From Save East Greenbush.....

We did it! With the generous support of all of you we have reached our fundraising goal! Our Grand Finale was a smashing success. Our final payment to our lawyer is in the mail, and we are free and clear of our obligations as Save East Greenbush.

We are very grateful to all the individuals and businesses who have donated their time, money, and goods and services, not only for this most recent silent auction and event but throughout the course of our campaign, to save our town from a casino. We truly banded together as a community and have much to show for it. We cannot thank you enough for being the town we all fought so hard to save.

We have some loose ends to tie up (a few of you still need to pick up your silent auction items!), but then we will be able to close the books on this chapter in our Town's history. At the end of April we will be shutting down the Facebook page and the website and officially closing out Save East Greenbush, Inc. We encourage everyone to stay involved! Please go to Town Board meetings. Show up to the County Legislature. Stay informed and connected. In fact, the next East Greenbush Town Board meeting is on April 20 at 7 PM. We'll see you there.

Warmly,

Your Friends and Neighbors of Save East Greenbush

The Final Save East Greenbush Fundraiser

It's been quite the journey. We're coming up on the two year anniversary of the first Town Board resolution to approve a casino in East Greenbush. A lot has changed since then (including the Town Board!). We've worked together to save the town from unwanted development and from back door deals. We have one last bill to pay off as Save East Greenbush. Then we can get on with other good works to further our town's well being.

Meantime, please join us for our final fundraiser on Saturday, March 19 The Elks Club, 683 Columbia Turnpike, East Greenbush
Cocktails at 6 pm (cash bar); Dinner at 7 pm
The SEG Grand Finale will be an evening filled with friends, music, dancing and fun.
Your $50 ticket price includes scrumptious appetizers, gourmet buffet dinner, decadent dessert and of course -- a fabulous Silent Auction! Guests will have an array of auction items from which to choose, including vacations, artwork, vintage items and antiques, jewelry, professional services, gift baskets and much more!
There are 3 ways to purchase your tickets:

• Purchase your tickets online:  http://saveeastgreenbush.nationbuilder.com/seg_grand_finale?utm_campaign=grand_finale&utm_medium=email&utm_source=saveeastgreenbush
• Send a check (payable to Save East Greenbush) to: Save East Greenbush, P.O. Box 115, East Greenbush, NY 12061
• Or, or call Larraine at 518-477-9613 to reserve your tickets

Details coming soon on how to donate items, services, or vacations rentals, etc. for the auction. 

Remember: Save East Greenbush saved East Greenbush.

Let's make this final fundraising event our biggest and best yet! See you in March.

Warmly,
Save East Greenbush
Save East Greenbush
http://saveeastgreenbush.nationbuilder.com/

A Comment that deserves to be a new Post....

The comment below just came in, and I think it should start a new Thread.  We didn't get into this pickle overnight.  It took years of mischief and neglect.  Part of the responsibility lies with the citizenry too, for not paying attention.  Now we have to pay the piper. 


"Mike G has left a new comment on your post "It Was Like David and Goliath......":

Greetings... I can happily say that i participated in voting out the incompetence. I'm just as happy as anyone else when it comes to the potential changes ahead. With that being said can we finally put an end to showering the new supervisor and his team with well deserved praise.

I come here routinely to keep up to date with whats going on. People on here are focusing too much on patting themselves on the back and re-enforcing what a great thing has been accomplished. Now that the election as over and 2 months behind us can we get some sort of real discussions going on regarding the 'painful' tax increase that's hanging over our heads. I for one am very concerned and almost enraged that i will be left holding the bag as a fairly new resident. Depending on how severe the increase i may find myself in a situation where i will have to put the house up for sale and most likely take a pounding on the resale value.

When looking for a new house you set certain criteria(school dist,neighborhood,taxes etc etc) for where you're looking to settle down with your loved ones.Its not a decision most take lightly. This time around i thought I had all my bases covered. Never in my wildest dreams did i consider it necessary to dig down deep into town politics prior to purchasing here. Had i known what i've learned over the past 2 years of living in EG i would have run for the hills.

Im very concerned regarding the language Mr Conway used in the TU article regarding the tax hike. Depending on how great the hike is, I could be forced to lose the home.Trying to make my new mortgage payment may become to hard or just impracticable.

Listen i'm an adult and very realistic. I budgeted and expected taxes to increase over time. That's what they do,they go up. What blindsided me was this impending "hurtful" increase on such a large scale. I would expect out of my new supervisor someone that makes a calculated well thought out decision on how to go about recouping the pile of money owed. I'm positive this is what the residents of EG want and deserve. If the supervisor is not willing to give it the proper attention it deserves on the behalf of his constituents then he is no better than the people we Just pushed out. I know his intentions are indeed in the right place but please don't let your drive and determination cloud your judgement. It would be nice to see this administration stick around for quite a while to get some real work done over the long term. Pleased realize , if you place too many people outside of their comfort zone too quickly you will find yourself alienated and this administration will be 1 and done.

From what i gather certain people are not willing to drop the money on a proper study whats fair. If you're gonna stick me with some monumental bill at least stroke me a little and let me know you at least gave me the time of day and were somewhat concerned about my family's well being.

Good luck and thank you."

It Was Like David and Goliath......

Next Wednesday evening at the Town Board Meeting, the Resolution "inviting" casino developers to Thompson Hill in East Greenbush will be RESCINDED!!!  This last year and a half has been quite an experience and has resulted in a "sea-change" in our little town.  Our community came together and went up against a collection of very powerful, connected, well funded and arrogant elements.  Think about this list of opponents who conspired to dump that "thing" on the Hill without consulting the population.......  Churchill Downs, Feathers and his buddies in Albany, County wheeler-dealers, East Greenbush wheeler-dealers, Morgan Hook and SKDKnickerbocker.  Feel free to add to the list.  Had it not been for a united community effort in education and mobilizing neighbors, putting together the presentation to the Location Board and a brilliant attorney - Jeff Meyer - we'd be getting rolled like that little town in Seneca County.  And a way of life and a bright future would have been lost forever. 

Be sure to attend the Board meeting next Wednesday at 7:00pm and see history made. 

Also, coming on March 12th is what will hopefully be the last Save East Greenbush fundraising event to clean-up the last of the legal bill.  Stay tuned for details.  Dinner, jazz, silent auction.......

Milestones and Watersheds

It's been quite a ride over the last few years. We're coming up on the anniversary of the Casino Location Board deciding to NOT locate a casino in East Greenbush. December 17^th is the date, and we're going to celebrate with a Save East Greenbush party and fundraiser. I'd call that date a milestone. A watershed is the fallout of that decision and the community activity which led up to it – the election of the East Greenbush First majority to the Supe job and the Town Board. Both political machines which had “run” East Greenbush in concert for a long time were turned out to pasture in a landslide. They're still trying to figure out what happened.

Save East Greenbush still has a balance on the legal bill to Meyer and Fuller. They made a great case even in the face of a major “fix” attempted by the players with the Zoning Board. What was important is that the community saw the extent to which the political pressure was exerted. Instead of asking the ZBA attorney for guidance, they asked the Building Inspector for an interpretation of the law. Good Grief.

The citizens of East Greenbush should be abundantly proud of the accomplishments of the last year. Some of the efforts started years ago. But the recent victories are pleasant. Now we have the last bills to pay. (The Players who visited this plague upon us should be contributing, but they won't.) The payoff is that the insider trading which once went on won't happen anymore. No more illegal Plat approvals, no more road paving for insiders…….no more stipends and illegal “incentives.”

The Right Side of History

This last few years with reform efforts, Save East Greenbush and the victory of East Greenbush First has brought back some great feelings and memories from a long time ago. In 1958 I was a High School Junior in Patterson, California. I attended a leadership conference with students from all over the State at Asilomar Conference Center on the Coast. Speakers were Andrew Cordier from the United Nation who addressed the issues of the French Algerian conflict.  (Some of that fallout might have been in Paris last week.)  Martin Luther King, Jr. was there to talk about his experience in the Montgomery Bus boycott. I ran into King in the Recreation Hall and he asked me to shoot a game of pool. He cleaned my clock. In five years he'd be delivering the “I have a dream” speech, and in ten years he'd be killed by an assassin. That brief conversation with MLK was my first real encounter with a “mover of events.” He struck me as an ordinary guy with a vision and a commitment to it.

Six years later, the US Senate was debating the Civil Rights Bill which was introduced when JFK was still alive and in a major conflict with George Wallace. In the Spring of 1964 the debate in the Senate was long. The religious communities in the United States joined to support the passage of the Bill. Protestant, Catholic and Jewish theological students from all over the United States organized an around the clock 27/7 vigil at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington in support of the passage of the Civil Rights Bill. I was there with 5 of my Seminary classmates from Chicago for our “shift” from May 7 to May 9, 1964.

Don Johnson, Alden Johnson, Dave Norling, Dennis Glad, Wes Swanson and Dennis Erickson.  (The Blues Brothers take Washington)

We were also “monitored” by this member of the American Nazi Party. George Lincoln Rockwell also paid an uncomfortable visit during our time on duty. 

The New York times on its front page on April 29, 1964 credited the efforts of the churches and synagogues and the united theological students as influential in the passage of the Bill. When Lyndon Johnson signed it, it was a time of great joy and satisfaction.

The victory of EG 1^st and the efforts of all of those who made that possible brought back some of the joyful feelings that I felt over 50 years ago. I'm proud to have been a part of it.  Ordinary people can do the right thing and be on the right side of history.

Yes Ed, We're not in Kansas

Went to a party tonight - a thank you party for East Greenbush First volunteers.  Met some folks I've never met before.  A house full in a very big house.  What an experience!!  We made some history in this Town.  What was it......49% in a three-way Supe race?  The Reps said that EG1st was "not a factor."  The Dems cannot be quoted.  The machines never saw the people coming.  They believed their own press releases.