Local News Roundup: Unvaccinated Yeshiva Students, Missing Documents In Monroe, and More Fun With LLCs
News & Notes For The Week Ending March 1st
I’m going to be honest with you. When I started The Monroe Gazette, I did not expect there to be so much news happening in less than ten miles. That’s our coverage area: Monroe, Woodbury, Blooming Grove, Palm Tree, and Chester.
But, I was wrong.
So, here’s a quick recap of all the stories I’m looking into and what’s going on in your neighborhood. I will get to all of these as quick as I can.
Let’s start with …
Chester
Tomorrow, I’ll share with you a brief interview I did with Town of Chester Supervisor Brandon Holdridge concerning the building moratorium. At Wednesday’s Town Board meeting, the public comment period for Chester’s building moratorium was extended until March 13th.
This is, slightly, bad news, because it means that Oakwood Subdivision LLC will get a hearing before the Chester Planning Board on March 6th at 7pm over at Chester Town Hall. This may, or may not, make the project immune from the building moratorium if passed. It depends on what they present to the planning board and how far along the process gets.
As a reminder, Oakwood Subdivision LLC is based out of 1449 37th Street, Suite 612, in Brooklyn. Also operating with that very same address is US Asia Global Inc., with their CEO listed as Mr. David Breier.
There are other LLCs also using this address.
Another company, File Right LLC, which belongs to a Mr. Mark Fuchs, is also loosely connected to this address. File Right, like hundreds of other LLCs, appears to be based out of 5314 16th Avenue. That building is registered as a synagogue, but I filed a report with the New York City Department of Finance and they are now looking into this.
If your building is registered as an M1 (church/chapel/synagogue) in New York City, it should be explicitly used for religious purposes and not, in this case, hundreds of LLCs. (Sadly, the penalty seems to be a single fine between $2,500 and $25,000 depending on what the court feels necessary. Those fines seem substantially low to me, but that’s on New York City to fix.)
Oakwood Subdivision LLC appears to be an end run around the Town of Monroe Planning Board; done to gather up more land for the long gestating Henry Farms mega development.
For the record: I support building more homes, even on Lakes Road, but I’d strongly prefer that the municipalities in Orange County get together and come up with a master plan. One that focuses on high density housing that’s affordable and accessible to everyone. If we’re going to do any more building anywhere, that’s what we should be building.
Single family homes don’t solve the housing crisis.
And like I said elsewhere, Lakes Road is currently dangerous for current residents with the increase in flooding. Something that’s only going to get worse, not better, with Climate Change. So, I don’t think it’s safe to be building anything on that road until the flooding can be addressed.
Blooming Grove
According to the Department of State, the individual who formed the corporation that became Keen Equities LLC is Isaac Muller, 55 Union Road, Suite 203, Spring Valley, NY. (Keen was originally called KNG NADLAN LLC.)
84 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY, 11249 is listed as the address for the Secretary of State to get in touch if there’s an action against Keen Equities LLC. There was a Signature Bank location here, and 25 apartments.
L & F REALTY CORP is listed as the owner of the building. Lipa Friedman is listed as the agent. Sam Goldstein is listed as a shareholder. Halcyon Management Group is listed as well.
Lipa Friedman, L & F Realty Corp, and Halcyon Management Group all share the same address of 177 North 11th Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11211. 84 Broadway is one of 18 properties owned by Lipa Friedman.
I think I’m getting close.
Considering Friedman donated $5 million toward the purchase of a massive building in December of 2023 to serve as a yeshiva and location for religious study, which drew out the Satmar Rebbe. The building is now named for Friedman.
Friedman’s ties with the Satmar branch run deep, as he’s also the son of Moshe Friedman.
So, this guy — If proven to be the owner of Keen Equities LLC — Would certainly have the money to shake off the quarter million dollar fines the DEC have thus far thrown at him.
Moving on …
In a statement to The Monroe Gazette about Keen Equities, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said, “DEC subjects every permit application to all applicable federal and State standards to ensure the agency’s decisions are protective of public health and the environment.”
I was also in touch with Orange County’s District Attorney, David Hoovler, about claims by residents of Keen Equities continuing to ignore stop work orders and other interventions by the DEC. In a statement, from Ryan Greenbaum, Senior Assistant District Attorney, I was told, “As a matter of policy, we do not comment on the existence or non-existence of any investigations until/unless charges are publicly filed.”
I have to say though, if I was a resident in Blooming Grove? I’d be documenting everything and sending it to the District Attorney’s office.
Senator Skoufis told The Monroe Gazette in a statement about Keen Equities and their actions in South Blooming Grove, “Our team plans to join for the upcoming DEC public comment. Ultimately, DEC is responsible for enforcement of these requirements and we've been reinforcing our concerns with the agency.”
Monroe-Woodbury School District
I’ll have a write-up about the School Board meeting early next week. There was a lot to cover because the proposed budget for next year was presented.
For example: New York State wants all the school districts to switch to electric buses but … Those buses are really expensive, really heavy, and as much as I want everyone driving an electric vehicle right now, the infrastructure to allow for that is just not available in our region. (There are ten charging stations right now in our area, two of which are at Woodbury Common.)
I want to give a shout out to two students who spoke at the start of the meeting: Zayed Kadir and Bisma Malik
The students spoke in support of closing school for Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr.
My niece recently celebrated the lunar new year, which is now an official holiday in New York schools thanks to legislation from Governor Hochul. So, I’m totally in support of the school being closed for these two holidays as well. Given the ongoing mental health crisis faced by American teenagers, a couple of days off would be beneficial to all of them in the long run.
Woodbury (Town & Village)
Do you know what a Day Zero is?
Day Zero is when your town runs out of water.
Cape Town in South Africa narrowly avoided a Day Zero. Mexico City, one of the largest cities on Earth, is also looking down the barrel of a Day Zero.
Continuing to build in an area where you have a water shortage is a formula for a Day Zero of our very own.
So, I’ve reached out Woodbury Village Mayor Andrew Giacozamma to help determine what day Woodbury would, under current conditions, run out of water.
I’ll share that information when I have it. I wish this was a joke, but it’s not.
If you listen to Trustees Fabbro and Freidband on the Woodbury Village Board, you would think we have limitless amounts of water, enough to end Woodbury’s Building Moratorium.
But I suspect we’re going to find out that they’re very wrong.
This is a big reason why I think any new housing that’s approved anywhere in our region has to include a rain water capture system of some kind and other elements to help cut down on how much water is pulled out of the ground, and recycle what water that we can.
It’s time we stopped pretending everything is fine when it comes to the climate. It’s not.
Everything is not fine.
Speaking of which …
Palm Tree / Kiryas Joel
Shtetl is my go to source for all things Kiryas Joel. They are a non-profit media outlet — Much like I hope to create with The Monroe Gazette — that provides news for Haredi Community. The term “Ultra Orthodox” can sometimes be used as a put down, so Haredi is the preferred term for my fellow tribesman.
Shtetl recently broke a story about a school in Kiryas Joel that faces up to $61 Million in fines for allowing unvaccinated children to attend school at the height of the (still ongoing) COVID-19 pandemic.
I have been in touch with the New York State Department of Health to see what they have ruled concerning the yeshiva, UTA of Kiryas Joel - Markowitz Boys, and to also see if there are other hearings like this concerning schools within Kiryas Joel.
I’ve been pretty clear about my pro-vaccine views. I’ve also been deeply disturbed by Monroe Town Councilwoman Dorey Houle’s apparent anti-vaccine views, or at least, anti-vaccine fan base.
As a reminder for anyone reading this age 65 or older, the CDC is recommending you get an updated COVID-19 booster shot. I encourage you to get it, and if you haven’t got vaccinated at all, it’s still not too late to get your shot and help end the pandemic.
Woodbury Common
During the Monroe-Woodbury School Board meeting, there was a brief discussion about Woodbury Common and past and future PILOT (Payment In Lieu of Taxes) agreements they had with Orange County and Woodbury.
At the moment, there is no pilot, but members of the school board speculated that this may change in the future. Why? Because of future expansion plans for the commons.
I reached out to Orange County’s Industrial Development Agency, who would handle applications for a new Woodbury Common PILOT if one comes, and Bill Fioravanti, the CEO of Orange County’s IDA told me: “No, to date we have not received an application for OCIDA incentives from Woodbury Common/Simon for their planned expansion.”
Something to keep an eye on.
Given that Simon Property Group just did a $2B stock buy back, I don’t think they need our money.
Unless, of course, they want to give us that train station. Then we’ll talk.
Monroe (Village)
Trustee Debra Behringer and Trustee John Karl III are up for re-election. The election will take place at Village Hall on Monday, March 19th from 9am to 9pm. I’ve sent candidate questionnaires to them both, and will share their answers when I get them. I want to thank both Trustees for being game for answering my questions.
There’s a two lot subdivision the Village Planning Board approved at 310 Schunnemunk Street, pending certain conditions.
I’m hoping the Village Board, before approving the project, will ask about rainwater capture, water recycling, and other mitigation efforts to reduce the amount of water this project will use.
(Every project should have an answer for this question from now on.)
Monroe (Town)
This week was very Monroe heavy, so I only have one other thing I want to bring to your attention.
I’ve talked about this liaisons thing ad nauseam at this point.
But this search for official documentation took a weird turn.
I FOIL-ed the Town for the lists of previous liaison assignments issued by Supervisor Tony Cardone going back to 2017.
According to the Town of Monroe, no such documents exist.
Which, is really funny, because I have in my possession two documents, one from 2023 and one from 2024, that are official liaison assignments issued by Supervisor Cardone to the other Town Council members.
So, as you might have guessed, this looks really bad for Supervisor Cardone.
If it’s true that he only started giving out liaison assignments in 2023, then that would mean he created a State Senate liaison role specifically for Dorey Houle after she lost in her first bid for State Senate.
(Hint: You’re not supposed to use your position as an elected official to help a candidate win political office.)
As previously covered, Cardone, his family, and his political action committee donated nearly $1,000 to Dorey’s campaign.
After concern was raised about Dorey having this position, the 2024 State Senate liaison position was given to Councilwoman Bingham.
This might sound like a minor thing, but I was informed that the role of the liaison for State Senate involves representing the town with the State Senate concerning legislation and grants / other sources of state funding for the Town.
That’s a really powerful position to have.
And considering it was seemingly created to aid someone in their once and future quest for a state senate seat …
I’m not a lawyer, like I said, but if that’s not illegal?
I’ll eat my Mets hat.
(Don’t tempt me. The Mets are going to be terrible this year.)