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July 31, 2004

Firefighting contract is on the rocks

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

Monroe – The village has terminated its long-standing fire contract with neighboring Kiryas Joel after Monroe firefighters raised concerns about how a serious incident recently was handled in Kiryas Joel.
The sudden rift came as the two villages seemed close to an agreement on a new contract and creates uncertainty about fire protection in Kiryas Joel – but no immediate concerns.
Monroe remains on call until Oct. 31, and Kiryas Joel also has its own 4-year-old fire squad to fight fires and respond to accidents and other emergencies.
But what will happen when the Monroe contract ends three months from now is unclear.
Monroe trustees voted unanimously on July 20 to cancel the contract, citing "numerous procedural problems" since Kiryas Joel formed its fire squad and the "inability to come to a safe and satisfactory working relationship."
Monroe fire Chief Jeffrey Mahran said yesterday that his safety concerns got worse on July 14 when two construction workers fell unconscious in a drainage cistern in Kiryas Joel after being overcome by fumes.
A subcontractor and paramedics pulled the workers out with ropes. One recovered that day, but the other is still in a coma.
Mahran said he was upset about how emergency workers handled the incident and sent letters to Monroe Mayor Joseph Mancuso and Orange County Emergency Services Commissioner Walter Koury.
He wouldn't elaborate except to say, "It was not handled in a professional manner."
Kiryas Joel Administrator Gedalye Szegedin said he hadn't heard Mahran's complaints about the July 14 incident and had no idea that contract talks had broken down until Mancuso sent a letter this week.
"We were shocked," he said. "It was completely out of the blue."
He said he and Kiryas Joel Mayor Abraham Wieder spoke to Mancuso yesterday and hope to arrange a meeting with county officials to try to resolve the safety concerns and prepare a new contract with Monroe.
"We definitely want to be good neighbors with Monroe," he said. "They served us well for the last 30 years. I don't think it would serve anyone's interest to sever the relationship now."
Kiryas Joel had been hoping to keep Monroe on contract to answer calls on Saturdays and religious holidays, when its Hasidic firefighters cannot work unless lives are at stake. They would also hire Monroe to fight interior fires, which its own squad isn't qualified to do.
Mancuso couldn't be reached for comment yesterday.
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Orange County to complete review, analyze EIS for aqueduct tap

Orange County has hired an engineering firm to conduct a thorough review of the environmental impact statement for the proposed New York City aqueduct tap in southern Orange County. The county hired Stearns and Wheler of Cazenovia, NY.

''There has been much concern over the past few weeks about the proposal to tap aqueduct in Southern Orange County,'' said Diana.

The county executive said should the review contain substantial deficiencies, the county ''would seriously consider taking legal actions to stop the project from moving forward.''

The Village of Kiryas Joel wants to build a 15-mile pipeline from New Windsor, to supply additional water to the village in the Town of Monroe. Other municipalities and the county oppose that and want the county to take the lead in any regional water project

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Owners want property annexed to Kiryas Joel

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

Residents of 10 homes just outside Kiryas Joel have signed petitions asking that their properties and several chunks of undeveloped land be annexed into the village from the towns of Monroe and Woodbury.
The two petitions covering a total of 184 acres were certified Tuesday by the Orange County Board of Elections but have not yet been submitted to the three municipalities that will have to consider them – Kiryas Joel, Woodbury and Monroe.
The county elections commissioners had to confirm that the 23 people who signed the petitions in early July made up at least 20 percent of the 41 registered voters in the territory proposed for annexation, as required under state law.
The request would bring almost a dozen Hasidic families living on the village outskirts inside its borders, a move that would greatly reduce their property taxes, give them access to central water and sewer service and a closer connection to the Hasidic community.
"Very simple," said Jacob Ferencz, a Forest Road homeowner who signed the petition. "We basically live right next to Kiryas Joel, and I don't see why we should not be in Kiryas Joel."
The move would slash the more than $5,000 in property taxes Ferencz now pays the Monroe-Woodbury School District, a school system his family doesn't use. It also might mean shedding the well and septic system he now relies on, he said.
"I'm 150 yards from their sewer line," Ferencz pointed out.
Some land proposed for annexation would simply square Kiryas Joel's oddly shaped northern border, a vestige of the village's incorporation in 1977 or first annexation in 1983.
"They wanted to get the border of Kiryas Joel to conform to a rational configuration," said Terry Rice, a Suffern lawyer representing the petitioners, yesterday. "We sat down and we came up with a boundary that made sense."
Annexing the larger parcels into Kiryas Joel – where most people live in low-rise apartment buildings – would allow homes to be built there at a much higher density than would be allowed under the zoning codes in Monroe and Woodbury.
That, along with lower taxes, were the main factors for Menachem Gertner, a petitioner who has lived outside of Kiryas Joel on Seven Springs Mountain Road for more than 10 years.
"Down the line, I'd like to build on the property," he said.
It's unclear when the petitions will be submitted. Zigmond Brach, a businessman who signed and helped circulate them, hung up yesterday when reached on his cell phone.
Once the petitions are in, the governing bodies for the three municipalities will hold a joint public hearing to discuss them, Rice said.

August 11, 2004

Outside firm to scrutinize KJpipeline

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

Goshen – Orange County Executive Edward Diana has brought in an outside firm to help decide if the county will challenge the environmental review conducted for Kiryas Joel's proposed 13-mile pipeline to the Catskill Aqueduct.
The county has hired environmental consultants with Stearns & Wheler of Cazenovia to study all documents submitted for the review and see if Kiryas Joel and its consultants met all legal requirements and satisfied all concerns expressed by the county and other parties, officials said.
County officials met yesterday afternoon with Stearns & Wheler representatives to outline the work, which will likely cost $30,000 to $50,000, said Catherine Bartlett, county administrative officer. The company was asked to finish its review by Aug. 30, Bartlett said.
The study is meant to determine whether the complaints that county legislators and others have raised about Kiryas Joel's environmental review in recent weeks have any merit, and if there are "sufficient reasons for proceeding with litigation," Bartlett said.
"It's getting to the bottom of the matter and getting to the truth," she said.
Kiryas Joel Administrator Gedalye Szegedin called the review an unprecedented intrusion into local affairs, but said he was confident it would vindicate the village if conducted with neutrality.
"It's completely unprecedented for county government to second-guess a local government's SEQRA process," Szegedin said, using the acronym for the state law regulating environmental reviews.
He offered to supply any documents Stearns & Wheler needs for its assessment and said he hoped the firm hadn't been given marching orders to find grounds for a lawsuit.
"I strongly believe that they're not going to find any substantive deficiencies," he said.
Roxanne Donnery, a county lawmaker who represents part of Woodbury and has helped lead opposition to the pipeline within the Legislature, cheered Diana's decision yesterday.
"That's good news to me, because I was really bothered that it took him that long to make a decision," she said. "I am sure the people of Woodbury will feel happy that their county executive is looking seriously at that."
County Planning Commissioner David Church, who coordinated the county's response to Kiryas Joel's draft environmental impact statement last year, applauded the move to bring in an outside firm.
"It's an absolutely good idea to get an independent assessment of this work," Church said.

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August 11, 2004

County needs a coordinated response on KJ pipeline

By Roxanne Donnery
and Frank Fornario

When we first brought the resolution against the Kiryas Joel 13 mile aqueduct connection to the county legislature, we were told it was a "local issue, NOT a county issue." We wanted to pass a resolution against the construction of the pipeline, and to support the communities of Woodbury and Blooming Grove that we represent. We are not opposed to planning for the needs of KJ or any other community. We are opposed to passing a project in complete disregard of other peoples' needs.
The Aug. 1 article in the Sunday Record clearly pointed out what those of us at the forefront already knew. The water project could support huge growth – 67,000 people. But the fact is, Kiryas Joel's growth wasn't on the Orange County government's radar screen. No one wanted to touch, let alone hold, that hot potato (stuffed of course with thousands of votes).
KJ is used to unchallenged success (i.e., special school district, federal and state grants). That's why we asked for support from you, the grassroots, the people who care deeply about your communities and your quality of life.
And support us you did! In less than two months, the resolution to stop the pipeline passed 20-1 in the Legislature. We received hundreds of letters and e-mails. More than 150 of you packed the legislative chamber, not just once at the Rules Committee, but again for the general session. In the history of the Legislature there has never been such an outpouring of citizen participation. We were successful because you made your voices heard and we can't thank you enough. Your actions forced the Orange County Legislature to take a position on the future of Orange County. You got our colleagues to listen to you and we thank them for their support.
But we are not finished.
We will be bringing our message to New York City. We need a coordinated county response to the pipeline in the weeks ahead. Your support will be important. We have yet to receive active or strong support for these efforts from the executive branch of government and would welcome that addition in the upcoming weeks. Please write and e-mail the county executive. He did not direct our county commissioner of planning to write a response to Kiryas Joel's Final Environmental Impact Statement. A phone call instead, not a written record, was his response. That's not good enough.
Not addressing the pipeline makes our newly adopted County Comprehensive Plan, our Open Space Plan and our Southeast Orange traffic and land use study a waste of time and money. In this administration, we constantly hear words like regional planning, smart growth, and sustainable growth – all meaningless if we don't deal with the hot potato.

Roxanne Donnery of Highland Falls and Frank Fornario of Chester are Orange County legislators.

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