ROHR'S AMAZING STORIES
The editors at the HV News Lies found the flowing comment posted on the Poughkeepsie Journal comment section in response to the Journal's support for Ms. Rohr. It seems that this reader knows more than the Journal does and uses facts rather then the Journals unsupported assertions.
In 2006, Stop & Shop filed its application for site plan approval to move
across Route 9 into a mostly vacant shopping center. Former Democratic Town
Supervisor Delafield and his administration's Planning Board delayed the
approvals until 2010 when a new Republican Administration took office. It took
two more years for Stop & Shop to resolve issues with NYS DEC so that it
could open. Aileen Rohr was part of the Planning Board that delayed the
approvals. Dunkin Donuts moved to its present location when the Planning Board
and DOT tried to force the owners to spend approximately a half a million
dollars to reconfigure the intersection of Mansion Drive and Route 9 as a
condition of upgrading its former location.
The Town of Hyde Park finances were finally brought under professional management
when a Republican Town Board established the position of Town Comptroller. Establishing the position of Town Comptroller entrusted the day to day finances of the Town of Hyde Park to a competent professional rather than the sporadic oversight by an overworked Town Board.
Supervisor Delafield, now-Councilman Truitt and the Hyde Park Democrats
protested loudly at Town Board meetings that the Town of Hyde Park could not
afford a Comptroller and the existing bookkeeper was plenty good. Since the
finances of the Town of Hyde Park were turned over to the competent oversight of a Town Comptroller by the prior Republican Administration, decades of financial
mismanagement were uncovered.
Aileen Rohr and other Democrats shrilly
screamed at the fiscal progress made by the prior Republican Administration.
Aileen Rohr and other Democrats shrilly screamed at attempts to draw business to
the property across from the CIA. The level of vitriol from the public has
subsided because the vitriolic were elected and the opposition is civil. The
contempt that the present Supervisor and Town Board shows for the public is
palpable. While comment from the public is tolerated, no response is ever given
and there is never a debate. In the last administration meetings were lively and
raucous because debate was entertained and questions were answered. Many didn't
like the answers they were given, particularly on the issue of the Comptroller.
It is quite odd that the Democratic critics of creating the Comptroller's
position are now lavishing praise on the current Comptroller's performance. How
can his performance be so great if the position shouldn't
exist?
Like prior Democrat administrations, obtaining grants for
studies is viewed as some sort of progress. It is not. Aileen Rohr and Emily
Swenson obtained a grant to do a study for sidewalks in the Town Center. The
report entitled "Hyde Park Town Center Pedestrian Study" was issued on April 15,
2013 but it has not been discussed at Town Board meeting and is not on the Town
website. (It is on the Dutchess County Planning Website however
http://www.co.dutchess.ny.us/CountyGov/Departments/TransportationCouncil/hptcps.pdf) Why is the vaunted study not being touted? Perhaps the public comments found at page A-9 of
the study are a reason.
Funding/Taxes
•Stop spending money! Taxpayers
are defaulting on their mortgages. The feds are not going to bail us out!
Businesses are leaving Hyde Park, has this not occurred to you? Lower taxes are
important to Hyde Park's vitality. It is too dangerous for children to walk
alone to school.
•This town cannot afford another penny of increased taxes. I
do not support an increase in taxes for sidewalks that benefit so few of the
taxpayers in Hyde Park.
•Ask how many pedestrians in our town? Don't waste
money and time.
•We are already taxed to death.
•Forget sidewalks, lower
property tax!
•I would like to see them improved but can't support an
increase in taxes when I haven't had a pay increase in more than 5 years.
•Do
not raise our taxes anymore by building sidewalks. We do not need them. The
town did not follow the tax cap last year. They don't care about the residents;
they just want to spend our money. Taxes keep going up but my salary does not.
We can't keep up with it.
•Get rid of the vacant store fronts, make them
more appealing to businesses to rent by lowering taxes to everyone.
The
vast majority of residents in the Town of Hyde Park don't have sidewalks and do
see them as a necessity. They are viewed as a waste of taxpayer money.
Virtually all of the sidewalks in the Town are in the 2 Ward. Why should
residents in the 1st, 3rd and 4th Wards pay for sidewalks they don't have? The
economic benefits of sidewalks in Hyde Park are questionable. Pete's Famous
Diner had a sidewalk and was located at the trailhead of the Winakee Land Trust
walking trail. The diner is out of business. The Crossroads Pub at the vaunted
Crossroads is out of business and shuttered and it has a
sidewalk.
Sidewalks as some sort of economic lifeline shows the lack of
vision that this Town Board has for the Town of Hyde Park. Decades of
anti-development opposition from groups like Stop the Sprawl, led by Aileen
Rohr, Scenic Hudson and the National Park Service has given Hyde Park a
reputation as being hostile to business. Business owners who have to invest
millions of dollars in a project recall the fickle nature of the Town of Hyde
Park. Even though the Nancy Alden administration was in the early 1990's, the
business community still recalls the about face on the Walmart shopping center.
The lack of business trust in Hyde Park is a result of laws that value turtles
over commercial property tax revenues.
On November 5, 2013, the voters
of the Town of Hyde Park need to vote for candidates that can re-establish the
trust of the investor community, not Aileen Rohr and the proponents of
sidewalks to vacant storefronts.
Jim
Horan
Hyde
Park
Jim
Horan was Attorney for the Town of Hyde Park during the Martino
Administration
In 2006, Stop & Shop filed its application for site plan approval to move
across Route 9 into a mostly vacant shopping center. Former Democratic Town
Supervisor Delafield and his administration's Planning Board delayed the
approvals until 2010 when a new Republican Administration took office. It took
two more years for Stop & Shop to resolve issues with NYS DEC so that it
could open. Aileen Rohr was part of the Planning Board that delayed the
approvals. Dunkin Donuts moved to its present location when the Planning Board
and DOT tried to force the owners to spend approximately a half a million
dollars to reconfigure the intersection of Mansion Drive and Route 9 as a
condition of upgrading its former location.
The Town of Hyde Park finances were finally brought under professional management
when a Republican Town Board established the position of Town Comptroller. Establishing the position of Town Comptroller entrusted the day to day finances of the Town of Hyde Park to a competent professional rather than the sporadic oversight by an overworked Town Board.
Supervisor Delafield, now-Councilman Truitt and the Hyde Park Democrats
protested loudly at Town Board meetings that the Town of Hyde Park could not
afford a Comptroller and the existing bookkeeper was plenty good. Since the
finances of the Town of Hyde Park were turned over to the competent oversight of a Town Comptroller by the prior Republican Administration, decades of financial
mismanagement were uncovered.
Aileen Rohr and other Democrats shrilly
screamed at the fiscal progress made by the prior Republican Administration.
Aileen Rohr and other Democrats shrilly screamed at attempts to draw business to
the property across from the CIA. The level of vitriol from the public has
subsided because the vitriolic were elected and the opposition is civil. The
contempt that the present Supervisor and Town Board shows for the public is
palpable. While comment from the public is tolerated, no response is ever given
and there is never a debate. In the last administration meetings were lively and
raucous because debate was entertained and questions were answered. Many didn't
like the answers they were given, particularly on the issue of the Comptroller.
It is quite odd that the Democratic critics of creating the Comptroller's
position are now lavishing praise on the current Comptroller's performance. How
can his performance be so great if the position shouldn't
exist?
Like prior Democrat administrations, obtaining grants for
studies is viewed as some sort of progress. It is not. Aileen Rohr and Emily
Swenson obtained a grant to do a study for sidewalks in the Town Center. The
report entitled "Hyde Park Town Center Pedestrian Study" was issued on April 15,
2013 but it has not been discussed at Town Board meeting and is not on the Town
website. (It is on the Dutchess County Planning Website however
http://www.co.dutchess.ny.us/CountyGov/Departments/TransportationCouncil/hptcps.pdf) Why is the vaunted study not being touted? Perhaps the public comments found at page A-9 of
the study are a reason.
Funding/Taxes
•Stop spending money! Taxpayers
are defaulting on their mortgages. The feds are not going to bail us out!
Businesses are leaving Hyde Park, has this not occurred to you? Lower taxes are
important to Hyde Park's vitality. It is too dangerous for children to walk
alone to school.
•This town cannot afford another penny of increased taxes. I
do not support an increase in taxes for sidewalks that benefit so few of the
taxpayers in Hyde Park.
•Ask how many pedestrians in our town? Don't waste
money and time.
•We are already taxed to death.
•Forget sidewalks, lower
property tax!
•I would like to see them improved but can't support an
increase in taxes when I haven't had a pay increase in more than 5 years.
•Do
not raise our taxes anymore by building sidewalks. We do not need them. The
town did not follow the tax cap last year. They don't care about the residents;
they just want to spend our money. Taxes keep going up but my salary does not.
We can't keep up with it.
•Get rid of the vacant store fronts, make them
more appealing to businesses to rent by lowering taxes to everyone.
The
vast majority of residents in the Town of Hyde Park don't have sidewalks and do
see them as a necessity. They are viewed as a waste of taxpayer money.
Virtually all of the sidewalks in the Town are in the 2 Ward. Why should
residents in the 1st, 3rd and 4th Wards pay for sidewalks they don't have? The
economic benefits of sidewalks in Hyde Park are questionable. Pete's Famous
Diner had a sidewalk and was located at the trailhead of the Winakee Land Trust
walking trail. The diner is out of business. The Crossroads Pub at the vaunted
Crossroads is out of business and shuttered and it has a
sidewalk.
Sidewalks as some sort of economic lifeline shows the lack of
vision that this Town Board has for the Town of Hyde Park. Decades of
anti-development opposition from groups like Stop the Sprawl, led by Aileen
Rohr, Scenic Hudson and the National Park Service has given Hyde Park a
reputation as being hostile to business. Business owners who have to invest
millions of dollars in a project recall the fickle nature of the Town of Hyde
Park. Even though the Nancy Alden administration was in the early 1990's, the
business community still recalls the about face on the Walmart shopping center.
The lack of business trust in Hyde Park is a result of laws that value turtles
over commercial property tax revenues.
On November 5, 2013, the voters
of the Town of Hyde Park need to vote for candidates that can re-establish the
trust of the investor community, not Aileen Rohr and the proponents of
sidewalks to vacant storefronts.
Jim
Horan
Hyde
Park
Jim
Horan was Attorney for the Town of Hyde Park during the Martino
Administration