This piece by "No East Greenbush Casino" appears on Face Book and deserves and independent Post.
Nice
turnout tonight for the Planning Board presentation. The room was easily
60% or more filled for an event which was, on its face, worthless.
Clough Harbor Associates gave a brief presentation again, a "slightly
refined version" compared to the one given in June. Downsized, in other
words. This one has gardens and ponds on the way in. We heard again that
this was just "the beginning of a long process,"
with ample opportunities to be heard via public hearings in the weeks
and months ahead. We've already seen what that has accomplished-
nothing. But you'll leave feeling better. One of the board members, Mike
Bottillo, recused himself when the casino came up for discussion. After
seeing what happened to the Town Board's Sue Mangold this was probably a
prudent measure.
Channel's 6 and 13 were both there, as was
the crew from J. Strategies, Inc. Some of us actually had a nice
conversation with them after the meeting, a good opportunity to share
thoughts and concerns. Again, probably not significant in the long run,
but still important for them to hear how we feel. Like it or not we are
locked in an embrace till death or the Gaming Commission do us part.
Which brings up the elephant in the room, James Featherstonhaugh. He
was not there tonight but I must confess, shame on me for not
introducing myself at the last meeting. He should probably hear from all
of us, in fact. Maybe think about that at the next meeting. Julie Miner
always makes a point of saying hello at these things, but she knows
some of us by now. Feathers does not, and we should take advantage of
his visits to at least let him know how we feel about his plans. As a
lobbyist himself he will no doubt understand and appreciate that
one-on-one time.
The Town's engineering consultant, Jim
Connors, representing Chazen Engineering ( and hopefully all of us too)
gave a nice summary of the events upcoming in the process. He said he
hoped to have a link on the Town's web site up and running by the end of
the week, a link that will take us to a special site where we can see
everything the Planning Board sees and read everything they hear from
the public at future hearings. It's nice to see an attempt at
transparency after so many months of shadows, rumors and untruths, when
it's too late to change anything.
Chairman Matt Polsinello
closed the meeting out with a reassuring reminder to all that "this
board was meant to be a non-political board...representing citizens."
Does that mean they no longer are? Honestly, were they ever? I would
love to be able to say "yes" to that, but the 1/15/14 rubber stamp
sign-off of the Thompson Way development without Final Plat approval and
after three years of nothing- no resolutions, no meetings, no votes-
well, that makes the non-political thing a bit hard to swallow, because
the Thompson Way development is what forced Sue Mangold into recusal,
and by association Mr. Bottillo, I think. It is also the vehicle by
which a sewer line came up the hill, without which there could be no
casino, a sewer line in litigation for violating another man's property
along a user road, a sewer line ostensibly designed to handle the 23
housing units of Thompson Way but which is actually capable of handling
10,000 gamblers a day. It's in the PDD application. Happy coincidence?
Thompson Way is also at the heart of a special Town Board meeting last
year at this time, a meeting to amend resolution 114-2013 (try to find
it in its original form- the July minutes close with no. 113-2013 and
August picks up with no. 115-2013) so that Thompson Hill Rd could be
paved using mitigation money from FedEx. Yes, the road had been in
terrible shape for years, so why the special meeting? The stated reason:
the Mannix Rd. round-a-bout would be closed for a few days and traffic
would be diverted along Thompson Hill Rd! Now, residents and regular
pass through drivers had been navigating the endless pot holes for
years, but what a wonderful opportunity to use Town money to repair and
pave a road that was actually the Thompson Way developer's
responsibility in many ways. Another happy coincidence. Unravel Thompson
Way, including The Village at Thompson Way LLC (formed in 2008), and
you'll understand how your casino ended up in the unlikeliest of places:
on Thompson Hill Road.
It would be like a miracle if the planning board was an innocent bystander in this ugly plot to turn over this town to Feathers and Co. That is just a dream since one member of the planning board said publicly that this board knew months ago about this plan(way before the first vote). He further stated that this was the greatest thing to ever come to this town. I highly doubt he is the only one who feels this way. I just think he is the only one dumb enough to brag about it.
ReplyDeleteIt would be instructive to take another look at the FOIL'ed meeting notes between Town employees and the Saratoga PR people. They reveal how much was being kept from the public and a bit of the strategy. Note the notes toward the end of the meeting on May 12th....get to Jim C and Matt P to make sure the ducks are lined up. That's why we need to keep an eye on the PB and the ZBA. They may not know that they are viewed "politically," but they are. Here's the link to the notes:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.scribd.com/doc/230268389/East-Greenbush-FOIL-Request-on-Casino-Meetings
The planning and zoning boards are composed of political appointees. In some cases the members are technically qualified to sit on those boards but in other cases they are people who have served the party, stood for election and lost, or previously held official positions for town or party. In some cases, it's a thinly disguised stipend for political services rendered (although there actually is some work required). Anyone who thinks these are independent boards doesn't understand how they are constituted. The best part of the process will be the public hearings and, unlike the town board, there will be some board members who actually hear what we're saying, and we may get some small concessions from the developers. But anyone holding out hope that this casino can be stopped by the planning or zoning board is in for a rude awakening. Assigning these boards lead agency status was the town board's way of avoiding the contentious public hearings while still maintaining control of the decisions.
ReplyDeleteMake no mistake about it, the best of all possible worlds for Feathers and Co. would be to "own" the government in a casino town. Ya think that might be what he's been trying to accomplish here for quite a while now? Our "players" aren't bright enough to see it happening right in front of their noses with their own cooperation. All he had to do was spread a little loose cash and fantasy around to divert their attention.
ReplyDeleteA whole bunch of stuff is just not making sense in this pack of mischief. First, East Greenbush comes nowhere close to the economic distress criteria in the Gaming Commission guidelines. And the Saratoga people have to go to Albany and Troy to "borrow" statistics in their application to try to make the case for East Greenbush as a site. Then you've got the fact that the Town's administration has not done one thing to calculate the real cost of being a "host" community to a casino. Then you've got the real estate questions on Thompson Hill with some of the "players" involved. Then you've got Feathers peeling off $11 million to an Albany nongovernmental entity to induce support from Albany's government, with Langley standing there like "weekend at Bernie's."
ReplyDeleteA whole bunch of stuff just doesn't add up. I wouldn't be surprised if the "boys" told Feathers that the whole thing could be rigged. But it just isn't working out.
I attended the PB mtg on Wed. Did anyone else hear the two Matts moaning and groaning over the massive amount of casino documents that will be coming to them and the huge amount of time and work it will take to review them? Well, I heard them loud and clear and neither one of them looked or sounded to happy about it. So this is the level of excitement and commitment at least two of the board members have for this project. Very disconcerting. Do these PB mbrs have the time it will take to do a thorough review of this project or will they be pressured, bribed or what have you to simply rubberstamp it? Have they ever even reviewed a project of this size before? This is ALL very worrisome.
ReplyDeleteThey mentioned at the meeting there would be an email/list/blog where we could send our questions, comments, opinions. That it would be visible to ALL .. I thought he said the link and address would be on the EG town homesite. I still do not see anything. The only email I see in minutes, agenda ,etc is the secretary's.
ReplyDeleteAnyone have an idea where they might have put it.