23 issue of a pool for Rye Brook - - or pools . Again,
24 very many of you - - I 've heard feedback. They say,
25 "Four pools? Frank, why four pools? " Again, we ' re
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 85
2 here to get information and to find out . Maybe the
3 ultimate proposal to go to a referendum will not be
4 the four pools that we have been considering and that
5 we felt will take this village into the 20th century .
6 But totally aside from that , the normal course of
7 events when anyone goes to the village is to have
8 something studied; get input from the Recreation
9 Commission; get input from the Superintendent of
10 Recreation; input from the Traffic Commission; ask
11 other committees . We didn' t have any of that .
12 We approached the village with
13 what we had as our recommendation. Okay . That' s not
14 the final word . It ' s the Village Board that has the
15 final power to use their reasoning to deal with
16 whether there are enough people here who basically
17 want- for this village a municipal pool . That' s what
18 we' re dealing with .
19 Now, aside from that, we dealt
20 with looking at the history, and the history going
3
21 back to the Clark Associate report , and even back to
22 1966 when the Town of Rye basically said, "Look,
23 there' s something missing. This village could have
24 more . " In 1966 it was a town. And again, this is
25 the first committee that I know of in the village
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 86
2 that basically approached the Board and said, "Look,
3 we would like to find out answers . We would like to
4 present something to the village . "
5 This was a not an elitest group at
6 all . We ' re members from all over in the village :
7 Mount Beacon; one of our members from Sunset had a
8 death in his family and was not able to continue
9 working with our group . We have different people
10 from all over the community who are on our committee .
11 We all kind of got together with each other to talk
12 it over, talk to somebody else in terms of getting
13 this together. In no way were we trying to create a
14 country club . We' re trying to present a situation to
15 the village where, except for meetings like this , our
16 birthday partys , sports events , senior citizens
17 evenbs , where could there be a facility to try and
18 bring all of the community together?
19 We have quite a division: A
20 division of two school districts ; a division of
21 commercial property and residential property. And
22 the commercial property can help support what we' re
23 looking to do tonight in terms of trying to obtain a
24 municipal pool facility. But the issue of the number
25 of pools and a location is something that' s entirely
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 87
2 before this Village Board, okay. We made a
3 recommendation. If somebody wants to subtract a .
4 pool , and that ' s what could carry the majority,
5 that ' s something that can happen . We do not have the
6 ultimate word. And again, we have basically kind of
7 been put to the task of presenting our proposal to
8 sell to the village .
9 Well , again, our proposal , we
10 think, is excellent from the standpoint of location.
11 Rye Hills Park, okay, is a splendid area . And the
12 only way you' re going to really be able to bring
13 people to it is to have something that ' s going to
14 attract them. It' s kind of out of the way, and right
15 now, I would not call it a beautiful park. It ' s a
16 very overgrown, rundown area, and we can really make
17 something of it . We can really make something of it .
18 Okay . And again, right now, the village must deal
19 with any of the property owners that may even be
20 encroaching on the park, and it ' s something that the
21 village must do in terms of serving so that legally
22 no one would obtain some proscriptive rights to the
23 property. That' s a side issue that the village,
24 whatever it does , must deal with the potential for
25 losing part of that property to some of the neighbors
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 as
2 encroaching there . But that' s a side issue .
3 In terms of dealing with the problems
4 that were brought up, okay: The location that we
5 picked . We evaluated several different areas . First
6 of all we looked at the King Street property, which
7 the village owns and has been calling it the
8 firehouse property for a long time . Our engineer
9 found it was unsuitable because of the high water
10 table . It also is an area that' s on a very difficult
11 turn, and you would probably need to acquire
12 property. The main thing we did was try to look
13 through the village and verify that we would not have
14 to buy any property. Right now, to get the acreage
15 needed would probably cost in excess of $1 million to
16 cover doing anything .
17 And again, throughout our
18 discussions, many people are saying, "Look, let' s get
19 a recreation center. " Okay. We did not deal with
20 doing fact finding or anything concerning a
21 recreation center or a village hall . We had one
22 mission, and that was to try and find out if this
23 community wanted and would support a village
24 municipal pool .
25 So the location. Other than that ,
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
i
i
i
1 89
2 we dealt with the property down on Bowan Avenue by
3 General Foods . And again, because of the great
4 amount of rock and proximity to the commercial area,
5 we felt that was not suitable . The other thing that
6 may have been the best , but it would probably take ,
7 between litigation to either force condemnation or
8 what have you, would be Red Roof Farm. Red Roof
9 Farm, because of the time to obtain it , . was not
10 anything that we considered.
11 Again, down closer to the airport
4
12 there is other property. But in our opinion, we ' d
13 lose the neighborhoodness that you could have for
14 children being able to get to a pool . Aside from
15 that , the proximity to the airport and the problem
16 with noise and the airplanes overhead made us
17 deselect those areas .
18 Aside from that , there have been
19 many questions brought up about access and getting to
20 the park. Again, back in 1987 , the Clark Associates
21 report stated that the park is there . It would be
22 great if a builder would put an access road into the
23 park, because it was a very underused facility . All
24 right . Now, the builder who did come in provided a
25 road, and the builder knew that this road would
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 90
2 connect up to a park . There was a six and a half
3 acre park, all right ; very, very large . And it ' s
4 really got enough room for putting in some pools ,
5 putting in parking, and could be a recreation center
6 or something else in the future .
7 In terms of the comments that we have
8 too many underutilized pools now: The pools that are
9 being referenced as underutilized cannot promote a
10 sense of community and a sense of family going out
11 and gathering together like an outdoor pool can. I
12 don' t know if you' re saying that you don' t want to be
13 neighbors, but when we have the Rye Brook - -
14 Mr. Mayor, I' ll not continue if
15 all I'm going to do is hear heckling .
16 MR MAYOR: We owe it to each
17 other to be courteous . Everyone is going to get a
18 chance to ask a question. Please let Mr. Filpowski
19 finish his remarks .
20 MR. FILPOWSKI : I don' t
21 appreciate being here to have people , you know, do
22 this , because - - look, I have a family. I have
23 dedicated a great portion of my life to this village
24 and for anybody who thinks I 'm up here for some kind
25 of alterior motive , I' d like you to please to ask a
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
i
1 91
2 question of me afterwards . I really don' t have any.
3 So you know, to boo as to why I'm here , I don' t
4 understand what that ' s all about . I 've given an
5 awful lot of time, and I want to try and share that
6 with you tonight, give as much information .
7 Now, in terms of a referendum. A
8 referendum coming at a time of the national election
9 would not have any additional cost .
10 Borings . Cost of borings would be
11 $2 , 000 . And the $2 , 000 could be coming right out of
12 our contingency in what we have calculated for the
13 pool .
14 All right . Sinkholes . If there ' s
15 rock up on the property, it ' s inconsistent that there
16 are sinkholes up there .
17 But totally aside from that , we
18 are going to try today - - but because of a problem
19 with finding a water main line - - we were going to do
20 some digging to find out how close any rock was so
21 that we could give an idea on a minimum of blasting.
22 Again, at the last meeting it was
23 quoted $150 , 000 to do an Environmental Impact Study.
24 That ' s way out of line . It would cost between 10 and
25 $20 , 000 . And again, we have it in the contingency
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 92
2 fund that we have .
3 Blasting . Again, if the basting
4 would come , we have a $200 , 000 buffer.
5 In terms of the construction: We
6 will deal with this later, if we can, that Mr.
7 Raffaelli has been known to come up with dealing with
8 all of the major pools in Westchester County; and he
9 has been underbudget on all of them except one , which
10 is my understanding . All of this can be checked out .
11 The Village Board, the Recreation Commission, our
12 recreation department, they can cross reference this
13 with all of these other communities , communities like
14 Briarcliff Manor, Pleasantville . All of these
15 communities have pools , and somehhow or other,
16 they've figured out how to support them.
17 In terms of the 400 members :
18 Again, Briarcliff Manor, population of 7 , 070 . Last
19 year they had 1 , 600 of their residents use the pool .
20 It ' s a tremendous number. 1 , 600 . They enjoyed the
21 pool . They shared it . They had it .
22 In terms of insurance costs .
23 Insurance costs are on our contingency fund, also .
24 The question that we could not
25 afford our 24th police officer because of a pool
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 93
2 conflict , well , the Village Board has somehow figured
3 out how to keep that 24th officer in the budget, and
4 he will be hired.
5
5 But again, in terms of costs and
6 how real are the costs : Right now in our own village
7 budget , it talks about resurfacing, and the fact that
8 costs are down and we' re going to be able to stretch
9 our dollar more . You can read it . It ' s in here .
10 All right . So there is support for these things .
11 It ' s not only what we' re saying. There is support ,
12 and the village has already found that in terms of
13 dealing with the costs .
14 Totally aside from that , there
15 were questions raised about heating the water and a
16 lot of cost . This is an outdoor facility, and we' re
17 not going to be involved in that . We will have cost
18 for just the electricity coming up to the property
19 and so forth; but that is not the case .
20 Anyone talking about ruining this
21 property because it ' s only going to be used three
22 months out of the 12 -month period; right now it' s
23 really there and really has to be made an attraction
24 so that people will go there . We believe the pool
25 facility will do that .
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
r
1 94
2 In terms of going to Oakland Beach
3 and using the Long Island Sound: Again, you can
4 certainly do that on your own. We ' re saying for the
5 quality of life in Rye Brook we believe that the
6 cost , the site , and everything that is possible, that
7 this can happen.
8 In terms of separate funding and
9 looking for corporations to pay for this : Right now
10 the corporations in the village make up about between
11 30 to 40 percent of the assessed properties in our
12 village . So that means they will be carrying that
13 much of the cost on building this pool .
14 Then, in terms of dealing with the
15 schools , okay: The schools can use this for the time
16 that would be available during the summer. We have a
17 situation where District Four and District Five cut
18 through Rye Brook; and this could all be done .
19 The question was raised about
20 cheaper memberships or less expensive memberships .
21 Again, when we cover the principal cost of the
22 operation, then we can really consider that there
23 will be day passes , week passes , things like this .
24 We have to make sure . This is a new experience for
25 us . But again, the Board could really make decisions
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
II
1 95
2 about holding off on that .
3 In terms of what happens , the bond
4 costs . We ' re in a situation where the cost of the
5 bond is really a nominal amount of money to support
6 it . In 1987 we had an A- 1 rating for a $900 , 000
7 bond . With the record that we have dealt with that
8 bond, we maybe able to get a rating of AA, or even
9 triple-A, which would help the rate to go down. The
10 interest rate right now is around six and a half
11 percent . And if we had a quarter of a percent
12 difference on that , we ' d been down to six and a
13 quarter .
14 Again, on the taxes to support this .
15 I 'm going to use my house as an example, because many
16 of the people that I talked with did not know what is
17 their assessment . I said, look on Ellendale and
18 Maywood and the different houses . You've got houses
19 assessed between six and 10 , 000 , 10 to 15 , 000 . Okay.
20 Before our renovation, my house was assessed at
21 $12 , 200 . With the addition, it' s going to go up
22 $3 , 100 . I live at 260 Betsy Brown, on the corner of
23 Betsy Brown and North Ridge . Take a look. Get an
24 idea or look at your tax bill and really find out
25 what that little number for assessed value means .
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 96
2 But totally aside from that , we
3 had hoped to give you information tonight on
4 blasting. But again, we had the problem on locating
5 the pipes and could not do that .
6 In terms of the location and
7 saving trees : If you look at the layout , most of the
8 trees will be saved and will give the buffer along
9 the property line . You've got to look at that and
10 see where it is laid out . Right now there ' s a big
11 open field, and that ' s approximately where the pools
12 would be .
13 Harry Krausman would like to take
14 the last two minutes and talk to you a little bit
15 about what he found out concerning Larry Rafaelli' s
16 credibility and what he' s done in other communities .
17 MR. KRAUSMAN: I' m Harry
18 Krausman, Candy Lane in Rye Brook. One of the issues
19 that was brought up at the last public hearing had to
20 do with the questions about Larry Rafaelli ' s
6
21 credentials as a pool consultant and aquatic
22 engineer . One of the reasons we selected Mr .
23 Rafaelli was because he was given to us as a
24 recommendation by every single community in
25 Westchester and surrounding areas who had had pools
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 97
2 built or renovated over the number of years that we
3 have been asking . And I would say during the last 10
4 or 15 years , he singlehandedly has designed and built
5 more pools than anyone else . We felt that he would
6 be the best person to have us use as a consultant to
7 see whether or not this is a feasible idea .
8 But not taking his references for
9 granted, we took it upon ourselves to contact the
10 local communities where he has done work . And apart
11 from the communities in Westchester, in New Jersey,
12 in Long Island, we decided we ought to focus on
13 Westchester communities and see what their experience
14 has been. I contacted the Village Manager from Mount
15 Kisco, from Bedford, who was previously the Super-
16 intendent of Recreation for Briarcliff Manor;
17 Hastings-on- the-Hudson; Peekskill ; Mount Pleasant;
18 and Yorktown . I received letters of recommendation.
19 This is from the Town of Bedford, who is also the
20 person for Briarcliff Manor. The crux of it is , " I
21 worked with Mr. Rafaelli on four separate pool
22 renovation projects , including three in three
23 consecutive years . I believe I am the only
24 Superintendent of Recreation in the County to be able
25 to say that all of our projects have been completed
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
i
1 98
2 on time and under budget . Much of the credit for
3 this accomplishment belongs to Larry Rafaelli . His
4 dedicated hands-on approach and expertise has allowed
5 my community to have three of the finest swimming
6 pools around . "
7 I have similar letters from
8 Yorktown, from Peekskill , from Hastings . And I think
9 Larry Rafaelli is an excellent choice . And he' ll be
10 able to be speek for himself to the questions you
11 have . Thank you .
12 MR. MAYOR : Those who would like
13 to ask questions can form a line along the wall .
14 You' ll be given three minutes for a question and the
15 committee will have three minutes to respond . We' re
16 going to begin the questioning period of the meeting
17 now. `
18 MS . FIELDER: Much has been said
19 at the previous meeting, and I notice at this
20 one, too, that they throw in us senior citizens every
21 once in a while, as to what great benefits we' re
22 going to have from it .
23 I would like an answer on two
24 things . First of all , all of these activities , like
25 senior citizens events and so forth, this will only
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
I'
1 99
2 be for the summer, around the pool , with everybody
3 enjoying and running around the pool , and the
4 youngsters , with mother' s trying to supervise the
5 children from one pool to the other, or trying to
6 divide themselves into four parts so that they can
7 supervise each kid.
8 Now, also, it was mentioned that
9 there would be no heat in this pool . From my
10 experience with pools - - and not just from local - -
11 you don' t get a warm enough pool for a lot of people ,
12 and certainly not senior citizens, during the month
13 of June . So I would say please, if we build these
14 pools, let ' s build them right and let' s put in some
15 heat .
16 I forgot to tell you, my name is
17 Rene' Fieldler. I ' m at 149 Brush Hollow. And I thank
18 you .
19 MR. RAFAELLI : Perhaps I can
20 respond for a moment . I should say that every one of
21 my pools has a very large senior citizen contingent .
22 They like to come there in the morning . I can look
23 at Katonah, Bedford Hills , where the seating area has
24 been there for years , and the people fight over this ,
25 to make certain they have their seat in the same
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 100
2 location by the shady tree . They want to be there .
3 So I don' t think you' ll be disappointed. I think
4 you' ll be happy there.
5 A well- run pool , by the way,
6 doesn' t have children running around and screaming .
7 Look at a few of the well-run pools . They don' t have
8 this . There are also senior citizen events that can
9 be put on where the senior citizens themselves have
10 control of the property. As for all we older people,
11 you will enjoy it .
12 The warmth of the water, by the
13 way, does get up hot in the summertime . I 've seen it
14 as high as 88 degrees in Pleasantville in the water.
15 As a matter of fact , it gets too warm. So I think
16 you will be happy with the water itself . The water
17 and decoration on Memorial Day will be chilly. But
18 by the time the summer gets here , July 4 , it will be
7
19 warm. I like warm water myself . 82 , 84 degrees are
20 most enjoyable .
21 MR. PANICCIA: I ' m Dan Paniccia,
22 14 Wilma Road. My question relates to the
23 construction cost estimate . After reviewing the
24 estimate myself with several contractors , the
25 following is a list of items we believe have not been
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 101
2 included, but are necessary: Site security and
3 cleanup; a construction field office ; cost of
4 surveying and a surveyor; toilet rental ; soil tests ;
5 blasting. In fact , I ' ve got some photos of exposed
6 rockledge on the site. They are not very good
7 photos , but it clearly shows , photo number one and
8 number two, that ledge does exist in the area where
9 the pool will be located . Now, obviously we have no
10 idea how extensive that ledge is at this point .
11 Also, the sinkholes that were
12 alluded to earlier at the lower section of the park
13 were caused by a previous foundation which a building
14 had been demolished several years ago. Part of the
15 foundation still exist . In fact , photo number three
16 is of an exposed underground storage tank which now
17 is ekposed - - it used to be underground - - in the
18 parking lot area . I don' t know what type of tank is .
19 It could be oil . It could be anything . Again,
20 there' s subsurface conditions and hazards which we
21 don' t fully understand .
22 Utility-select fill , which is
23 required by Con Edison for all the utility work, was
24 not included. The gas service and the piping
25 apparently was not included. Erosion control .
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 102
2 Topsoil and landscaping. We are a tree village,
3 after all , and I 'm sure we would plant trees and .
4 other landscaping materials there . Also, blasting
5 monitoring, which would be required on a daily basis .
6 The following items are included,
7 but I believe have been underestimated: The clearing
8 and grubbing costs . The paved parking lot surely
9 would be required in this village, with concrete
10 curbs, proper drainage, and pole lighting, all of
11 which is expensive . The access road costs are
12 understated. The areas of sod and seed I think have
13 been undercalculated. We want to utilize this
14 facility as quickly as possible, and unless you put
15 an extensive amount of sod down, you can' t do that .
16 Also, the site sewer and water costs are low, and the
17 lighting for the parking lot , as mentioned earlier.
18 We've put together an alternate
19 cost estimate . Ken, which if you could bring it up
20 to the Mayor. The total is approximately $3 . 6
21 million, including these other items . I submit a
22 copy to the Board as alternate information for
23 consideration. But I believe all of these items
24 should be fully covered by the pool committee if
25 we' re to believe these numbers . Thank you very much .
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 103
2 MR. FILPOWSKI : Since November
3 when we presented our study to the Village Board, . we
4 have made ourselves available to everyone in this
5 village, going back to other board meetings in
6 February, going back in March. Never once was any of
7 this shared with us, in terms of , "Frank, I think
8 your figures are off . " . If somebody wants to keep
9 them to themselves and them come out here tonight - -
10 look, our credibility stands . There can be other
11 ways to do it . But he' ll deal very specifically with
12 the allegations .
13 MR. RAFAELLI : We put these cost
14 estimates together from a number of sources . Of
15 course , you have many pools, and our - - means for
16 example the Estimate Guide, which people use , get
17 theik information from me for their pools .
18 I would like to say that I look at
19 a lot of things with gut reaction. I have to listen
20 to specifics . And when I get done with all the
21 specifics , adding it all up, I have to feel that the
22 number is right . First of all , I' ll say that I feel
23 that the number we have there is right .
24 Let me go to some of the other
25 items . Those items which the gentleman mentioned are
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
104
2 included within this . We have demolition. We have
3 site toilets as part - - to be part of the temporary
4 facilities . We can go down this list item by item.
5 These have been included . They are part of our
6 estimate . We have sod and seed as all part of the
7 landscape or part of the site development . That will
8 go in there . We don' t include exotic bushes . We
9 only include shrubbery. That we leave to the
10 community to do later on .
11 The number for 3 . 6 million would
12 buy you a very handsome pool , a 50 meter size with a
13 very large bathhouse , luxurious surroundings,
14 luxurious patio, luxurious concession area . What it
8
15 would really buy you would be a grand country club .
16 We' re down to the $2 million, which is well within
17 reason. All I can do is really succinctly say that
18 the numbers have been incuded. All these numbers
19 have been included in this statement . Thank you .
20 MR. FILPOWSKI : Again, look:
21 His credentials have been cited to you . They are on
22 file with the village . He has done the job . What ' s
23 been produced for us has nobody' s name , nobody' s
24 signature . It ' s something that' s been put together
25 just to try and do this tonight, in the same way as
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 105
2 the last meeting .
3 $150 , 000 was cited as the need , for
4 an Environmental Impact Study. Way out of line .
5 MS . ROSS : My name is Cindy
6 Ross . I live at 226 Treetop Crescent , and I am
7 against the pool .
8 I have petitions here that are in
9 excess of 640 people . There are other petitions out
10 there that are not in my possession. What my
11 question basically is to the pool committee and Mr .
12 Rafaelli , or whoever would like to answer is : Who is
13 going to use this pool if over 20 percent - - I 'm not
14 sure of the exact number, I think it ' s 23 . 7 , 23 . 9 - -
15 of the population is not going to use this pool , just
16 who is? When you were given the money for this
17 survey, one of my questions is : Why wasn' t some of
18 the money used to survey your own community to find
19 out who is going to use this pool?
20 Also, if these figures of these
21 people are true, that they said they would not join
22 this pool , what are you going do if this pool is
23 built and you cannot get the memberships you need to
24 support it? Will our taxes be raised, or will the
25 pool membership be raised? If the pool membership is
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
i
1
106
W. 2 raised, will that raise it to the point where only
3 the elite can join?
4 Also, what is this going to do to
5 our taxes, in terms of our school taxes , in terms of
6 our property taxes? There' s too many hidden costs
7 here that I don' t think anyone is addressing .
8 So again, my main points are : Why
9 was no survey done to warrant that? What' s going to
10 happen if you can' t get the numbers? Because our
11 numbers here clearly show people don' t want this
12 pool . And I' d like to present these to the Trustees .
13 I 'm sorry that I can' t give you each one, but the
14 toner in our copy machine ran out because there were
15 too many pages .
16 MR. HALEY : I 'm John Haley, 215
17 Betsy Brown Road . There' s a lot questions there to
18 look at .
19 Our population has 7 , 600 people .
20 Our pool expert with 30 years of experience has told
21 us the size we need to accommodate the users here .
22 There will unquestionably be the number of people
23 that want a pool to use it . The 400 - family figure we
24 came up with to cover the $100 , 000 operational costs
25 is a very underestimated figure, based upon what
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
i
1 107
2 happens in virtually every other community in
3 Westchester, most of whom have municipal pools .
4 On the tax issue, the taxes would
5 cost, for the average homeowner with an assessed
6 value of 12 , 300, it would cost right at $40 a year.
7 That ' s a fixed cost to cover the bond cost . That
8 number cannot come up.
9 AUDIENCE : The person who asked
10 the question is not even listening to the answer .
11 MR. HALEY: Is there a reporter
12 outside?
13 Okay. It ' s $40 per year for the
14 average assessed house . For smaller houses in the
15 village which have a lower assessed value of $6 , 000 ,
16 the cost would be approximately $20 . That is not an
17 onerous amount . That figure stops after the bond is
18 paid off in 20 years . It cannot go up . It must stay
19 the same every year. Some people wonder why it
20 wouldn' t go up in future years . Because the costs of
21 the bond are fixed.
22 As for the pool membership, it
23 would cover the operation costs . It would not come
24 out of tax money. The people using the pool would
25 pay the costs . That ' s the fair way to do it .
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 108
2 Incidentally, we pay all kinds of
3 taxes in the village; village tax is just one of .
4 them. We pay other taxes , such as school tax.
5 There' s been a good deal of confusion we 've heard
6 reflected back about the school taxes . That ' s a
7 totally independent taxing authority . It has nothing
9
8 do with our village taxes . The tax here would be
9 strictly in the village tax. It doesn' t take away
10 from anybody else . It ' s a totally independent tax.
11 The village could certainly pay
12 for a walking survey to survey all the people in the
13 village . Port Chester did one like that some time
14 back . The cost is great . It can be as expensive as
15 20 or $30 , 000 to do that sort of survey. We chose
16 not to do a mail - in survey because of the very low
17 turnout, such has been experienced by the Rye Hill
18 Community Association survey . 186 responses is not
19 very impressive . It ' s difficult to design such a
20 survey, and it doesn' t show you anything . More
21 importantly, people don' t know how to respond to a
22 survey when they don' t have information. It was much
23 more important to get our consultant on board to
24 learn what we needed and where the location might be
25 and what the cost might be, and we strongly feel that
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
i
1 109
2 the survey should be done in a village referendum.
3 Thank you.
4 MR. VERNON: Mr. Mayor, Board of
5 Trustees, gentlemen. May name is Allen Vernon. I
6 live at number 4 Lee Lane . And as one gentleman who
7 is for this project reminded me, I represent only the
8 majority of the residents of the Rye Hills Rye Brook
9 Homeowner' s Association.
10 My question this evening is to Mr.
11 Rafaelli; to Mr. Rafaelli because he is from outside
12 of our village . So we ' re concerned here with things
13 that he may not be quite so familiar with. My
14 question concerns our village priorities . Mr.
15 Rafaelli , if I were to present you with a village
16 that is , one, 10-years old; two, rents it' s fire
17 department from a neighboring village; three , rents
18 its offices , its village offices ; four, rents its
19 sanitation and carting; five, needs more space for
20 leaf composting as required by law; six, needs
21 additional space for winter road salt and chemical
22 storage; seven, could use - - and especially in view
23 of your project - - additional police force; eight,
24 receives requests for tax reassessment by its major
25 corporate inhabitants; nine, is suffering from the
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
i
1 110
2 national economy, with the worst recession in 50
3 years ; all of the above, Mr. Rafaelli, impacting on
4 the quality of our life for the entire village, where
5 would you place a pool complex in this order of
6 priorities? And I ' d like you to address my poster .
7 MR. RAFAELLI : I think best to
8 answer your question perhaps with a question . What
9 value do you put on your quality of life in this
10 village? You have most of your bases covered. You
it don' t have renting a pool in this list . A pool is
12 important to your quality of life . It ' s important to
13 your children. It ' s important for everyone to have a
14 focal meeting point . It ' s important , almost as
15 important as the school system, to teach your
16 children. I think it' s very important . I think you
17 need` a pool .
18 MR. FILPOWSKI : It was unfair
19 to ask him about what our community needs , because he
20 doesn' t live here .
21 I ' d like some more time if you' re
22 going to do that . Is my time going to be used up for
23 heckling?
24 MR. MAYOR: Let ' s see how it
25 goes, Frank.
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
i
1 111
2 AUDIENCE : It ' s a free country.
3 MR. FILPOWSKI : I think so, too .
4 I also think it ' s a free country. Listen, I 've
5 been - -
6 MR. MAYOR : I will not allow
7 this meeting to get out of order . If this continues ,
8 we will close this hearing . Everybody has a right to
9 speak. Now hear him.
10 I need order to proceed.
11 MR . FILPOWSKI : Thank you .
12 Listen, our committee did not in
13 any way study any of those other issues . Our
14 committee studied the thought of having a municipal
15 pool for this community; a place where we could meet
16 and share experiences with our neighbors . I have
17 found that living in this community, the times that
18 I'm brought together with my neighbors and other
19 members of the community are sports events , and
20 primarily all sports events, or getting involved with
21 the Village Board and other areas . But the thing is ,
22 it ' s a very, very limited sense of getting together.
23 You need to start somewhere . That ' s what I feel .
24 But look, we' re here to say, "This
25 is what we think . Let' s find out . " Does this
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 112
2 village want to look ahead and find something for
1
3 their children to do in the summertime? Mr. Vernon,
4 I think, ended up with 21 points in your comments the
5 other day. Today, dealing only with what you brought
6 up, were not any of the issues we dealt with. Let
7 the Village Board find other committees to ask those
8 questions or to work with us if they want to use our
9 property in the village to benefit everybody .
10 MR. SCHILLER: My name is Harvey
11 Schiller . I live at 26 Meadowlark Road. I spoke at
12 the previous meeting as a swimmer against the pool .
13 I still feel that way, and I question - - I 've got a
14 lot of questions , but I ' ll limit myself to one
15 question regarding the homework that was done by this
16 committee . They talk about one, two , three or four
17 pools. What consideration was given to the most
18 important thing, which was the water that ' s required
19 to fill these pools?
20 I spoke with the chief engineer of
21 the water company that is responsible - - that would
22 be responsible for supplying the water to this
23 complex. He informed we that this is the first that
24 he ' s heard of a plan for a pool in this area . He
25 further told me from the basic figures that I gave
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 113
2 him that it would require approximately 500 , 000
3 gallons of water to fill these pools . We' re in a era
4 of extreme drought . Water has become very precious
5 to us in this area . We do not have any way of
6 wasting water to the extent of unnecessary usage .
7 The area that they plan to build
8 the pool happens to be one of the highest areas in
9 Rye Brook. I happen to live at one of the lowest, at
10 Meadowlark. To pump the water into my area, it
11 requires a tremendous amount of pressure that would
12 go through the pipes to raise it into the higher
13 area . The Public Service Commission sets a standard
14 of 42 pounds per square inch in order to maintain a
15 proper pressure in this area. At my house, in order
16 to get the pressure up to North Ridge Street , I'm
17 getting 110 pounds per square inch, which is a
18 dangerous condition to my house . The water company
19 tells me I should have a pressure reducing valve to
20 avoid a bursted pipe . If we have to pump water to
21 the height of one of the highest areas , the water
22 company says it would require additional pumping
23 facilities , which would be a tremendous additional
24 cost to the village . I strongly suggest that we
25 forget about this unnecessary expense of a pool .
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 114
2 Thank you.
3 MR. HALEY : That issue is very,
4 very easy to answer. His estimate of about 500 , 000
5 gallons is roughly correct . The cost of that water
6 is in the range of $1, 500 . You don' t have running
7 water in a swimming pool . You fill the pools up . if
8 you put a winter cover over the pool - - many, many
9 municipalities don' t even drain the pools . The water
10 stays there indefinitely. It stays clean. The only
11 problem is algae growth in the water, which the
12 covers take care of . Many other facilities do change
13 the water once a year. That ' s what you do .
14 There' s no pumping water at all .
15 There' s lots of water there . There was a house up
16 there . There' s water at Crawford. Anybody who has
I
17 taken` a drink at Crawford Park knows there ' s plenty
18 of water there . You don' t have to rebuild a pumping
19 facility . You don' t have to fill the pool up in a
20 matter of an hour. You can take however much time it
21 need to do it .
22 In an area where we' re trying to
23 conserve water, the pool is not wasteful of water,
24 nor is it expensive to fill the pool . Incidentally,
25 since the water is kept on site in the pools and
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
i
1 115
2 maintained there , you also conserve it . It' s there .
3 You don' t waste it .
4 MR. KRAUSMAN: I just want to
5 add one other thing, and that has to do with the
6 nature of the surveys and the information that ' s
7 gathered .
8 The format for a public hearing is
9 not the format for individuals to present the
10 information that they have independently provided.
11 Anybody can make any presentation and can make any
12 numbers work. I think it ' s up to the Trustees to sit
13 down and meet with us and any other member of the
14 community that has got that information so they can
15 make that determination themselves . We spent the
16 past two years researching this thing to the best of
17 our ability. If someone can sit down with us and
11
18 with the Board and present us with different numbers
19 that we can verify and validate, that ' s fine . But to
20 stand up here and use numbers and hearsay and rumor
21 and so forth that other people have said, it ' s not
22 right and it ' s not fair. If you' ll sit down with us
23 and the other members of the Trustees , and we can sit
24 down and verify it . No problem.
25 MR. POTTAN: My name is Richard
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 116
2 Pohan (ph) . I agree with the gentleman before on the
3 priorities in this village . But anyhow, I was
4 comparing the figures given by the pool committee
5 about running the pool . So this afternoon I went to
6 the Y from King Street who has a 50 -acre property
7 with three pools , and I asked them all of the
8 expenses they have over there . If I compare the
9 expenses they have over there with the expenses given
10 by the pool committee, the pool committee is off by
11 at least 50 percent . Based on their experience - -
12 they only have been running the pool for more than
13 ten years - - they have only 160 families over there,
14 while they accept families from all over the place,
15 Rye Brook Port ort Chester, White Plains , et cetera . So
16 their 400 families is also overestimated . If their
17 figures are correct , then membership will be costing
18 at least $500 , if not $750 a season; and I think
19 that ' s unacceptable for our community. And therefore
20 I strongly suggest just to drop this pool effort .
21 Thank you.
22 MR. ZIMMERMAN: My name is Sandy
23 Zimmerman. I live at 10 Holly Lane . I 'm going to
24 turn this over to Larry Rafaelli in one second. Just
25 one point I want to raise : My understanding is on
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 117
2 the King Street Y is that it' s only open after 4 : 00
3 during the week, and on Saturday and Sundays, which
4 definitely limits the number of people who want to
5 use that pool and limits the amount of time kids can
6 use the pool .
7 MR. RAFAELLI : I can' t respond
8 completely to it because I don' t know the particular
9 facility, sir. I do know that the figures that we
10 have put together are numbers that come out of
11 similar pools in this county, such as
12 Hastings-on-Hudson, Mount Kisco, such as Bedford; the
13 ones that I sampled. And these are are the numbers
14 that come back to me . I 'm very conscience of them.
15 I'm very aware of them. I 'm very concerned about
16 them. So the numbers that we have I think are very
17 real .` As a matter of fact , the figures I have are
18 closer to $80 , 000 . $100 , 000 is conservative .
19 MR. RIFKIN: Good evening . My
20 name is Robert Rifkin. I live at 168 Country Ridge
21 Drive, and I 'm in favor of a pool . Listening to the
22 last gentleman talk about the annual cost to a family
23 for joining the pool is really the first time this
24 evening that I 've heard a figure attached to that
25 item. I 've heard many times a figure of $40 for each
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
i
1 11a
2 family who lives in the village for the cost of
3 building a pool , but I haven' t heard a figure
4 attached to how much it would cost to actually belong
5 to the pool . I would like the pool committee to
6 address that .
7 I've also heard a figure of 400
8 families over and over again tonight , and I would
9 like the pool committee to address what they base the
10 number 400 on; if there' s any studies they could cite
11 that would establish that 400 families would belong
12 to this pool . And I would also like to know if 400
13 families did belong to this pool , if the pool would
14 break even. Thank you .
15 MR. RAFAELLI : Of course,
16 anything we come up with is an estimate, it ' s best
17 judgment , my experience over a number of years . The
18 National Parks Service has indicated, and people such
19 as Dr. Milton Gableson who writes about planning of
20 pools, indicate that somewhere between six and eight
21 percent of the community actually do join the pool ,
22 and that perhaps two percent of them show up at any
23 one point in time .
24 Your six to eight percent tallies
25 up to somewhere between 480 to 640 individual
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
i
1 119
2 memberships that would apply . I think a round 400
3 figure number is a reasonable number to be able to
4 base your calculations on. Any one point in time we
5 envision about 160 users appearing on the pool site .
6 These are the national averages .
7 These are averages somewhat representative across the
8 country. They may not be experienced in any any one
9 particular facility, but this is the average . Here
10 in Westchester County we find that the numbers are
11 higher . We found towns like Hastings-on-Hudson, we
12 found towns particularly like Bedford, towns like
13 Mount Kisco with only 8 , 000 people, have a lot more
1
14 people than the national average . I think you' ll
15 experience that here, also .
16 MR . FILPOWSKI : Just in today' s
17 Daily' Item it talks about in Mamaroneck, 4 , 000 users
18 of their municipal facility. I don' t have the
19 figures on how large Mamaroneck actually is . But I
20 can also talk to you about Briarcliff. Manor; and out
21 of the 7 , 000 there , they had 1 , 600 regularly using
22 it . I think it will be there . If this Board wants
23 and if they want us to come forward with people who
24 would support it , then that' s an issue we can get
25 back to them and give them the numbers .
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 120
2 AUDIENCE : Tell us how much it
3 costs to repair the pool . Tell us that .
4 MR. FILPOWSKI : That ' s in the
5 contingency fund that we have in there .
6 MS . LYNCH: My name is Debbie
7 Lynch. I live at 252 Betsy Brown Road. I am in
8 support of the pool , and I think that the majority of
9 people in this room could benefit from the community
10 pool . I think there ' s a lot of misunderstandings
11 about the finances, and I would like the committee to
12 address explaining exactly what it is when you float
13 a bond, and about the cost to the community once the
14 bond is paid .
15 MR. HALEY: There' s two aspects
16 to the financing . The cost to build the pool , which
17 isro erl charged p p y g to the whole ,
villa9 e because the
18 whole village benefits from it in property values and
19 in quality of life factors and every other way . The
20 operational costs , however, should more fairly be
21 born by the people who use the pool .
22 The bottom line on our cost
23 estimate , which we strongly feel is a good, solid
24 number, is the $2 . 1 million. That ' s the number that
25 would be financed. If it were entirely financed by a
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 121
2 bond issue , would cost the average homeowner $40 a
3 year for 20 years . That ' s if your house were
4 assessed at the average amount of 12 , 300 . That
5 number cannot go up . As I said, it' s fixed. If the
6 village has other monies available to it , either from
7 the rec trust fund or there' s a surplus in the budget
8 or any other things that should come to light, they
9 might not need to borrow that entire amount . That ,
10 of course, is a choice to be made by the Village
11 Board.
12 We have on the operational cost
13 their estimation of $100 , 700 . As Larry Rafaelli just
14 said, the actual costs that he based that figure on
15 were more like 80 , 000 . The users that we estimated,
16 just the number of 400 , if you divide that into the
17 100 , 0100 , it comes out to a membership we ' re thinking,
18 family memberships of $250 a year to cover that
19 budget .
20 Once you cover that , all kinds of
21 possibilities are there . We strongly feel that the
22 senior discount for the membership is appropriate .
23 That ' s something for the village to decide later when
24 the pool is there . But also, you could also provide
25 for a user fee, whereby people could pay five or ten
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
�I
1 122
2 dollars or some amount to come use the pool on a
3 daily basis .
4 The cost to float the bond is no
5 more than $10 , 000 . It costs $5 , 000 to get a rating .
6 The other $5 , 000 covers the professional fees
7 involved, which are bond counsel and a financial
8 advisor for our kind of very small municipal bond
9 issue . The interest rate of 6 . 5 is entirely in
10 keeping with what the interest rate is today. Today
11 the New York Times indicates municipal bond rates are
12 6 . 68 . So our number we used has drifted away by . 18 ,
13 whatever it is . That' s the only cost in the bond
14 issue . That ' s it .
15 We talked about the ratings
16 earlier. Our cost would go down if we get a higher
17 rating . The likelihood is good, based upon our good
18 credit rating, that we would get a double= or
19 triple-A rating by Moodys rating service . We had a
20 single-A rating previously on our one bond issue .
21 But the likelihood is - - given our history and our
22 good credit - - that it would be even better if we
23 were to do it this time .
24 MS . LANDAU: My name is Linda
25 Landau, and I am in favor of a pool . Rye Brook is
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 123
2 the first of five communities that I have lived in - -
3 I live on Deer Run in Rye Brook. Rye Brook is the
4 first of five communities I ' ve lived in that does not
5 have a town pool .
6 I have several questions , but first like to
7 thank this committee who, for the past two years , has
8 spent a lot of time and effort representing a number
13
9 of our interests in this community. You've spent a
10 lot of time, and I 've been very pleased with a lot of
11 your answers tonight . Some of the questions I have
i
12 that have not already been answered are : Will the
I
13 pool provide a number of jobs for the youngsters in
14 our community? About how many jobs will it provide?
15 Will the day camp be able to use the pool? We have a
16 fine day camp, and I think it would be a real plus if
17 they could use the pool .
18 Now, I 've heard some numbers
19 thrown around tonight, and this may sound like a
20 sarcastic question, but I would like you to do a
21 simple math computation for me . If the Board has
22 been presented with petitions that show approximately
23 23 percent of the village would not utilize the pool ,
24 I would like to know what percentage that leaves of
25 people in Rye Brook who might utilize the pool .
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 124
2 Thank you.
3 MR. FILPOWSKI : If 23 percent
4 of our population of 7 , 600 were not to use the pool ,
5 I think that leaves quite a few thousand who would
6 use the pool . Does anybody want to do the math? It
7 would be quite a few.
8 But in terms of the day camp in
9 Rye Hills Park, the day camp would get an exceptional
10 benefit from this pool facility. Right now, the
11 Crawford Park facility is used for the day camp, and
12 this being right adjacent, would be a fantastic
13 situation. Also, in terms of both school districts
1
14 could come in to use that , and there could be, for
15 any school events, perhaps an arrangement made with
16 the recreation department for using the facility .
17 Right now there' s a lot of cooperative efforts
18 between the schools and the village .
19 But also, in terms of jobs, right
20 now there' s a problem for getting swimming
21 instructors and lifeguards for our day camp because
22 it ' s a six-week day camp . Most of your lifeguards ,
23 most of your swimmers who want work, want it for the
24 whole summer . So we would benefit by being able to
25 give jobs for the whole summer and get quality people
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 125
2 for our lifeguards and instruction .
3 MS . ROGULL: Marsha Rogull of. 65
4 Talcott Road. There seems to be a lot of
5 misinformation and rumors in the community . I think
6 the question is will this pool be used by residents
7 of surrounding communities , or just the residents of
8 the Village of Rye Brook?
9 MR. HALEY: The intent here is
10 to build a pool for our village, as a village
11 gathering place to meet our village aquatic needs .
12 We have always thought in terms of village . If the
13 people running the pool decided to sell outside
14 memberships to some of the other communities , that' s
15 a possibility. But certainly the thinking is to
16 benefit our own village, Rye Brook .
17 MS . BELZER: Good evening . My
18 name is Sheila Belzer. I live at Four Churchill
19 Road. I am in favor of the pool , but much more than
20 in favor of the pool , I' m really in favor of people
21 listening, because listening is the beginning of
22 anything that sounds like communication. I have two
23 children who go this school , and if they were here
24 this evening and saw this as a representation of a
25 community trying to work out a problem, I would be
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 126
i
2 very embarrassed. I think whether or not we get the
3 pool is just whether or not we get the pool , and how
4 we communicate with each other as a community is
5 really what ' s important . And the pool , if it is a
6 community effort , it would bring people together.
7 What ' s going on in this room just speaks to a lot of
8 that . My question was whether Port Chester residents
9 could use the pool ; and my questions also are what
10 would it do to the environment in the area to have
11 the pool built? Would it in any way hurt the
12 environment? Are there any answers for that? Thank
13 you.
14 MR. HALEY: Just to clarify my
i
15 prior answer if it needs it, we' re talking Village of
16 Rye Brook. When I say "village, " I 'm talking our
17 Village of Rye Brook.
18 AUDIENCE : Residents or
19 homeowners?
20 MR. HALEY: It ' s for residents .
21 There' s no homeowner or apartment . Anyone that' s a
22 resident in our village should be able to use the
23 pool .
24 AUDIENCE: Somebody who lives in
25 Port Chester who owns homes in Rye Brook, can they
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 127
2 use the facility?
3 MR. HALEY: Your question is
4 related to whether - - the lady in the front row
5 interjected a question on whether somebody who lives
6 elsewhere but owns property in Rye Brook could use
7 the pool . That would not be a resident . And the
8 Trustees ultimately decide those kinds of issues .
14
9 But at least that wouldn' t be a village resident ,
10 someone who doesn' t live here .
11 The other question the lady had
12 asked regarding the environmental impact . The
13 environmental impact of a pool is virtually nil . The
I
14 chemicals are not harmful ; they dissipate , evaporate
15 into the air in a number of days . You have to keep
16 putting the chemicals that you use for a pool in
17 because they evaporate . There simply is very little
18 in way of an environmental impact to be concerned
19 with . It' s actually a beautification of the park
20 area to have a pool in it . The trees are certainly
21 going to be maintained . There ' s no problem with
22 shading the pool . It' s a wide, vast , open area where
23 the pools go in full sun .
24 The plan that Mr. Rafaelli is very
25 concerned with is preserving a park- like atmosphere
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 128
i
2 and trees in all his projects . The plan preserves
3 most of the trees in the area. There' s no real air
4 quality problems to be addressed . It' s a very
5 environmentally safe and sound project, and good use
6 of that park area.
7 MR. MOROH : I 'm Ira Moroh .
8 AUDIENCE : Do have a babysitter?
9 MR. MOROH: Yeah; I left my wife
10 home .
it One of the reasons I' m for the
12 pool , as I mentioned last time , because I felt
13 whether you swim or not, it' s a great place for
i
14 recreation, and it ' s a great place to have a meeting
15 place for the village itself , in terms of people
16 coming . Who knows when they get to have a chance to
17 meet people from the other end of the village who we
18 never see . It would be a great opportunity.
19 My question tonight revolves
20 around the fact that it seems to me that there is
21 some interplay between the Rec Commission and the
22 pool committee , and I would like to find out how come
23 we haven' t heard any comments or interjections from
24 anybody possibly from the rec committee, and how does
25 that interplay in the pool , because it seems to me
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 129
2 there' s a component raised tonight , and I' d like to
3 have that addressed.
4 AUDIENCE : I am from the
5 Recreation Commission and on the pool committee .
6 There' s been no report to the Rec Commission yet
7 because it' s up to the Village Board and the public
8 Board; and then the Rec Commission would get the
9 report . So there has been no discussion just that
10 there' s a committee and there has been a study.
11 MR. SCORDINO: Just a few
12 points . I was speaking with someone who lives in
13 Bedford, and that pool is now closed because they
14 can' t get the sufficient help to keep it open. I ' d
15 like to ask - - they keep talking about improving the
16 quality of life . With this recession, we could get a
17 little more for our dollar. But also, a lot of
18 companies are taking a hit, also, and they are
19 cutting back. And the term "layoff " has been
20 floating around a lot of major companies in the area,
21 including mine . When I go to make my contingency
22 plans on what I would do in case I did get laid off ,
23 a pool does not enter into that list .
24 I ' d also like to ask the Board,
25 the village logo is supposed to be a symbol of what
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 130
2 the village stands for . And I ' d like to know if we
3 did create a pool and destroy a park, what the cost
4 would be in changing our logo from "Tree City,
5 U. S .A. , " to a picture of a pool and "Pool City,
6 U. S .A. " ?
7 I ' d also like to ask the Board and
8 the pool committee members , if I can' t afford the
9 membership, and say a pool gets set up, and my son' s
10 friends are going, and he says "Daddy, I ' d like to go
11 to the pool , " I ' m going have to say, " I ' m sorry, son,
12 I can' t afford to use the pool . " There' s something
13 wrong there, using government money and not giving
14 everyone in the village who pays taxes full access .
ii
15 MR. LEVINSON: Paul Levinson.
16 Now, the gentleman who just spoke - - if one starts to
17 talk about honesty and communication, let' s lay the
18 cards on the table . The gentleman who just spoke
19 lives in a house abutting Rye Hills Park . We have
20 done some - -
21 MR. MAYOR: I won' t tolerate
22 this . There ' s no cross conversation.
23 MR. LEVINSON: In terms of
24 affording the pool . If everybody waving signs joined
25 the pool , it would drive the cost down and it would
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 131
2 cost $100 a family. That ' s simple mathematics .
3 In terms of waving of the signs
15
4 here , if those of you want to exercise your vocal
5 cords and your first amendment rights want to stand
6 up, how many of you live in the Arbors? How many of
7 you live in Rye Brook area? And how many of you live
8 in the rest of the community? Let ' s hear now. How
9 about Rye Hills?
10 AUDIENCE : Why?
11 MR. MAYOR : There ' s a lot of
12 emotion in this room. This meeting is on a
13 borderline of being adjourned. I will not tolerate
14 this . I ' d like to point out for everyone' s
15 information in here, we' re all neighbors in this
16 roam, and we should respect one another; and that
17 means allow people to speak and be listened to .
18 MR. RAFAELLI : Sir, I spoke with
19 the Director of Recreation of Bedford just two days
20 ago, and I know of no pool being closed.
21 MR. SCORDINO: I talked to a
22 resident .
23 MR. RAFAELLI : I ' ve never known
24 the pool to be closed at any time in the township .
25 With regard to the park, we hope
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 132
2 it will enhance the park . As I walked through there
3 today I noticed a good bit of debris . There were
4 branches , there were cuttings . So this would be all
5 cleaned up and we would really enhance it so I think
6 you can wave your flag a little higher with respect
7 to the park.
8 With respect to actually not being
9 able to afford it, many communities make adjustments
10 for people who can' t afford to go in there .
11 Princeton Pool , many years ago they had a program
12 whereby you can walk in there and tell them that you
13 can' t afford it, and they will adjust a price that
14 will suit your budget . It ' s something that can be
15 considered by the Board.
16 MR. MAYOR : Return to your seat
17 or go to the end of the line .
18 MR. SCORDINO : He attacks me
19 personally. I attacked no one personally.
20 MR. MAYOR : Sir, we have rules
21 to abide by this evening .
22 MS . SHAKER: May name is Linda
23 Shaker, and I live at 22 Bayberry Lane , which is part
24 of the Arbors . I don' t think that has anything to do
25 with whether you want a pool or you do not want a
INDRPENDENT REPOPTERS
1 133
2 pool . But I think we' re being asked here whether we
3 do or we don' t , and it seems the majority does not
4 want the pool . There are three rows of people who
5 are clapping and in favor of this pool , and the rest
6 are seemingly against it .
7 I already paid for the use of a
8 pool . I moved into the Arbors , and one of the
9 reasons was because there was a pool . And I keep
10 hearing, " It ' s only $40 . It ' s only going to be $40 . "
11 But every time you turn around someone ' s saying " It' s
12 only $20 , $30 , $40 . " But after a while, that all
13 adds up. And I really feel we' re being taxed to
14 death, and I want to know when it ' s going to end?
15 MR. FILPOWSKI : If my
16 calculations are correct , I think for the Arbors they
17 are below the $40 amount in terms of the assessment
18 and how much it would apply to them on our average .
19 But totally aside from that , the Arbors, for it' s 250
20 units, is still part of this village , in the same way
21 that Rye Hills is also part of the village . And this
22 would be a benefit for everyone . So in terms of
23 moving into the Arbors , yes, the Arbors has its pool ;
24 Avon Circle; Talcott Woods . But there are people
25 from all of those areas that also want the pool very,
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 134
2 very specifically.
3 Now again, if this Board were to
4 decide, "Listen. Let ' s eliminate one of the pools , "
5 all right . If they want to put that kind of program,
6 then for the Arbors you' re talking about possibly
7 about $20 a year . Now I 'm not going to say "only $20
8 a year," because you just told me you don' t want to
9 hear it mentioned that way. But again, $20 a year
10 for 20 years I think is very, very low to be able to
11 give this community a great benefit .
12 Again, there are a lot of
13 communities , Pleasantville , Briarcliff Manor, okay,
14 they all have pools . Why can' t we get in there?
15 About two years ago the Gannett paper had an
16 editorial about Irvington trying to get into the 20th
17 century in terms of having a pool . It does have some
18 foresight .
19 MR. . FLORIO: My name is Tom
20 Florio . I live on Windsor Road. I ' ve been a
21 resident of this community all my life . I was born
22 in Port Chester, and proud of it .
23 My first question is to Mr.
24 Rafaelli . On your report on page 43 you state , "The
25 paved lot is preferable to the extent that it will
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 135
2 reduce the dust, and can be striped to delineate each
3 space" ; which I agree with you . In your cost
4 breakdown you have a paving lot gravel . You don' t
5 mention anything about the binder course . You don' t
6 mention anything about the top course . If your
7 gravel - - I'm taking your own figures - - the estimate
8 is 40 , 000 square feet at $1 a square foot . Your
9 binder costs are similar to that , which is 40 , 000
10 more dollars . Your top course is the same thing,
11 same price, 40 more thousand dollars . I keep hearing
12 about a contingency fund. How deep is this
13 contingency fund?
14 Now I want to go back to the bond
15 issue . All I hear about is $2 . 1 million. $2 . 1
16 million. $40 based on $40 a year for taxes . Are you
17 going to get this money for free? I have figured out
18 at 6 . 5 , six and a half percent , borrowing $2 . 1
19 million over a period of 20 years , the interest costs
20 I have figured out is 1 . 4 million, 1 , 430 , 000 plus
21 some dollars , which brings it up to the total cost ,
22 which is always the bottom line that you have to pay.
23 The bottom line, my dear people - - which brings it up
24 to three million five . Then on top of that, you have
25 your - -
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 136
4 2 MR. MAYOR: You 've run out of
3 time .
4 MR. FLORIO: You know, it ' s not
5 fair here tonight . I ' ll tell you why it ' s not fair:
6 It ' s not fair to give the proponents of this pool 20
7 minutes at the beginning of the meeting . It ' s not
8 fair .
9 MR. MAYOR: Mr. Florio, please
10 sir, the time that was alotted you has expired. I
11 would please ask that you either sit down - -
12 AUDIENCE : Can I give the
13 speaker my time?
14 MR. MAYOR: The rules are here
15 and we must abide by the rules . We' re bordering on
16 chaos now, and I will not allow that to happen.
17 MR. FLORIO: All they do is keep
18 talking and talking and taking all the people' s time .
19 And we have to stand up there , for God' s sake, for an
20 hour while you people talk.
21 MR. FILPOWSKI : First of all ,
22 there was every opportunity for everyone who wanted
23 to be on this committee to come forward - - you could
24 have been both for and against - - and try to explore
25 all the issues . But very specifically I 'm going to
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
I
1 137
2 deal with one aspect of Mr . Florio' s question.
3 I don' t know how many of us have
4 mortgages , but any of us who have mortgages at a
5 fixed rate, if you ' re borrowing $200 , 000 to put your
6 house up, you' re going to pay back $350 , 000 or
7 whatever in terms of paying that back, because over
8 the course of time you have to pay the interest . But
9 very, very briefly, that $40 that we ' re talking about
10 for a house assessed at $12 , 300 is real . And that
11 $40 is not going to change . In a house is assessed
12 at $6 , 000 , they' re going to pay $20 a year . And it' s
13 going to cover the cost, even including all that
14 interest that Mr . Florio talked about . All the math
15 has been worked out . We have in this village $66
16 million of assessable property . So you can do the
17 figuring yourself, if you really want to verify it ,
18 but it is verifiable . Here' s Mr . Rafaelli on the
19 other question that he raised.
20 MR. RAFAELLI : Mr . Florio is a
21 tough act to follow. Even the governor of my state
22 is named Florio .
23 Aside from that, Mr . Florio,
24 you' re right , we do have a gravel lot in there .
25 We ' re looking to that for drainage , that ' s one help
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
i
1 138
I
2 there. We would prefer to have it paved. And if
I
3 indeed we don' t use our contingency by the end of
4 job, we' ll pave the lot by the end of the job . But
5 that is not necessary to open the pool . So we look
6 forward to using a gravel lot to begin with. Thank
7 you .
8 The contingency, by the way, is
9 about $180 , 000 . In the past we have not used up our
10 contingencies . And at the end of each project we
11 have gone into the little other things you want ;
12 extended areas put in; you put in things like
13 volleyball courts; we pave areas that weren' t able to
14 be paved . I don' t say that will be the case this
15 time, but I would expect that it would. But I can' t
16 promise.
17 MR. WORRICK : May name is Caesar
17
18 J. Worrick. I live at 16 Beacon Lane, Rye Brook.
19 Lifetime resident .
20 I ' d like to go back to something
21 that Allen Vernon said. We live in a rental
22 community. We established this community ten years
23 ago . We don' t own anything here . We don' t even have
24 a school system that isn' t split . Some of our kids
25 go to school in Pine Brook, and some go to school in
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 139
2 Port Chester. Ridiculous . And all we ' re worried
3 about here is recreation. That ' s all I ' ve ever
4 heard: Recreation . Nonsense . We need things here .
5 We don' t need a pool . We do not need a pool .
6 Also, $3 , 000 - - there ' s a question
7 of $3 , 000 taxpayers' money. When this thing ends ,
8 when we win, we want that money put back in the
9 treasury.
10 MR. ZIMMERMAN: We' re a split
11 community. Maybe we shouldn' t be . It would be nice
12 to be one community together. There are a lot of
13 communities - - before this I lived for ten years in
14 Pleasantville . Pleasantville is also a split
15 community as far as the school system goes . Yet
16 everybody in Pleasantville can get together at the
17 village pool , and they do.
18 I have sat here through three
19 children' s kindergarten enrollments , and listened to
20 Mr. Ponterio . Who I adore ; and Mr . Ponterio stood
21 there and mentioned to us how we should look at the
22 total community. We should teach our children to be
23 human beings , and be active in the total community.
24 We ' re a total community. We ' re the Village of Rye
25 Brook together, we' re not District Four and District
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
I
1 140
2 Five . We' re the Village of Rye Brook. And we at
3 this point do not have one central area to bring us
4 together. And we would love to have one central area
5 to bring us together . We would love to work together
6 with everybody.
7 MR. KRAUSMAN: Obviously there
8 have been a lot of comments made about other things
9 that we can have in this community . I think that
10 with all of the energy and enthusiasm in this room,
11 certainly dozens of committees should be formed in
12 the next week or two talking about all of the
13 different things that people are talking about .
14 Don' t forget, the Village Trustees
15 are here to address your issues . There was enough
16 enthusiasm and interest about one microcosm called a
17 pool; and it was a grass roots issue that came from
18 the people and went to the Board. It was not
19 something that came from the Board and was delgated
20 to us . So if there are other people in the
21 community, other issues that they' d like to bring up,
22 other projects that they' d like to see done, form
23 your own committee , discuss it with the Village
24 Board, and it will happen.
25 MR. VESTACK : My name is Mark
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 141
i
2 Vestack, and I live at 76 Country Ridge Drive in Rye
3 Brook. I've lived in Rye Brook since 1985 , and I
4 lived in Rye City between 1981 and 1985 . I have two
5 little boys , five and a half and seven and a half ,
6 both of them who attend schools in Rye Brook .
7 While we lived in Rye City, my
8 wife and I brought our then 10 -month old baby to the
9 Rye Golf Club to swim in the kiddy pools there .
10 There were three small infant and toddler pools of
11 different sizes and depths . There was also an
12 olympic- size swimming pool , which at one end included
13 an enclosed diving area. Lifeguards were present at
14 each major area. There was also a refreshment stand,
15 a poorly organized, but adequate parking lot , and of
16 course a golf course with a mansion adjacent to the
17 course .
18 The first year in Rye Brook,
19 having no other place . to swim, we joined the Rye Golf
20 Club . It is a 20 -minute drive from our house in Rye
21 Brook. During the last few years we have been
22 refused membership, and we have been told that only
23 Rye City residents would be accommodated. But the
24 last few years my children have been campers at the
25 Purchase Day Camp . Purchase Day Camp is primarily
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
i
1 142
2 for the children of Purchase residents . Each year on
3 the appointed day, members of 80 or more Rye Brook
4 families line up at the Purchase Community House to
5 avoid being closed out . The perk for the families of
6 day campers is the use of the camp pool for a minimal
7 additional cost . It is a lovely setting with a small
8 set of parking lots ; a junior tennis court; junior
9 basketball court ; junior baseball field. You name
10 it . Junior miniature golf . And perhaps the most
11 lovely community house with indoor activities for
12 children that continue throughout the winter, and
13 that provide a yearlong source of income for
14 Purchase . It is also a place where community
15 residents invest their own time and money.
18
16 Indoor pools are fine for the
17 winter. They are heated, and the Rye City YMCA is a
18 clean, pleasant place . I haven' t even gotten
19 athlete' s foot there yet , and we' ve belonged there
20 two years . It ' s a nice place . The kids and even my
21 wife have taken swimming lessons there , and I go
22 there with the boys on some Sundays . But in the
23 summer we need an outdoor pool . No one wants to be
24 indoors around a humid pool during the hot summer
25 months .
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
ii
1 143
2 Fortunately for us this week, one
3 month after we applied, we were notified that we .were
4 among the last families accepted to the Purchase
5 Pool . And we and about 80 other Rye Brook families
6 will be this summer, as last summer, watching our
7 children play joyfully and talking to each other .
8 I have one question which is that
9 we need this pool to have access , and I 'm concerned
10 about the access to it . And as I mentioned before,
11 I'm concerned that with the current plan for access ,
12 we may not have safe access for people who live
13 there . And I ' d like that question assessed and
14 answered at this meeting, if possible; otherwise, at
15 another one .
16 MR. FILPOWSKI : Seven years ago
17 our -Mayor Jack Capsanel (ph) sent a letter to the
18 then supervisor in the Town of Rye , Donald Joffrey,
19 asking for permission to have access to Rye Hills
20 Park through Crawford Park . Now, under the terms of
21 the will , there are certain areas of Crawford Park
22 that can be used for nonoutdoor recreational use, but
23 it ' s got a little complication as to being a
24 municipal use for the Town of Rye . So we have put
25 the question in motion again, because well
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 144
2 everybody said that you cannot do it . We have been
3 studying the will of Edna Crawford and the deed to
4 the Town of Rye to really try and figure out if we
5 can get that other access road . Right now, when the
6 developer of Rye, of Hidden Falls , knew before that
7 whole development was made , that as part of the
8 requirements for a development , he had to put in an
9 access road. That ' s not a private road. That will
10 be dedicated to the Village of Rye Brook, and it ' s
11 built according to specifications that will handle
12 the traffic .
13 But we do have the other question
14 out, because once again, we have put a question to
15 the United Hospital , because under the terms of Edna
16 Crawford' s will , if there' s some problem with using
17 the -park by the Town of Rye for municipal purposes
18 for outdoor recreation, then the property could
19 revert back to being owned, and then used, sold,
20 whatever, by United Hospital . We have tried to put
21 in motion the fact that there is a provision that for
22 municipal purposes , not outdoor recreation, purposes ,
23 the lower portion of Crawford Park - - that ' s the
24 portion along Ridge Street - - can be used. Could be
25 a question that this Village Board could take more to
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 145
2 the task with the Town of Rye .
3 But right now, with the specifications for the
4 road, there is access right through Hidden Falls .
5 And we have an easement privilege also for the
6 village to get in from up through Rye Hills ; but
7 also, there is the question . And we don' t have an
8 answer tonight , except informally. Mr . Sapiello, who
9 is now the Rye Town Supervisor, said that they would
10 probably be opposed to putting an access road in. So
11 I don' t hold hopes of that happening .
12 MS . CHAIM: My name is Charlene
13 Chaim, and I live on 4 Brook Lane in Rye Brook. The
14 brook is not deep enough for our kids to swim in.
15 Brief me - - and one thing I wanted to say, when I
16 moved to Rye Brook I had the idea that it was a nice ,
17 friendly community, which was about eight years ago .
18 And I 've had the experience of even teaching in this
19 school , and afterschoo.l programs . And I 've always
20 liked it here . And tonight I' m just really upset to
21 see that so many people are at odds with each other,
22 when we should be working together to try to do
23 what ' s good for our children. They are the main
24 concern. For us . For our generation. Our children
25 are very important .
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 146
2 The one thing that I can' t really
3 understand is why everyone has to jump at each other
4 when we can' t tryto communicate better. To me a
,
5 good compromise is the best solution to any problem,
19
6 because that way everybody walks away with a little
7 bit of what they want . Maybe not everything of what
8 they want , but a little bit . And what I really want
9 to say is that perhaps we don' t need four pools ; .
10 perhaps we can compromise and have two pools . I also
11 feel that there are a lot of people here tonight that
12 are against it . I know that . But there are a lot of
13 people out there that are for it .
14 AUDIENCE : Where are they?
15 MS . CHAIM: I ' ll tell you where
16 they are . They are home with their children. And
17 I' ll- tell you something else : I would have been here
18 last time and the time before had my husband not
19 worked in New York City; but I just don' t trust
20 anybody with my children .
21 I have one more thing to say: I
22 just took both my children back to Disney World. We
23 went to Epcot; we went to Magic Kingdom. We went all
24 over . But you know what the best part of my
25 children' s day was? The swimming pools .
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
ill
1 147
2 And I 'm sorry if we can' t all be
3 here and we' re so split . But the bottom line is .we
4 have to think about them, and also ourselves . Don' t
5 we all want to get together and be able to be like
6 one big community, happy, and have a place to go to
7 talk to and have friends? Our houses are far apart
8 enough.
9 My question. My question is :
10 Instead of perhaps - - like I said, a compromise is
11 the best solution to any problem, and perhaps maybe
12 we can reconsider. And instead of considering four
13 pools , perhaps we can consider one . Perhaps we can
14 consider having a payment scale so we don' t have to
15 pay the 275 or whatever it is . Perhaps a 2 . 50 charge
16 to get in for each person. But maybe we need to go
17 back to the drawing board. Let' s work together.
18 MS . KAPLOW: Thank you for your
19 input . I 'm Pam Kaplow on the committee . We have
20 given the village a proposal . We have had two major
21 hearings discussing the proposal . My suggestion
22 would be at this point that possibly we can work in
23 small groups , in workshops , and go back and look at
24 the proposal . Everyone seems to have information on
25 facts and figures . We would love to have the input
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
i
1 148
2 from people in the community who have knowledge on
3 building pools . I would like to find out if anybody
4 in this room has ever built a municipal pool .
5 AUDIENCE : We don' t want a pool .
6 MS . KAPLOW: I understand you
7 don' t want a pool . . Do you want a pool , or do you not
8 want the location?
9 AUDIENCE : No pool .
10 MS . KAPLOW: Thank you for your
11 input .
12 We would like to work together
13 with the community; get all of the facts of the
14 community together to work for all the groups : Our
15 senior citizens; our children; our young adults ; our
16 teenagers ; our day camp. All the programs that we
17 have we' d like to have the input from the community
18 to work with our village , with our Rec Commission,
19 with our pool committee, and with our Board members
20 to talk about this situation and bring this situation
21 to a head in the community, and let the entire
22 community, not just 500 people, make that decision .
23 Thank you .
24 MS . KACHINKSKI : Good evening,
25 everybody, Mayor Cresenzi and the Board. My name is
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 149
2 Millie Kachinski , and I live at 49 Roanoke Avenue,
3 Rye Brook. I've been here for 38 years, and I 've
4 seen my area develop into a beautiful little section.
5 The issue here tonight is to pool
6 or not to pool ; and I am totally against it . We are
7 very fortunate to have many beaches and pools
8 available to us . When we wanted, my husband and I
9 decided to .put in our own swimming pool , which we
10 did, and enjoyed for 13 years . If you people really
11 want your pool so badly, I suggest you put your own
12 pool in for your children. And I do hope that you
13 enjoy it . At this stage in the game, being a senior
14 citizen, we do not need, nor do we want the extra
15 burden of these taxes . Thank you.
16 MR . FILPOWSKI : I'm going to
17 deal` with that as a two-part question. Number one , I
18 think the issue was that I ought to put a pool in my
19 backyard. But that' s not what we' re trying to do .
20 If you talk - -
21. MR. MAYOR: Let Mr. Filpowski
22 finish, please . I would like some common courtesy
23 and respect .
24 AUDIENCE : People jump on the
25 podium and they talk all the time . Let the people
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
i
1 150
2 against the wall talk.
3 MR. MAYOR : Mr. Filpowski will
4 be allotted the three minutes to respond . This Board
5 is running this meeting .
20
6 AUDIENCE : He speaks more than
7 anyone .
8 MR. MAYOR: He speaks three
9 minutes . There' s a timekeeper in the front for both
10 the people that are asking questions and the people
11 responding .
12 AUDIENCE : And he gives time
13 more to the person - -
14 MR. MAYOR: He does not , ma' am.
15 He does not .
16 Frank, continue .
17 MR. FILPOWSKI : You used up my
18 time .
19 Very specifically, look, this is
20 not about everybody putting a pool in their backyard .
21 It ' s about trying to bring a community together.
22 That ' s the purpose of this pool .
23 The second point about taxes .
24 Look, this is going to be a fixed cost . There will
25 be a benefit . If your house is assessed at $6 , 000 ,
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 151
2 it ' s going to cost about $20 a year. That ' s what it
3 would cost . That' s not an exorbitant amount of money
4 for the benefit of having a facility to meet and get
5 together . We don' t have any of that in this village ,
6 and it' s about time that we did.
7 But the other thing is , there have
8 been a lot of criticisms about the format, and we get
9 more time than everybody else . Look, I didn' t set
10 the rules, okay. This was what we were told we could
11 have, and we ' re trying to give information about what
12 is there . And this is really a credible situation
13 that can work.
14 MR. ROBINSON: My name is Jerry
15 Robinson. I live at 31 Longledge Drive . I think I
16 ought to clarify something . There seems to a
17 terrible problem with mathematics tonight . The $40
18 average comes to $800 for each family over the 20
19 years . And if we' re going to have $20 , like Mr.
20 Filpowski keeps saying, who are the people that are
21 going to pay 60 to average it out? That ' s going to
22 cost them $1 , 200 . We understand we' re going to live
23 20 years here hopefully. That ' s why we' re here .
24 Secondly, I have to congratulate
25 you. I think you people got caught off guard at the
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 152
2 last meeting. We overwhelmed you with people that
3 were against the pool . This time you got your act
4 together and you' re really well- organized, and I
5 congratulate you . You organized four whole rows of
6 people sitting right here to clap . The rest of the
7 room is totally against it . Don' t you see that? The
8 whole room.
9 And I think we' re having trouble with
10 communication. You' re right . We are . People are
11 not communicating. Peolpe are not listening in this
12 community, and the Town Board apparently - - the
13 Village Board is not listening to the fact that all
14 these people in the room do not want this pool . When
15 are you going to kill it? I suggest we kill it
16 tonight once and for all and stop having committees .
17 Let "s wrap it up . Stop wasting our time and our
18 money. And if we have four rows , can we each get
19 $3 , 000? The whole town is against it . The whole
20 village is against it . Let ' s kill it once and for
21 all .
22 MR . FILPOWSKI : Our committee
23 would very much like the democratic process to be
24 used to let everyone - - now what do we have here, 500
25 people? In the last election there were about 1 , 200
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 153
2 people who voted . 1 , 200 people who voted. How many
3 voters do we have? There are an awful let of them
4 that have not been heard from. We haven' t heard from
5 them even tonight . Okay . That' s the situation.
6 We would like this board to yes ,
7 come to some conclusion. Talk about being caught off
8 guard, it was like one of us was facing a tag team at
9 the last public hearing. There was Rye Hills and
10 there was CAPP . Again, they are also
11 interchangeable . But look, that ' s what we had to
12 deal with. And we' re here tonight to try and let
13 every everybody understand that the costs are fixed,
14 and yes , you have a very, very few houses in Rye
15 Brook that are assessed at $30 , 000 , $32 , 000 . They
16 will pay more . But that ' s the way it all works out .
17 In the same way the corporations that have $26
18 million worth of the assessables in our village are
19 also going to pay a tremendous share of this . But
20 yes , this Village Board can come to a decision, they
21 can make the decision, look, even to to go a
22 different location. We will buy some property . We
23 will put in less in terms of pools . This Village
24 Board can do that, because look, we would like all of
25 the people to make a decision, and that ' s what we
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 154
2 need to have . So I'm with you . Yes , let ' s get a
3 decision, but let ' s do it in the fashion that this
4 board can make a recommendation, say what the bond
5 amount would be, and see if this village will support
1
6 it . I think they will .
7 MR. MAYOR: Mary Ellen, one
8 minute .
9 We have time for Ms . Sullivan and
10 one more speaker this evening, and the time will be
11 up .
12 MS . SULLIVAN: I' ll hurry.
13 I 'm Mary Ellen Sullivan, Betsy
14 Brown Road . I have a question. Out of all of the
15 report here , nowhere is it mentioned that the
16 Westchester County Board of Health, who regulates
17 swimming pool construction in Westchester County, has
18 been notified. Why is that? Why was that not done?
19 That is supposed to be done before voter approval ,
20 according to the Westchester County Board of Health.
21 MR. RAFAELLI : Just briefly,
22 yes, they do have to be advised; but not at this
23 stage . When the drawings are done , when the
24 specifications are done, when the package is
25 complete . We' re in a preliminary stage; a predesign
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
1 155
2 stage . The Westchester County Board of Health does
3 not want to see us at this point in time . They will
4 see it if this goes ahead. They certainly will have
5 to see it and approve it . Incidentally, I 've been
6 dealing with them for the last 20 years . I 'm pretty
7 used to their habits by now.
8 MR. MAYOR : This is the last
9 speaker for tonight .
10 MR. WYMAN: I ' m relatively new
11 to your community, and I appreciate this community
12 very much. And I see good things here . I see energy
13 and I see resources . I have a question, and I have a
14 statement . My first question is : In your figures
15 do you you have a ten-year calculation of what these
16 other pools were throughout Westchester County?
17 That ' s the question.
18 My statement is if there are 640
19 people interested in using the pool , or perhaps 400
20 has been suggested, I think this could be done as a
21 private enterprise within this community, in the
22 sense that if there' s an interest , and the interest
23 is by people who are interested in the pool , but not
24 in the sense of a public pool . I am interested in
25 the pool , but not in the sense of public funds , but
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
I
1 156
2 in the sense of a pool for the community, for people
3 who wish to join it; who wish to come together and
4 join it . With regard to the fact that it is public
5 funds , there seems to be enough interest for the pool
6 that we can do it with private funds with those kind
7 of numbers . Your own numbers of how many people are
8 interested in it reflect that . Not the community.
9 We don' t need a referendum.
10 I want to apologize for not being
11 on the committee and criticizing it . My name is
12 Stephen Wyman. I live at 3 Jennifer Lane . I would
13 go on this committee in that regard, in regard that
14 we do this as a private enterprise . There are many,
15 many people that are more sophisticated in business
16 than myself . I think maybe people who would like to
17 come together could come together; and the people who
18 feel they can' t afford it, or don' t have the taste
19 for it , then - - I think that ' s a concept . Thank you
20 very much.
21 MR . FILPOWSKI : We ' re basically
22 trying to get a project for the whole community and
23 for everybody to come together . We' re not looking
24 for the type of club that ' s been referred to . We
25 really want to make it a municipal project .
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
i
1 157
2 Thank you for coming .
3 AUDIENCE : What about the ten-
4 year figures he asked you about?
5 MR. MAYOR : May I have a motion,
6 please, to close the hearing?
7 MS . DALY: I make a motion.
8 MR. MAYOR : Mr. Zuckerman?
9 MR. ZUCKERMAN: Aye .
10 MR. MAYOR : Mr. Pellino?
11 MR. PELLINO: Aye .
12 MR. MAYOR: Ms . Daly?
13 MS . DALY: Aye .
14 MR. MAYOR: Mr. Solomon?
15 MR. SOLOMON: Aye .
16 MR. MAYOR: Thank you very much .
17 The hearing is closed. Thank you. Have a good
18 night .
19 (Hearing concluded)
20
21
22
23
24
25
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS
158
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
my hand this 19th day of May, 1992 .
INDEPENDENT REPORTERS