Office Hours: Goodbye, CoachUSA? & An Update On Who Killed That Bear
The odds are good I’m going to have my hands full tomorrow morning. If you’d like to know why, I encourage you to attend the following two meetings:
-Tonight, at 7:30pm there’s a Board of Trustees meeting for the Village of Woodbury at Village Hall - 455 Route 32, Highland Mills, NY 10930.
I’ll be there. Will you?
-Tomorrow at 10:35am, there’s a Board of Trustees meeting for the Village of South Blooming Grove - 811 Route 208, Monroe, New York 10950 .
Yes. You read that right. The Monday meeting on June 10th was cancelled at the last minute, and then rescheduled for Friday morning.
Why? Well, we’ll get to that in a second.
So, instead of doing office hours on Friday, we’re going to do them today. I will then try, but make no promise, of having a write-up for you tomorrow. If I can’t do it Friday, one will be forthcoming on Saturday.
Sound good?
And as a reminder, here’s how Office Hours work: I will answer some questions I’ve received this week after the Call to Action Box below. If you are a monthly paid subscriber to The Monroe Gazette, you can also leave a question below and I’ll answer it.
If you’re not yet a paid subscriber to The Monroe Gazette, I encourage you to join up. It’s $10 a month, which is about six dollars less than Netflix’s Standard Plan and about $6 more than a Grande White Chocolate Mocha at Starbucks.
Subscribers get to participate in Office Hours, and have the ability to leave comments on posts. There are also some other subscriber benefits in the works once we hit 100 paid subscribers. We’re almost there!
You Have Questions, I Have Answers
-What’s going on with CoachUSA?
Yesterday, CoachUSA filed for bankruptcy. I’ve reached out to their press department to see how the bankruptcy filing will impact riders in Orange County.
According to information provided to The Monroe Gazette, Bus Company Holdings LLC, an affiliate of The Renco Group Inc. will be purchasing some assets of CoachUSA. One of those assets is Shortline, which provides service in Orange County.
In a press release also provided to The Gazette, the company stated, “Taken together, once completed, these proposed transactions will preserve thousands of jobs and ensure uninterrupted passenger transportation services to millions of passengers throughout the United States and Canada, many of whom rely on the Coach USA transportation network.”
As discussed here at The Monroe Gazette at length, the MTA’s Port Jervis line is not at all on par in terms of service provided to passengers when compared to our neighboring counties.
So, if there’s a loss of service in Orange County with CoachUSA after the ownership transfer of Shortline is completed, commuting to and from the city could get much, much harder without a car.
And, as you recall, we need fewer cars on the road. Not more.
I didn’t think it was possible, but Senator Skoufis bragging about killing the congestion toll — without a substitute for the funding that would have provided to the MTA’s Port Jervis Line — somehow just got even dumber.
At this time, there should be NO disruption to the current Orange County commuter lines operated by CoachUSA, but this could change as the bankruptcy process is concluded.
-Who Killed That Bear?
I have conflicting reports from the Woodbury Police Chief and the New York State’s DEC Region 3 spokesperson about this investigation.
The Chief has stated a tissue sample was taken from the bear during the initial investigation on April 2nd, and that no evidence of wrong doing was found based on that sample according to the DEC representative the Woodbury Police spoke with.
The DEC spokesperson disputes this.
They say no necropsy was done after their officer examined the bear. Finding no evidence of physical trauma or a gun shot, the DEC did not examine the bear any further, nor did they take a tissue sample.
Rather than get into a He said/She said, I’ve retraced my steps and got in touch with the DEC officer who arrived at the scene and completed an examination. I have also followed up with the police chief on what I think is a pretty important question:
Given that the Mayor of Woodbury publicly stated, after the DEC’s initial investigaiton, that the bear was poisoned, did the Woodbury police further investigate Mr. Martin Spitzer for potentially killing the bear given the mayor’s comments?
New York State has a very specific law concerning poisoning wildlife, and it is a crime to do so.
I’ve also asked the DEC, now that Woodbury was granted permission to remove the bear’s body from behind Mr. Spitzer’s home, if further testing may be done to see if the bear was poisoned.
As far as Mr. Spitzer goes, I mentioned that someone was setting unpermitted traps at the lake nearby. A resident who lives near Mr. Spitzer followed-up with me and stated that traps had also been set by Mr. Spitzer prior to the bear being poisoned. Whether or not those are the SAME traps is something for the Woodbury Police Department to investigate, since it’s also a crime to use unapproved traps to capture wildlife.
-Why Would They Cover Up A Bear Murder?
From what I’ve gathered, and what sources have shared on the matter, the Highland Lake Estates HOA — four members of whom are being investigated by the AG’s office — are looking to help orchestrate a takeover of the Woodbury Village Board.
One of those members being investigated, Shulem Perl, and his wife Blimy, just submitted signatures for Tyler Etzel Jr. and John Kelemen.
It’s possible Chief Watson doesn’t want to investigate the bear murder and risk upsetting a large group of voters in the process. We can consider this an option because Chief Watson, and his family, all signed petitions to support Etzel Jr. and Keleman getting on the ballot this Fall.
Mr. Etzel Jr. and Mr. Keleman are all being backed by haredi members of the HLE community, of which Mr. Martin Spitzer is a member and where Mr. Perl is a HOA representative.
If you’re all on the same team, why would you want to cause any discord and hurt your team’s election chances this Fall with an arrest?
I’ll tell you one person who didn’t submit any signatures, despite claiming he went door to door recently for un-elected councilwoman, Sandra Capriglione. She of “come to a meeting and look us in the eyes” fame.
That person was Town Councilmember Brandon Calore. After being spotted by residents gathering signatures for Mr. Etzel and Mr. Keleman, Mr. Calore stated to your favorite local journalist that he was not doing so. He then stated he was gathering signatures only for Mrs. Capriglione.
It sure sounds like he was caught red handed and tossed the signatures, since he hasn’t filed anything recently for the Unelected Councilwoman.
Smart move on his part.
The last thing the Woodbury Town Board wants is their fingerprints on this South Blooming Grove-like Board takeover that’s being orchestrated for the Village of Woodbury.
-Can South Blooming Grove Just Randomly Cancel Meetings and Hold Them at Inconvienant Times?
The short answer is yes.
As long as there is 72 hours notice, according to New York State’s Committee on Open Government.
Why are they meeting at 10:30am?
Because in order to qualify for certain kinds of grants, as discussed yesterday, SBG has to pass a resolution pledging to uphold Fair Housing Rules and Regulations.
The thing is, I know, and you know, that this specific group of Trustees has no interest in upholding Fair Housing Rules and Regulations.
Mr. Ekstein and Mr. Stern, who are running the village, want to build housing specifically for members of the haredi community.
We now have 50 years of actual facts and evidence that demonstrate that, when the Satmar specifically are involved, that housing is not often made available on property owned by Satmar landlords to non Satmar residents.
So, this resolution is bullshit.
And they don’t want members of the community to come to the meeting and ask them difficult questions about how the Village intends to make sure that all new housing is made available to all members of the community equally — in accordance with the Fair Housing Act — and how they intend to enforce those rules and regulations.
I’ll be there to oppose the resolution. I hope you’ll join me.
What’s The Latest With Mr. Corts and Falkirk?
You mean aside from having the wife of his fellow co-defendent attack me on Facebook?
I’ve been told from a VERY reliable source that he has basically flaked on doing anything official, so far, in association with converting the Falkirk Golf Course into condos for haredi residents.
There were meetings scheduled with him, and he’s flaked on those meetings.
Probably because the heat is on. But that’s not the end of this story.
It could be, things go real quiet on the Falkirk front until the November election. If Mr. Etzel Jr. and Mr. Keleman are successful in winning seats on the Board, together with Mr. Freiband, they can ram through whatever they want.
That would include the condos on the golf course.
When I get some headspace, I’ll do an indepth report on Mr. Corts. So keep an eye out for that in an upcoming edition of your favorite newsletter.
Ok. Now it’s your turn. Leave your questions below …