Despite numerous reservations about the wisdom of moving the Department of Public Works City Yard, the New Rochelle City Council voted 6-1 last night to approve borrowing $600,000 to finance the design phase of the proposed City Yard on Beechwood Avenue. The City will issue bonds to raise the money.
The two Republicans on the City Council have argued that spending money towards moving the City Yard to Beechwood Avenue without a viable plan to develop the current City Yard location on East Main Street is premature.
Ivar Hyden has expressed reservations about the Beechmont Avenue location due to traffic and quality of life issues for residents.
Mayor Noam Bramson has argued that the DPW City Yard must be moved to to Beechwood Avenue or completely renovated in its current location. The Mayor has cited studies stating that the Beechwood Avenue location is the best location for the City Yard and that moving to the new location at Beechwood Avenue would cost $13 million, less than the cost of renovating the current location.
City Manager Charles B. Strome has argued that it does not make sense to spend money to a design a facility at a specific location without first knowing that the City intends to move the City Yard to that location. A resolution last week to approve moving the City Yard was not acted upon by the Council.
When Council Member Al Tarantino asked about the impact of bonding to move the City Yard to the Beechwood Avenue location, Strome said the cost would be between $800,000 and $1 million a year.
The current interest rate on a 20-year Treasury bond is about 2.5%. To borrow $13 million at 3.5% for 20 years, compounded annually, is about $900,000. The cost of the bond, interest on the loan, is about $5 million over the life of the bond. A payment of $1 million a year implies a bond of $14.5 million, 11% higher or $1.5 million more than than the cost stated by Mayor Bramson.
Many New Rochelle residents have expressed skepticism over what they perceive to be self-serving studies intended to justify decisions made by city officials who want to move the yard at taxpayer expense to benefit Forest City Ratner. The Ratner family has donated over $10,000 to Mayor Noam Bramson.
Council Member Ivar Hyden has raised concerns about Ratner during executive session, citing a recent article in the New York Times: New York Times Tags Bruce Ratner, Noam Bramson’s Favorite Developer, as “Intriguing Tie” in Federal Corruption Cases.
Four current and former Forest City Ratner officials have been named as possible witnesses in the Federal corruption trials involving Yonkers city officials. Forest City Ratner has been a central player in numerous criminal investigations for various projects in the New York metropolitan area.
Hyden and DPW Commissioner Alex Turgis have expressed concern over the sanitary conditions at the current location as a reason to support the re-location to the City Yard. Turgis told the Council that sanitation workers, at the end of their work day, are required to get into their personal vehicles and drive home to take a shower. Turgis stated that this is an especially acute problem during the summer months.
In casting the lone dissenting vote, City Council Member Louis Trangucci said ““I think at this time it’s not wise to move this forward. I cannot support this.”
Another concern, never stated publicly on City Council, is the nature of the deal under which the City purchased the Beechmont property in the first place. According to sources familiar with the transaction, then-Mayor and current Westchester County City Clerk Timothy Idoni agreed to purchase the property from auto-dealer and real estate investor Don Leer for $5 million, well-above the market price. Current estimates on the value of the land are below $1 million.
According to these same sources, Leer then used the money from the sale at Beechwood to purchase the old Tuck Tape property which then became part of the parcel designated by the City under the Echo Bay/Forest City MOU. During a City Council meeting in 2011 to discuss extending the Echo Bay MOU, Abe Naparstek, Director of Development, Forest City Residential Group (Echo Bay), complained that the owners of the Tuck Tape parcel were asking an unreasonable price for the property and holding up the deal.
In other City Council news, a proposed Memorandum of Understanding with Albanese, developer of the Main Street Core Project was put off for future discussion. Support on the City Council for the Albanese project appears to be thin with Democrat Ivar Hyden openly breaking with the Mayor.
Did anyone ask where the money’s coming from?
So where did Strome say the $1 million to pay the principal & interest on the $13 million loan is going to come from? Do they even have a plan? Why doesn’t the city have a 5 year financial outlook or master plan?
Did anyone ask about where the money’s coming from to pay the loan payments? I don’t think New Rochelle can bond the p & i payments.
Mr. Trangucci can’t think of every question to ask. I personally think if the city has a spare million to spend annually, why not fix the roads? If its costing me a bundle to replace the suspension on my car due to the lack of road maintenance, think of what New Rochelle could save on its fleet of vehicles.
City Yard
Granted something needs to be done about the City Yards work conditions but walk before you run. Before anyone makes a deal you put all the cards on the table, not the case here in NR. Lets spend the money we don’t have to get a plan, get the money we don’t have to build it and then figure out how Strome is going to stick it to the taxpayer. No economics 101 here, just spend, spend, spend. What about building up the city for added sales revenue with shopping to help offset some of these projects instead of ridiculous parking restrictions to boost revenue. New Rochelle is in big trouble and digging themselves deeper by spending money we don’t have.
Wait I know what it is….Democratic Spending…..
How could Tarantino vote for
How could Tarantino vote for this? If its bad its bad regardless of anything.
He’s turning into another Joe Fosnia. (Sorry in advance if I spelled that wrong, it been years since that guy’s been around)
Cappellis is Favorite Developer
Ratner is second Favorite Developer.
My prediction is Echo Bay remains Dormant for years and Echo Bay Development never gets built in any manner. The Mayor may still tear down enough of the Armory to stick it to the Veterans and the Save the Armory group as he will blame them for some of the delays in the process.
You could see this coming from a mile away when they redistricted to have a Super Majority on the Council. Lou and Albert will have the same facial expressions that Mr. M boyle wore for years and the dance continues.
The proof is however in the Pudding. New Rochelle continues to lag behind virtually all other City’s in Westchester Country in terms of retail development. The tax payers are bled out as they are servicing Pensions, Health Plans and a School system sucking them dry. Property values will not rise any time soon. Services dwindle and its pretty ugly when you look closely. The city is running
Rampant with Dollars Stores and Fruit Stands, New Roc is empty, Lawton Street is a vacant lot might as well have another vacant lot on US1 or maybe another used car lot. The Cancer is Bramson, The Cancer is his group of Democratic Butt Boys Like Fertel and the Citizenry are only going to get more of the same. Sad lets all vote for Bramson for US Congress.
Bramson at work. Stack the
Bramson at work. Stack the council in his favor with a democratic majority, get projects started that will cost taxpayers money, bust the tax cap, raise your taxes to the breaking point.