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March 12, 2011
To the Editor:
Little did I know, when I walked into Mr. Gilmore's spacious corner office at the DPW building in the summer of 2006 to inquire about the permit status of the house I was looking to buy, that Gilmore, the LDC and the former administration had built a completely illegal building and left village taxpayers with the million dollar bill for it.
How could that have happened? Who was minding the store? We don't know all the details yet but we do know a few things: first, the contract for construction of the DPW building was between the LDC and Burns & Whalen. But strangely, responsibility for one major part of the construction project was retained by the Village: the foundation work for the building on the former dump site on Shore Road. Yet the Village never made any contract with any engineer or architect to design any such foundation. In fact, to the contrary, Village Engineer James Fitzsimmons not only warned at that time against building on the doubtful soils on that property without driving piles to ensure stability but warned specifically that a "pole barn" type building was the wrong design for such soils.
So who allowed it to go forward? We still don't know. But we do know that certain inconclusive surface soil tests were ordered after Mr. Fitzsimmons' warning and that the test results were faxed to Mr. Edsall. And we do know that Mr. Whalen, who acquired the former DPW building, is Mr. Edsall's brother-in-law and has development plans for which he needed that property. Is there any wonder why Mr. Edsall sought to get rid of the building inspector who discovered the building to be illegal? Or failed to recuse himself from the DPW building investigations this past year? If he really wanted us to benefit from his many years of "engineering experience," why hasn't he shown more interest in holding those who engineered the defective building responsible for their work? But he has never even identified who that was. As you consider whom to vote for this Tuesday, ask yourselves why not.
Why was the Village engineer ignored in 2005, Mr. Edsall? Did you design the DPW foundation? If not, who did that work on behalf of the Village?
These problems aren't going away, no matter who wins next Tuesday. But who takes office next month could make a big difference in how much it costs taxpayers to solve them. Vote wisely.
Jonathan Chase
Cornwall-on-Hudson
(Jonathan Chase is an attorney for village Mayor Joseph Gross.)
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