A Quick Follow-up To Our Parking Lot Story
An addendum to this weekend's investigation and an update about our upcoming 61 East Main Street (Washingtonville) story.
In case you missed my (super long) investigative report into Isaac Ekstein’s plan to put a parking lot in the middle of land that’s supposed to remain “forever green,” I encourage you to read it here.
At the moment, I am working on putting a story together concerning 61 East Main Street in Washingtonville.
To nobody’s surprise, the same few people are also involved over there. This includes Isaac Ekstein’s attorney, Mr. Robert Rosborough of hanhallah’s favorite law firm: Whiteman, Osterman, & Hanna LLP.
It appears Mr. Rosborough, on behalf of Moche Halpern and Blooming Realty, is suing Washingtonville for antisemitism.
Of course, the claim is bullshit, since Mr. Halpern is verifiably a slumlord who was operating a boarding house illegally out of 61 East Main Street before the Village of Washingtonville shut him down.
But why let facts get in the way of your standard bullshit claim of antisemitism?
And just like with Blaise Gomez, this one also is dependent on Facebook comments.
Tonight at 7pm at Washingtonville Village Hall (9 Fairlawn Drive, Washingtonville, New York 10992) there will be a meeting concerning Mr. Moche Halpern and his attempt to evade the building moratorium currently in place in the village.
If you have time, I hope you’ll go and let the Village government know that Mr. Halpern is a slumlord, Mr. Rosborough represents a hate group, and that they both should stick their fictitious lawsuit where the sun doesn’t shine.
But that’s just me.
I’m a people person.
Anyway. I need to gather some more facts before I can publish this piece. So, please instead enjoy this follow-up to this weekend’s investigative report.
It’s not just 26 Virginia where there’s illegal activity taking place in South Blooming Grove’s green space. It’s also behind 6 Roanoke Drive.
Except in this case, there is a documented email thread showing Mr. Isaac Ekstein and Mayor George Kalaj straight-up lying to one village resident concerning the green area.
That lying prompted the following questions to be sent to the mayor this morning. And since he doesn’t like transparency, or answering questions, I am publishing my questions here for curious village residents to follow-up and demand some answers for themselves:
Mayor Kalaj,
I am in receipt of an email thread between yourself, Mr. Stern, Mr, Ekstein, and a resident of South Blooming Grove concerning the "Green Area" which was legally provided to the Village of South Blooming Grove in September of 2020 by the Town for the explicit purpose of preservation.
See: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sy-Kbtc_529VlnyQOYANk4I4dL3QWOZr/view?usp=sharing
I hope you can clarify some questions concerning this specific matter involving 6 Roanoke Drive.
1. You were first notified in November of 2022 that someone had moved the property markers for 6 Roanoke Drive up, despite the land behind the property being designated as forever green space. You finally responded to this resident in April of 2023. Can you explain why it took five months to reply to a question concerning the potential sale of the green area to a "developer" by the Village?
2. In April of 2023, you stated in your reply, "The property that your mentioning was never actually classified as green land, I'm not sure what you were told by other people. The property is in contract right now, however no trees were cut by the village or by the contract holder as of right now, maybe there trees that fell during the winter, I'm not sure."
Can you clarify who this contract holder may be?
Can you also explain your statement that the land was "never actually classified as green land" despite the existence of the September of 2020 agreement between the Village and Town?
After being notified that this area was designated to remain green, can you explain the landscaping activity that occurred concerning the removal of trees from behind 6 Roanoke?
Was this removal permitted and approved by the Village Planning Board, CDRC, and the Village Board?
Did you receive permission from the DEC concerning tree removal in an area known to be inhabited by two endangered species?
3. On April 16th, 2023, Mr. Isaac Ekstein wrote to the property owner of 6 Roanoke Drive describing himself as the Assistant to the Mayor; however, Mr. Ekstein's role as a village employee is Legislative Aide to the Mayor. Can you explain why Mr. Ekstein identifies himself as an assistant to the mayor in the email to this property owner?
4. 6 Roanoke Drive backs up into property that Mr. Ekstein's Congregation Yetev Lev D'Satmar Blooming Grove has applied to the Village Planning Board for permission to build a parking lot to service his new synagogue at 1 Roanoke Drive.
Did Mr. Ekstein at any point disclose to you, the Village Planning Board, and to the resident at 6 Roanoke Drive his specific interest in what is happening with this property behind 6 Roanoke?
5. Has Mr. Ekstein publicly identified himself as a beneficiary of this application before the planning board for 1 Roanoke Drive?
6. In Mr. Ekstein's email to the property owner of 6 Roanoke, he stated there was "nothing recorded on this property to make it Green Land, in Fact the property only changed ownership to the village in 2021 and was owned by the original developers until then."
He also declined any knowledge of tree cutting at this location, despite evidence to the contrary.
Can you explain why Mr. Ekstein flat out lied to this property owner concerning a project that he has a specific financial interest in?
7. Residents at the previous Village Board meeting, where you were again not in attendance, explained that there is a clear conflict of interest that exists between Mr. Joel Stern, as an employee of Mr. Jacob Gold at Windsor Global, concerning Mr. Gold's investment in Keen Equities LLC and its business before the planning board. They asked for Mr. Stern's removal of his position as Village employee under the Village's Code of Ethics.
Do you plan to follow-up on this request? Do you also plan, under that same code of ethics, to remove Mr. Ekstein for the reasons provided above?
More from me shortly on the Washingtonville piece.
As an added bonus, please also enjoy the following questions I sent to Mr. Rosborough, who represents Isaac Ekstein:
Mr. Rosborough,
I understand you represent the United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove according to your comments during the DEC public hearing held on April 3rd, 2024.
I am a reporter with The Monroe Gazette, and have questions that I hope you can answer concerning the activity of your client, herein referred to as UJC.
1. According to the IRS, all organizations that file a Form 990s — including non-profit organizations such as UJC — must make this information public upon request. In March, I requested the three most recent Form 990s filed by the United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove and provided a deadline of March 31st. The UJC did not respond to this request. Instead, they took down the English language version of their website, but kept up the Yiddish language version which can still be found online at UJCBG.org. I have filed a Whistleblower report with the IRS over this lack of non-compliance and attempt to obfuscate any future requests by the English speaking residents of Southern Orange County.
Can you explain why your client chose not only to not provide their three most recent Form 990s, but to then remove their English language version of their website after this request was received by their office?
2. The UJC has put out communication’s accusing the state DEC of intentionally delaying the permits for Clovewood due to an outside pressure campaign (something you echoed during your statement) from hateful outsiders. Official publications from the UJC refer to those who oppose the Clovewood as “half-Jews” and antisemites. Is it your client’s position that the residents of South Blooming Grove who have voiced their concerns are “half-jews” and antisemites? Am I a “half-Jew” according to the official statements put out by the UJC because I oppose the Clovewood development?
3. Mr. Joel Stern, a Board member of UJC, and Mr. Isaac Ekstein, the president of UJC, are paid employees of the Village of South Blooming Grove. Since they will not make their Form 990s available, can you confirm if the UJC is also paying a salary to Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein? Has the UJC made any loans or payments to Town of Blooming Grove Ward 4 representative, Simon Schwartz, or any of the current Village Board members and Planning Board members?
Speaking of Mr. Schwartz, the UJC published an “important message from the Town Councilman” that all outstanding tickets issued by the Town of Blooming Grove police will be cancelled. This was announced because the Town was said to hire staff to follow-up on unpaid tickets. Can you explain why this announcement was apparently only made by Mr. Schwartz in the page of the UJC newsletter and not on the Official Town of Blooming Grove website? At the time of this writing, no such statement by the town can be found.
4. Since its inception, has the UJC donated time, space in its offices, or other resources (monetary or otherwise) to candidates seeking office in South Blooming Grove and the Town of Blooming Grove. Are you aware that this is a prohibited activity according to the State Attorney General’s office?
5. The UJC has encouraged Yiddish speaking residents to voice their support for the Clovewood development because it would provide affordable housing. This statement is false, as the SEQRA findings state that only 94 of the homes built out of the project’s proposed 600 would be affordable housing. The UJC has also asked Yiddish speaking residents to voice their support for Clovewood because it would provide badly needed water for the Village. This statement is also false, as the Orange County Department of Health was informed in a latter dated September 2023 that the wells for Clovewood would NOT be connected to the Village. Given that the UJC is operated by Mr. Joel Stern and Mr. Isaac Ekstein, both village employees, can you explain why the UJC is providing false information to residents of South Blooming Grove?
I eagerly await your response to these questions, given that the UJC appears to act as an official arm of the Village of South Blooming Grove, which in itself may constitute a violation of the first amendment's establishment clause.