Eastchester REVIEW THE
April 29, 2016 | Vol. 4, Number 18 | www.eastchesterreview.com
Fire district to remove non-resident volunteers
State of mind
By COREY STOCKTON Staff Writer
Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino gave his annual State of the County address on the evening of April 21. Astorino once again promised not to increase taxes for county residents. For story, see page 7. Photo/Andrew Dapolite
DEC proposes hotel site cleanup plan, some residents unsatisfied By COREY STOCKTON Staff Writer The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has pitched a draft for the Brownfield cleanup of the site on which an Eastchester-based developer plans to build a Marriott hotel. The Brownfield site in Tuckahoe is a portion of the former marble quarry on Marbledale Road, which was used as a dumping ground for industrial waste in the 1960s and 1970s. Only 3.5 acres of the 6.6-acre landfill site has been designated for cleanup. Following that remediation project, the developer, Bilwin Development Affiliates
LLC, plans to transform that portion of the neglected property into a Marriott hotel. The proposed five-story hotel would have 163 rooms and a 6,400-square-foot restaurant on the ground floor. But prior to moving forward with the hotel project, the DEC’s plan for site remediation focuses on removing contaminated soils. HydroEnvironmental Solutions Inc., a company employed by the developer to test the site for toxins, found soil vapors with high levels of Freon—samples were as high as 344,000 times the standard for commercially zoned land—as well as trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene, compounds often found in
dry cleaning and metal-cleaning chemicals, and are considered carcinogenic under long-term exposure. The site will require a Brownfield Cleanup Project, BCP, which is a program overseen and orchestrated by the DEC to decontaminate and redevelop a toxic zone. Rather than using the DEC’s State Superfund monies, meant to remediate hazardous waste sites, a BCP is enacted by an independent developer whom the DEC refers to as a volunteer. The volunteer—in this case the Marriot developer—funds the cleanup, but is partially reimbursed with tax credits upon completion of the project. George Heitzman, director of
the state Brownfield and Superfund programs, said, “We do not see a reason not to move forward with the remedy for this portion of the site.” The remediation plan, if approved, entails excavating and disposing of contaminated soil in areas pinpointed as hotspots; backfilling the land with clean soil and grading the surface; and covering the site with either 1 foot of clean soil or 6 inches of concrete where designated. Randy Whitcher, DEC project manager for the Marbledale Road site, said once the remediation begins the cleanup will take several months. CLEANUP continued on page 9
The Eastchester Fire District Board of Commissioners held a special meeting earlier this month partially to discuss the status of the district’s volunteers. Board Chairman Dennis Winter cited a New York state law that requires all volunteer firefighters to be residents of the town in which they volunteer. The board voted 4-1 to order the Fire Chief Michael Grogan to remove all volunteers with addresses outside of greater Eastchester, except those the town has granted special permission to continue services. Winter said this clear-out is long overdue, but that the board needed to settle other issues before addressing the volunteers. A roster dated March 2015 lists 42 active members, 15 of which have addresses outside of Eastchester, Tuckahoe or Bronxville. The fire district employs about 75 professional firefighters across five stations in Eastchester. Those five stations also house seven volunteer companies, only five of which have active members. One volunteer removed from duty was David Horne of Waverly Engine Company No. 1, who now lives in Mahopac, New York. Horne has been a volunteer member of the Eastchester Fire Department for 53 years, but has lived outside of the town since 2009. He said that he was born and raised in Eastchester, but had to relocate when taxes got too high. “I’m very community
minded,” Horne said, referring to his participation in the Fire Department, along with the Boy Scouts and Eastchester Little League. Horne is also deeply involved in the volunteer organization. He is listed as the secretary and treasurer of Waverly, the volunteer engine company based in the district’s main firehouse, and holds the same title with the Volunteer Officers Association, VOA. He is also the president of the Volunteer Fireman’s Benevolent Association of the town of Eastchester, an organization which provides money for disabled or indigent volunteers and their families. Tom Visci, president of the VOA, said it is obvious that the fire board is targeting Horne. “What they’re trying to do is eliminate him from the Fire Department so he can’t be involved,” he said. Horne believes that since he is wearing the “most hats,” that if the board gets rid of him then the other volunteers with residency issues will soon follow. “Every board member we have wants the volunteers around,” Winter said, refuting claims that he wants to abolish the entire volunteer base. He added that he wants to ensure that the Fire District’s bylaws are upheld so that the volunteers and professionals can work together efficiently. But Commissioner Anthony Lore, a volunteer at Tuckahoe Hose Company, was also critical of the plan. Lore is the only one of the five commissioners who DISTRICT continued on page 8
INSIDE Bronxville crowns its Woman of the Year Story on page 5.