Tyler Etzel Jr. Literally Sold Shit For a Living (Part 1)
In today's post, we look at Mr. Etzel's latest propaganda video, and what residents from across Southern Orange County can do to stop a group of bad actors looking to build a new city here.
Ok. Listen. This is going to be a long post about tomorrow’s Woodbury Village Board meeting. The meeting will be held at 7:30 pm on Thursday, October 24th, at 455 Route 32, Highland Mills, NY 10930.
Parking is always an issue whenever something important is on the agenda, so I encourage you to carpool if possible.
If needed, you can park at the Woodbury Public Library location in Highland Mills (16 County Route 105, Highland Mills, NY 10930). It’s a little bit of a hike, though, so just be prepared to haul ass.
Unlike the Central Valley location, the library location in Highland Mills is owned by the people of Woodbury and not a (still as of this writing) nebulous and undefined organization that refuses to provide its federal EIN number.
The Library Board president, who has been witnessed assaulting a Town of Woodbury Employee in the Summer of last year, and an area resident just this month at the Town of Woodbury Library Budget Workshop, will not fuck up your car if you park there.
I mean, as far as I know …
Mrs. Catchy Schmidt has publicly demonstrated to be violent and unpredictable, and that’s a statement everyone can safely repeat factually until the end of time because there’s a video and testimony concerning the first incident and multiple eyewitnesses to the second.
Whether or not she’s capable of fucking up your car, I don’t know. I do know she’s unfit to be Woodbury Public Library’s Board president, and I also know our gaslighting narcissists on the Woodbury Town Board refuse to do anything about Mrs. Schmidt’s violent outbursts.
Then again, Councilman Brandon Calore, who wants to be Woodbury Town Supervisor, has his own history of violence.
So maybe this is just what the world looks like when fascists overrun your local government?
If You’re Concerned About Clovewood, Why Am I Asking You To Attend This Meeting In Woodbury?
For non-Woodbury residents Part 1 of this post is going to talk about the intersection between Keen Equities (Clovewood), ACE Farm, and one of the guys running for Village Trustee, Tyler Etzel Jr.
Then, we’re going to talk about what the Village of Woodbury is doing to lead the charge against Keen Equities. So, if you’re not a Woodbury resident but you want to attend tomorrow’s meeting or send in a public comment, this section is for you.
In Part 2, that post will focus more on Woodbury-centric issues and concerns.
You Don’t Get Clovewood Without Ace Farm
Above: Like every other Tyler Etzel Jr. campaign video, the one above is free of any facts, and looks like something Gotham City residents would see upon turning on the TV.
“It’s Very Hurtful That Everyone Thinks We Just Sold Out”
About 20 years ago, a group of dissidents in Kiryas Joel, understandably, wanted to get the fuck out of Kiryas Joel.
They preferred the leadership and guidance of Grand Rebbe Zalman Teitelbaum, and Grand Rebbe Aaron Teitelbaum and his gang (Hanhallah) actively harassed and discriminated against them.
This was wrong then, and this discrimination remains wrong today.
But … Two wrongs don’t make a right either.
And I want you to remember that because it’s the entire core of this story.
The dissident group that was wronged and discriminated by Aaron Teitelbaum, in turn, proceeded over the next twenty years to discriminate and otherwise wrong the secular residents who got in the way of their escape.
Here’s what happened as briefly as I can explain it:
Tyler Etzel Jr.’s family was going to sell the farm to somebody.
The dissident group in Kiryas Joel went to Wayne Corts and Ralph Petruzzo to negotiate and purchase the farm for their KJ Escape. Etzel’s father didn’t want to sell to the Satmar. He didn’t differentiate between the three groups that live in Kiryas Joel.
Wayne Corts and Ralph Petruzzo proceed to fuck over the dissident group and sell the property to Aaron Teitelbaum’s faction instead, netting Corts an alleged million dollars, for having sold the dissidents out, from Hanhallah.
The dissident group then turned its attention to Blooming Grove, where they purchased the Lake Anne Country Club after the murder of Marvin Greene.
(Fun fact: It’s been almost a year, and the New York State Police and Town of Blooming Grove have not released the documents I’ve requested concerning Mr. Greene’s murder.)
Mr. Greene had been looking to sell the country club, and his desire to do so led to the formation of the Village of South Blooming Grove.
That was because residents didn’t want high-density housing built on the Lake Anne property.
After the village of South Blooming Grove was formed, the dissident group that lost out on ACE Farm sued this new village.
This lawsuit was an effort to have the village dissolved so they can build what has been described — numerous times — as a city of their own.
When the dissident group lost in court, they formed the company known as Keen Equities. (That’s the Clovewood developer.)
But since the dissident group was responsible for payments to Marvin Greene’s family, it had to file for bankruptcy since they couldn’t build anything. This bankruptcy revealed that Mr. Ziggy Brach was the majority shareholder of Keen Equities.
Mr. Brach was also the guy who wanted to develop ACE Farm on behalf of the dissident group, and still as of this writing, is itching for the chance to do so once the annexation moratorium expires in 2025.
See how these two things are connected now?
The dissident group wants to essentially surround Kiryas Joel in order to limit its political power and influence over the entire Satmar community.
You, me, and everyone else — regardless of whether you live in Blooming Grove, Woodbury, or Monroe — are just in the way.
So, ACE Farm is Clovewood.
Clovewood is ACE Farm.
It’s the same cast of characters (Etzel Jr., Ziggy Brach, Wayne Corts, etc.) involved with the same overarching goal.
That’s why you can’t look at this as a Woodbury thing or as South Blooming Grove thing. You have to think bigger.
Thinking bigger means teaming up South Blooming Grove residents with Woodbury residents, and both groups with Monroe and Cornwall residents.
You all need to start thinking and acting as Southern Orange County.
Trying to fight this battle against Steve Neuhaus in Orange County (in the pocket of the developers), and Governor Kathy Hochul (ditto) as individual municipalities will not produce any results.
There’s strength in numbers, and I have some good news: If you add up all the people in Blooming Grove, Chester, Woodbury, Monroe, and Cornwall? That’s a fuck of a lot of people. And if you can get a thousand of them to make some noise?
You watch.
You’ll start to see some mountains move.
(P.S. If you can add those people together with the people in Rockland and Sullivan? That’s a base big enough to really change things here in New York State. But I’m getting ahead of things …)
Etzel and Ziggy Brach’s Shared History
Here’s what we don’t know.
And since the Town of Monroe’s policy on FOIL is “Fuck you. We’ll get to it when we get to it,” it may be a while before we get an answer:
Mr. Tyler Etzel Jr. has repeatedly cited his time on the Monroe Planning Board. What he hasn’t mentioned is how many Ziggy Brach projects he was involved with the approval of.
The answer is not zero.
So you have to keep that in mind when you’re watching his propaganda video above: What is Mr. Etzel’s business relationship with Mr. Brach? How long has it been going on? Does it date back to before the sale of ACE Farm? Is the relationship ongoing? Because if the answer is yes to that last question, then Mr. Tyler Etzel Jr. has a major conflict of interest serving on the Woodbury Village Board of Trustees, don’t you think?
Now, let’s wrap this section up by quickly fact-checking Mr. Etzel’s video:
1. Mr. Etzel has not said anything, to anyone, let alone the public, about the sale of ACE Farms until just this month. Days before the election in the Village of Woodbury. Does anyone else find it interesting that this man, who has run for elected office locally a whole bunch of times, only NOW wants to set the record straight on ACE Farm? What has this man been doing over the last twenty years that prevented him from having done so?
2. Mr. Etzel stated he had a “small share” in ACE Farm at the time. No. The Times-Herald Record reported in 2002, prior to the sale, that Mr. Tyler Etzel Jr. operated the farm. In fact, they did a whole story about how he was literally in the business of selling shit.
3. Mr. Etzel said the Town didn’t want to move forward on buying the property. This is a total contradiction from his 2022 statement (captured at a Wayne Corts bullshit superspreader event) where Etzel said the Town never made an offer.
The reality is, the Town of Woodbury did try to purchase ACE Farm, and Mr. Tyler Etzel Jr. continued to drive up the price. He got greedy. So the Town walked away.
4. Etzel plays dumb here about who was a front and who was not. But his mother was directly told about Mr. Wayne Corts and Ralp Petruzzo, which is what led to the arson of that person’s home. (Mr. Corts denied through his attorney that he’s an arsonist.)
5. Etzel in this video says his Dad didn’t have a choice and they were losing money with the farm. No. ACE Farm remained in operation until 2018, as reported by the Times-Heralrd Record. That’s a difference of fourteen years. So, you should ask Mr. Etzel, “Did you Dad REALLY need to sell?”
6. Etzel claims that nothing can be done on the ACE Farm Woodbury portion because of 2-acre zoning, but what he didn’t mention was that for many years Mr. Ziggy Brach has tried to subvert that specific zoning in Woodbury, with multiple attempts at annexing property from Woodbury (and Monroe) into Kiryas Joel. (In more than a few instances, the City of Kiryas Joel told Brach to go fuck himself, because again, he’s part of the dissident group.)
The other thing Etzel didn’t mention is that his buddy, Village Trustee James Frieband, has suggested eliminating the Woodbury Planning Board and allowing the Woodbury Village Board to quickly make zoning decisions.
Doing so would create a situation similar to South Blooming Grove where anything Joel Stern wants (who works for Brach and Jacob Gold) he gets.
So, don’t let Mr. Etzel try to trick you into thinking you have zoning to protect your open space in Woodbury. You don’t.
Your zoning exists until Mr. Etzel and Mr. Keleman join Mr. Freiband and Mr. Fabbro on your village board.
Coalition of The Willing
So, what can you do?
If you’re a Woodbury resident, you should read part two of this article. It’s coming soon. Just hang with me. There’s a bigger upcoming story about NYS election law, and for that one, I legally need to ask Etzel and Keleman some difficult questions. Such as, did you violate New York State Election Law with this $1,500 check you received?
If you are a resident in the areas impacted by Clovewood, there are a couple more points I need to share with you before we wrap up:
First: You’re encouraged to bring your brown drinking water to tomorrow’s Woodbury Village Board meeting and place it on the desk of Mr. Fabbro and Mr. Freiband. These two work with Tyler Etzel Jr. and John U. Keleman, and they all work for Ziggy Brach. (Keen Equities’s majority shareholder.)
Let them take a good look at what they’ve done to your home, and let the Woodbury residents get a good look at what these four men (Etzel, Keleman, Fabbro, and Freiband) are going to do to theirs.
Second: You are encouraged to read the following statement during public comment (or email it to Village Clerk, Jessica McClennan at Villageclerk@villageofwoodbury.com )
“Dear Woodbury Village Board members,
I live in (put your location here), and I will be directly impacted by Ziggy Brach’s Clovewood development project.
As you’ve seen in the news, Mr. Brach does not follow the law when he receives stop work orders, notices of violations, and near-record fines from New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation.
As you’re also aware, Woodbury has encountered similar behavior by Mr. Brach and his many development projects proposed before this and other municipal boards in the Town and Village.
I am greatly concerned that two of Mr. Brach’s associates, Mr. Matthew Fabbro and Mr. James Freiband, were able to sneak onto this board in the last election. This evening, both men should be made to answer whether or not they own shares in High Mount LLC, which is the company that purchased the Falkirk Golf Course from Mr. Wayne Corts, who has verifiably donated to both these men.
I am also greatly concerned that two more of Mr. Brach’s associates, Tyler Etzel Jr. and Mr. John U. Keleman, are also looking to join this board. Mr. Etzel, if he is here tonight, should be made to explain to Woodbury residents how many Ziggy Brach projects he oversaw, and approved of, during his time on the Town of Monroe Planning Board.
Trustee James Freiband has provided all residents of Woodbury with a lengthy list of ethical violations and other reasons why he should be immediately removed from office. Trustee Fabbro has also done the same.
Regardless of the outcome of the upcoming election, I am encouraging this board to give its new Ethics Board the teeth and power needed to remove these two bad actors from office.
This request should be taken with the utmost seriousness that it deserves, given Mr. Freiband’s stated preference to eliminate the Village Planning Board entirely and allow the Village Board to make zoning decisions. As I can personally attest, in South Blooming Grove, our drinking water and our polluted air can demonstrate what living in such a community without such guardrails entails, and it should upset and worry every Woodbury resident.
That is the world Mr. Freiband and Mr. Fabbro want you to live in.
I am also making an additional request.
Given Woodbury’s lengthy history of dealing with Mr. Brach’s misbehavior, and Mr. Brach’s current, and well documented criminal behavior as it relates to the Clovewood project, I am asking that this board immediately take action against him as well.
Specifically, I am requesting that this board form a coalition of the willing, consisting of surrounding municipalities that have also had similar experiences with the Village of South Blooming Grove and Mr. Ziggy Brach.
This coalition should send a joint letter to DEC Commissioner Sean Mahar that thoroughly details the history of Mr. Brach’s criminal behavior, as well as that of South Blooming Grove’s de facto Mayor, Joel Stern.
The request made in the letter should be for Mr. Mahar to exercise his broad legal discretion to revoke the Clovewood permits for what the DEC deems are “bad actors.”
This is not a South Blooming Grove problem. This is not a Monroe problem. This is not a Woodbury problem.
This is a Southern Orange County problem. That is why I am here.
We need to work together now if we have any hope of survival as a community, given the documented and verifiable disregard for the health and safety of secular residents. Under New York State’s Green Ammendment, we all have a right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.” These rights have been violated by Mr. Joel Stern in South Blooming Grove and Mr. Ziggy Brach as the primary shareholder of Keen Equities.
This discrimination extends beyond the environment and includes a violation of our right to a representative government under the federal constitution’s Guarantee Clause, and a violation of our 14th Amendment Rights to equal protection under the law.
The first and easiest thing you can do is form this coalition and send this letter immediately requesting the Clovewood permits be revoked.
The second, and hardest you can do, is to empower your Ethics Board to thoroughly investigate the connections between Mr. Freiband and Mr. Fabbro to Mr. Brach, Mr. Wayne Corts, Mr. Joel Weber, and South Blooming Grove’s Joel Stern.
Upon finding those connections, which I believe exist, they should both be removed from office as soon as possible.
Anyone representing the developers needs to go.
Southern Orange County is not for sale.
Thank you.
(Put your name here.)