Obviously making the Town Board, led by Paul Feiner, the lead agency with numerous projects, went to their heads. They believed they knew better (as always) than everyone else (proven correct thru time), and could run a large, major, very involved project. Also obvious, is that they couldn't! It seems that every time a resident makes a suggestion, unless they have a criminal record or conviction, PF digs in and does the opposite. Will the residents, along with the PF faithful, ever learn their lesson and do the opposite of what he says? Sadly, its doubtful. This Town is doomed if he stays in office any longer. I'm off to the Ardsley library to check out a new book as their budget includes purchasing books without a shower. View Comment

All three fire departments typically respond together to most calls, beefing up their per call manpower. As for the understaffing argument, the unions have a stranglehold over the departments, negotiate and mandate how many people respond on each of the apparatus. In Scarsdale, for instance, when they insisted the Chief hire more people to "adequately" staff the apparatus, the Chief took an engine out of service and divvied up that manpower to the in-service vehicles. Their goal was to hire more people. That backfired. The paid departments will not call volunteer departments into the scene of a working fire if they can anyway avoid it. They will only call other paid departments. It is not unusual for a call in Hartsdale or White Plains to wait while a Yonkers or Mt Vernon apparatus respond - all while a next door volunteer department could have been utilized. Its unionism. The career departments and most of their members are taught by their union representatives to not volunteer in their home communities, utilize volunteers or they will lose their union benefits. Many will still volunteer and keep it on the QT. It's called the Double Hatter issue, where they wear both a paid and volunteer helmet. While it violates the American Constitution as well as several laws, it still happens. Many pro-union firefighters will say they don't call volunteer departments for numerous bogus reasons. They say the volunteers are not well trained. This is false as 95% of the instructors at the fire training center in Valhalla are career firefighters! It is the best part-time employment center for paid firefighters. Then they'll say the volunteers don't come out and they can't guarantee their response. This simply isn't true. When someone calls 911 in volunteer communities, they get responses for the fire, ems, and/or call is mitigated using the same training, gear and qualified personnel as the paid departments. But go ahead, and keep calling these far away departments and hope no residents lives are put at any additional risk. Who wants to hold that press conference? As budgets get more and more bloated, the increased use of volunteers for the paid departments is the answer. But since the chiefs don't run the departments and the union’s do, that'll never happen. The other thing is it's time for the respective Boards of Fire Commissioners to take care of their beleaguered taxpayers. Stop the gravy train now that times are tight. These paid firefighters should not get a guaranteed 6 hours of overtime if they are called back in. And it shouldn't start when they answer the phone. They shouldn't have their gym gear paid for while they get to work out on department time. Let them buy their own sneakers and shorts. They can have one person take a chiefs car to the supermarket with a grocery list to get their food. If there's a call, they can respond to the scene from there. It doesn't happen all that often. BTW, the article doesn't discuss the amount of automatic alarm calls although the Hartsdale Chief did break down 50 of the 1400+ calls as real fires. How much is over-staffing just to have enough firefighters for the disproportionate ratio of actual fires to lesser runs? Another difficult to justify amount of overtime is the SWAT team for the police department and the combined Technical Rescue team comprised of both police and fire department members. Westchester County has both a SWAT and Special Operations (Technical Rescue and Hazmat) team that Greenburgh can use AT NO CHARGE and without the overtime they cost us. Greenburgh’s team's training is all overtime as are their calls (there aren’t that many) and it’s a chunk of change that would be significant for the taxpayers to get back. But the unions will fight it because they want the OT for their members. I support our fire department members but we are all struggling just to get by. It’s time they give back with us and give up some of the perks they can live without. And yes, I agree that the politicians should also shoulder some of this blame. View Comment

Maybe PF can hold another "Bash ConEd" meeting to admit that he didn't do anything for Greenburgh’s residents during this last storm either. View Comment

This is great news for flood victims, hurricane victims, and the like. Now FEMA has an extra month to ignore, refuse and do nothing for our suffering residents! Just let them go already... View Comment

Right near the temple picture you guys posted on Saturday. How apropos. View Comment

Temple at Warren and Oak Streets View Comment

You are right, the town doesn't have to bid the property. At issue is less the fact that the town can sell the property, which they should have done initially. Rather, the issue is that the town did not! Feiner created a convoluted scheme to “lend” the property to GameOn 365 for a virtual yearly pittance for 15 years. The property through this proposal is slated to make an estimated $55M for GameOn 365. That's great. But town residents shouldn't be subsidizing them. This site jumped on the Feiner bandwagon and supported the lease - which was illegal. Those of us who follow the way Feiner operates the town, know that he does whatever he pleases without regard for the law. If GameOn 365’s proposal was so good, why not see the light and take that knowledge, craft it into a bid/RFP and get the most for the Town? Because there's something in it for him and the board! It's all been posted on ABetterGreenburgh.blogspot.com - go take a look. Feiner has cost the taxpayers millions of dollars between the water department fiasco, the Fortress Bible decision against him, Juettner and the town for discrimination and destroying evidence (there is more), Dromore Road, Fulton Park, Glenville, Unincorporated Northern Greenburgh and more. Feiner is incapable of doing the morally or ethically right thing for the Town’s residents. He has to go (mostly to jail). View Comment

It’s a fact that mechanical parts fail. This would be a normal occurrence if Mr Samis was not “spot-on” with his account of what has transpired within the library and the entire project. While many of us have spoken against the plans and the proposals, this appears to be another of Feiner’s "done-deals". If they had simply added a second structure, mirroring the original with an enclosed bridge adjoining the two, we could have had so much more space, an efficient design, money in the bank, although no awards for design, and a library with more than enough room for the present and our future use. But no, they thought an extravagant design would be better. We do not have more books to read – the purpose of a library. Instead, we are told that there is no money to buy books in the budget the town board controls. There are fewer open days (closed Sundays) for children who have the time on weekends, adults who also have time on the weekends and some who just may enjoy going to the library. Yet many other area libraries are open on Sunday. Why? Lets not forget how the town wanted to make money off of Elmsford residents by increasing the annual fee for them to use the library? In an effort to "get more", the town proposed a rate hike for Elmsford residents to use the library. After all, they did only sell the property to Greenburgh for $1. Why give them a break? The Elmsford Mayor went to Ardsley and struck a deal with their library and board that was for less money and put his residents back into the Westchester Library System and in essence able to use the Greenburgh library for free. (Yes, I know its not free, but it was a stroke of genius). When will it end? Feiner should be voted out. Read more at ABetterGreenburgh.blogspot.com about Feiner and his antics. View Comment

Puff pieces? On the GDV, really? Although the heading should have included the word Advertorial, I can't really add anything as Halmarc45 has nailed it. View Comment

So does this mean the library will be open on Sunday since they are closed today? View Comment

Very cool! View Comment

This is a total waste of Greenburgh taxpayer money! The County has a Technical Rescue Team that is all-volunteer and requires no overtime be paid by residents! Every town can call them and get a faster response than "Oy Vay", who will make every effort to "make" a crime scene to exert control over the scene to be in charge and pad his colleagues wallets with unnecessary overtime! The County also has a SWAT Team and a Bomb Squad, which will also come to any community at no charge. More importantly, the Town doesn’t need either of these. View Comment

The Urinal News only hoped to get publicity out of this – and they did. Once they realized they would get this publicity, they decided to go for it. It’s a reprehensible act and had they thought this out, they would have realized that putting a picture of the map with the dots symbolizing gun permit holders would have sufficed. They are worse than our media-whore politicians. Shame on them all. If you want to find Cyndee, she’ll be out back smoking. That’s why when you call her phone it sounds like Broderick Crawford. View Comment

Read more at www.ABetterGreenburgh.blogspot.com. View Comment

Thanks for mentioning it. Republican shill Reisman’s “article” is nothing more than your press release. The Urinal News supports you and PR wants to keep his job so he tows their distorted liberal agenda. This isn’t about Ferncliff. It’s about County owned property that they gifted to the Town and you screwed up. It has all the talking points you’ve created to defer the issue of your illegal actions by violating the contract with the County. Your gig is almost up. Wait and see. View Comment

Thanks for mentioning it. Republican shill Reisman’s “article” is nothing more than your press release. The Urinal News supports you and PR wants to keep his job so he tows their distorted liberal agenda. This isn’t about Ferncliff. It’s about County owned property that they gifted to the Town and you screwed up. It has all the talking points you’ve created to defer the issue of your illegal actions by violating the contract with the County. Your gig is almost up. Wait and see. View Comment

Nothing but pandering. View Comment

Dave Wilson of the Journal News was the moderator for the night. He asked Feiner one question, “ Why did you support the WestHelp affordable housing when you were a county legislator but now as Town supervisor you don't support it?” He read from a piece of paper all the points HE wanted to make, but never answered the question. The audience was not happy. The NAACP members were mostly in agreement after Feiner claimed that the DSS referred people mostly of color to affordable housing. One gentleman took offense to Feiner’s statement and asked why Feiner would say that and his response was because he was at a meeting held by the NAACP. He’s such a lying, manipulative piece of s#%@! We need to vote him out. View Comment

Elmsford’s border ends just past I287. I know you are new to the area. That area is considered northern (Unincorporated) Greenburgh, Elmsford mailing address and both Elmsford, Greenburgh and Pocantico Hills schools. The Pocantico Hills District goes southward and ends with Beaver Hill Road. 3 Westchester Plaza is north of the Greenburgh Cinema and is in Greenburgh. View Comment

Obviously, academia doesn’t really teach economics and the cost of doing business to students or they are forcing them to use union printers. They can get a much cheaper price plus shipping for about $373 for b&w or $684 for partial color from www.makemynewspaper.com. Good luck to them. View Comment