Saturday, January 16, 2016
TOUGHMAN MOVES TO HARRIMAN STATE PARK 2016
According to the official website: The Toughman Website indicates that the 2016 race--usually held in Croton and the surrounding community despite a litany of issues year after year--will now be held in Harriman State Park, Lake Welch, on September 18, 2016. See the bottom of the page at their website: http://www.toughmantri.com/toughman-race-schedule/
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Gee...I wonder why.
ReplyDeleteThat news just made my day. Goodbye and good riddance!
ReplyDeleteHip, hip, hooray!!! Thank you neighbors. Together we made sure this race is in a place it should be.
ReplyDeleteDid they even bother to tell us?
ReplyDeleteWhat will the Croton Caring Committee do without the donations? GAZETTE LETTER
ReplyDeleteAn Open Letter to Toughman organizer Dr. Richard Izzo:
In our local newspaper, The Gazette, Week of August 28 through September 3, referring to your application for an extended agreement with the Village of Croton to host the triathlons for the next five years, we read, “Almost $1 million has been raised to benefit more than 70 not-for-profit causes, with local recipients ranging from the Girl Scouts to the Croton Caring Committee, which aids the elderly and handicapped.”
Our records indicate that we received a contribution of $200 in 2009, and having raised $130,000 in 2010, we received a check for $100. We have no record of any contributions for the years 2011, 2012, or 2013 which raised $291,000.
We would expect that as the host village, the Croton Caring Committee, which is a not-for-profit organization, working within the village, would be a recipient every year.
May we hear from you please.
Sincerely,
Anne V. Kennedy, Executive Director,
Croton Caring Committee
I can't even begin to tell you how happy this news has made me. When I think how we had to put up with all the bull from members of the previous board and some still there, about how great this was for our businesses it makes my blood boil. Or how we had no control over the event, remember this:
ReplyDeleteIn an article on LoHud.com Mayor Leo Wiegman is quoted making some fairly misleading statements about the ability of the Village of Croton to stop the traffic disruptions and potentially dangerous safety conditions caused by the annual Toughman race. According to LoHud (with our emphasis added in bold):
“Mayor Leo Wiegman said the village has no control over the event because the state Department of Transportation has given Toughman permission to close the state highway. And, he said, the village has no control over the park, either; it’s owned by Westchester County.
'My position is because those decisions are out of our hand, we need to work with the race as best we can so that our police department knows what the detours are and how to direct people,' Wiegman said.” READ THE REST HERE http://www.crotonunited.org/blog-n/2015/9/2/real-toughmen-dont-pass-the-buck
Anyway to all those who participate in this race far and wide, I hope you like your new location. It is much more suited to what you do and is the perfect place.
I'd also like to thank Dick Nagle, former head of the EMS, for his faithful documenting of the problems with the Toughman and to everyone else who wrote letters, went to meetings and spoke to their neighbors. No doubt we'll see letters from people claiming to live in Croton (when they don't, remember that one) or from people who don't live in Croton saying how great this is and what a loss it is.
But in the end it's a win for Croton residents, people of faith, businesses, and for the Toughman entrants ultimately. Linda
A big thank you to all who asked questions and voiced concerns over this event. How many people were even aware when this first took place, and then contracts were signed to continue it. The icing on the cake were the arrogant comments of "It's only ONE day" and "leave for work or church 30 minutes earlier". It was like being held captive in Croton.
ReplyDeleteOr the snide comments made about those of us who noted we could not get to work and therefore would lose a day's pay. The arrogance of those people is what made me furious. Let them go to Rockland and see their race.
DeleteMake no mistake. If things had remained the same after November....you'd still be losing pay in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, the term of the five year contract they wanted.
DeleteNot only Croton I'm afraid. Good luck to the participants in their new space and frankly, good riddance. From your neighbors in Cortlandt.
ReplyDeleteIt's really sort of sad. Here you had a basically good idea that became one huge headache and one big piss-off to just about everyone, fueled in part by officials and people who don't even live here. And our own officials are not the only ones who showed poor judgment. I was very disappointed in the other towns that signed off on the closure of 9 including Cortlandt. Well we're done now and it's in a better place, unless of course the very people who loved this are EVER in a position to put us all back in our place.
ReplyDeleteWhat wonderful news!
ReplyDeleteI've been fighting the Toughmen, and then the DOT for four years and haven't been able to get any traction or help from our elected officials. I was preparing to start all over when Dick Nagle called to say that the insane disruption of our communities is over at last.
This is not only great news for Croton, Ossining, Peekskill, and Briarcliff, but also for everyone living in Westchester, Putnam, and counties to the north...
I remember your letters. Thank you so much for your efforts. I just gave up because that board never listened to anyone.
DeleteThe first of many positive changes.
ReplyDeleteHIP HIP HOORAY!
ReplyDeleteAgain were we even told?
ReplyDeleteI am so glad this race is in a better place. It was so unsuitable for this area and for our village. I just can't get over how much support it had from that board back in 2014. Remember this from Dick Nagle in Sept. '14:
ReplyDeleteWhat I fail to understand is how our Mayor and Board of Trustees could so easily be taken in by Dr. Izzo’s claims that this event is somehow good for Croton. I see absolutely no benefit in it at all for the citizens and businesses of our village.
I continue to be of the opinion that the event is dangerous to the participants as well as the very few spectators scattered along our streets who, I might add, are not shopping at our local merchants, while waiting for the fun to start.
It is more than just my opinion that the event is incredibly disruptive to the people of our village. An activity as simple as going to church in Ossining on the day of the race becomes a challenge. And never mind the folks wanting to pass through our village to points south and have found themselves lost on the back roads leading to the Taconic State Parkway. How the Mayor and Board can see this as a good thing for the Village of Croton is beyond me. I challenge the members of the Board, as I did last year, to ask drivers lost and stuck in traffic what they think of Croton now!
As for Dr. Izzo’s remark last December that a “marketing survey” claimed that the 2013 race generated $3.2 million dollars in income for Westchester County, I would love to see the methodology employed to come up with that figure and how accurate it truly is. What is accurate is that the manager of Giovanni’s on Croton Point Ave. told me personally that if it had not been for the $240 the Croton Police Department spent on lunch on the day of the race they might as well have stayed home. Indeed, 13 other local merchants from Shop Rite, the Gulf gas station and the delis in Harmon revealed to me, without exception, that the event had a negative impact on business or no impact at all. I don’t know where the $3.2 million dollars went but it sure did not come to Croton.
OH BUT WHAT ABOUT BUSINESSES! How will they ever survive without the throngs of people that shopped here that day and ate in our restaurants and delis. Oh no. After all according to the 7/23 through 7/29/15 edition of THE GAZETTE, the board of trustees (NOT CROTON UNITED WHO WASN'T ON THE BOARD AT THAT TIME) continued to "reaffirm" their belief that hosting this event was positive for the village economically and for its image!
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