Office Hours: After Birth Abortion Edition
This week we look at a staircase to nowhere, a possible illegal car service in Monroe, and whatever the heck is going on at Highland Lake Estates this week.
Listen. I won’t beat you over the head with my take on last night’s highly-viewed dumpster fire. Instead, I will encourage you to visit PolitiFact’s thorough fact-checking of last night’s televised national embarrassment.
Both political parties and CNN should be embarrassed.
CNN, especially for not fact-checking the candidates and challenging them on the numerous false statements that were made. Viewers had to wait at least two hours following the debate to get the fact check from CNN long after most people turned off the TV and went to bed.
That being said, welcome to another edition of Office Hours, where I take questions from readers of The Monroe Gazette.
Here’s how Office Hours Works
-If you’re a paid subscriber of this newsletter, you can comment below, and I will try to answer you as quickly as possible over the next 24 hours.
Questions I get are usually hyper-specific, like this one:
“Whats going on with the blue flashing lights placed on a residential home on 212 Prospect Road in SBG.”
If you are not a paid subscriber, you can download the Signal app (it’s free). Signal is an encrypted messaging platform allowing people to message each other anonymously, which is very important here in Southern Orange County, given vindictive local governments like the Town of Monroe.
Once you download Signal, you can message me at 646-331-8341.
I do have WhatsApp, but I do NOT like to use it because I know Meta (the company formerly known as Facebook) is a shitty company that absolutely cannot be trusted when it comes to your privacy and security.
Please message me ONLY using Signal. This goes for texts, too. In the next week, I will ask everyone messaging me to switch to Signal. This is for your protection and mine.
One question I got on Signal recently from an anonymous reader was:
“Can you elaborate in an article about 83 University? You keep mentioning it but don’t exactly explain it’s significance in relation to the story [about Richard Cattagio and Highland Lake Estates]
So, I’ll answer both of those questions now and some others I’ve got.
Subscribers, please post your questions below, and I’ll answer within 24 hours.
For everyone else, please don’t hesitate to contact me via Signal; I’ll work on answering your questions in an upcoming edition of Office Hours.
“What’s going on with the blue flashing lights placed on a residential home on 212 Prospect Road in SBG.”
212 Prospect is owned by Shlome Itzkowitz.
Mr. Itzkowitz purchased this home from Naomi Fingerhut on November 5th, 2021, for $650,000. According to Orange County’s real property search database, he also owns 922 Craigville Rd, purchased for $500,000 three days after purchasing 212 Prospect.
Again, according to the database, Mr. Itzkowitz also owns 17 Blueberry Lane in Woodbury**, 171 Darin Road in Warwick, 26 Bull Mine Road, and 209 Oxford Road in Blooming Grove.
So, the odds are good Mr. Itzkowitz is allowing the 212 Prospect Road home to house an emergency service provider, much like 3 College Drive over in Highland Lake Estates.
Unfortunately, there is zero code enforcement in South Blooming Grove, so there is no way to confirm this, although the blue flashing lights lend credence to this idea.
I honestly could not tell you who is in charge of Code Enforcement within the Village Right now.
For example, not too far from 212 Prospect …
That staircase has been in this exact state since at least May 8th.
**Now, I have to legally state the following: In the Haredi community, it’s not uncommon to find multiple people with the same name—some related, others not.
So, there may be multiple Shlome Itzkowitzs who own these various properties.
For example, in Mr. Shlome Itzkowitz's case, there may be ANOTHER Shlome Itzkowitz who lives in Woodbury.
There may be one living at 12 Fordham Lane in Highland Mills, who spells their name differently, Shloimy Itzkowitz. This Shloimy is currently involved in a lawsuit between board members of Highland Lake Estates.
But that doesn’t mean it’s the same guy as the one in Blooming Grove.
Make sense?
Let’s Talk About Those Emergency Service Providers
I got another reader question asking if Hatzola (think: EMS) or Shomrim (think: police) members are appropriately licensed and certified to provide emergency and public safety services.
The short answer is a long, exasperated sigh.
Some are. Some aren’t.
More importantly: Some in the Shomrim are seen as bullies, so South Blooming Grove residents must be hypervigilant about Mr. Stern’s proposal to bring the Shomrim to the Village.
I will tell you this: I did reach out to OSHA (the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration) to specifically request any documentation provided by South Blooming Grove Fire District 1 — the fire company Mr. Stern started after falsely claiming the South Blooming Grove Fire Department was antisemitic — to verify that those members are appropriately certified.
I also recently contacted New York State’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services to ask the same question.
So, in looking at 212 Prospect Road, I think it’s worth considering:
Is there an emergency service provider operating out of this home?
If so, are these men (and they’re almost all men) properly licensed to be providing such services?
If they are, why isn’t this service equally available to all community members?
589 County Rt 105 in Monroe
A house on the corner of County Route 105 and Larkin Drive in Monroe has 14 unregistered vehicles and allegedly operates a car service out of there.
Arthur Baj owns the property, according to Orange County’s Real Property database.
Will the Fascists running the Town of Monroe look into this, or let it slide like everything else?
83 University & Highland Lake Estates
83 University, over in Highland Lake Estates, was something I was tipped off about back in April.
In December of 2023, a Highland Lake Estates Board member wrote to Michael Panella, now former building inspector in Woodbury.
The HLE Board member pointed to a large children’s play set built on what is supposed to be “common ground” for the homeowners living in Highland Lake Estates.
The Board member asked Michael Panella to investigate. Panella did not. He stalled for months.
At that point, I was tipped off about Panella stalling, which came at the behest of Richard Cattagio, who, as you know, was a member of the Woodbury Planning Board.
Thanks to The Monroe Gazette's reporting, the Village of Woodbury no longer employs Cattagio and Panella.
So, that’s the brief version of 83 University: A play set was built where it wasn’t supposed to be, and a member of the Village Planning Board told the Building Inspector not to do anything about it.
Of course, there’s more to this story.
When 83 University was mentioned at an HLE Board meeting, Mr. Shulem Perl, Joel Tirnouer, and Lazar Friedman became hostile toward the non-Haredi board members.
Mr. Perl was observed threatening and yelling at Dionne Olamiju, former president of the HLE Board. Mrs. Olamiju felt so threatened that in a recording obtained by The Monroe Gazette, she stated the following to the other Board members. The transcript below was edited for clarity and brevity:
“I feel when I try to conduct my responsibilities as a member of the board and as the board president, I am met with resistance. I am met with behavior that is extremely rude and disrespectful from some board members, and I'm just going to reference the last meeting […] two weeks ago, I had received a notification that a resident may be building on Common Ground. You know, I don't know. I just wanted to investigate and have a conversation. And one of the board members [Perl] really almost attacked me and was extremely aggressive and confronted me in a very threatening manner, and insisted to the homeowner that I was harassing him.
Anyone that knows me, no, that's not in my DNA to harass anybody. I work as an educator. I'm able to communicate. I was just there to ask questions […] But I just wanted to hear so I could bring it to the board. And one of the board members [Perl] raced towards me in a threatening manner. He pointed his finger in my face several times to ask him to stop it. I even turned him and said, Aren't we on the same board? I just feel that it is un American. It is un American to treat other people who are on the board in such a manner, especially for me as women of color, I am not going to tolerate that we can disagree, but it has to be in a respectful manner where we are using words, we are having a conversation, but it cannot be Anything that is so animated and aggressive.
You know before, before I came on this board, I want to tell you, I have never met with anyone in my life who has talked to me, who has treated me the way I've been treated on this board, never, never, never. This is new to me. I want to tell you that this is new to me, to have men shouting at me or pointing fingers at me, calling me harasser. Anyone that knows me knows that is not me. So I just want for the record, for us to know that our responsibilities on this board is for the betterment of the entire community. We must work together to maintain the beauty of this community. If people are not maintaining their lawns, if people are violating any of the bylaws, I'm not saying we go and fine them right away, but at least, let's have a conversation to gather more information and we come back and discuss it as a board. But just because one board member wants to investigate something, it does not mean they're harassing anybody. We can communicate and together. As we put our heads together, we will all determine the next steps for that homeowner, and that's how it has to be moving forward.
That was the last time, just for the record, that was the last time anyone has spoken to me like that when I'm doing my fiduciary duty, when I'm doing my duty that the homeowners expect me to do, right? I'm not going to tolerate that again. If that happens again, I will call 911, and I will let them know I feel threatened, and that's a promise.
Sadly, Mr. Cattagio’s eviction from the Woodbury Planning Board has not stopped his shifty behavior.
I’ll have more to report on that front soon.
Until then, ask your questions subscribers. :-)