So, Is It a Fire Company, or a Slush Fund?
The timeline behind the creation of South Blooming Grove's Fire District 1, which legally should not exist.
Today, we’re going to take a look at the illegal effort to create a new fire district entirely within the Village of South Blooming Grove.
Under New York State law, only Towns, not Villages, can create a new fire district. As of this writing, Town of Blooming Grove Supervisor, Robert Jeroloman, told The Monroe Gazette that he has “not received anything announcing or declaring a new fire service within the Town of Blooming Grove.” The Supervisor added, “If a Town creates a new district the Town is required, before creation, to seek approval from the NYS Comptroller’s office prior to adoption and creation of a new district.” [Emphasis added.]
Unfortunately, this has not stopped the Village of South Blooming Grove from creating a new fire district, known as Fire District 1.
As of this writing, the NYS Comptroller’s office has not commented about this new fire district, but there is something worth noting here: On the morning of March 21st, between the hours of 12am and 1am, Mr. Joel Stern, and others, was seen loading a box truck. The truck was parked outside of Village hall, where Mr. Stern and friends were observed moving boxes out of Village Hall and into the truck. This happened during the same week that the New York State Comptroller announced it was conducting an audit of South Blooming Grove. That same box truck would then be seen being unloaded by Mr. Stern and friends at the UJC headquarters at 29 Merriewold lane South, where he is the founder, and where the UJC’s emergency response division operates.
The Town of Blooming Grove Police have informed me that no crime was committed, since Mr. Stern is a Village employee, but I think the timing is incredibly suspicious.
I currently have a lot of requests out for comment on this story. I’m not too optimistic I’ll get a response, since Orange County’s government has decided not to answer questions I send them, but who knows. Maybe they’ll surprise us.
So, while I await comment from multiple parties, we’re going to first take a look at the timeline of the creation of this new, illegal, fire district.
Since 1975, the Independence Fire Company has served the people of South Blooming Grove and the unincorporated parts of the Town of Blooming Grove. The South Blooming Grove Fire District, which Independence Fire Company operates within, was formed because response times were too high. This was back when people needed to wait for either Washingtonville or Monroe’s fire company to arrive.
The South Blooming Grove Fire District today is about 7+ square miles, where the Village occupies about 4.9 square miles within it, and it’s operated independently by Independence Fire Company. The rest of the Town of Blooming Grove receives coverage for fire and other related emergencies by the Salisbury Mills Fire District, among others.
And for a long, long, time, everything seemed fine.
That brings us to the March 28th, 2022 Village of South Blooming Grove meeting, which you can see in its entirety below. But if you just want to see Mr. Joel Stern speak — and who doesn’t want to miss an opportunity to see that? — His comments start at 25:55
Above: The March 28th, 2022 Village Board Meeting. Highlights include: Illegal clear cutting that impacts the Indiana Bat and Northern Long-eared bats, Clovewood’s wells are being connected to the Village (which turned out to be a lie), residents talking about not having water, the village residents being lied to about a road connecting to Clovewood, the water situation getting worse, and Mr. Ekstein stating that the second garbage pickup would come at no cost for Village taxpayers. The latter statement was also not true. (Video courtesy of Preserve Blooming Grove.)
Pretty much everything Stern claims in the above video is bullshit. But as a reporter, I can’t just say that and move on. So, here is a quick fact check. And, for context, the Village Board on 3/28/22 is voting on a resolution that would authorize the United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove to provide emergency response services within the village.
A resolution that, to no one’s surprise, passed unanimously. That’s because there is very little daylight between the United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove and the Village of South Blooming Grove Board of Trustees and Village Planning Board.
Fact Check
“Independence Fire District covers 17 miles.” It covers 7 or so miles.
-Stern claims that, since 2020, Independence has seen a decline in its roster, response time, and overall performance. He fails to mention the pandemic, which killed over 1.1 million Americans (but probably way more, by at least 16%)
-Later, he claims Independence doesn’t have enough members to assemble to reply to emergency calls in the Village. Where he got this information from is unknown.
-Stern mentions two deaths and two structure fires in the last year. I only saw one death in trying to research his claim, but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
-Stern claims he reached out to Independence to offer help and was rebuffed, and then claims the fire company, and others, are trying to cover up “their short comings.” (I have not yet heard back from Independence Fire, but a source disputes Mr. Stern’s claims of his reaching out “to provide help.” I have also reached out to the New York State division of Homeland Security, as Stern claims Independence Fire provided them with false information, which sounds like a pretty serious accusation to be making.)
Speaking of discrimination, Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein — among others — would later claim that they were being discriminated against by Independence Fire Company. Both men claimed that Independence Fire Company received applications from them, and others, but they were being ignored. (A source close to Independence Fire Company claims that they never received a single application from any Satmar resident of South Blooming Grove.)
-Stern then accuses Independence Fire Company of being anti-semitic without citing any actual evidence. This is Mr. Stern’s favorite bullshit tactic. Every time that Joel Stern has not gotten what he wanted, he’s claimed anti-semitism. Every. Single. Time.
-Stern then claims that the Independence Fire Chief made an anti-semitic remark at meeting of the Office of Emergency Management. (This claim is also disputed. I reached out to the Orange County Office of Emergency Management to comment on Mr. Stern’s claim.)
-Mr. Stern then claims the United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove — aka, the local hate group — voted to form its own Emergency response division. As a reminder, the United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove is not a real not-for-profit, despite publicly claiming to be. Stern also states this this new division is privately funded, which is something you should pay attention to for reasons that will become clear in a moment.
-Finally, Stern claims that emergency services will be provided to all residents. This is despite the existence of a second phone number, not publicly available, which is provided to only some residents for emergency response situations.
Mayor Kalaj qualifies, before approving Mr. Stern’s resolution, that UJC will provide a 24/7 service available to all residents.
Of course, that’s not what happened.
Is Isaac Ekstein Faster Than Usain Bolt?
Now, of course, not everything was fine at the Independence Fire Company.
The American population is getting older, and there are fewer and fewer volunteer firefighters and EMS workers both here in New York, and across the nation.
The dwindling number of volunteers has led to an increase in response times for fire and EMS calls across New York State.
After the UJC is authorized to operate in South Blooming Grove on March 28th, 2022, Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein begin to claim that “their” responders answer “within seconds.” (And yes, “within seconds” is a direct quote.)
In fact, since the March 2022 resolution, Mr. Ekstein was nominated by the Village of South Blooming Grove Board for an award because he claimed to have saved a young boy at 76 Peddler Hill Road from drowning. Mr. Ekstein claimed he made it from his home at 40 Virginia to 76 Peddler Hill Road in 45 seconds.
This, it should be noted, is a distance of 2.4 miles and would take you six minutes to reach when driving.
Both Stern and Ekstein also go on to state at Village Board meetings that the UJC responders carry oxygen in their personal vehicles, which allows for a quicker response time.
I reached out to Orange County Fire Deputy Commissioner, Vinni Tankasali, to see if it was standard practice, or even legal, for first responders to drive around with oxygen tanks in their personal vehicles, but have not heard back from him at the time of this writing.
During these presentations to the Village Board, Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein revealed that part of their fast response time was due to the fact that residents were not calling 911, but a special dispatch number belonging to an emergency services dispatcher in Kiryas Joel. Implying that there was emergency services available to only some residents of South Blooming Grove, and not all, which is concerning on a number of levels, and potentially illegal.
This also goes against what Mayor Kalaj pointed out at the March 28th, 2022 meeting when he stressed the United Jewish Community would provide 24/7 response to all residents of South Blooming Grove as part of passing the resolution.
Color me surprised.
A Timeline of Crime. A “Crimeline” If You Will
A year goes by.
And then a strange chain of events begins to unfold. Here is the timeline:
On May 22nd, 2023, a resolution is approved by the Village authorizing Mayor Kalaj to form a Village Fire Department. As mentioned at the start of this article, this is not something a Village is legally allowed to do. I’ve reached out to Mayor Kalaj, the Village Board members, and Village Attorney Scott Ugell for comment on this resolution.
On June 26th, 2023, another resolution is approved allowing for the incorporation of South Blooming Grove Fire Company No 1 Inc. (SBGF1)
On July 24th, 2023, the Village Board approves a resolution setting a time and place for a public hearing about the incorporation of SBGF1
Apparently, it’s a short public comment period. Because …
On August 7, 2023, the Village Board approves a resolution consenting to the incorporation of SBGF1.
On August 28, 2023, the Village Board approves a resolution authorizing the board of trustees to execute certificate of incorporation of SBGF1 and said certificate of incorporation.
Mayor Kalaj is absent for this vote. It is approved by the only three Village Trustees present at the meeting: Mr. Abraham Weiss, Mr. Asher Guttman, and Mr. Zalmon Rosner. I have reached out to these three Village Trustees for comment on this resolution and their votes, given that it is illegal for a Village to unilaterally create its own fire district.
It’s worth noting here that SBGF1 is organized as a Special Not-for-Profit Corporation, with a special note (Section 2) that we should all keep an eye on from its bylaws. Especially because what seems to have happened here is that the Village of South Blooming Grove created, and is now funding, a new fire district that is wholly owned and operated by the United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove. Meaning that SBGF1 is violating its own bylaw as seen in section 2.
On October 23rd, 2023, the Village Board passes a resolution adopting the policy and procedure manual for the SBGF1 to include the policy and procedure manual.
On November 13, 2023, the Village Board passes a resolution acting as the Board Fire Commissioners, and appointing Joel Goldstein as Fire Chief, Mr. Uri Deutch as Fire Assistant Chief and Mr. Lazer Weiss as 2nd Assistant Chief of SBGF1.
This is a developing story. If you have any information you’d like to provide, you can do so anonymously here. I hope to have more information to provide with you soon.
But the key point to focus on is this:
Did the Village of South Blooming Grove create an illegal fire district, one that they would fund and operate, to benefit the United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove, which as you know, is a hate group? (And not to mention, a hate group currently suing the Washingtonville Central School District.)
Because if so …
That means it’s possible that some of the funding for the lawsuit is being paid for by Village of South Blooming Grove taxpayers. Many of whom have children attending Washingtonville School District schools.