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GREENBURGH, N.Y. – Just days after a vote on an indoor recreational facility seemed imminent, Greenburgh has put the brakes on the plan.
Town Supervisor Paul Feiner said Tuesday he wants to delay a vote until July on a deal with Game On 365 that if approved, would bring a sports bubble with a clubhouse and indoor soccer field to the abandoned lot at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road.
“This way nobody can say we are rushing it through,” Feiner told the town board during a work session.
A vote on the 15-year lease for the proposed Westchester Field House originally was put on the agenda for Wednesday’s regularly scheduled meeting of the town board. Citing his past pledge to make available a copy of the lease, which has yet to be posted on the town’s website, the supervisor said Tuesday he wanted to delay the vote.
“It gives me a chance to provide adequate notice,” Feiner said, later adding the lease should be posted on the town website sometime next week.
Game On’s plan for an outdoor soccer field and 15,000-square-foot clubhouse attached to a 94,000-square-foot dome housing four turf playing fields and two hard court surfaces has become the town’s preferred option to occupy the abandoned lot.
It has been estimated the facility would pay $260,000 in annual rent to occupy the nearly 7-acre area left vacant after Frank’s Nursery went bankrupt and the town foreclosed on the property last year. Both sides said any lease agreement would be contingent on an environmental review and traffic study.
In the meantime, Feiner has scheduled a community outreach meeting for 7 p.m. July 18 outside Frank’s Nursery to discuss the proposed lease.
Comments (2)
Supposedly, this deal cannot happen until Feiner has his lackey Abinanti and do-nothing cohort Cousins get the Finneran Law changed in Albany! And yet, Feiner is moving forward like he knows something the rest of us don't. There's collusion in the air...
Now how did this hysteria come about?
Because Feiner SCHEDULED the Resolution to vote on the lease at the Town Board Meeting today.
Feiner the PROBELM CREATOR posing as the PROBLEM SOLVER.
Had the Town released the Lease as it said it intended to do there would be no fuss.
Instead Feiner tried to sneak it through; got caught and is now playing the resident-friendly card.
Typical here in Dog Park USA.
And with all the rain lately, is it really sensible to schedule a meeting at Frank's (outside)? What is the true, objective benefit to discussing the Lease on the site? Residents pay taxes toward the purchase and maintenance of Town Hall -- a weatherproof venue, air conditioned and not limited by oncoming darkness which could cut the meeting time short to the benefit of the Town Board.
Not to mention the taxpayer born cost to provide seats and a sound system and clean-up.
More of the gamesmanship played by the Feiner team which always maintains control of the ball.
And what makes the $260,000 rent a fair market rent? No appraisal has yet been conducted for the property. Because it is Town owned, there are no property taxes which is a "freebie" when compared with other "commercial" leases. If the Town is going to ignore its own zoning and height restrictions, how many "interested parties" knew of this: was it "spelled out"? If the Town was willing to do this, then the location off a highway (and visible from) has an even greater value.
As for the questionable market rent of $260,000 itself, when does that start and is that the full amount that appears in the rent commencement start date?
Taxpayers will know when the 2013 Town Budget is released that even this number; even with the risible Ferncliff rent added; even with the doubtful Sportime tennis lease; that Feiner's "little lies are rounded ending in deep s__t". Pardon my Shakespeare but Feiner's commitment to the Valhalla School District at the expense of Greenburgh taxpayers led to the loss of $1,200,000 in annual rent -- rent not coming Greenburgh's way when Feiner allowed the lease to expire with offering a renewal.
Any way you shovel it, GameOn + Ferncliff + Sportime = an annual $300,000 loss in rent had WESTHELP been allowed to renew. And I'm not forgetting the gone forever $900,000 in rent that would have been paid by WESTHELP from October 2011 - June 2012 had Feiner renewed the lease.
Next month, July, add another $100,000 of lost money and another $100,000 in August etc.
Money that Feiner would have had available for Greenburgh's use to reduce taxes and maintain programs.
But instead we have certificates of appreciation for the Eagle Scouts. That's Greenburgh where the "flies guard the flypaper".
Hal Samis