July 18, 2004
Are politics behind push for village?
By Maureen Nandini Mitra
Times Herald-Record
[email protected]
Woodbury – A political feud may be fueling the move to create a new village in Woodbury that would duplicate borders with most of the town and practically relegate town government to the back seat.
Michael Queenan and Don Siebold, key figures in putting together a petition to incorporate a new village, are both town officials and Woodbury Republican Committee members. Both have had differences of opinion with Supervisor Sheila Conroy and have publicly criticized her on occasion.
Conroy is also a Republican.
Siebold is a town Zoning Board member. Queenan, who's the town Planning Board chairman and is spearheading the incorporation effort, told the Record last week that the move was "an internal issue" and he floated the petition because he felt the Town Board wasn't doing enough to control land use and zoning.
He also predicted that if the village was created there would probably be "no need for a full-time supervisor."
The push to create the proposed village comes as many in southern Orange County are eyeing the rapidly expanding Village of Kiryas Joel and its plans to tap New York City water with concern.
Conroy, meanwhile, said people had come to her asking whether there were political undertones to the incorporation move.
"I certainly am concerned about the quotes from Mr. Queenan in the paper the other day and the direction they seemed to be taking," Conroy said Friday.
Conroy and Councilwoman Lorraine McNeill, also a Republican, drew the town Republican Committee's ire a few months ago when they refused to vote for a proposed ethics law. They said the proposed law was defective because it didn't include a clause preventing chairmen of political committees and clubs from being appointed to, or employed in, town positions.
Woodbury Republican Committee Chairman Ralph Caruso is also the chairman of the town Zoning Board. He, too, is said to be involved in the plan to create a new village.
More than half of Woodbury's roughly 20 Republican Committee members are town employees or are on various town boards. These include Town Board members Geraldine Gianzero and Michael Aronowitz, both of whom said the move to create a village was a bipartisan grassroots effort and has nothing to do with politics.
Councilwoman Colleen Campbell echoed that view.
"From a rational point of view, Conroy has a year left in office, so to go through the process of incorporation to have her removed doesn't make sense," Campbell said.
"I think Sheila at this point is not sure what's going on," said Gianzero. "She sees this as a personal attack ... She's playing into other people's paranoia."
Gianzero said there was nothing stopping Town Board members from running for village positions once their terms with the town were over.
Proponents of the new village hope creating it would give them greater control over zoning and prevent the neighboring Village of Kiryas Joel from annexing land and building high density homes. But information about the pros and cons of a village has been, at best, garbled.
"The people carrying the petitions gave very feeble answers as to whether the taxes would increase, or the town would continue to exist," said McNeill, who believes the move "all boils down to politics."
Members of the Southern Orange County Alliance, a grassroots group fighting the Village of Kiryas Joel's pipeline proposal, said they too believe people are being given "misinformation" regarding the move to create a village.
Jonathan Swiller, a SOCA member who lives in Woodbury, said he heard "rumors" that the move was politically motivated. "We are hoping that they are not true," he said "We are very disturbed at the possibility that there are people out there who would exploit the fears, very real fears, of the people of Orange County to their very own ends."
The alliance is planning to hold an informational meeting on the pros and cons of incorporating as a village.
Caruso didn't return phone calls Friday and yesterday. Queenanהטקסט שלך כאן
