Oregon Corners meeting, and you missed it. – February 11, 2009
February – short month, but lots of meetings. I’ll get caught up, but I’ll start with the Oregon Corners meeting, since it dovetails nicely with the North County News article about Peekskill Hollow Road.
I’ll bet you didn’t know there was an Oregon Corners meeting. Hardly anyone did. I looked at the website calendar yesterday, and saw a 5:30 meeting listed – pres/RBA – Oregon Corners. Now I could guess what this meant, but if in the somewhat unlikely event that anyone else did happen to see it, it is somewhat less likely that they would understand it.
In case you don’t read the lohud – Putnam Valley blog (the late breaking news was there first), I won’t keep you in suspense. There was a presentation from a New Jersey planner hired by Putnam County to create a plan for Oregon Corners. Very simple. No pesky public to deal with, no irate business owners, no feedback at all. They consulted the Putnam County Savings Bank, a corner property owner with an application pending before the Planning and Zoning boards, and the Putnam County Highway Department, who has their own plan for Oregon Corners, which they do not care to hear your comments on.
I know people who care about Oregon Corners. I know people who would like their voices to be heard, who deserve that their voices be heard. And if they had known about this meeting, they would have been there.
Since this meeting was a political photo op, I have to assume that the public wasn’t actually wanted. Mr. Tendy talked to the camera, to the planner, and to the pols. Ed Grieff and I were the only outsiders. They talked about “getting the public on board.” Hop to, you public! Rah, rah – no opinions needed.
Ms. Michelle Powers and Ms. Liz Duffy-Rau from Putnam County Planning and Purchasing were present. Someone said they wanted to make it more traffic friendly and pedestrian friendly. A later comment was made that despite 20 years of working on Oregon Corners, she never realized that there was water back there.
Mr. Zutt mentioned that the Putnam County Savings Bank is nearing approval by the Zoning and Planning Boards. I can’t recall a Planning Board public hearing. I don’t know why our volunteer boards bother to show up. Clearly their opinions matter as little as the rest of ours.
So, “their “ plans:
Building out of curbs and sidewalks. You will park in one place, and then walk around the corners to other stores. There will be parallel parking on Oscawana Lake Road on the brook side (he said the creek, but then what does he know) and you can cross the extra lanes of traffic to go to the hardware store. To get to Maria’s, you will be parking in the Big Blue parking lot and crossing a pedestrian bridge to a back entrance. He acknowledged that they have sacrificed a little convenience.
They will be installing rumble strips, which are very noisy, on traffic lanes approaching the corner. I thought we had been told, again, and again, that their use is discouraged. The cut-through to Big Blue will be lined with trees and made to look more like a public road.
Ms. Powers said that communities were asked to participate, and by that I think she means the pols, since I don’t ever recall any of the rest of us being asked.
Now that they have held this great unveiling, this information will be available everywhere. The tape of the performance will be shown, and the plans will be somewhere. Mr. Tendy has vowed to continue destroying the riparian buffer as Spring approaches, ensuring increased runoff into the stream. One need only look at his beautiful wall to understand his vision of the future.
The Super Station will remain with lovely plantings at the corner. The four lanes for the bridge are on the plan.
It is a great and glorious thing, and they are all pleased as punch.
Read the North County News article on Peekskill Hollow Road, and watch this Oregon Corners segment on tv.
DP
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Dr. Powell’s report about the latest “Public be damned” event regarding Peekskill Hollow Road reminded me of other recent insults to the public.
To wit: When elected leaders make statements on important issues, they should be required to back them up. Thus, Rep. Oliverio’s dismissive statement that allegations of lack of transparency in planning the Peekskill Hollow Road project are “nonsense”, and Supervisor Tendy’s statement that the Friends of Peekskill Hollow Road are “politically motivated” in the opposition to the project, should not be allowed to simply hang in the air. These men have an obligation to back up their dismissive comments.
As has been repeatedly pointed out to Mr. Oliverio, by his own political party and others, the growth of this plan to include the road up to Adams Corners was NEVER the topic of public review. The only public hearing ever held concerned work at Oregon Corners. Significantly, what was presented then bears no relation to the current plan. The first time the public had access to the current plan was when the Friends of Peekskill Hollow finally overcame the many obstacles presented by the County to our request for it. It was the Friends of Peekskill Hollow Road who put a copy in the PV Library, not the County, not the Town. The Adams Corners extension came to us as a surprise, even as Mr. Oliverio, who had earlier sworn that “over his dead body” would anything be done to the road which the residents didn’t want, was referring to it as a “done deal”. Additionally, the saga of the stonewalling–by both county and town government–when the Friends of Peekskill Hollow attempted to get the plans is all anyone needs to recall when the issue of transparency comes up! So, “nonsense” the charge of is not. And Mr. Oliverio’s repeating the word won’t make it so. We have the facts to back up our charge. He does not.
As Mr. Cusano’s article made very clear, the plan to widen and straighten Peekskill Hollow Road does NOT have the safety issue on its side. Emergency services personnel are the best observers of that, and both Ms. Keating and Mr. Luongo have given the lie to Mr. Oliverio’s breast beating about safety. Anyone who wants to do their own fact checking should FOIA the records of accidents on Peekskill Hollow Road. The Sherriff’s office is required to produce these records which indicate the number, severity, and circumstances of county accidents. Again, the facts do not back up the supporters of this project.
Mr. Tendy’s charge that the opponents of the project are a “small number ” of “politically motivated” people is equally disingenuous, and he should be held accountable to explain what he means by that. First of all, the Friends of Peekskill Hollow Road does not represent a “small number of people”. We have had over 400 people at all of our meetings. We obtained nearly 500 signatures on our first petition. Is “politically motivated” a code for anyone not in Mr. Tendy’s political party? When it comes to my front yard, my real safety, the character of my town, I don’t think about my party affiliation. Nor, I suspect, does anyone else who lives on this road, or cares about our way of life. Among the hundreds of people who met to protest the original project, and who signed petitions were people of every and no party. Politics has nothing to do with it. Opposition to the project is based on sound reasoning and verifiable facts. Hopefully, Mr. Tendy’s cheap shot will not go unchallenged. Let him present his evidence for political motivation as the rationale for our opposition. It would be refreshing to engage with our representatives in a true dialogue about this important issue, without throwaway lines like “nonsense” and “politically motivated” which are calculated to discourage honest inquiry, to inflame rather than inform. With this kind of shabby history, it’s no wonder the Oregon Corners “meeting” was kept under wraps!
Sincerely,
Dr. Kathleen O’C. Hoekstra