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Get Real
Dear Editor:
After reading Jim Lovell's letter to the editor two weeks ago in which he praised the Town Board for their work on the Foundry Pond Road- DeVido debacle, I actually laughed. Jim, are you kidding? Clearly you have not followed this case very closely as our town governing bodies, supposedly representing you and me, have done NOTHING to support the taxpayers on this case, and to the contrary have put all their efforts in helping an outof town developer.
Get real. Your wife Nancy has been there for all the DeVido related hearings, support that is much appreciated. I will be there for you and your Valhalla neighbors when Morris comes into town, upsetting your neck of the woods.
That being said; please don't use the DeVido case as an avenue to praise the Town Board just before the election with the intent to convince the voters that we are fortunate to have this board intact. I think the larger part of the community already knows better. You wouldn't have written that letter had Morris arrived in Valhalla before DeVido arrived on Foundry Pond Rd.
It would be illuminating to see how would you like it if Badey & Watson showed Morris the loopholes in the code, and slowly sub-divided his tract of land, little by little to create new building lots. And then, applying the same strategy that he put past the town, leaves room for easements through the land, but doesn't label them on the maps. Meanwhile, your own TB, PB and ZBA all go out of their way to help Morris and sabotage the endless efforts of your community, time and time again. I guarantee that you wouldn't be praising them after that.
Because of your Foundry Pond Rd neighbors, some of the loopholes in the code are being closed up. I've worked way too hard on this case to have credit given where it does not belong. Send your praise our way because now, you stand a fighting chance, although the way things are now, you would be wasting your time and money fighting the system because in the end, in Philipstown, the developer will have his way.
The environmental and quality of life abuses are happening everywhere; the gas station on Rt. 9/403, Avery Rd, Upland Dr, and so many more. Philipstown is a "free-for-all" (well maybe not free) for the builders and developers who feel entitled to do whatever they want. I guess after decades of nobody putting up a fight, they have become accustomed to it. Some things never change.
The Town Board sat back the past year and watched the PB, their own hired gun Rich Goldsand and finally the ZBA let the developer off the hook. Now they are trying to rectify damage that they are responsible for. How could the Supervisor allow all this to happen?
The DeVido case is a perfect example of how business really gets done in this town. To state, as you did "the Town Board have got our backs" is a joke. Richard Shea has been great and truly cares, but he can only do so much. Neither the Chairman of the ZBA nor Planning Board "had our back". They won't have yours either.
David Weinpahl Foundry Pond Road
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