Did Mr. Varuzzo research the success of the consolidation of services for Ossining before he submitted a proposal to dissolve the Hyde Park Police Department? Most likely not, because if he did and interviewed the residents of the area who receive consolidated services, he most likely would find that they are NOT happy with the services that are being provided and are seeking to terminate the contract between the county.  The writers here at the HV News Lies have been in contact with one of those residents who made it known of their unhappiness and the intention to end the contracted services.

Mr. Varuzzo should stick to teaching school age children how to play Mary Had a Little Lamb on the recorder rather than dabble in matters that are too complex in nature for him.
 
To further support the argument that contracting services to the county should NOT be done is the question of management and control of services.

Should the town dissolve the police department and contract out to the county, the readers must bear in mind that the management that the town currently has over allocating monies for personnel, equipment, etc. will essentially be lost because it will be a function of the county to address. The county is facing an economic crisis as many municiplaties are as costs increase and revenue decreases. Mr. Varuzzo may argue that consolidating services may be save money, but at what cost to the residents of Hyde Park? The current finanicial status of the county is contained in a presentation in the below power point. Mr. Varuzzo claims to be a liason to the county legislator....or does he have something in common with his former running mate, Joe Kakish, in the matter of telling the truth.
 
Much like the campaign letter that he sent out last fall, Mr. Varuzzo has demonstrated that he is rather...clueless...again. We may remind the readers that Mr. Varuzzo sent out a letter to Republican voters in October that was supposed to tug  on their heart strings in a 'Checkers Speech'  like fashion, but he didn't, or couldn't list any of the problems the county was facing despite his claim of being a county liason and in his bid for a county legislator seat.

His lastest caper is proposing the dissolvement of the Hyde Park Police Department. Mr. Varruzo used the Town of Ossining as a model and included the example in Monday night's town board meeting.

Mr. Varuzzo didn't do his homework, either out of sheer ignorance or because he's just plain lazy.

The readers at the HV News Lies would like to make some comparisions  (because we did the research Mr. Varuzzo failed to do) between Hyde Park and Ossining and why dissolving the Hyde Park Police Department is not a wise choice.

1) The town of Ossining has two villages within its boundries: Ossining and Briarcliff Manor, both of which have their OWN police departments.  On the map included in the below powerpoint there are two other villages in the vicinity that have their own police departments: Located to the east, the Village of New Castle and to to the southeast, the village of Mount Pleasant.  In the matter of the town of Ossining and its two villages, it is an example of overlapping police coverage. The town police covered and responded to calls within the villages. Village residents were  not only paying taxes for police services to the village, but taxes to the town that also included police coverage. Then they were also paying county taxes that  cover county police AND state tax. Residents of villages in NY State pay FOUR layers of taxes. The argument of the village residents was that they were paying for duplicate coverage in regards for police service.  The provision police services was a matter of reducing the tax costs to the residents of the village.
 
Hyde Park does not have any village(s)  within the municipality that have their own police department.  Hyde Park has only ONE police department and there is NO overlapping coverage.  Town residents pay  taxes for ONE police department that provides services and is supported by the below statistics to the residents.


2) The Town of Ossining police department was NOT dissolved. It simply is limited to the demograhical area it is responsible for. More information on the town police department may be found on its website: http://www.townofossining.com/depts/police/index.htm


3) Per the below powerpoint, Ossining lists the following demographical statistics:

Area and population stats for unincorporated Town:
(This is what the Westchester County Police will cover and will not be covered by the Town or Village police departments) 

–Approximately 3 square miles
–Population 5,514
–Households  1,693 

Per the HP Police website, The Department patrols an area of approximately 37.6 square miles that include approximately 167 miles of town roads. In 2010, the Department handled 13,673 calls for service, made 462 arrests, and issued 1,837 traffic tickets. 

Compare 3 square miles to 37.6 miles and 5514 residents to approximately 30,000. Hyde Park also happens to be one of the larger municipalites in the county at almost 40 square miles compared to the town of Ossining which is only 15.6 square miles.


In regards to dissolving the police department and contracting services out to the county. How many more sheriffs would be required to patrol these 167 miles of roads? The Hyde Park Police Department is already short staffed supported by the presentation given by then Chief Broe. Also in that presentation were statistics that Hyde Park has an unusually high crime rate. How many additional cars would be needed? What about overtime to respond to these calls if no additional sheriffs will be hired? Will these costs be passed along to the taxpayer in false claims to 'save money.' As it is, a sheriff  on transport duty can make approx. $70 per hour in overtime pay shuttling prisoners to other county jails, one being Renneslear, due to the overcrowding at Dutchess County Jail. It is estimated that Dutchess County farms out these prisoners in the ballpark of $10 million dollars a year to these other prisons.  These are issues that Mr. Varuzzo should be addressing rather than trying to sell an idea that is illogical for Hyde Park.

4) Town and Villages are governed by seperate and distinct laws as per follows: http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/menugetf.cgi?COMMONQUERY=LAWS

Mr. Varuzzo  couldn't have  been bothered to do his homework by simply spending approximately 30 minutes  of his precious time to do the research online.  Instead Mr. Varuzzo chose to compare mice to elephants with this proposal he (or someone else) so desires. 

The question is, who is pulling the strings of Mr. Varuzzo to even put him up to making himself look like a babbling fool by submitting such utter rubish to the taxpayers of Hyde Park? Is it possibly another committee  member who wishes be the next sheriff of Dutchess County and be reigning in Hyde Park with sceptre in and ( and who was once a registered Democrat and changed parties when he lost in an election in a town to the south AND realized he could never run for Sheriff as a Democrat?)