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Putnam Valley Supervisor Bob Tendy's First 45 Days
by Edward Paul Greiff
In an exclusive interview PCN&R takes stock of Putnam Valley Town Supervisor Robert Tendy's first 45 days in office as of February 15, 2008. So far it appears Supervisor Tendy is keeping his campaign promises. He's prioritized the issues he wanted to address, taking aim at the problems and researching possible answers. He says when the package is complete he will be offering proposals to the Town Board which he feels will solve the problems.
"I don't want to speak to one group of people and all of a sudden tell thirty groups of people what I want to do," says Supervisor Tendy. "That's not fair. I want to bring everybody into the process, they can argue with me and be dead set against it, but I'm not going to keep them out of the conversation."
Tendy promised to have an open door policy. One of the first things he did was to tear down the wall to his office and reconstruct it so visitors can clearly see him and he can readily make eye contact with them. It seems to be working. Tendy says, "It's been very rewarding, I've met a lot of helpful people with good ideas, a lot of people with good intentions, and some very knowledgeable people. I've met a lot of citizens from the town, my door is always open. This morning a wonderful woman came in, she sat down and told me about a couple of issues. She didn't have an appointment, she just came in. A couple of senior citizens have done the same thing and it's very nice to talk to all these people. Some of them have a lot of knowledge about a lot of issues that I was not aware of. So I am trying to let people know that I really want them to come in here. Some of the issues are personal, some are business, and some of the issues have reference to their particular pieces of property. Some of the issues involve the best way to try and bring commercial development into the town."
Continuing, Tendy says, "For the past six weeks I've been meeting with people who know our zoning code and the code changes that are proposed. I've met with attorneys. I've met with developers. I've met with environmental groups. I've spoken to people from the Hudson Highlands Trust. I've spoken to people from Riverkeeper. I am trying to get input from everybody so that I can propose a plan that will bring commercial development into the town without having a deleterious effect on the environment and I think it can be done; it's a delicate balance. We are going to have to have recognition that there are commercial districts in this town and that those commercial districts can be and should be extended to accommodate more commerce because as everybody knows we have very little commerce in town."
"One of the things I've come to realize, and it's been sobering, is the infrastructure in Town Hall has been sorely neglected. Town taxes would go a long way towards helping us improve some of the infrastructure here. In order to do that we have to develop more of a commercial base to get more town taxes in here. If we could add acreage to achieve that, I think it would be very good. Right now the only thing we are going to be able to do is raise taxes. It would be nice to keep the tax the same and just collect from more."
To those residents who oppose commercial development Tendy recommends they talk to the town of Somers and ask why they are so upset about Pepsi leaving. It's a big loss to the town in jobs and tax revenue Tendy said.
Tendy comments, "Anybody who says commercial development doesn't bring taxes, all I can tell them is they're wrong, I don't know what else to say. If you bring an extra ten units of commerce to Putnam Valley how is that not going to bring us taxes, how is that not going to give us money? If the argument is the more you have the worse it gets, then the counter argument should be then if we have nothing, we will have all the money we need. It's illogical to think that way. And there have been no studies that have shown commercial development will take money away from the town."
Tendy recently spoke at the Hudson Valley Gateway Chamber of Commerce breakfast and told them, "The reason for commercial development isn't just to bring taxes in. Somewhere along the line in America someone got the idea that commerce is bad. Commerce isn't bad, commerce fueled the Renaissance, it fuels ideas, commerce brings quality of life changes to people, it makes their lives better when it's done appropriately. Obviously nobody wants businesses to run amuck but commercial activity has spawned ideas spreading throughout the world . . . in neighborhoods commerce brings neighborhood communion. People come, they meet, they talk to each other, they see each other at stores. At common areas they see their friends and neighbors. You take that away and we don't see anybody in town anymore. Commercial activity can be a really good thing and its not just to get tax dollars, it's good for people, it's good for the community, it's good for friends to get together, there is nothing wrong with it."
Tendy would like to do whatever he can to help the businesses in town succeed and practices what he preaches about shopping locally. We spoke about the Farmers Market in the Grange building and he said, "You have to try Eric Arctander's "Patnade," he makes it out of garlic, black olives, capers and lemon juice. It comes in small plastic containers and this stuff kicks, it is so damn good. I buy it with a couple of blocks of cheese and one of the bottles of wine there and that's dinner. Everything there is great. What I would like to see the town do is to work with the Residents Coalition and the Grange to make this bigger and more successful."
Supervisor Tendy has promised to work with the lake communities like Lake Peekskill and help them clean up the beaches. He can't get all the projects done in one year he says, but he intends to start and do two or three a year until completed. There are plans to repave and stripe the parking lot by the Lake Peekskill Post Office. They are also looking at property that could be used to provide an area for the kids to go skateboarding. "These are the kids of tax-paying fathers and mothers and it's our obligation to try and find something that can satisfy their recreation needs."
Lake Oscawana has been recognized as an impaired water body and is in need of some serious care. Supervisor Tendy said that he has been talking to Kathleen McLaughlin and Steve Axinn about adopting possible legislation that would treat Lake Oscawana as an impaired lake and protect it from future phosphorous contamination from septic fields and other runoff.
Another objective of Tendy's was to immediately start working on next year's budget rather than wait until August. As always this task proves to be very difficult because the needs outweigh the availability of funds.
The Supervisor says that the Highway Department's budget is high and needs to remain high if the necessary road repairs and maintenance schedules are to be maintained. "During the past snow and ice storms the highway men were working twenty-hour days, taking breaks only to go home and put on some dry clothes and grab a bowl of soup," says Tendy. "It's an expensive proposition and the town has to pay for it. If you don't do it people are going to crash their cars and get hurt."
Supervisor Tendy is prepared for opposition to his ideas from people who disagree and from opposing political factions who will object just because it's the opposite political party. "That's what people involved in politics do. I understand it, to a certain extent I respect it. But to a very large extent I have to ignore it," says Tendy.
He reminds us that the first five letters of the word politics is polit(e) and you have to be polite to your opponents and help them understand and perhaps even compromise to get things accomplished.
"I want people to know that we in Town Hall are all working very hard to try and make their government a responsive and understanding government. We will not always succeed in solving some of the real problems that they have, but it won't be for a lack of trying. Sometimes there are things that get in the way such as property owner's rights or constitutional rights or that a particular problem has to be resolved in the civil courts rather than through town government. I would like to get adults and kids to come in here and be Supervisor for a day to see just what it's like. I believe it would go a long way towards understanding what their town government is all about."
Tendy is off to a scouting weekend with his kids skiing in Lake George and then off to a meeting of the Association of Towns in Albany. One of the things he intends to pursue is the formation of a group of just Town Supervisors "To exert some political clout," to get the State legislation to change the way schools are funded. Presently no such group exists.
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