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GREENBURGH, N.Y. — The Greenburgh Daily Voice accepts signed, original letters to the editor. Letters may be emailed to greenburgh@dailyvoice.com.
To the Editor,
The Town of Greenburgh is currently performing a sham Phase II Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) of 715 Dobbs Ferry Road (aka Frank’s Nursery) for the Game On 365 Sports Bubble Lease. Due to its previous uses, Frank’s Nursery is likely to be contaminated and needs to be closely examined to ensure it’s a safe place for children to play.
Supervisor Feiner himself said “Because the property had been used as a nursery, soil testing needs to take place before any sale of the property or lease of the property is to be agreed.” (Westchester Guardian 3/10/11)
The Town’s environmental engineers, Woodard & Curran, stated in their Phase I study:
“According to historical city directories, the Subject Property was utilized as a nursery since 1971. Nursery activities may have included the application of pesticides and herbicides, and storage of hazardous substances. In addition, the redevelopment of the Site from farmland to a nursery in 1971 and Frank’s Nursery in 1994 may have included the use of deleterious fill material. Therefore, the historic fill and potential pesticide usage represents a potential MATERIAL threat of hazardous and petroleum substances and is designated REC-6.”
“Due to the potential for a material threat of a release to the environment, we recommend a Phase II ESA to investigate …. REC-6. This investigation would include an investigation of soil and/or ground water.”
The Town, in direct contradiction to the above recommendation, has specifically omitted ANY testing of the soil for pesticides, herbicides, hazardous substances and deleterious fill in the scope of their Phase II ESA. They have specifically limited soil testing for the known oil spill - a mere 6 soil borings under the existing boiler room. They are not testing any other location in the remaining seven acres, including the land where the pesticides were used or where the deleterious fill was dumped. An honest Phase II study examining the entire site still needs to take place prior to the land being leased.
It is reprehensible that Supervisor Feiner and Game On 365 would knowingly omit this critical testing so they can move forward with constructing children’s playfields directly onto this untested, likely contaminated soil. They will hold high this sham Phase II study and claim the property is clean when in fact the land has still not been tested and as such will never be remedied. To take such a risk with our children is despicable.
Simon Cohen, of Greenburgh, is president of Burst the Bubble, a local organization formed to protest the town's lease with Game On 365 to build a sports complex on Dobbs Ferry Road.
Comments (2)
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Mr. Cohen is much too refined. Let me put it more directly. Paul Feiner is so committed to the Lease with GameOn that he is willing to sacrifice the children of Greenburgh and elsewhere so that he can "win". Feiner's prestige is on the line and he never admits to being wrong so what does it matter that lives are at stake?
Children are the bread and butter of these indoor and outdoor sports facilities.
Children are dead and dying in nearby Briarcliff because of exposure to contaminated landfill. Here in Greenburgh, at the Frank's site, we have not only a property which has been used for 40 years to disburse chemicals, fertilizers and home to a known oil spill, we have landfill trucked in from White Plains. Most of the damage to the soil occurred before such considerations were an issue and the carcinogenic aftermath was known or even tracked.
We are a lot smarter today.
If anyone watched the Town Board Meeting last Wednesday when this issue raised its ugly head, Feiner hemmed and hawed but let him produce proof to dispute his documented intentions. Viewers, not familiar with how Feiner operates, especially when he is caught in the crosshairs, might want to look at late Spring Town Board Work Sessions when the environmental engineers were requested to find ways to keep the study cost down.
But it is not just Feiner alone, there are four Town Council members who went along with this (and the public face of this tragedy, Town Attorney Tim Lewis) and only now they are backpedalling to avoid the collective guilt -- because they got caught. Kevin Morgan and Ken Jones have chosen to take the less guilty route of pleading ignorance: they never read what Feiner ordered. Diana Juettner, well she never likes to confront Feiner and is willing to do whatever he wants -- witness the Judge in the Fortress Bible decision singling out both Feiner and Juettner for their illegal behaviors. Judgement day (not referencing only the money but also new legal action) is coming. Worst of all is Francis Sheehan, alone among the Council who reads documents, he (coming up for re-election next year) is not about to admit to anything that can be used against him by an opponent: thus he spent his on-camera time attacking the public for not speaking out earlier as though everything appears on the Town website and that it is the Public's responsibility and not the Town Board's to ring the alarm bell.
This is a shameful moment for Greenburgh. Even though the Referendum is meaningless in terms of the final decision (the already filed legal action will determine whether or not the Lease violates the law regarding leasing vs. sale) I urge voters to vote NO" in the Referendum to send a message to Feiner and the Town Board that "we're not going to take it anymore". If having an indoor sports bubble is so important and should the Referendum be defeated and should the Court agree with the Town Board, there is nothing to prevent Feiner from trying it a second time: hopefully thinking about the health of those who will be using it.
Why the Referendum then? So Feiner can say the public wants the Lease and that it is the nasty Judge who is preventing it from happening.
Feiner is exactly as portrayed. Not even when he says "to be honest". Nothing gets in the way of his megalomania. When he acts this way, residents and voters should not be surprised. Paraphrasing George Bernard Shaw: 'if you know someone is crazed, don't be surprised when you see them doing crazed things'.
Hal Samis