“The bedrock geology of the Highlands plays a strong role in the quality and quantity of groundwater. The Highlands are composed of 1 billion year old crystalline [...]]]> In an email to the Trustees of the Village of Tuxedo Park, dated December 15th, 2010, Dr. Alexander Gates, Executive Director from the Highlands Environmental Research Institute writes:

“The bedrock geology of the Highlands plays a strong role in the quality and quantity of groundwater. The Highlands are composed of 1 billion year old crystalline rock that was formed at the base of the highest mountains on Earth. The heat and pressure of their formation eliminated all primary porosity and permeability. These rocks can hold no groundwater except where they contain fractures that formed much later. Normally, groundwater is purified by percolating through the pore spaces in rock and sediment. The water weaves around the mineral grains reacting with them to remove pollutants and squeezing between tight openings between them to remove bacteria and disease. In fractured rock systems, the groundwater flows through open cracks which neither remove pollutants nor bacteria. They work like water pipes in a house. In a case in Ringwood, NJ, a leaking gas station tank resulted in the highest MTBE levels ever measured in a domestic water well that was nearly 1 mile away. Fractures can be oriented in any direction. If there is an extensive network of fractures, groundwater will flow down gradient (slope on the water table). If they are sparse, the water can be directed in virtually any direction, even back under a hill, opposite to the direction of slope. It requires a detailed fracture analysis of an area to determine the direction of groundwater flow.

A recent scientific study that will be published in a professional journal this spring investigated pollution of groundwater around the Sterling Lake mineworks. It was found that several toxic pollutants (chromium, nickel, etc.) were released during mining and smelting operations. It was also found that the top, humus (o-horizon) layer of the soil acted as filter removing the pollutants from infiltrating rain and melt water. As a result, the groundwater is relatively clean in this heavily industrially impacted area. All of the pollutants are contained in the humus layer.

With the combination of removing the humus (pollutant filter) layer of the soil which would occur during development and the unknown orientation and extensiveness of the fracture system of the underlying bedrock, there is a possibility that the groundwater supply in the Tuxedo Lake area could be compromised. The main threats to the supply come from sewage overflow, runoff from roads and landscaping chemicals. Among these chemicals, they can contain disease, dangerous and carcinogenic compounds and compounds that can cause reproductive mutations in wildlife and humans, respectively. Human impact would occur in areas that use private water wells. Runoff of developed areas also typically causes eutrophication of ponds and lakes which kills the fish populations.

Sincerely,

Dr. Alexander Gates

Executive Director

Highlands Environmental Research Institute (HEnRI)

• for more info, go to http://tuxedolandtrust.org/tuxedo-lake

1: The Related Companies has tried to hide the reason for their amendment request: they cannot build according to the 2004 permit because of DEC wetland changes

2: The Tuxedo Town Board has ignored blatant mis-leading statements and [...]]]> Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Go 10 for 10

1: The Related Companies has tried to hide the reason for their amendment request: they cannot build according to the 2004 permit because of DEC wetland changes

2: The Tuxedo Town Board has ignored blatant mis-leading statements and witholding of information by Tuxedo Reserve in their environmental impact analysis;

• including the killing of a threatened species timber rattlesnake on their property while insisting that none are present;

• the claim that a historically significant Revolutionary War Corduroy Road was built in 2004, thereby creating a mis-leading tree ring analysis that was later withdrawn, and possibly engaging in anticipatory demolition;

• and that the largest single family homes had increased by 550 square feet each, or 58,000 square feet in total, enough to accomodate another 2 bedrooms each–or another 2 school children each, without changing their fiscal analysis.

3: The Tuxedo Reserve amendment dramatically decreases the number of single family homes by 12%, increases the number of multi-family homes by 41%, and increases the commercial square footage by 1,000%

4: Independent Fiscal consultants, Camoin Associates, estimates that the Tuxedo Reserve amendment will be tax negative by $2,000,000 annually

5: Town Supervisor, Peter Dolan, did not “readily make available” a DEC letter to the public that stated that no new sewer hook ups are allowed in the Town of Tuxedo as of January 10th, 2010. This letter prevents Tuxedo Reserve from building the first 80 houses as approved in the 2004 building permit.  Did Peter Dolan hide the DEC letter from the public?  And if so, why?

6: If Tuxedo Reserve cannot hook into the Hillburn Sewer Facility in Ramapo, they say they are going to build a new sewer facility in Tuxedo.  Great.  Where is the required hard look by the Tuxedo Town Board?  What is the potential environmental impact on the Ramapo River (1 of only 7 sole source aquifers in New York State and the drinking water for thousands in New York & New Jersey)?

7: The new amendment plans for a significant number of new homes to be built around Mountain Lake, and plans for a multi-tiered 4 lane highway with a median divider to be built up to the Tuxedo Park border. Yet, the Town Board has not asked for any environmental review.

8: Tuxedo Reserve has no viable stormwater plan. We all remember the March, 2010, stormwater flooding that shut down Route 17 and damaged roads and bridges. Tuxedo Reserve’s original stormwater plan was to discharge directly into the Ramapo River. This practice was dis-allowed by the DEC in February, 2010. Tuxedo Reserve’s backup plan is conceptual only, and requires approval from the Rockland County Drainage Agency and the Village of Sloatsburg. Yet, the Tuxedo Town Board is still going to rubber stamp their approval and rely on other agencies to perform the necessary due diligence on the conceptual stormwater plan!

9: The least talked about issue is Traffic. Have you ever tried to exit 15A at 5 pm on Monday through Friday? Cars are bumper to bumper on the highway exit ramp every day. Imagine what will happen if the population of the Town of Tuxedo doubles from 3,000 to 6,000? Our transportation reality is that we are a one road town with mountains on one side, and the Ramapo River/Highway 87 on the other side. Route 17 cannot handle the traffic from a 100% increase in population. Route 17 will become a parking lot.

10: Why has the Tuxedo Town Board blatantly broken the Open Meetings Law? The irony/stupidity of the Robbinsville fiasco is that there was little reason to prevent the public from attending the secret meetings with the developer and town official of Robbinsville. Which begs the question, what more important things are being hidden from the public by the Tuxedo Town Board?

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The Tuxedo Town Board met on Monday evening, August 30th.  There was a large public turn-out to hear Camoin Associates present their Fiscal Analysis of Tuxedo Reserve to the Town Board.  The agenda had 7 items to be addressed, followed by public comments.  The Board was then scheduled to enter Executive Session to [...]]]>

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The Tuxedo Town Board met on Monday evening, August 30th.  There was a large public turn-out to hear Camoin Associates present their Fiscal Analysis of Tuxedo Reserve to the Town Board.  The agenda had 7 items to be addressed, followed by public comments.  The Board was then scheduled to enter Executive Session to discuss a Town Police matter.

In a bizarre break in standard procedure for any Town or Village Board, Town Supervisor Dolan interrupted the schedule after the seventh agenda item, and had the Town Board leave the room for Executive Session before the public comment period.  The public was then forced to wait one hour for the Board to return.  The tactic was obvious and shameless–Dolan was hoping the public would tire and leave.  No one left.

During the public comment period, Town Resident Thomas Wilson approached the Town Clerk table where the audio cassette deck is placed to record the public meeting.  Town Supervisor Dolan tried to intimidate Wilson and force him to return to the far side of the room where his voice would not be recorded as clearly as the Town Board members.  Wilson refused, and asked Dolan “how he could pledge allegiance to the flag behind him and not allow the right to free speech.”

In another bizarre Dolan moment, the Town Supervisor actually stood up, walked towards the Clerk’s table and said he would unplug the tape deck and take it to Wilson’s seat on the other side of the room.  The Town Clerk offered a compromise for Wilson to take three steps back to a chair and ask his questions.  Dolan and the Board finally consented.

Wilson asked the Board if they were going to require an environmental study of Tuxedo Reserve’s newly proposed 4 lane highway to Mountain Lake.  The highway will be 60 feet wide, steep, multi-tiered, and have a median divider.  Dolan replied “no.”

Wilson then asked the Board if they were going to vote on Tuxedo Reserve before Rockland County or Sloatsburg voted on Tuxedo Reserve’s new Stormwater Management “Plan.”  The original plan to discharge into the Ramapo River was denied by the DEC in February, 2010.

…..

(courtesy of tpfyi.com)

Their new plan is conceptual only and no detailed plans have been presented.  Despite FEMA flooding last Spring, and the Board’s responsibility as Lead Agency under SEQRA, Dolan said they would vote on Tuxedo Reserve before Rockland or Sloatsburg voted.  In essence, the Tuxedo Town Board is rubber stamping a “conceptual  only” Stormwater Management Plan!

Dolan further demonstrated his bias for Tuxedo Reserve by waving the Camoin Fiscal Analysis in the air, claiming it was a “fabrication.”

The Camoin analysis from August 6th, states that Tuxedo Reserve:

• Incorrectly accounts for changes to State Aid to Schools;
• Incorrectly accounts for new property tax revenues to the Town, School District & other districts;
• Undercounts School District costs; and
• Overcounts the amount of new sales tax revenue to be received during the years when Project is under development.
• Overstates tax benefits by $2 million per year; project probably tax negative

Their follow up report on August 30th, analyzes:

• Overstatement of Property Tax Revenue from Commercial/Industrial Sources by $300,000 per year
• Calculation of Number of School Aged Children to increase from addition of 58,000 residential square feet; thereby increasing Tuxedo School District costs (not calculated by Tuxedo Reserve)
• Calculation of Residential Assessed Value overstates property tax revenues by $230,000

(see report below)

Saving his most sagacious moment of the evening for an exchange with Michael N’dolo from Camoin Assoicates, Town Supervisor Dolan stated emphatically that $70 is the current figure received by the School District per pupil.

The following day, Camoin Associates visited the New York State Comptroller’s website. The Tuxedo Union Free School District received $1,186,122 in state aid for education in 2008.  In 2008, there were 310 “aidable” pupils, which corresponds to $3,826 per aidable pupil.

Arrogance and ignorance is a dangerous skill set for a Town Supervisor.

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Click on this link to see video statements from Jim Hays, Steve Gross, Thomas Wilson, John Kilduff, John Kwasnicki, and Michael N’dolo

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Catch of the Day

Total Negative Fiscal Impact ~ $2,000,000 annually

click here [...]]]> Developer replicates errors from Original Analysis in Draft FSEIS

click here to go to Fiscal Analysis Page

click to download Camoin Fiscal Analysis

Monday, August 9th~Town Board Fiscal Workshop at Town Hall (5:30 pm?)

“…comment on your statement that the segment “is not part of the 18th-century Continental Road system.” You base your assessment on “construction techniques employed and log diameter.” It may well be that [...]]]> Historian for the Washington-Rochambeau Route National Historic Trail (W3R-NHT), Robert Selig, responds to letter from NYSHPO and Cornell Tree Ring expert:

“…comment on your statement that the segment “is not part of the 18^th-century Continental Road system.” You base your assessment on “construction techniques employed and log diameter.” It may well be that the logs currently in situ are of 19^th-century origin, but that does not, in my opinion, invalidate the strong likely-hood that the roadbed itself where these logs are found today is of 18^th-century origin.

The Continental Road system was a network of roads that expanded considerably during the American War of Independence from its pre-war extend. This expansion was driven by the need to have a set of alternate routes to keep supplies for Washington’s army in New Jersey from falling into British hands. These roads, many of which were surveyed by Robert Erskine and his successor Simeon DeWitt of Ringwood, were known under various names such as “The Secret Road” or “Cannonball Road”.

Their existence and use are well known but can, and should, be further documented by additional research in lesser-used sources such as pension applications. It is particularly in those records that I have lately found information not only on the use of these roads, but also on their location(s): e.g., waggoners occasionally mention even the names of farmers where they stopped on their way to and from New Jersey.

If, as I tend to believe, the existing road section in question is part of the Continental Road, this would create a side-trail of the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail (W3R-NHT) signed into law by President Obama in March 2009. Based upon my research on the roads taken by the Franco-American armies on their way to and from Yorktown in 1781 and 1782 as project historian for the W3R-NHT and as the historian responsible for the 2001 “W3R in New York” survey, I would therefore strongly recommend that some in-depth research be conducted in the Erskine-DeWitt maps, the Timothy Pickering Papers, the McDonald Papers, the Pension Application files and similar resources to accurately identify and delineate the Revolutionary War Continental Road network before this road segment is written off as originating in the 19^th century.”

Below is a letter from the Cornell Tree-Ring Lab, dated July 22nd, 2010

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It is no wonder that the Town of Tuxedo is trying to divert the [...]]]> Why has the Town of Tuxedo Put a Gag Order on their Consultants? Maybe because The Related Companies is overstating school aid by $696,465 per year? That $700,000 annual deficit would have to be subsidized by a School Property Tax Increase!

It is no wonder that the Town of Tuxedo is trying to divert the publics’ attention from the environmental impact of Tuxedo Reserve by hiring consultants to focus on the Fiscal & School Study. The irony is that the The Related Companies has extended their pattern of mis-representation to even the Fiscal & School Study.

In response to Camoin Associates’ previous comments, The Related Companies is essentially saying that state aid formulas are too complex, and that the Applicant should just assume per-pupil state aid will remain the same whether or not the project is built. So, The Related Companies has replicated the fiscal analysis assuming that state aid per pupil remains constant.

Camoin Associates worked on a similar peer review two years ago for the Town of Pine Plains.  As with Tuxedo, the proposed project was a similar housing development that would significantly change the population of the host Town.  The developer commissioned a study into the state aid question titled, “State Aid to the Pine Plains Central School District Projection Methodology,” dated January 11, 2008.  After 25 pages, the study concluded:

• “The preceding analysis clearly indicates that if built, the Carvel Property Development will influence the amount in State Aid that the Pine Plains Central School District would receive on a per-pupil basis.  Specifically, both a second home and comparative primary home scenario would likely lead to a decrease in State Aid, projected to be in the order of approximately $2,400 less in aid per pupil, per year.”

However, the summary continues by saying that some of that decrease may be attributable to other factors including trends in population and wealth happening irrespective of the development.  The analysis then projects that the difference between state aid with the development and without the development is $945 per pupil.  (See Table B.21, Summary of Impacts to State Aid, line “Projected State Aid/Pupil” in the aforementioned document).

So, what could this mean for the Tuxedo School District?  The Tuxedo Reserve project is slated to add 427 pupils to the school districts’ 310 “aidable pupils” (non-resident pupils from Greenwood Lake must be excluded.)  Therefore, total aidable pupils would be 737.

If the Tuxedo project has a similar impact as the Pine Plains project on state aid per pupil, it means that The Related Companies would be overstating school aid by $696,465 per year upon full buildout.  That $700,000 annual deficit would have to be filled by a school property tax levy.

…stay tuned, tomorrow’s post may surprise you…

“Camoin Associates provided certain comments on the DSEIS, two of which are listed as Comment 3-33 and Comment 3-34 of the draft FSEIS. These two comments refer to the [...]]]> Tuxedo Town Attorney directs Town Consultant “not to respond to your inquiry.”  Below is the request from TLT Consultant, Camoin Associates, to Town Consultant, RES Group:

“Camoin Associates provided certain comments on the DSEIS, two of which are listed as Comment 3-33 and Comment 3-34 of the draft FSEIS. These two comments refer to the importance of calculating the impact of the Project on the amount of state aid provided to the school district, particularly with respect to the Combined Wealth Ratio (CWR). We disagreed with the methodology employed in the DSEIS in that it ignored changes to the CWR caused by the Project and thus changes to state aid per pupil. In Responses 3-33 and 3-34, the Related Companies provided various counter arguments and, critically, state that,

“the methodology for calculating state aid, which was established in the FEIS, was re-evaluated by RES and confirmed to be accurate.” (See last sentence of Response 4-34 on page 3.3-27).

However, in your memo to Bonnie Franson titled “Draft Initial Review of Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement” dated March 31, 2010, you state on bullet point 3 that,

“the analysis does not appear to consider the potential impact that Tuxedo Reserve will have on the wealth of the Tuxedo Union Free School District. Since wealth is a factor in determining the amount of State Aid a district receives, please consider its impact.”

Given this confusion, I would ask that you please verify whether or not RES Group in fact agreed with the methodology employed in the DSEIS for the calculation of state aid to the Tuxedo Union Free School District.”

Full correspondence can be seen at http://tuxedolandtrust.org/draft-fseis

Several weeks ago, Tuxedo Supervisor Dolan revealed to the public that he met with Clarkstown Supervisor, Alex Gromack. Gromack is a member of the Rockland County Sewer District which operates the Hillburn Sewer Facility.  Several months ago, the Rockland County Sewer District declared that Tuxedo Reserve cannot hook into the Hillburn Facility.  Yet [...]]]>

Several weeks ago, Tuxedo Supervisor Dolan revealed to the public that he met with Clarkstown Supervisor, Alex Gromack. Gromack is a member of the Rockland County Sewer District which operates the Hillburn Sewer Facility.  Several months ago, the Rockland County Sewer District declared that Tuxedo Reserve cannot hook into the Hillburn Facility.  Yet Dolan wanted to ask Gromack if the issue could be re-visited. 

• Why is Dolan acting on behalf of the Related Companies?

When asked why he met with Gromack at the June 28th Town Board meeting, Dolan essentially replied “none of your business.“  Wrong answer.  As an elected official, it is the public’s business to know why their Town Supervisor is trying to reverse a past Rockland County Sewer decision regarding a developer who has submitted an application  for him to currently vote on.

At a Tuxedo Town Board meeting two weeks ago, Dolan promised the public that they would be provided an un-edited copy of the “independent” fiscal study that is still unfinished after six months.  Somehow the Related Companies obtained a copy before the public and incorporated it into their Draft Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement.  This FSEIS was submitted to the town on Thursday, June 24th, and appears on the town website.  Yet Dolan claims that the “independent” study is still not complete and not available for public review, unless you look at the version already submitted by the Related Companies.

Video Highlights:

Jim Hays, Trustee for Village of Tuxedo Park, minute 2:10

Andrew Dance, Project Manager for Tuxedo Reserve, minute 8:53

Mary Graetzer, Reporter for www.tpfyi.com, minute 12:45

Thomas Wilson, Tuxedo Land Trust, minute 17:00

Classic picture of Tuxedo Town Board listening to public comments, minute 20:22

Peter Dolan, Tuxedo Town Supervisor, None of Your Business Brush Off, minute 22:18