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לאוסוט קען קרית יואל וועגן פרידאם געזעטץ

6 פאסטס אין ארכיוו · אשכול #2300826

נאר_פריילך » 25/10/2007 00:27

State lawmaker vows to fight Kiryas Joel over records October 24, 2007 Kiryas Joel – 1:17 p.m. -- Assemblywoman Nancy Calhoun vowed today to take the Village of Kiryas Joel to court over its refusal to respond to requests for public records. Calhoun said she made the Freedom of Information Law requests of the village after she learned of allegations that the village had violated environmental and state rules in building an emergency services building, a women's health center and new school on Bakertown Road. Calhoun, R-Blooming Grove, was seeking storm water plans and inspections of the sites. A longtime critic of the village, Calhoun said she got only a promise that the village was reviewing her request but never actually received any documentation. She said she would file a lawsuit against the village if no other entity would take on the issue.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071024/NEWS/71024007

גוטזאגער » 25/10/2007 01:36

תוקן על ידי - גוטזאגער - 25/10/2007 1:50:30

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גוטזאגער » 25/10/2007 01:44

דא העצט קאלהון קעגן די סטעיט פארן געבן גרענטס פאר קרית יואל

May 12, 2002

Kiryas Joel's deep pockets
In 5 years, village won millions more in grants than cities

   By Chris McKenna
   Times Herald-Record
   cmckenna@th-record.com

   Kiryas Joel – One recent overcast morning, Kiryas Joel leaders gathered on Satmar Drive before a line of arranged backhoes and dump trucks to announce the start of a $1.6 million sidewalk repair project in the village.
   Mayor Abraham Wieder stood at a lectern in the street and gave a speech explaining the importance of sidewalks for a Hasidic community that bustles with pedestrians. And he made sure to thank Gov. George Pataki and state Sen. William Larkin Jr. for helping deliver $1.3 million in state grants to cover most of the cost.
   "For us, this is a means of daily life, and it is very important," Wieder said.
   Over the years, Kiryas Joel has been quite successful at demonstrating its needs to those in government who can help. A Times Herald-Record study has found that the village received almost $15 million in federal and state grants over the last five years – millions more than Middletown and Newburgh, cities twice the size of Kiryas Joel.
   The village of 13,000 people took in almost $6 million more than Newburgh from 1997 to 2001 and over $9 million more than Middletown during that period, according to figures the Record obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
   The total grant amounts for five Orange County municipalities with low median household incomes were: Kiryas Joel, $14.9 million; Port Jervis, $10.8 million; Newburgh, $9 million; Middletown, $5.7 million; and Walden, $792,015.
   Kiryas Joel leaders say they've done well getting grants partly because income levels in their village are far below those in most places. Also, since their rapidly growing village was incorporated only 25 years ago, they simply have many urgent infrastructure projects that need funding, they say.
   "None of them are luxury items," Wieder said in an interview. "They are needed almost on an emergency basis." He added: "We can only tax the people so much."
   But for Kiryas Joel critics, the figures confirm their suspicion that the village's bloc vote – the tendency of its residents to vote for public officials their leaders endorse – wins it grants and other favors from state and federal politicians.
   Middletown Mayor Joseph DeStefano put it bluntly: "They're successful for one reason – their political clout."

   More on the results
   Among the five surveyed communities, Port Jervis also did well, especially for its size. In fact, the city of 9,000 people got more money on a per capita basis than Kiryas Joel.
   Still, much of that city's $10.8 million is accounted for by a single grant – a whopping $8.1 million awarded by the state Environmental Facilities Corp. in 1999 to overhaul Port Jervis' aging water system. Subtracting that amount, the city received a modest $2.7 million during the period in question.
   That same is true, to a lesser extent, of Kiryas Joel. Its sum was boosted by $6.8 million awarded in 1997 and 1998 to build a sewage treatment plant. But even without that money, the village still would have gotten more than much larger Middletown.
   Aside from the money for the sewer plant and sidewalk repairs, Kiryas Joel received the following major grants: $3.8 million for water-system improvements; $1.25 million for a women's center; $750,000 for a slaughterhouse; $400,000 for a business center; $400,000 for homebuyers' assistance; and $195,000 for a park.
   Of the village's $14.9 million in funding, $14 million came from the state, and two grants totaling $900,000 came from the federal government.
   One distinction should be made: Middletown and Newburgh's largest grants were ones they automatically get each year through a formula, without having to apply and compete against other municipalities. They were community development block grants – multipurpose funds from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department.
   In New York state, smaller municipalities like Kiryas Joel and Port Jervis apply competitively for those funds through the Governor's Office for Small Cities. Both have won grants through that office each of the last two years.
   One reason Walden's grant total is relatively low may be that it didn't apply for community development funds between 1997 and 2001.
   For the five years prior to 1997, Walden received $2.2 million in such grants. But it hasn't applied for any since 1996 because it's been unable to use the $600,000 it got that year to create senior citizen housing, said Kerron Barnes, a Walden grant consultant.
   "If you have a project that's started and you haven't spent the money, then they're not going to give you more," Barnes said.
   Not that that has stopped Kiryas Joel. It received back-to-back grants in 2000 and 2001 from the Small Cities Office to build a chicken slaughterhouse and a business center. Construction has not begun on either.

   The sidewalk grant
   In 1999, a committee of Orange County representatives sat down and reviewed local applications for state funding to support "transportation enhancement" projects, such as walking trails and sidewalks. After discussion, they ranked nine projects and sent their list to the Department of Transportation.
   Kiryas Joel's request for $2 million to repair sidewalks ranked eighth. But when the state announced grant recipients in March 2000, the project made the top three. The village was awarded $400,000.
   To state Assemblywoman Nancy Calhoun, this reshuffling of priorities seems curious, especially since the other two projects to get funding were ranked first and second by the county's advisory committee.
   "I would just find it interesting that the first two were approved," said Calhoun, a Blooming Grove Republican whose district includes Kiryas Joel and who has been a critic of the village's leaders.
   Not interesting at all, said Christopher Dunleavy, Orange County's acting planning commissioner. He said the county's project ranking was purely advisory – and subject to change at the state level.
   "It's not shocking or irregular," Dunleavy said. "Basically, we screen and recommend, and they decide," he said.
   Bob Dennision, a DOT regional director, said administrators from several state agencies picked the grant winners, and it was not usual for them to rearrange priorities. He said they weigh numerous factors, including whether a project could get funding through other programs.
   To finance the sidewalk repairs, Kiryas Joel cobbled together the $400,000 grant with two others from the Department of Transportation: one for $800,000, the other for $100,000. The $100,000 grant – drawn from a pot for multimodal transportation projects – was secured by Sen. Larkin, according to Kiryas Joel's village clerk, Gedalye Szegedin.

   The bloc vote
   A look at the lopsided results of some recent elections in Kiryas Joel show what is meant by the village's bloc vote: 2,825-56 for U.S. Rep. Benjamin Gilman in 2000; 2,333-25 for Pataki in 1998; and 1,817-63 for Larkin in 1996, his last contested race.
   Calhoun found herself on the wrong side of the bloc in 2000. In that race, village voters rebuked their critical assemblywoman by throwing 2,547 votes to her Democratic challenger, James Sollami. Calhoun still won by a large margin. (Kiryas Joel will be removed from her district next year under a recent change in district lines.)
   Critics believe the village's ability to deliver a solid bloc of votes to a candidate gives it disproportionate influence in the corridors of power, and not just for getting grants.
   After all, Kiryas Joel has gotten the state Legislature and two governors to repeatedly support its public school district for disabled children, despite court rulings that found the district an unconstitutional violation of the separation of church and state.
   "They know it's important to make the right friends, and they do," DeStefano said.
   He recalled meeting with village leaders in the early 1990s when he was the county's Democratic chairman and being told the village would support candidates who could do two things: win, and support Kiryas Joel once in office.
   "They make no bones about it," he said.
   Gilman and Larkin, both Republicans, did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this article.
   But in a 1999 interview with the Record's editorial board, Gilman bristled when asked if the village received preferential treatment. He said he had written letters supporting Kiryas Joel grant applications, but had done so for many municipalities in his district. And, he added, he couldn't guarantee that Kiryas Joel or any other place would actually get a grant.
   "This is a federal program, and agencies have to make that decision," he said. "It would be inappropriate for anyone to assert that there has been any political involvement."
   Wieder, for his part, expresses frustration at the constant harping on his village's voting habits.
   "Why are we singled out – and it's almost always held against us – for the way we vote?" he asked. "We are trying to put in the best candidates for the village. I don't see what is wrong with that."
   He said the voting had little to do with the village's grant success. One reason the village has gotten funding, he said, is that it was incorporated only 25 years ago and is still building up infrastructure, such as water and sewer systems.
   "We are addressing issues that other villages and towns have taken care of a long time ago," Wieder said.
   Szegedin, the village clerk and main grant writer, said there may also be a simpler reason Kiryas Joel wins grants: it applies. Other communities may not do so as vigorously, even as they bemoan Kiryas Joel's success, he said.
   He put it this way: "You can't win a lottery without buying a ticket

http://archive.recordonline.com/archive/2002/05/12/camgran0.htm

גוטזאגער » 25/10/2007 01:48

די אסעמבלי פרוי איז א דערביטערטער וויסטער שונא פאר קרית יואל פאר לאנגע יארן, און די 90'ציגער יארן האט זי פארטרעטן קרית יואל , און אויסגעטיילט צרות ווען אימער, אבער ביים פארגאנגענעם רידיסטריקטינג, האט גאווערנער פאטאקי צוזאמען מיט די סטעיט לעגיסלעטור ארויסגענומען דעם טאון אוו מאנרא פון איר דיסטריקט, און מען האט פרייער אפגעאטעמט. אבער דער נענסי קאלהון איז נאך אלץ פון די גרעסטע העצערס קעגן קרית יואל אין די געגענט

גוטזאגער » 25/10/2007 01:49

גוטזאגער » 25/10/2007 01:53

פירט אן די מלחמה קעגן דעם פייפליין

August 12, 2004

Calhoun may have found way to block KJ pipe plan

   By Chris McKenna
   Times Herald-Record
   cmckenna@th-record.com

   A state lawmaker hoping to block Kiryas Joel's proposed pipeline to the Catskill Aqueduct yesterday announced finding a "fatal flaw" in the project's environmental review – and grounds for a lawsuit pipeline opponents have been seeking.
   Blooming Grove Assemblywoman Nancy Calhoun said the flaw was that Kiryas Joel switched the pipe route after starting the review – a change she believes was significant enough to have forced the village to start the process over.
   "It's like planning a trip to Florida and going to Michigan," she said. "It's a completely different project."
   Calhoun, who made the announcement after obtaining documents from Kiryas Joel about the initial stages of the environmental study, hopes Orange County or another party will use the discrepancy to challenge the review's validity in state Supreme Court.
   Kiryas Joel officials deny that switching routes during the two-year review was a "fatal flaw," and nobody at the state Department of Environmental Conservation or Department of State would venture a neutral opinion yesterday.
   DEC spokeswoman Wendy Rosenbach said somebody would have to bring a lawsuit to press the issue, since no state agencies enforce compliance with the State Environmental Quality Review Act – the law stipulating how sponsors must evaluate the potential impact of their projects.
   The county is already mulling a suit. County Executive Edward Diana hired an engineering firm this week to see if Kiryas Joel's review met all legal requirements and answered all written concerns. The company is expected to announce its conclusions by Aug. 30.
   Calhoun argues that if Kiryas Joel had started the review over when it decided to route the pipe through Blooming Grove instead of Woodbury – as it initially proposed in 2002 – Blooming Grove could have challenged Kiryas Joel's declaration of itself as the "lead agency."
   "They could have said, 'You're going 8 or 9 miles through our town; we want to be the lead agency,'" she said. "They were never given that opportunity."
   Kiryas Joel Administrator Gedalye Szegedin replied that Blooming Grove would have had no standing to be lead agency. Besides, he said, Kiryas Joel began directly notifying Blooming Grove about the review as early as March 2003 – once the route had changed – and never heard any objections to the lead agency decision.
   Szegedin also said that changing the route didn't warrant a new review because project sponsors don't usually have information that detailed when an environmental study begins.
   "Nobody expects to have detailed, detailed stuff" at that early stage, he said.

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