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THE FOLLOWING IS ONE OF TWO LETTERS ON THE GOUVEIA PROPERTY THAT APPEAR IN THE 7/11-7/17/13 EDITION OF THE GAZETTE. This one is from Virginia Calcutti. Please also read the letter from the Chesnards in the hard edition of the paper. There is also a link to the Gazette article as well posted at the end.
To All Croton Residents:
When is enough, enough? I along with others attended the Board meeting on Monday, July 8th, with the hopes of having open dialogue with theBoard with regards to the Gouvia Property. Surprise! Surprise! We were immediately informed by Deputy Mayor Ann Gallelli (the Mayor was absent, Mr. Zambrano was also absent and no secretary was there to take minutes) that the Board could not discuss the Gouvia property as they were advised by their lawyer not to enter into any discussion with the residents as the lawyer for Mrs. Gouvia and the Village lawyer were meeting to discuss same. They would, however, listen to us but could not respond. What else is new? Isn't it interesting that no one was there to take minutes?
The Decoding of the Village Agenda which is written by Trustee Gallelli said, Laurel Gouveia resident: re: Donation of property. Ms. Gouveia is requesting a response from the Village regarding her proposed donation of property to the Village including an additional one million dollars ($1,000,000) to help maintain it. What? Where did this come from? How many meetings has the Board had, or should I say Mayor Weigman and Trustee Gallelli (we never know) with Mrs. Gouveia to come up with this offer. Have any of you heard of this before? This sure wasn't made public until now. If I missed something let me know.
What are the conditions surrounding this offer? We the residents are being left in the dark. Is this what you expected when you voted for this Board. Every step of the way (no matter what the issue) has been a fight. Open Government, I don't think so.
Mrs. Gouvia wrote a letter to the Village Board which was received on June 26, 2013 stating that she was in the process of complying with the Zoning Boards' directive to remove various outbuildings from her property. If I'm not mistaken, she was told to do this over a year ago and possibly more. She is also requesting an answer from the Village regarding her offer to donate her property (along with the additional one-million-dollar gift, to help maintain it). As I said before, I don't know where this came from. However, it indicates to me that an ongoing discussion has been going on between members of the Board, Mrs. Gouvia and their respective lawyers for quite some time.
One Million dollars will do nothing for the Village. If the Village thinks that $1,000,000 will cover expenses for this property they have another thought coming. In addition, what are they going to do with this property. No one knows. The Board can't even give us an answer as to how much the taxes are on this property. No one has actual figures. How can you even consider taking over this property when you have no answers.
I was going to list some of my concerns however, please see Dan Chesnard's letter where he breaks down some concerns he has and we, as residents of Croton should have.
We have our parks in Croton. Why not spend the money on improving these facilities. The road leading to Croton Landing is in very bad shape and needs to be blacktopped. Why not invest our money in what we have and not go above our heads for something we don't need.
Virginia Calcutti 7/9/13
GAZETE ARTICLE: http://everythingcroton.blogspot.com/2013/07/gouveia-article-gazette-week-of-711.html
Many thanks to those who still have the stomach to fight deals that were done a long time ago.
ReplyDeleteThis is what it comes down to. If you don't attend the meeting when they vote unanimously to take this property, you will be paying for yet another costly dream.
ReplyDeleteIf enough people show up and scream, this can be stopped. That's what it took when they tried to make their deal for garbage. Of coure they complained that we were uncivil but hey, when you refuse to answer the public's questions, you deserve a verbal whupping. That's what it will take here. I realize that a lot of people have been beaten down here with all the games one after another that have had to be stopped but if you don't show up or write letters, you deserve what you get.
Deletedream? more like a nightmare
DeleteNah this is over. Wink wink Nod nod. Done deal. Come on. You know it. We all know it.
ReplyDeleteThe board just does what it wants to with no regard for the residents of the village. They just ignore all questions and treat people like they are below them.
ReplyDelete