Speaker 1: Hudson River Radio dot Com.
Speaker 2: It beats listening to nothing.
Speaker 3: It's Frank.
Speaker 4: My goodness, it's Franks being Frank.
Speaker 5: Fright where the only way to be is Frank.
Speaker 6: Hello everyone, and welcome to being Frank. We're the only
Speaker 6: way to be is Frank.
Speaker 5: I'm your host, Frank.
Speaker 6: Lebono, and I'd like to thank you for joining us
Speaker 6: on what we like to call the Intelligent Conversation Podcast,
Speaker 6: where no conversations out of bounds and all points of
Speaker 6: view are welcome. Listeners should know that we record live
Speaker 6: to tape. I give you the date for context and relevance.
Speaker 6: It is the twenty eighth of October, just before election day.
Speaker 6: We will be talking about that on this program. Piermont,
Speaker 6: New York, is both unique and typical of many small
Speaker 6: towns throughout the United States. Its location and history make
Speaker 6: it unique. Located at the base of the Mighty Palisades
Speaker 6: on the banks of the historic Hudson River, in just
Speaker 6: a mere twenty miles or so north of midtown Manhattan,
Speaker 6: it has been a prime spot as a rail and
Speaker 6: shipping depot for goods flowing from the fertile Hudson Valley
Speaker 6: to New York City. The long pier extending from its shores,
Speaker 6: provided the point of embarkation for the gis from nearby
Speaker 6: Camp Shanks to join the D Day Normandy invasion. In fact,
Speaker 6: over seventy percent of the invasion force shipped out from
Speaker 6: that pier. In recent years, it's quaint downtown, with its
Speaker 6: tony restaurants and shops, have made it a tourist mecha
Speaker 6: for day trips from the city. The downtown is also
Speaker 6: home to the legendary Turning Point music venue. However, Pierremont
Speaker 6: face is a common question typical of most ust villages
Speaker 6: in the twenty first century, and that is how can
Speaker 6: it maintain the character associated with small village life, incorporating
Speaker 6: its history and charm with the need to contintinue with
Speaker 6: the growth necessary to keep a village alive and vital. This,
Speaker 6: of course means responsible development. However, there is a wide
Speaker 6: range of opinions on exactly what responsible development means. This
Speaker 6: debate can get quite visceral and emotional, with passionate arguments
Speaker 6: often reaching a fever pitch. The good part of this
Speaker 6: debate has been the activism of residents to be heard
Speaker 6: on the subject and to provide a united front to
Speaker 6: present their needs and desires. This has recently been the
Speaker 6: case in the village of Piermont, when a developer proposed
Speaker 6: a fourteen unit apartment complex on a vacant lot virtually
Speaker 6: in the center of town. When discovered, opposition was swift
Speaker 6: and vocal, with many residents expressing their displeasure with village officials.
Speaker 6: They felt the project was completely inappropriate for its location
Speaker 6: and incompatible with the villages downtown. Some local officials disagreed
Speaker 6: setting up a showdown with residents, so they organized Preserve Piermont,
Speaker 6: a grassroots organization dedicated to their vision of responsible development
Speaker 6: and open government, to discuss this issue and others. We
Speaker 6: are pleased to have some intelligent conversation with four members
Speaker 6: from that organization. First, Dennis Hardy. Dennis is a former
Speaker 6: mayor of Piermont and village trustee, as well as the
Speaker 6: former chair of the Piermont Democratic Party and a lifelong
Speaker 6: resident of the village. Professionally, he works in customer solutions
Speaker 6: for the Watts Corporation. Welcome Dennis, thank you good to
Speaker 6: be here. Next up, Robert Zi. Robert is a local
Speaker 6: attorney and small business owner. He lives in Piermont with
Speaker 6: his wife, who is also an attorney, and their two
Speaker 6: small children. Robert is also a member of the Piermont
Speaker 6: Fire Department. Robert, thank you for joining us here on being.
Speaker 5: Frank so much. Frank, I appreciate it.
Speaker 6: Jeff Gordon Jeff has been a practicing lawyer in the
Speaker 6: state of New York for over forty years. He is
Speaker 6: also a real estate developer and court appointed mediator. Jeff
Speaker 6: moved into Piermont in twenty twenty three, so he'll give
Speaker 6: us kind of a newcomers point of view hopefully. Jeff, welcome.
Speaker 5: Thanks for having me, Frank.
Speaker 6: Okay, Next up, Kate McCabe. Kate is the current candidate
Speaker 6: for Piermont Village Trustee. She moved to Piermont in nineteen
Speaker 6: ninety seven. She works as SVP of Talent Solutions and
Speaker 6: Strategy for Human Capital Solutions firm. Kate welcome, Thank you, Frank.
Speaker 7: It's a pleasure, guys.
Speaker 6: Let's get into our conversation, but let's again, you know,
Speaker 6: context is important, so let's set things up a little
Speaker 6: bit first. I think we have to talk a little
Speaker 6: bit about about Piermont itself, it's history and it's people.
Speaker 6: What are some of the important things we need to
Speaker 6: know about Piermont. Dennis, you've kind of been the longest
Speaker 6: time resident. Why don't we start with you there?
Speaker 1: Okay, I mean a little bit of the history of development.
Speaker 1: You know, Piarmont was a paper mill village for many years,
Speaker 1: and then in the nineteen eighties the paper mills shut
Speaker 1: down and we started with the first phase of the
Speaker 1: Pearmont Landing development project. And then what happened in nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty nine the real estate market tanked and the project
Speaker 1: went bankrupt. Then it restarted again in nineteen ninety three,
Speaker 1: and then they started proposing building phase two, three and four.
Speaker 1: I was fortunate, or maybe not fortunate, to be mayor
Speaker 1: when we built phase three and four of the Hearmont
Speaker 1: Landing development, and all that was done with full engagement
Speaker 1: of the community, notice to all the residents, to you know,
Speaker 1: all the stakeholders, to be really fully engaged as opposed
Speaker 1: to the current development that you spoke about earlier. So
Speaker 1: and now we're here today with the proposed fourteen unit
Speaker 1: apartment complex. And that's how I sort of came out
Speaker 1: of retirement and got involved with Preserved Pearmont, and I'm
Speaker 1: very glad I did and so that's where we are.
Speaker 6: No, Deennison, you mentioned a few things within that we
Speaker 6: want to talk about a little bit more detail. The
Speaker 6: backstory obviously of how we got here in the first place,
Speaker 6: but you also mentioned being a former mayor, and eventually
Speaker 6: want to get to the point of, you know, taking
Speaker 6: on that kind of responsibility and special especially in small towns.
Speaker 6: Some people might call it a thank job, because no
Speaker 6: matter what you do, there always seems to be some
Speaker 6: kind of opposition. But we'll get to that. I want
Speaker 6: to talk about some of that more detail, but we
Speaker 6: need to know, I think a little bit more about
Speaker 6: the beginnings of Preserve of Piermont, and guys in the
Speaker 6: conversation is open for all all of you. Please feel
Speaker 6: free to jump in at any time. You know, we
Speaker 6: have maybe a lead person on any individual topic, but
Speaker 6: certainly it's open for open conversation, as we like to
Speaker 6: call it, intelligent conversation. I'll let you, guys handle that part.
Speaker 6: I'll just set you up, okay, But so let's go
Speaker 6: to Robert rob We'll give us a little bit of
Speaker 6: a backstory and the beginnings of Preserve Peremont.
Speaker 2: Sure, so I think late late twenty twenty three or
Speaker 2: maybe early twenty twenty four, I happen to be sitting
Speaker 2: on my couch and my wife sort of mentioned that
Speaker 2: she had seen something on Facebook, and I guess another
Speaker 2: resident in the village had sort of brought to life
Speaker 2: fact that there were a number of projects that.
Speaker 5: Were being proposed in the area.
Speaker 2: One of these projects was pretty close to our house.
Speaker 2: We live in the past, which is sort of a
Speaker 2: low lying area in the village.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: So once once you brought that to my attention, you
Speaker 2: do the you do the next thing that you typically do. Right,
Speaker 2: You go to the You go the village's website. You
Speaker 2: see what they have there. I couldn't find anything. Uh
Speaker 2: So I started submitting foil requests to the village sort
Speaker 2: of got stone walls on a number of occasions, and
Speaker 2: I started foiling different you know, agencies, I guess with
Speaker 2: sort of advisory or or responsibilities related to the project.
Speaker 2: The one project in particular is on this little triangular
Speaker 2: lot sort of as you're making your way into uh
Speaker 2: into the into the downtown, rob.
Speaker 6: If I if I might jump in here, because again
Speaker 6: I think it's context is important. Again, we're we're thinking
Speaker 6: off the top of our heads. I'm from Nayak, I
Speaker 6: spent a lot of time in Piermont, so we kind
Speaker 6: of know the place. Again, assuming that not all of
Speaker 6: our listeners are from here, and again we stream internationally.
Speaker 6: Even I think it's important we described Piermont's really kind
Speaker 6: of a tiny place. There's really only so much room.
Speaker 6: Can you can you can you describe that also in
Speaker 6: a little bit more detail, so people kind of understand
Speaker 6: the scale of this project, kind of being shoehorned into
Speaker 6: a relatively small area at least the way I see things.
Speaker 6: Knowing the town, so as you go along with your conversation,
Speaker 6: if you could, you know, bring that into the conversation
Speaker 6: as well, I think that's important.
Speaker 5: Sure.
Speaker 2: Sure, So the downtown is severely compact, right you have
Speaker 2: you have restaurants next to coffee shops, you have uh,
Speaker 2: you know, other small businesses next to restaurants, et cetera.
Speaker 2: And it's you know, it's it's it's the bustling it's
Speaker 2: the bustling area of the village. It's where everyone goes.
Speaker 2: People people out of the village come in primarily to
Speaker 2: you know, to walk the village's main street. So when
Speaker 2: we found out that they were planning on putting this
Speaker 2: this large project on such a small piece of property.
Speaker 2: You know, a number of us tried to try to investigate,
Speaker 2: and eventually, eventually we were able to see rendering of
Speaker 2: what this project would be. At board meetings. You know,
Speaker 2: there were audible gas and I think for the organization,
Speaker 2: the backbone of it was talking to neighbors, talking to
Speaker 2: other residents, talking to law enforcement in the area, talking
Speaker 2: to other agencies, and you know, it became somethany where
Speaker 2: we would walk door to door, we would hand out pamphlets.
Speaker 2: We would tell people, Hey, this is what's going on.
Speaker 2: And at the beginning of it, it seemed like nobody
Speaker 2: was really aware.
Speaker 6: Of what was happening.
Speaker 2: So you know a number of us kind of put
Speaker 2: in that put in that effort to notify neighbors, say, hey,
Speaker 2: come to these come to these meetings. They are important
Speaker 2: things that are being discussed, things that you should know
Speaker 2: about because it's going to change the villages downtown. And
Speaker 2: that was sort of the you know, the the impetus
Speaker 2: for for I think Preserved Hermont. And you know, one
Speaker 2: of the first people I reached out to was Dennis Hardy, Uh,
Speaker 2: you know, Dennis on on Facebook. He you know, he
Speaker 2: lets people know that he was he was an elected
Speaker 2: official in the village and he and he's fist something
Speaker 2: he's proud of. So, you know, some things that a
Speaker 2: number of us did were reach out to elected officials,
Speaker 2: and Dennis was one of the first people that I
Speaker 2: reached out to, and he was certainly helpful, uh in
Speaker 2: getting momentum behind the movement.
Speaker 6: This is an open ended question and for all of
Speaker 6: you also, and something that Robert said about the difficulty
Speaker 6: in finding information, is there a suggestion that this was
Speaker 6: done surreptitiously because there would be opposition? Can can anybody
Speaker 6: comment on that? What are your feelings towards that? Why
Speaker 6: do you think it wasn't so transparent? Anybody's opinion? Anybody
Speaker 6: can jump in, frank if all right, I'll Jeff please,
Speaker 6: Jeff Gordon please, And.
Speaker 4: For the sake of clarity, and in my own defense,
Speaker 4: you would describe me as a real estate developer. I'm
Speaker 4: actually a real estate investor in my own defense, very
Speaker 4: good developer.
Speaker 6: For this discussion, that's an important that's an important distinction.
Speaker 5: Particularly in this discussion.
Speaker 4: There you go, so one of the problems, one of
Speaker 4: the problems I had Frank is I or my career
Speaker 4: forty three years ago as a municipal lawyer for Briarcliffe, Manor,
Speaker 4: Tarrytown and Irvington. Forty three years later up until now,
Speaker 4: I mediate for the courts, and I thought I was
Speaker 4: going to come to Piermont and you know, retire. But
Speaker 4: I noticed it was a problem to address your question.
Speaker 4: The first thing that hit me was I went to
Speaker 4: I started going to board meetings and at the board meetings,
Speaker 4: I noticed that public comment was really a one way street.
Speaker 4: There was no dialogue, there was no response any questions.
Speaker 4: Now a lot of people would come to vent some
Speaker 4: people would come to ask questions. They were asking questions
Speaker 4: about any number of things or issues that they had
Speaker 4: with their own particular property or with the village in general.
Speaker 4: Parking was an issue at that point, the CBM was
Speaker 4: an issue. There was no response from anybody on the board.
Speaker 5: They just sat there. You spoke for you three minutes.
Speaker 4: Or you were cut short if you wanted to go longer,
Speaker 4: and that was the end of it. And that troubled
Speaker 4: me as a formerly mumissial lawyer. You know, I know
Speaker 4: how a village should run, and I know how it
Speaker 4: shouldn't run and something was a miss here. And to
Speaker 4: further answer your question, so I went to the village
Speaker 4: website and I started looking for documents that should have
Speaker 4: been uploaded and were not. We've got something called open
Speaker 4: government laws in New York, and municipalities are supposed to
Speaker 4: abide by it. Most even put it in their own
Speaker 4: village charter or a village code. In this particular case,
Speaker 4: I noticed that during the seminal period of time that
Speaker 4: this CBM zone was being proposed, and this development was
Speaker 4: also being proposed on the triangular A lot, there were
Speaker 4: missing minutes of important meetings. There were documents that should
Speaker 4: have been uploaded that had not been uploaded, not only
Speaker 4: for this project, but in general, when you have something
Speaker 4: an application come before the planning board, of the zoning
Speaker 4: board or the bot.
Speaker 5: More for the previous two boards, the.
Speaker 4: Applicant is supposed to provide the village with documents so
Speaker 4: they know what they're looking at, site plans, things of
Speaker 4: that nature, inspections, reports, surveys, and it was silent, not
Speaker 4: only for the CBM and the proposed development, but generally
Speaker 4: there was a big hole in the village records and
Speaker 4: that created a problem and a suspicion in my mind
Speaker 4: that you know, during this crucial period of time when
Speaker 4: CBM was being developed, and when I say CBM, I'm
Speaker 4: talking about the zoning amendment that would have allowed this
Speaker 4: development to have been done, they were missing.
Speaker 5: Now, that could have been an accident. I didn't suspect
Speaker 5: it was. The presumption is that government is open and.
Speaker 4: Compliant and transparent in this particular case.
Speaker 5: In my opinion and from what I found, and I know.
Speaker 4: That Kate did a lot of research on this and
Speaker 4: what was sorely lacking as far as being published and
Speaker 4: available to the public to comment on, which is a requirement.
Speaker 5: They were empty. Nothing was there.
Speaker 4: So to answer your question, in my opinion, yeah, this
Speaker 4: was intentionally done. There was too many there were too
Speaker 4: many holes in the record and what wasn't published on
Speaker 4: the village website for this to be an accident.
Speaker 6: Perfect And I want to bring both Kate and Dennison
Speaker 6: at this point to talk a little bit about the
Speaker 6: history of development in Piermont. Is this something that's kind
Speaker 6: of typical for administrations the history of Piermont or is
Speaker 6: this an aberration? Okay, why don't you take it first
Speaker 6: and Dennis you contribute as well.
Speaker 7: Okay, so yeah, I've lived through many administrations in Piermont,
Speaker 7: including Dennis's and or the end I guess the end
Speaker 7: of Dennis's. But no, this was not the norm. Also
Speaker 7: with public comment at public hearings in prior administrations, it
Speaker 7: was a back and forth. There was a dialogue. But
Speaker 7: like Jeff said, you know from the time that this
Speaker 7: particular project related to that triangular lot is how we
Speaker 7: refer to it in town hit the planning board. They
Speaker 7: stopped uploading documents on the village website until after the
Speaker 7: zoning amendment was passed and adopted. They were also not
Speaker 7: publishing public notices. They were kind of doing the bare
Speaker 7: minimum of putting a notice in the newspaper, a notice
Speaker 7: tacked outside the village hall. You know, they weren't using
Speaker 7: all the village communication assets we've invested in to communicate
Speaker 7: with the public. And that was definitely a new thing.
Speaker 7: And like Dennis said, when the four phases of Piermont Landing,
Speaker 7: which is where Jeff, Dennis and myself live, were developed,
Speaker 7: there was a lot of public engagement and a lot
Speaker 7: of public meetings and a lot of extra effort given
Speaker 7: to make sure that you know, there were site renderings,
Speaker 7: you know, in our public spaces in town for people
Speaker 7: to see them. There were flyers and things that went out.
Speaker 7: Our community news letter was highlighting these projects and various
Speaker 7: different things. So yes, this appeared to me to be
Speaker 7: a very big change, and like Robert and Dennis said,
Speaker 7: you know, this really became a neighbor to neighbor effort.
Speaker 7: Got I heard about this in I think April of
Speaker 7: twenty twenty four through a text chain with my neighbors
Speaker 7: who said, there's this really important village board meeting on
Speaker 7: Tuesday night. We've all got to go, And I went,
Speaker 7: and I met Robert on the street outside of Village
Speaker 7: Hall after that meeting, and so yeah, this was definitely
Speaker 7: a grassroots effort of people realizing, like Jeff said, that
Speaker 7: things didn't look right, that things weren't being handled the
Speaker 7: way they had previously been handled. It definitely seemed like
Speaker 7: this zoning change, in my perspective, was adopted to accommodate
Speaker 7: this particular project and perhaps another project you know that
Speaker 7: might be coming up in the downtown as well. So
Speaker 7: it seemed like it seemed like there was a desire
Speaker 7: to build this project and that the most expedient way
Speaker 7: to get it done was without a lot of public engagement.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think Kate correct, and if I certainly want
Speaker 1: to point out that all four of us have been
Speaker 1: to the village board meetings and planning board meetings and
Speaker 1: we've all expressed our concern. But I want to contrast,
Speaker 1: the original Paramount Landing development was a heavily noticed to
Speaker 1: the community. However, this recent development, it was the bare
Speaker 1: minimum required by law that was noticed. So I guess
Speaker 1: if you want to slide something under the radar, that's
Speaker 1: what you do. You just provide the bare minimum required
Speaker 1: by law. And it was noted at one of the
Speaker 1: meetings that there were notices sent to Paarmont Landing. I've
Speaker 1: lived in Pearmont Landing for almost thirty years. I never
Speaker 1: received the notice. So that was a concern, and that
Speaker 1: lack of transparency because this development project was going to
Speaker 1: impact our one block square of the village of Piermont.
Speaker 1: We only really have one block, and as Richard Esnard,
Speaker 1: or member of our Pairmunt Historical Society said, you know,
Speaker 1: we only have one block. We need to get it right.
Speaker 1: And so that's what energized all of us and I
Speaker 1: was really grateful for that initial call when Rob called me. Uh,
Speaker 1: and I'm happy to be fully engaged now and here
Speaker 1: I am tonight.
Speaker 6: I love when things segue like this. You guys make
Speaker 6: me look smart because this is perfect lead into my
Speaker 6: next question for Robert. It's obvious, but let's let's talk
Speaker 6: about it. Why participation in government is important. It's it's
Speaker 6: an active duty. To talk to that a little bit.
Speaker 6: You just can't sit and take things. You've got to
Speaker 6: be involved, Robert, you takes the lead, and everybody contribute, please.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: You know, everything that everyone has described is sort of
Speaker 2: culminated in this organization and we've used it primarily to
Speaker 2: get information out there to residents that's work or that
Speaker 2: was otherwise unavailable. You know, you compare you compare a village,
Speaker 2: the village of Piermont, to to other surrounding municipalities, right
Speaker 2: the town of Orangetown, for example. They they notice every
Speaker 2: single meeting, every document is made available on the website,
Speaker 2: you know, compared to to to Piermont. At the time
Speaker 2: this came out, Uh, it was like night and day
Speaker 2: and and to the to the village's benefit, you know,
Speaker 2: they've been they've been doing a lot more lately to
Speaker 2: sort of make the public aware of of what's going on.
Speaker 2: But you know, the the intent behind the organization was
Speaker 2: primarily to let residents know what's happening, how it could
Speaker 2: impact them, and how how they could participate. So, you know,
Speaker 2: prior prior to to this, Frankly, I would attend village
Speaker 2: board meetings and there would be maybe three, three to
Speaker 2: five regulars. Right at the first at the first meeting,
Speaker 2: I think that this project was being heard before the
Speaker 2: village's planning board. It was it was standing room only.
Speaker 2: I had I had never seen anything like that in
Speaker 2: my career, in my life as an individual, and it
Speaker 2: was it was. It was gratifying because you know, a
Speaker 2: lot of the efforts that we had put in in
Speaker 2: terms of notifying people and walking and saying, hey, do
Speaker 2: you hear about this? When you see that sort of
Speaker 2: result in a standing room only village board meeting, it's
Speaker 2: it's great.
Speaker 1: And if I just may add, you know, we preserve Pearamont.
Speaker 1: You know, we have our Facebook page which is almost
Speaker 1: eight hundred members strong, but we we advocate to residents
Speaker 1: please attend village board meetings if you can attend the
Speaker 1: board meeting, put your thoughts and your concerns in writing
Speaker 1: to the village board. Uh, that's the way to get
Speaker 1: something done and to get attention. Maybe in this case
Speaker 1: we accomplish exactly what we wanted to because you know,
Speaker 1: the project was moving ahead, but we had four courageous
Speaker 1: residents who you know, initiated the lawsuit and it was
Speaker 1: you know, blocked in Supreme Court. And so that's that's
Speaker 1: what community advocacy is all about.
Speaker 6: You know, again, the perfect segue into my next Okay,
Speaker 6: do you want to say something first? Please do so, please,
Speaker 6: thank you.
Speaker 7: I just wanted to add to what Dennis Sett and
Speaker 7: Robert said that. You know, the other thing that I
Speaker 7: think is really this is really highlighted for me is
Speaker 7: all the gifts and talents of all of my neighbors
Speaker 7: within the community. You know, people have contributed their talents,
Speaker 7: either their legal skills or their communication skills, or their
Speaker 7: marketing skills, or their organizational skills whatever they might be,
Speaker 7: or their use of social media, or their or their
Speaker 7: own networks within the community. And these little little networks
Speaker 7: within networks. You know, we have a village of you know,
Speaker 7: twenty five hundred people. Right, It is literally a mile
Speaker 7: square and part of that is a creek. So this
Speaker 7: is a tiny place. And as much as it's a
Speaker 7: tiny place, we are between the Hudson River and Closlin
Speaker 7: Mountain and the Palisades behind us, so we are kind
Speaker 7: of landlocked here in this little place. And there's lots
Speaker 7: of hills here, so there's lots of people who you know,
Speaker 7: who have been knocking on neighbors doors and trying to
Speaker 7: communicate with people. And as I said, that's how I
Speaker 7: heard about this was from my neighbors. And it's been
Speaker 7: really a pleasure to get to know all the people
Speaker 7: that I have through this effort. Having lived here as
Speaker 7: long as I had, I've met so many new neighbors
Speaker 7: and friends through this that I know are going to
Speaker 7: be neighbors and friends forever. So I'm very grateful for that.
Speaker 7: So I think it has created, it has cemented our
Speaker 7: community in a lot of ways, but it is it
Speaker 7: is still an effort to communicate with people because right now,
Speaker 7: the only you know, the formal vehicle that you have
Speaker 7: to do it is Facebook, right, and we all, you know,
Speaker 7: everybody hates Facebook, and we all wish we didn't have
Speaker 7: to spend me time on Facebook. But you know, we
Speaker 7: don't have another vehicle, right, we don't have another communication channel.
Speaker 7: So I think the two point zero of this effort
Speaker 7: is figuring out what those communication channels could be going forward,
Speaker 7: and what this could look like going forward. You know,
Speaker 7: could it be a newsletter, Could it be a blog.
Speaker 7: Could it be something that goes out in our Piermont
Speaker 7: community newsletter as an article, you know, from the perspective
Speaker 7: of this community group. So yeah, I think to watch
Speaker 7: the evolution over time, to see everything that's been accomplished
Speaker 7: and see hopefully everything that will be accomplished, is really
Speaker 7: inspiring to me, you know.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and it's perfect. You really answered My next question
Speaker 6: is how you do keep people engaged? You certainly answered that.
Speaker 6: And then the thing about Facebook is, you know, I
Speaker 6: always say that people I feel like I use use
Speaker 6: it as much as it uses me. So it's kind
Speaker 6: of it's kind of a fair trade off. Contacted you guys,
Speaker 6: you found me through your Facebook. I will promote the
Speaker 6: heck of this podcast on Facebook, so it has certain advantages.
Speaker 6: But let's get back to a topic at hand. It
Speaker 6: led me to a question. You know, I take notes
Speaker 6: as we go along. How does the current administration defend
Speaker 6: this behavior?
Speaker 5: Anyone?
Speaker 6: Jeff, you want to you want to take this first
Speaker 6: in your experience. How do you defend something like that?
Speaker 5: You know what? I think they were caught on their
Speaker 5: on their on their.
Speaker 4: Heels, and they didn't think that they would be found out.
Speaker 4: They didn't publish documents for the entire period that this
Speaker 4: was going down. Their minutes went from verbatim to summaries
Speaker 4: of the various minutes that they did publish. I understand
Speaker 4: there was a an edict that village Board of Trustee
Speaker 4: meetings were not to be videotaped.
Speaker 5: I think that at one time they were, so I.
Speaker 4: Started videotaping Board of Trustee meetings when I heard.
Speaker 5: That, and when I feel felt like something was going on.
Speaker 5: How do they defend it?
Speaker 4: I hate to use the word gaslight, but they have
Speaker 4: their own narrative, and they feed that false narrative, and
Speaker 4: they you know what, most people, most people presume that
Speaker 4: their government is open and transparent and honest and has
Speaker 4: their you know, their best interests at heart. And I
Speaker 4: think that's what they were lying on until Preserve Piremont
Speaker 4: and other other social media came around.
Speaker 5: I mean Kate and I knocked on six hundred doors.
Speaker 4: I was an unsuccessful candidate for trustee and I ran
Speaker 4: with Kate in the primary in June.
Speaker 5: We knocked on six or seven hundred.
Speaker 4: Doors, and they all knew and they were scratching their
Speaker 4: head and they said, what's going on with this zoning
Speaker 4: downtown and that.
Speaker 5: Nonstrosity they want to build?
Speaker 4: And I don't think they would have known about it
Speaker 4: if it wasn't for the what Kate alluded to. Their
Speaker 4: their networks, there are little community discussions social media.
Speaker 5: There there are four four or five.
Speaker 4: Facebook pages that deal with Piermont, including Preserved Piermont. When
Speaker 4: they was talk about ripping up a baseball field.
Speaker 5: To put parking in, it was really our.
Speaker 4: Only baseball field and we have a horrible parking problem.
Speaker 5: As you know, there were hundreds of people. There were
Speaker 5: not hundreds of people.
Speaker 4: There were one hundred and twenty people maybe overflow out
Speaker 4: into the hallway of the of the.
Speaker 5: Boardroom, and it was it was slapped down. It didn't
Speaker 5: go forward.
Speaker 4: Now I don't know how sincere the village really was
Speaker 4: about ripping up our only baseball field and putting in
Speaker 4: a parking. But any event it was struck down, and
Speaker 4: that was because of civil engagement. People knew about it,
Speaker 4: it was publicized and they came out. I think the
Speaker 4: problem is there's a lot of apathy and people presume
Speaker 4: that their village is doing the right thing and it's
Speaker 4: open and transparent, and when you bring to their attention
Speaker 4: that it's not that, it's hard for them to believe,
Speaker 4: and you have to keep, you know, banging on it,
Speaker 4: and eventually they believe. As we saw when we knocked
Speaker 4: on our doors. They all knew about it.
Speaker 6: They jump in on anyone. You want to say something here,
Speaker 6: please do Yeah.
Speaker 7: No, And I just want to say thank goodness that
Speaker 7: Jeff started recording the meetings because he was able to
Speaker 7: get them uploaded to YouTube and people could watch them
Speaker 7: after the fact, and that was a tremendous community service.
Speaker 7: And if you look at what the village of Nayak
Speaker 7: does up the road from us, they live zoom all
Speaker 7: of their village board meetings, which is obviously the technology
Speaker 7: we're using right now. It's and it's a wonderful technology
Speaker 7: to allow people to participate in real time. And I
Speaker 7: hope someday we can evolve to that. But you know,
Speaker 7: giving people access you know, who might not be able
Speaker 7: to be in the room to watch it after the
Speaker 7: fact and then engage with the government like like like
Speaker 7: Jeff said or Dennis said about emailing and asking for
Speaker 7: you know, providing their comments or asking questions. I think
Speaker 7: accessibility is a huge thing. Accessibility of documents and ease
Speaker 7: of ease of participation for people who might have young
Speaker 7: children at home like Robert does, or you know, perhaps
Speaker 7: you work a different shift, or you know, you might
Speaker 7: have an ass you know, inability to get out and
Speaker 7: attend a particular meeting. So I think Jeff has provided
Speaker 7: a tremendous service to the community, and I look forward
Speaker 7: to the village, you know, providing that kind of accessibility
Speaker 7: directly to residents. I think it's it's appropriate.
Speaker 1: And in all of the meetings that I attended since
Speaker 1: Robert got me up off for the couch, and all
Speaker 1: of the meetings regarding this proposed development, this fourteen unit
Speaker 1: apartment complex and the CBM zoning, particularly the fourteen unit
Speaker 1: apartment complex, not one resident, not one resident, got up
Speaker 1: and spoke in favor of it. So that's just what
Speaker 1: that demonstrated to me that you know, many members, including
Speaker 1: the mayor. Look, I know the mayor. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: friends with the mayor, but he was tone deaf regarding that,
Speaker 1: and I had conversations with him regarding that, and so
Speaker 1: why did they continue to push forward? And so, you know,
Speaker 1: hence Preserve Piarmont was started and we're here today and
Speaker 1: we've had a lot of success.
Speaker 6: I'm going to all give you all an opportunity to
Speaker 6: talk about the future and your vision of the future. Kate,
Speaker 6: you wanted to add something there, and then I have
Speaker 6: a specific question for you as well.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I just wanted to note, you know, specifically, as
Speaker 7: it relates to some of our built constraints, a lot
Speaker 7: of our village is also in a floodplain. So typical,
Speaker 7: what is typical of our downtown today is that typically
Speaker 7: we have retail first floor and then apartments above, two
Speaker 7: or three stories of apartments above. That's our current built environment.
Speaker 7: Most of it was built probably about one hundred years ago,
Speaker 7: like Dennis said, when we were a factory town, and
Speaker 7: so that is kind of what is common. And you know,
Speaker 7: with with climate change being on the river here in
Speaker 7: the Hudson not far from the Atlantic, you know, we
Speaker 7: have we have flooding events here that happen with you know,
Speaker 7: some frequency, and certainly her superstorm Sandy had a big
Speaker 7: impact on the village when we had one of those
Speaker 7: year storms. So that is very much part of the
Speaker 7: equation as well in terms of what type of structures
Speaker 7: are suitable here and and what have we committed to
Speaker 7: in our own village, uh, you know, documentation about what
Speaker 7: we recommend being built in different areas of the village
Speaker 7: that are subject to flooding.
Speaker 6: I think I think the key word is responsible. We
Speaker 6: mentioned in the opening, you know response, there has to
Speaker 6: be some type of developed development or villages die. It's
Speaker 6: it's the responsible development. Okay, Well, I have you in
Speaker 6: the microphone, and Jeff mentioned you're running for office. Some people,
Speaker 6: especially locally, kind of see that as a thankless job
Speaker 6: because you're always going to you're going to, you're going
Speaker 6: to you're going to please some people and you're going
Speaker 6: to piss some people off as well too. I think
Speaker 6: it's kind of a Yin and yang. Talk to that
Speaker 6: a little bit, and of course, dan Is anybody can
Speaker 6: add to the conversation please.
Speaker 7: Well, I will say I did not start twenty twenty
Speaker 7: five with running for office on my Bengo card. I
Speaker 7: have a busy life. I have a busy job, I
Speaker 7: have a big family. I've got a lot of interests
Speaker 7: in friends, and you know, I this was not what
Speaker 7: I anticipated. But as things sort of rolled into the
Speaker 7: New y year, and we knew that there were two
Speaker 7: trustee seats that were up for reelection on our board
Speaker 7: of four trustees, the mayor is the fifth trustee on
Speaker 7: our board, we knew that this was going to be
Speaker 7: a mayoral election year as well. But you know, I
Speaker 7: conferred with a lot of people, Jeff and I talked
Speaker 7: about it as well, Dennis Robert, we all, you know,
Speaker 7: a bunch. I sought counsel from as many people as
Speaker 7: I could about whether this was a good idea or
Speaker 7: a bad idea, and what it would require. And so,
Speaker 7: like Jeff said, I mean, we just hit the pavement.
Speaker 7: We knocked on over six hundred doors. We you know,
Speaker 7: got our petition signed and got them submitted to the
Speaker 7: Board of Elections, and then you know, started campaigning. I
Speaker 7: guess this is what canvassing campaigning, you know, getting out
Speaker 7: to talk to people. And I think, you know, we've
Speaker 7: really been on a listening tour and I think the
Speaker 7: last year and a half of being involved in this
Speaker 7: initiative has been a listening tour for me. And you know,
Speaker 7: Jeff and I were talking about this a week or
Speaker 7: so ago. Because we're in the general election period now.
Speaker 7: Is that sometimes I feel like we're playing inside baseball
Speaker 7: because we have we've we've been in this for a
Speaker 7: year and a half or some of us two years almost.
Speaker 7: And you know, you have the facts in your head,
Speaker 7: but not every resident does. And we've also had a
Speaker 7: lot of new people move into the village over the
Speaker 7: last couple of years, and so you know, making this
Speaker 7: understandable to everybody about you know, how we got here,
Speaker 7: what's important, what we all hope for for the future
Speaker 7: of the village and the future of the village government
Speaker 7: is I think where we are today.
Speaker 6: Dennis add something quickly.
Speaker 1: I just want to say that, you know, community service
Speaker 1: has certainly been part of my family and my brothers
Speaker 1: in the fire department, my two sisters are in the
Speaker 1: fire department. It's just something that we do, but it
Speaker 1: allows you to to take action and implement. Like when
Speaker 1: I was mayor, we implemented the first inter municipal agreement
Speaker 1: with Grand View to provide fire coverage. Uh, and then
Speaker 1: since then they now we've now provide police coverage. So
Speaker 1: those are the kind of things that you can work
Speaker 1: on and and it's exciting and you're part of the community.
Speaker 6: So yeah, let's let's involve everyone. Now, I want to
Speaker 6: talk about your vision of the future, Robert, Why don't
Speaker 6: we start with you? What is your future vision for Peremount.
Speaker 2: That is a difficult question because it's going to depend.
Speaker 6: On who I'm here to ask those difficulties.
Speaker 2: Well, it's going to depend on who you're talking to.
Speaker 2: But you know, ideally, I think I'd like to see
Speaker 2: the village continue to grow as sort of a welcoming
Speaker 2: and transparent community.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: The last the last year, year and a half I
Speaker 2: think has been difficult for everyone. But in terms of
Speaker 2: the future for peermore, you know, I think I think
Speaker 2: small businesses have to stay. I think infrastructure has to
Speaker 2: be improved and and and really the best thing I
Speaker 2: think for the village is to keep the residents involved
Speaker 2: and keep them in form and and sort of encourage
Speaker 2: people to come to board meetings and and you know,
Speaker 2: throw down the gruntlet and ask difficult questions about decisions
Speaker 2: that are being made by the government. You know, I
Speaker 2: I never realized how how much local government actually has
Speaker 2: an impact on us. You know, it's it's it's a
Speaker 2: greater impact than than state and federal government. Frankly, so ideally,
Speaker 2: you know, for me, having having more people involved and
Speaker 2: and and educating you know, kids when they're younger about
Speaker 2: local government is something that's important to me, and it's
Speaker 2: something i'd like to see the village welcome.
Speaker 5: Well, Jeff, you're up your vision.
Speaker 4: I think we've seen over the past two years or
Speaker 4: so that there's something that was sorely lacking in village
Speaker 4: transparency and that led to, I guess an apathy or
Speaker 4: a lack of engagement.
Speaker 5: And then when these issues.
Speaker 4: Were brought to light, you know, people started to get engaged.
Speaker 4: What I'd like to see for the future is I'd
Speaker 4: like to make it as easy as possible, frank for
Speaker 4: the residents to get engaged, whether that is not public
Speaker 4: comment at a board meeting, but public dialogue where the
Speaker 4: residents have their questions and concerns and even their venting
Speaker 4: responded to by their elected officials. I'd like to see,
Speaker 4: as Kate alluded to, we had discussed this and I
Speaker 4: hope it happens.
Speaker 5: When Kate is elected.
Speaker 4: We go back and we zoom all of our meetings
Speaker 4: for people who aren't able to get out, whether they're
Speaker 4: sick or infirm. I mean, someone said the average age
Speaker 4: for Piarmont resident is I think in the sixties, Kate,
Speaker 4: something like that. It was at older, so you know
Speaker 4: it's an elderly or it's a growing in years population.
Speaker 4: Let's make it as easy as possible for them to
Speaker 4: get engaged. The website was an abomination that I understand
Speaker 4: is in the process of being improved, and I'm hoping
Speaker 4: that all of the documents that need to be updated
Speaker 4: are uploaded. Pursuing too not only compliant with open government law,
Speaker 4: but you'd.
Speaker 5: Want to do that.
Speaker 4: As a government who is serving its residents, you want
Speaker 4: to keep them informed, you want to keep them engaged,
Speaker 4: you want to tell them what's going on in the village,
Speaker 4: and you want to hear their comments. So I'm hoping
Speaker 4: for Frank is make it as easy as possible for
Speaker 4: people to get engaged in their local government.
Speaker 5: Get your Europe next your thoughts.
Speaker 7: Yeah, so the average age of the Piermont resident is
Speaker 7: fifty one, but the largest cohort of residents in this
Speaker 7: community are between the ages of sixty and sixty four,
Speaker 7: so and you know, and we also have you know,
Speaker 7: obviously young families like Robert's family, and then empty nesters
Speaker 7: like Dennis, then Jeff, and you know, lots of different
Speaker 7: lots of different groups of people, which I think is
Speaker 7: one of the things that creates a thriving community. And
Speaker 7: I think, you know, we we love to see that
Speaker 7: Piermont also has many multi generational families like Dennis's family,
Speaker 7: and that's a wonderful thing. And then you know, we
Speaker 7: have lots of new people who want to live here
Speaker 7: because this is a very special place. And so I
Speaker 7: think bringing everybody together and also a shared vision, right
Speaker 7: and we this just this year, Peer Month passed its
Speaker 7: first Comprehensive Plan, which has been something that was discussed
Speaker 7: for many decades here in Peer Month, but it was
Speaker 7: passed this year and it will be an evolving document.
Speaker 7: That's one of the goals that Rockland County, or one
Speaker 7: of the things that Rockland County recommended, was having a
Speaker 7: committee to update the comprehensive Plan every year. So it's
Speaker 7: a living document that that grows as your village grows
Speaker 7: and innovates as innovation comes and and responds as circumstances change.
Speaker 7: So I look forward to that. I look forward to,
Speaker 7: like everyone has said, continued increased participation, but also you know,
Speaker 7: some visioning about large projects or large initiatives coming from
Speaker 7: the government in a really transparent and open way to
Speaker 7: explain why something you know would benefit the community or
Speaker 7: you know, in all of these public meetings and hearings.
Speaker 7: And I love many of the charming things that Piermont
Speaker 7: used to do before there was technology to do these things,
Speaker 7: you know, like putting big poster signs outside of village
Speaker 7: hall on the sidewalks on a frames, and you know,
Speaker 7: putting you know, lots of letters and postcards and people's mailboxes,
Speaker 7: and so I love all of those high touch things
Speaker 7: as well.
Speaker 6: I think.
Speaker 7: I think Piermont is a small community, twenty five hundred
Speaker 7: people who live within you know, one mile square. I
Speaker 7: think we have an opportunity to work together and come together,
Speaker 7: you know, somewhat easily, you know, and in leveraging technology,
Speaker 7: but also the high touch that makes this a really
Speaker 7: special place.
Speaker 6: Dennis, the last few minutes, we would take a break,
Speaker 6: your thoughts, your vision of the future.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you, Frank. You know, I mean, we all
Speaker 1: know why we moved to Piermont. It's wonderful charm, it's
Speaker 1: wonderful character. And as mentioned earlier by Jeff and Robert
Speaker 1: and Kate is we need to fully engage the community
Speaker 1: to develop zoning that protects the character and the architecture
Speaker 1: in our village and allows for smart development growth. That's key,
Speaker 1: and you know, just continue to be the wonderful community
Speaker 1: that we are. But we know that pair moners are
Speaker 1: very passionate about how we feel about these issues, and
Speaker 1: so we'd like that passion to remain, but like the
Speaker 1: temperature level to go down a little bit.
Speaker 6: So we can move forward. You know, it's interesting because
Speaker 6: I'm just up the river, as they say, from you
Speaker 6: guys in Niaga and face the same situations I speak
Speaker 6: with Joe Randon mayor irresponsible development. You have to grow
Speaker 6: or you die. You know, it's interesting anyway, it's a
Speaker 6: story for another some of that you've heard about these
Speaker 6: one dollar homes in Sicily that in a sense, it's
Speaker 6: kind of what's happening here. The little towns are dying there,
Speaker 6: They're losing their young people.
Speaker 5: Et cetera.
Speaker 6: So this is not only a national problem, it's an
Speaker 6: international problem. How do you continue to grow yet at
Speaker 6: the same time maintain the charming characteristics that makes the
Speaker 6: place so special. It's been a wonderful conversation. We're going
Speaker 6: to continue a little bit more. And you mentioned it,
Speaker 6: and you've heard that, You've heard the slogan all politics
Speaker 6: are local. So I want to know how some of
Speaker 6: the federal and state things going on affect you on
Speaker 6: the local level. I think that's been an interesting question
Speaker 6: to answer. So we've got all that and more coming
Speaker 6: back on Being Frank. I'm your host, Frank Lebona or
Speaker 6: guests from Preserve Piermont the wonderful conversation. Don't go away.
Speaker 6: We'll be right back after these brief commercial messages.
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Speaker 6: with our conversation, our intelligent conversation. It's been that and
Speaker 6: more with our guests from Preserve, Peirmont, Kate Cabe, Robert Zitt,
Speaker 6: Jeff Gordon, and Dennis Hardy.
Speaker 5: Guys.
Speaker 6: As I mentioned before the break its, and I think
Speaker 6: it's important. There's so much going on in our country. Okay,
Speaker 6: the current thing that's really affecting us most locally is
Speaker 6: the potential loss of snap benefits, which will feed a
Speaker 6: lot of hungry people, and that leaves local organizations, local municipalities,
Speaker 6: et cetera, villages to pick up the slack. How do
Speaker 6: things on that grand level, state, national, etc. Affect you, guys,
Speaker 6: and how can you deal with it? Anybody can pick
Speaker 6: that up, Kate, Why don't you start us off? Sure?
Speaker 7: Well, I mean, of course it affects us. I think
Speaker 7: we see it in every community. Frank, I know you
Speaker 7: and I have gone to some people to people fundraisers
Speaker 7: this year. They've had more than ever because they are
Speaker 7: anticipating I think half a million dollars worth of cuts
Speaker 7: to come down, which is a huge hole in the
Speaker 7: services that they're able to deliver to our to our
Speaker 7: neighbors and friends. I think the number that I heard
Speaker 7: at the last event I was at was forty one
Speaker 7: thousand people in Rockland County on shore of where their
Speaker 7: next meal is coming from. So absolutely it affects all
Speaker 7: of us, and you know, I think it's incumbent upon
Speaker 7: all of us to do our part right. However you
Speaker 7: can help, you should help. I know that during COVID
Speaker 7: one of our current trustees, who's actually also running for
Speaker 7: mayor this year, is started a COVID food pantry in
Speaker 7: Piermont because you know, some of our neighbors weren't able
Speaker 7: to go to work, so you know, we're their work
Speaker 7: was disrupted and so that was something that was stood
Speaker 7: up in our community five years ago that provided a
Speaker 7: tremendous service to our neighbors. As it relates to some
Speaker 7: of our historical assets that you mentioned, the Piermont Peer
Speaker 7: being the largest emvocation point for soldiers going to the
Speaker 7: D Day invasion in World War Two. The end of
Speaker 7: our Piermont Peer is now closed to foot traffic or
Speaker 7: car traffic because it has been deemed unsafe. So that
Speaker 7: would be a large project to re establish, you know,
Speaker 7: safe opening of the end of the pier which would
Speaker 7: require federal grants. And I know that there are conversations
Speaker 7: going on between different people in our community and our
Speaker 7: congressional representative about you know that about the historical significance
Speaker 7: of that peer to our village and and also our
Speaker 7: World War two history, but also you know, our maritime
Speaker 7: history in our country history. Yeah, yeah, yes, So so
Speaker 7: that is certainly something that will be deeply impacted by
Speaker 7: whether or not the federal government is willing to give
Speaker 7: these kinds of grants to UH to restore and and
Speaker 7: save historical assets. So all of those things hit us
Speaker 7: at home, gentlemen, Dennis, would.
Speaker 5: You like to Yeah, I mean so a couple of thoughts.
Speaker 1: One, you know, it's so it's sort of like a
Speaker 1: slow motion horror movie. You know, all the decisions that
Speaker 1: come down out of Washington on a on a daily basis,
Speaker 1: UH that are are starting to impact the community. It's terrible,
Speaker 1: and so you need to get involved. And you know,
Speaker 1: the president of Lines International said, you can't start doing
Speaker 1: something for someone unless you start doing something for others.
Speaker 1: And that's important that what we do as a community,
Speaker 1: and that's getting involved in grassroots organizations like Preserve, but
Speaker 1: also you know, on a local level with elections and
Speaker 1: every single vote counts. I will say I lost my
Speaker 1: first election for mayor by twenty one votes, so every
Speaker 1: vote counts, and it's important that you.
Speaker 5: Be engaged and involved.
Speaker 6: Dennis, since you mentioned that, I want Robert and Jeff
Speaker 6: to pick it up to the importance of the vote.
Speaker 6: You hear so many people, you know forgive the awful analogy,
Speaker 6: but it's often used. You know, choice between cancer and
Speaker 6: polio terrible, but often said, so why bother? They're both bad?
Speaker 6: How do you address that? Jeff take it first, and
Speaker 6: then Robert you finish up. How do you explain to
Speaker 6: people how important the vote truly is like Dennis, I.
Speaker 4: Lost the primary by twenty one votes. You know, what
Speaker 4: can I tell you it was? It was a non
Speaker 4: presidential year, I guess, and there wasn't a large turnout.
Speaker 4: If we have twelve hundred register Democrats. I ran it
Speaker 4: as a Democrat in the primary. We had kitus better
Speaker 4: with these numbers than I am. But we had roughly
Speaker 4: three hundred people come out and vote out of the
Speaker 4: potential of twelve hundred. It's twenty five percent. That's what
Speaker 4: can I say about that? It's it's it's I don't
Speaker 4: know if it's if it's necessarily a singular to to
Speaker 4: to Piermont.
Speaker 5: I think that's just generally.
Speaker 4: How it goes unless there are groups that actively try to.
Speaker 5: Get out the vote. And that's what we need to do.
Speaker 4: To have, you know, twelve hundred registered Democrats and have
Speaker 4: three hundred come out and vote in a small community.
Speaker 4: You know, that's not good. And like Dennis said, and
Speaker 4: I could tell you offices or one or lost on
Speaker 4: a very small margin of votes.
Speaker 5: So it's important to get out.
Speaker 4: We're into early voting now and we're hoping that everybody
Speaker 4: comes out of Republicans, Independence, Democrats.
Speaker 5: On November fourth.
Speaker 6: Robert, you're up police your thoughts on the power of
Speaker 6: the vote.
Speaker 2: Sure, yeah, you know, I think I think Piermont is
Speaker 2: predominantly a Democratic village, Democratic stronghold, but I think there
Speaker 2: is a large number of residents who are either moderates
Speaker 2: or some are Republicans that don't necessarily, you know, associate
Speaker 2: themselves with with either the Democratic Party or any party
Speaker 2: in particular. I think it's it's incredibly important to involve
Speaker 2: people from different parties to address what's important to them,
Speaker 2: whether it be a Republican, you know, an independent, or
Speaker 2: a Democrat. I think it's I think it's sort of necessary.
Speaker 2: So yeah, voter voter turnout in the village has been
Speaker 2: has been disheartening, but I'm hopeful, you know, that more
Speaker 2: residents come out this time to vote, and I'm hopeful
Speaker 2: that more residents continue to come out.
Speaker 6: Peter election guys, I just want to make sure that
Speaker 6: we get some website information in because we're talking about
Speaker 6: how important information is. So what Kate would you tell
Speaker 6: people if they want to know more about preserve Peermont?
Speaker 6: And again we talked to this is local, all politics
Speaker 6: being local, but these are things that affect every small
Speaker 6: town in America. So it's important that we have this
Speaker 6: discussion and we continue the discussion. So if people want
Speaker 6: to become involved with Preserve Peremidt, there's also Preserve Ramapo.
Speaker 6: You guys are not alone, but let's start with Preserve
Speaker 6: peramid How can people get in touch with you?
Speaker 7: Well, as of right now, Preserve Piamont does not yet
Speaker 7: have a website. It's really been communicating with the public
Speaker 7: through Facebook. But I think it is a bucket list
Speaker 7: item to create a website. To do you have a
Speaker 7: Facebook site, which is Preserved Pyermont, but you know, I
Speaker 7: think it's a bucket list item to have a website
Speaker 7: as well as, you know, kind of a repository of
Speaker 7: information for people that are not on social media. One
Speaker 7: of the things that Jeff and I discovered in the
Speaker 7: June primary was about half the voters were on social
Speaker 7: media and half were not. And so I think we
Speaker 7: need ways to reach out to people and to engage people,
Speaker 7: and that also relies on, you know, leveraging the current
Speaker 7: structures that are there. Up until about fifteen years ago,
Speaker 7: Piermont actually had a caucus structure to choose candidates. They
Speaker 7: didn't use the primary structure, and there are still caucaus
Speaker 7: structures going on, you know, or there had been until
Speaker 7: a couple of years ago when when the New York
Speaker 7: Coalition for Open Government kind of uh, you know, did
Speaker 7: away with them formally and did you know, closed caucus
Speaker 7: political caucuses. But you know, we rely on the infrastructure
Speaker 7: right when you decide to run as a candidate. You know,
Speaker 7: however many people you know in your community, maybe it's
Speaker 7: one hundred, but if there's two thousand people who live here,
Speaker 7: it's a lot of work to get out to them.
Speaker 7: So I think that's hopefully one of the things that
Speaker 7: you know, this this effort to get everybody engaged in
Speaker 7: our community can do as well, is to create these
Speaker 7: communication channels so that people can be more engaged and
Speaker 7: informed about elections and that it doesn't require you know,
Speaker 7: leaning on any one or two or three, you know,
Speaker 7: two political parties or you know, it can really just
Speaker 7: be more of a community effort.
Speaker 6: Well, hopefully being Frank helped to get the word out.
Speaker 5: I appreciate it. Again.
Speaker 6: I think there were strong messages here that all local
Speaker 6: municipalities should hear and and implement wherever possible. Well, particularly
Speaker 6: engagement and transparency. That's a common theme that we need
Speaker 6: to hear more of. Kate McCabe, Robert sid Jeff Gordon,
Speaker 6: Dennis Hardy from Preserve Piermont. I want to thank you
Speaker 6: for your intelligent conversation, guys. This has really been a pleasure.
Speaker 6: Thank you much, thank you, and of course thank you guys.
Speaker 6: Of course, we offer special thanks to our listeners who
Speaker 6: take time to give us a voice in their lives.
Speaker 6: Remember you offer a fresh topic every week. Catch us
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Speaker 6: being Frank with others. I always leave you a two
Speaker 6: little little extra I like to do. That one is,
Speaker 6: of course a slogan that I think is appropriate, and
Speaker 6: this one is going to be very and then some
Speaker 6: great original music. This one from Fdr Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
Speaker 6: who said, nobody will ever deprive the American people of
Speaker 6: the right to vote except the American people themselves, and
Speaker 6: the only way they could do this is by not voting. Guys.
Speaker 6: November fourth, Okay, if you're watching us now, next Tuesday.
Speaker 6: Please vote. I'm seventy years old and I'm very proud
Speaker 6: to say I have never missed and as long as
Speaker 6: I am able, I never will. Okay, some great music
Speaker 6: to close with. He's my friend. He's the most talented
Speaker 6: guy stand up bass player. He's a magician with it.
Speaker 6: The Jim Donica Quartet with a heroic plan.
Speaker 5: For our engineer, the mail man.
Speaker 6: Mister Neil Richter. I'm your host, Frank Lubono, and we
Speaker 6: hope to have you join us on the next being. Frank,
Speaker 6: We're the only way to be is Frank. Thanks everyone, and.
Speaker 3: Ann and that sad.
Speaker 8: Anything.
Speaker 4: But get.
Speaker 9: The story of the Goat.
Speaker 8: And the.
Speaker 9: Good Loves, Another Chance and everything anything had away
Speaker 7: To us A never Radio dot com