The Case of the Missing Chappaqua Crossing Discs
One hard copy for the public, at town hall
Monday, August 23, 2010
by Christine Yeres
The final environmental impact statement, or FEIS, for Chappaqua Crossing is still a draft. Town board members and their consultants are working, presumably in hard copy, toward making the multi-volume document a final one. When the unwieldy document was delivered in boxes to town hall on July 23, 2010, says Town Clerk Jill Simon Shapiro, a disc version was promised, but never materialized.
Since July 23, only one hard copy has been available for the public to inspect, the copy that sits in the clerk’s office at town hall. You may sit and peruse the document, or employees in the clerk’s office will copy pages of it for you, for $.25 per page.
NewCastleNOW.org has continued to ask both the town and the developer for a disc copy of the FEIS, in order to prepare for the public discussion of Chappaqua Crossing that Supervisor Barbara Gerrard has set for Tuesday, September 27, 2010. Or, in the alternative, for the town to mount the disc FEIS onto its website, for the public to access.
Last week, the developer’s spokesperson, Geoff Thompson of Thompson & Bender, told NewCastleNOW.org that the developer’s engineering firm, Divney Tung Schwalbe, had indeed sent multiple copies of the FEIS in disc form to town hall shortly after July 23.
Thompson conveyed the message also that the developer had no objection to the town’s release of the disc to NewCastleNOW.org or any member of the public, that it was “the town’s call.” As of last Friday, the search continues at town hall to learn who received the disc copies.
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For NCNOW‘s complete coverage of Chappaqua Crossing, dating from 2007, click HERE.
Maybe someone at the Town Hall “misplaced” the info. CD’s. Mistakes do happen. But this town board seems to have major problems with transparency, optional disclosures and interactive dialogue with its citizens.
With a FEIS DISK being very important to all, the developer should certainly state how he sent it, addressed to … who signed for it and the printed name under the signature. His statement is vague to say the least.
To NJH:
The Developer’s representative sent the disc!
This is one more attempt to avoid public disclosure and scrutiny.
Small cramped room for over people 100 on August 10. Essentially denying them entry to a public meeting, and refusing obdurately to move it until a public furor ensued, even though regular assembly room was empty.
Now the case of the “missing disc,” denying access to public information.
It is getting serious.
What are they hiding?
Why are they pushing us to go to outside agencies to investigate.
Why not just get another copy of the disk? Is there some sort of trick? “Hello Mr. Developer Dude? Yeah, its me, town hall. I lost those disks. Could you please send another copy? I will send the $25 to handle the replacement CD and FedEx cost and insurance.” “ok. We’ll send them out this afternoon.” “Great. Please don’t tell my boss I lost the first copy.” “No problem, your secret is safe with me.”
On August 10 we were told at the town board meeting that we would have 7 weeks to look over the FEIS prior to the September 28th information meeting. Without the disk being available perhaps the meeting should be pushed back. Two weeks have already gone by. Attempting to go through the paper copy is a true nightmare. Page numbers have moved around from the Draft FEIS. The information provided to questions asked is still not correct.
Again, the people who sent the disks should show proof of delivery so we can get to the bottom of this.
We agree with NJH.
Your points are well taken. We do not have the time they promised to examine the FEIS. And they need to provide correct information in response to the questions.
The meeting should be at a later date.
I have heard of strange things happening in this town, but this seems intentional and troubling. I don’t get it.
