Bill of Rights Defenders Organize

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WPCNR GRASS ROOTS REPORTER. From Bill of Rights Defense Campaign. June 22, 2003: About forty people sat in a discussion circle at the White PlainsPublic Library Wednesday night, expressing their concerns about the loss of civil liberties
since 9-11 under the USA PATRIOT Act. Representatives from 14 communities and several cosponsoring organizations attended the organizing meeting of the Westchester Bill of Rights Defense Campaign (BORDC) under the sponsorship of the Westchester Chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

Wesley Stromberg, head of the local effort, recounted how it got started. At the Chapter’s annual meeting in March, Attorney Udi Ofer, project director of the BORDC for New York State, spoke about how the USA PATRIOT Act curtails a number of civil liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.

Nationally, 127 cities and towns and three states have passed resolutions opposing the infringement of rights in the name of national security. The decision was then made to launch a petition drive to persuade the County and local governments to pass similar resolutions.

Provisions allowing for searches without notification, indefinite detention, and holding immigration hearings in secret were among those raising concern. The issue creating the most comment was section 215, which authorizes federal agents to demand library and bookstore records and prohibits librarians and booksellers from informing anyone whose records had been searched.

Attendees were urged to support Hr 1157, the Freedom to Read Protection Act sponsored by Congressman Sanders of Vermont.

Several people spoke on the need to reach out and educate the public on the content and deleterious effect of the act, as well as its possible successor, the Domestic Security Enhancement Act, also known as Patriot Act II.

Other committee actions included setting goals for the number of signatures and a time for completion of the petition drive and establishing a number of sub-committees to work on particular phases of the campaign. Further information is available from the NYCLU Westchester Chapter office at 2 William St.,Room 200, White Plains 10601, or by calling the Chapter at (914) 997-7479.

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Council: We’re With You All the Way. Mayor Gets No Nix on Stimac-Rosenstock

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WPCNR STAGE DOOR. By John F. Bailey. June 20, 2003: Mayor Delfino’s Wednesday ultimatum Memo to Common Council members asking any councilpersons who had reservations about Tony Stimac of the Helen Hayes Theatre Company and Jeffrey Rosenstock of the Queens Theatre in the Park being contracted to run the White Plains Performing Arts Center went unchallenged by Councilmembers by end of the city hall day.

Paul Wood, City Hall spokesman, reported at 5:45 P.M. today that the Mayor had not heard from any councilperson expressing they did not want Rosenstock and Stimac to run the new City Center theatre that will belong to White Plains to run, and is expected to have its opening night in mid-October.

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Adam In Albany: The New Assemblyman on Lobbying and Disclosure

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WPCNR’S ADAM IN ALBANY. By District 89 Assemblyman Adam T. Bradley. June 20, 2003:For the last several years, from the front pages to editorials in newspapers across the state, public outcry for lobby reform has grown steadily louder and public confidence in the process has been in decline. I have called for sweeping reforms of these unregulated practices.

Literally billions of taxpayer dollars flow into these contracts every year and, under current law, no one is accountable for the millions and millions of dollars spent behind the scenes to influence lucrative state and municipal contracts. Right now, rampant lobbying has become a blemish on New York’s democracy and an obstruction to the open, good government New York needs and deserves.

This year, I supported legislation to strengthen and expand controls on government lobbying (A.9062). This measure would extend oversight to include the vast and largely unregulated area of procurement of goods and services for state agencies, local governments and public authorities. This legislation would also shine a light on lobbying of state agencies and on those who attempt to influence the governor on the issuing of executive orders.

Currently, those that lobby state agencies are completely unrestricted. One famous lobbyist was paid $500,000 simply for making a call to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. This unregulated activity must stop.

Current law covers disclosure of lobbying associated with legislative decisions, but does not cover the awarding of state or municipal contracts or lobbying of state agencies or the governor and his staff for the issuance of executive orders.

The Assembly’s bill would expand the definition of lobbying to include any effort to influence the action of any public official – state or municipal – regarding procurement of goods and services. This includes efforts to influence the implementation of rules and regulations, as well as executive decisions regarding legislation, and executive orders.

The Assembly’s reforms are part of the common sense solutions necessary to beginning the process of closing all the loopholes that undermine good government. These significant reforms will go a long way toward bringing greater accountability and oversight to the important decisions which are made in the corridors of our government, and ensure that there is accountability for those that act on behalf of the special interests instead of the public good.

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Curtain Call for Council on Theatre Impresarios: Mayor Demands Clarification

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WPCNR STAGE DOOR. By John F. Bailey. June 19, 2003:Mayor Joseph Delfino has sent a memorandum obtained by WPCNR, to the members of the White Plains Common Council demanding to know whether their choice of Tony Stimac and Jeffrey Rosenstock is still their choice.

The Mayor has given Benjamin Boykin, Robert Greer, Glen Hockley, William King, Rita Malmud, Tom Roach until tomorrow, Friday, June 20 to advise him whether are not they still want the two gentlemen to run the White Plains Performing Arts Center.

Eyewitnesses saw Mr. Stimac at City Hall today, Thursday. The contract between the two gentlemen and the city is currently being drawn up by the legal department, according to Susan Habel who told WPCNR this Tuesday.

What is significant about the Mayor’s memorandum is that it accuses “members of the Common Council” of having had “discussions with representatives of WESTCO Productions regarding the Council’s unanimous selection of another operator (Messrs. Rosenstock and Stimac) “

The Memorandum also indicates that if the Common Council so feels, “the approved memo of understanding could be rescinded in favor of a new memo of understanding with WESTCO Productions if that is the will of the majority of the council.”

Mayor is confused.

The Mayor’s memo points out that the Council “voted unanimously” and was “tremendously enthusiastic about its choice.” The Mayor writes, “I am now a little bit confused based on comments that I am hearing. In light of the fact that we still have not signed the contract with the selected operator, if any member of the council having even the slightest of second thoughts regarding the selection, please let me know by Friday, June 20th and I will schedule a public meeting of the council to discuss the matter.”

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Sea Star Diner Descends into History.

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WPCNR WHITE PLAINS STREET. June 19, 2003: The Sea Star Diner was in the process of being demolished today, to make way for a bank. The Diner was long a meeting and greeting place for community movers and shakers, and distinguished for its friendly service and extensive menus will be missed by its regulars.



THE LAST OF THE SEA STAR AT 4 PM.
Photo by WPCNR News

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Interior Visual Look of Theatre to Be Presented to Council. Memory Lapses.

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WPCNR STAGE DOOR. By John F. Bailey. June 18, 2003: Susan Habel, Commissioner of Planning, informed WPCNR Tuesday that the visual appearance of the White Plains Performing Arts Theatre, which has not been unveiled to this date, would be presented to the Common Council for their approval in the near future, but did not give a time frame.

Ms. Habel sought out WPCNR Tuesday at the Mayor’s Safe Housing Task Force News Conference to make clear to WPCNR the process for determining what the White Plains Performing Arts Center was going to look like.

Habel told WPCNR that she, Commissioner of Public Works Joseph Nicoletti and Commissioner of Recreation and Parks, Arne Abramowitz and the Mayor’s Executive Officer, George Gretsas were only approving the Performing Arts Center design in regard to its compliance with White Plains codes and building regulations.

Council Will Decide the Set Design.

She emphatically said the quartet were not passing judgement or imposing their tastes on the design of it. WPCNR had thought this was the case, based on Ms. Habel’s comments last week, when she told me those city officials were approving the designs of the theatre.

“The theatre has been architecturally designed to work within the city condominium (the theatre space), it’s 17,000 square feet of space, and the architectural and engineering plans are reviewed (by Habel, Nicoletti, Abramowitz, Gretsas and the Building Department) within our city departments. The Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning are in, and most of the Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing are in, and the theatrical electronic equipment, (lighting, sound, control systems) is being evaluated at this time. Fuller construction and HRH Construction, (Compelli’s firms) have the design/build contract. The “interior finish” will be selected by the architect and will be reviewed by the Common Council.” Ms. Habel said.
Habel said that National Amusements, Inc. theatre architect, Shapiro, Petrauskas Gelber of Philadelphia, which is designing the National Amusements theatres in the City Center, is now designing the look of the Performing Arts Center.

National Amusements had told WPCNR that their architect was on stand-by to help design the theater if they were needed last month. Ms. Habel’s report confirmed for the first time that the National Amusements architect was definitely handling the specifications and the appearance of the entire White Plains Performing Arts Center project. She said the firm had extensive experience in theater design, specifications and the latest audio, lighting and production equipment.

Shapiro Petrauskas Gelber, or SPG3 as it now calls itself, designed The Bridge in Philadelphia, a movie complex on the University of Pennsylvania campus for National Amusements, and it specializes in retail movie theatre design. Examples of their projects are available on the company’s website at www.spgarch.com.

A spokesperson at SPG3’s office told WPCNR that the firm specialized in designing modernistic consumer movie theater complexes, examples of which can be seen on their website.

RFP Amendment a Legal Technicality, Habel explains.

While on the subject, WPCNR asked Ms. Habel why the amendment to the RFP, which legally allowed Tony Stimac and Jeffrey Rosenberg to contend for the prize of managing and programming the White Plains Performing Arts Center, was sent out six weeks after the original RFP deadline. She explained it was a legal requirement:

“Because it was an RFP process, and we had met with the people and we requested additional information,” Habel explained that any organization who received the original RFP had to be given an opportunity to reapply if they wished because the Council had asked for such new information and it would have been unfair to those other organizations sent the original Request for Proposal, not to give them an opportunity to reply.

Asked why the new information was requested May 21, six weeks after the RFP deadline of April 4, Habel said the Common Council had met with Stimac and Rosenstock, Centerpoint Stage and Westco Productions, reviewed their proposals and asked for new information and new conditions not spelled out in the original Request for Proposal, which she characterized as being unfair to the 15 organizations sent the original RFP.

Enter Stimac and Rosenstock Stage Late.

Asked when Tony Stimac and Jeffrey Rosenstock had originally come to the attention of the city as being interested in the project, Ms. Habel said she did not remember, saying she was not handling that that the Department of Recreation and Parks was, though she did say that the city got inquiries from as far away as California.

Curious as to when Messrs. Stimac and Rosenstock first submitted their proposal after the deadline (WPCNR first learned of them on May 8, four weeks after the April 4 deadline), we asked Council President Benjamin Boykin on our way out of City Hall when Rosenstock and Stimac first read for the part. We asked when he first heard of the pair, and he did not remember, either.

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Garbage, Multi-Cars at Single Family Home? Call 422-1291

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WPCNR CITY HALL BEAT. June 18, 2003, UPDATED 12:15 PM E.D.T. June 19, 2003: If there are homes in your neighborhood which appear to have more garbage and more cars than single or two-family homes can produce, the Safe Housing Task Force encourages you to report your suspicions to 422-1291, and the Building, Fire and Police Departments will jointly investigate the premises.

Mayor Joseph Delfino introduced a coordinated effort between the White Plains Building Department, Fire and Police Bureaus named the “Safe Housing Task Force” yesterday. Its purpose is to “identify unsafe and illegal premises and prosecute persons responsible for such conditions,” according to the official Police-Fire-Building Department news release.

The major difference in the latest effort to attack the chronic illegal housing in the city, (similar efforts in Del Vecchio and Schulman administrations according to persons familiar with police efforts at the time were ineffectual), is that for the first time the city will coordinate information between police, fire and building departments on the identification, enforcement, and remediation of the identified “unsafe” conditions.

A bilingual flyer in English and Spanish has been prepared for distribution to landlords, tenants identified as possible violators, and the flyer reports “One of the primary initiatives for the task force is to indentify unsafe properties and have them restored to a safe condition. The Task Force was also developed to be able to quickly respond to any reported safety or fire code violations.”

Task Force to Crack Down on Landlord Laxness. Gives Tenants, Neighbors Clues to Illegal Housing Conditions.

The official release notes what landlords and property owners are required to provide in their premises according to the Building and Fire codes, and these practices include:

• Fire and Smoke Detection Systems in good working condition.
• Emergency and Exit Lighting that light.
• Fire Extinguishers and Fire Suppression (sprinkler) systems that work.
• Exits “clear and free for passage.”
• Premises must be in a “clean, safe, and sanitary condition.”
• Heating, plumbing and Electrical systems must be in good working condition.
• Premises must be “legally occupied as specified by the Certificate of Occupancy and all applicable State Codes. A landlord cannot claim ignorance regarding the number of occupants living in his/her building.
• Generally attics and cellars are not considered as habitable spaces. If there is a question about such occupancy, the Building Department should be contacted to confirm legality of occupancy of the attics and cellars.
• Rubbish must be kept in closed containers and maintained in an area that can be sanitized.
• Parking of vehicles shall only be in areas permitted by the White Plains Zoning Code.
• Property information and emergency phone numbers shall be updated and submitted to the Building Department, Fire and Police Bureaus.

Task Force Spearheaded by Councilman Glen Hockley

White Plains Councilman Glen Hockley estimates the number of illegally occupied homes to be approximately 90 locations in the city, scattered mostly through Battle Hill, Fisher Hill, North Broadway.

The Safe Housing Task Force has been aided Councilman Glen Hockley’s personal research into the existence of illegal housing. He has conducted extensive subsequent discussions with Public Safety Commissioner Frank Straub, a city court judge, and the city legal and building departments on the legal recourses that can be taken to bring the illegal rooming houses into compliance and keep them in compliance.

Hockley’s relentless meetings and factfinding have contributed a great deal of information leading to the founding of the new Safe Housing Task Force.

Hockley: Mayor Commits to Human Rights Commission Involvement.

Councilman Hockley reported to WPCNR that Mayor Joseph Delfino has endorsed his idea that the City Human Rights Commission should be involved in the process to protect the ultimate victims of illegal housing: the illegal tenants.

Hockley’s feeling is that unsafe, illegal housing makes the tenants as much victims as the neighbors of the illegal occupancy situations. Hockley said the Mayor shared his opinion that when tenants housed illegally are removed from residences that the Human Rights Commission should follow up on the cases.

Hockley told WPCNR his idea was to have the Human Rights Commission monitor the situations of each evicted tenant to assure that they are being treated fairly by landlords or possibly illegal sublessors, (subleasing is widely known as a practice that creates illegal occupancy situations), as well as housed adequately.

Penalties and Penance and Payback.

Councilman Hockley is currently working to increase penalities that landlords who repeatedly violate the occupancy, fire and zoning codes face. He is calling for increased fines, as well as landlords paying for housing of evicted tenants. He has one city court judge on board as reporting that such penalties are legally possible, and Hockley is continuing his crusade on behalf of the victims of illegal housing: the tenants.

Concerned Homeowners Number.

Landlords and homeowners with questions of how they may come into compliance or if they are in compliance should contact the Building Department at 422-1269.

Suspect an Illegal Housing Cluster? Call 422-1291.

In addition to fire department inspections and police observations, the city has set up a number for neighbors to report “the location and a description of the unsafe conditions.” That number is 422-1291.

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Theatre Inside Straight:Amendment to RFP Made Stimac & Rosenstock Legal

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WPCNR STAGE DOOR.By John F. Bailey. June 16, 2003:
The impression going around town that the designated producing duo of Stimac & Rosenstock was the inside straight in the collection of theatre hands contending for the plumb of the new White Plains Performing Arts Center was confirmed by Norbert Mungeon, Vice President of Professional Facilities Management, Providence, Rhode Island on Friday, with the surfacing of an amendment to the original Request for Proposals that Mr. Mungeon received.

Mr. Mungeon told WPCNR by telephone that a new Amendment to the original city Theatre Request for Proposals was sent to him dated May 21, response due back May 31. He said it was dated two days after the Council heard all three theatre hopefuls (Westco Productions, Centerpoint Stage, and last week’s designated winners, Tony Simac and Jeffrey Rosenstock), and six weeks after responses for proposals were due.

The amendment requested his Professional Facilities Management firm to fill out a newly formatted financial report grid for the first two years of the theatre operation, and was sent out 6 weeks after the original deadline for the Responses to Proposals, April 4, and invited other groups not previously responding to the proposal to apply at that time.

A “Fold” From the City.

Mungeon said he did not complete the amendment because he had been lead to believe Monday afternoon, May 19, (the afternoon of the evening the Council was to hear all three applicants), the city was not interested in his programming-only request which was what Professional Facilities Management had proposed.

Mungeon revealed to WPCNR that on Monday, May 19, the city lead him to believe they were looking for a full-time operator of the theatre. Mungeon told WPCNR said his firm had a previous commitment that day (May 19) and could not attend on what he described as short notice. Mungeon said the city seemed to believe that Professional Facilities Management programming was more geared towards larger houses, (though PFM programs a 500-seat theatre, the Vilar Center in Vail, Colorado, about the size of the 425-seat White Plains Performing Arts Center). Mungeon said he did not know if this amendment was sent to all 15 groups originally sent the Theatre Request for Proposal.

Amendment fills the Inside Straight.

Mungeon read a portion of the Amendment to WPCNR over the telephone which contained a statement reading “those who had not done so (sent in a proposal to operate the theatre) could now apply, and are invited to do so.” This statement clears the way for Stimac and Rosenstock to operate the theatre after the fact when they presented to the council on May 19. Stimac and Rosenstock were reported to be in the running for the first time on May 8, five weeks after Responses to the RFP were due. Whetfher or not the Amendment to the RFP was created specifically for Stimac and Rosenstock, and the information the Amendment requested was essential for the council to make a choice, is open to conjecture. (An Inside Straight, in poker is a hand of 4 cards, needing a card of interior rank to make a straight, such as 9-8-6-5, the “7” being the Inside Straight. )

Cleared for Command?

As of Monday, June 9, one week after being granted the right to run the theatre, Jeffrey Rosenstock, Executive Director of Queens Theatre In the Park, speaking to WPCNR said, he had not received clearance from his Board of Directors chair of the Queens Theatre In the Park to work with the White Plains theatre. He told WPCNR he was going to talk to his Board Chair last week. Rosenstock also said he was deeply involved in lobbying the city of New York for funding for his Queens Theatre In the Park all last week as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was negotiating the city budget for the arts. Rosenstock said he would be “sitting down with Tony (Stimac)” last Friday to discuss White Plains Performing Arts Center issues.

City Be Able to Walk in Year Three

Despite the memorandum of understanding language giving Rosenstock and Simac the option to renew the contract after three years, Councilman Boykin told WPCNR that “safeguards” would be built in to the Stimac-Rosenstock contract to enable the city to walk away in the third year and that the Request for Proposal which Boykin said called for the ability of the city to terminate the contract within 30 days would be in effect in the final contract. It is Council President Boykin’s belief that those safeguards and the original terms of the Request for Proposal setting the rights of termination will be adhered to in the final contract, despite the copy in the Memorandum of Understanding to the contrary.

However, that is not what it says in the Memorandum of Understanding made public at the June 2 Common Council meeting.

Commissioner of Planning Susan Habel told WPCNR Tuesday evening at the Council of Neighborhood Associations that the contract was being drawn up and it would be ready “when it’s done.”As of Friday, WPCNR was told by City Hall spokesperson Paul Wood the contract would not be signed Friday, “Not to by knowledge,” were his words.

Design by Abramowitz, Gretsas, Habel , Nicoletti.

Habel cleared up the shroud of mystery concealing what the new theatre would look like. She said that she, Commissioner of Public Works Joseph Nicoletti, Commissioner of Recreation & Parks Arne Abramowitz, and Executive Officer George Gretsas had made the taste choices as to the colors of carpet and the decoration of the theatre. She also said that no detailed interior sketches or models had been made of the theatre that it was all in architectural blueprints.

Habel said she would show the blue prints of the theatre to WPCNR Friday afternoon but did not telephone WPCNR when she would be available to show the “hush hush” designs. The architectural design of the theatre has been shown to the Council, but appears only in blueprint form. Schematics of the theatre do not show a detailed mockup of the interior or vestibule of the theatre.

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Bioterrorism Alert System

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If there were a bioterrorism attack anywhere in the country, doctors would be at the front lines of response. But doctors in Westchester County now have one major advantage. As of January 2003, they now are part of a real-time automated data feed that tracks and analyzes the early symptoms of a would-be bioterrorism outbreak as exhibited by patients and analyzed by county health officials on a daily basis.

At the request of the Westchester County Department of Health (WCDH), the four-hospital Stellaris Health Network has successfully developed and implemented its Health Alert Network, an early-warning system to address bioterrorism threats via a real-time data feed from local hospitals concerning admitted and emergency-room patients that could be monitored to indicate a problem. Stellaris, the parent company and information technology coordinator of Lawrence Hospital Center in Bronxville, Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, Phelps Memorial Hospital Center in Sleepy Hollow and White Plains Hospital Center in White Plains, was a logical choice to be the front-runners of such a system because with a single data feed it could sample four different geographical locations.

Shortly after the 9/11 terrorism attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., the WCDH, under the leadership of Renee O’Rourke, Project Leader with the Department of Health,
approached Stellaris asking for help in coordinating such a surveillance system. Stellaris and county information technology officials met several times during the fall of 2001. Initially, the viability of such a data feed was questionable, says Eran Marom, Stellaris’ Vice President and Chief Information Officer.

“We did not think we were tracking the type of data one would be looking for such a system,” Marom says, explaining that in the end no additional patient information had to be collected, but only the way in which the system reported that information would be changed.

Stellaris’ technical staff then went to work to see whether such a system could be extracted from the hospital network as it existed, how it could be fed to the alert system, and at what frequency. “As the meetings progressed, we started to believe that this was doable,” says Marom.

The result: the county is now tracking and analyzing emergency-room data for four primary syndromes which could be indicators of communicable disease or virus: fever and flu, respiratory problems, diarrhea and vomiting. In addition to providing automatic daily notification to WCDH staff, the county also notifies the resulting analysis to local emergency rooms and other interested parties throughout Westchester County.

But for the data feed to mean anything, the data behind it has to be accurate. Dan Blum, Stellaris’ Vice President of Operations, contacted the emergency room managers of all four Stellaris network hospitals and was assured that the collected data indeed is entered accurately and that – even though it may not indicate a definitive patient diagnosis – it is the best approximation at the time of a patient’s arrival. “This assurance allowed us to gain a level of confidence in what we were offering the county,” says Blum.

“We were also concerned about patient confidentiality,” says Sharon Lucian, Stellaris Vice President and Privacy Officer. Although the Department of Health is considered a government entity that is allowed access to protected health information, Stellaris was uneasy about releasing patient information for this particular purpose. In the end, it was agreed that no information identifying a specific patient would be exchanged as part of the system.

So far, the early-warning system is operating consistently and reliably but, thankfully, has not yet identified any major spike requiring an alarm. “We will be working to further enhance and improve our surveillance activities, including expansion of hospitals reporting data, surveillance of outpatient data and automation,” says O’Rourke.

Indeed, Stellaris and its four-hospital network are on the cutting edge of the kind of surveillance technologies hospitals nationwide plan to implement, replacing more antiquated methods of patient information recording and databases and linking state and federal health officials — all in an attempt to thwart a potential mass bioterrorism outbreak.

Stellaris Health Network is based in Armonk, New York.

To find out more information, please contact Eran Marom at 914-242-7678 or by e-mail at emarom@stellarishealth.org.

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Adam In Albany: Attention to Polluted “Brownfields”

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WPCNR’S ADAM IN ALBANY. By NYS District 89 Assemblyman Adam T. Bradley. June 14, 2003: I am pleased that the Assembly recently passed legislation to help clean up polluted industrial sites known as brownfields, refinance the state’s Superfund program, and revitalize local economies (A.7507).

Brownfields are a hindrance on local economies and a threat to our families’ health. These contaminated industrial wastelands can be better used in a variety of ways to benefit the community. The Assembly’s measure will help these vacant spaces become productive again by funding the clean-up and creating incentives to bring new businesses and jobs to the restored locations.

Most brownfields have remained undeveloped because of the potential for lawsuits stemming from the pollution as well as expensive clean-up costs. The measure helps identify and prioritize brownfields through the state Department of Environmental Conservation, as well as provide liability relief and financial incentives to developers, investors and municipalities, including tax credits for businesses that locate on restored brownfields in distressed areas.

This legislation also raises an additional $18.1 million annually through an assessment on hazardous waste generators which, along with existing fees, would provide $200 million a year to clean up the most dangerous contaminated sites in the Superfund program.

The measure also allows the community to become involved in the future development of these sites by requiring public notice, comment periods, and the distribution of a comprehensive fact sheet prepared by the DEC to all affected and interested parties.

Polluted industrial sites pose both public and environmental health issues, and economic strain, and we must return them to a productive state for the sake of environment and our economy.

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