Rockland Post

BY: Keith S. Shikowitz, Editor/Investigative Reporter

            The Clarkstown Town Council is divided into four wards (districts). Bob Axelrod is running to keep his seat as the representative of Ward 4.

            “I came off a great event yesterday, the Clarkstown Republican Committee fundraiser. It worked out really well. We had about 120 people there. We had a lot of support from people from all towns. It wasn’t just Clarkstown. We had a number of the elected officials. We had Michael Henry who’s running for state attorney general, and that elections next year. We had the state Republican committee chair Ed Cox, whom I know a long time. I was the President of the SUNY faculty Council of Community Colleges, 2001 to 2003. I was elected to that, position which is an umbrella governance organization that represents all 30 SUNY community colleges and, over 15,000 faculty.”

            Axelrod was born and raised in Brooklyn his wife who he met in 1975 and is from the Bronx and he has been living in Rockland now for almost 38 years. They’ve been married, 48 years. “Sharon’s my best friend. She’s been with me through everything. She supports me. She’ll let me know straight out when she doesn’t and the reasons why. She’s supporting me in what I’m doing as a town councilman and I love her for that as well because I tell you the truth, it wasn’t for that, I would not be able to do this. It has to be a partnership straight through because this is something that takes a lot of time, in my life, I mean because I’ve been retired from Rockland Community College so I could take on this position over here. It does take a lot of time, out of my, it could be day, night, weekends. If I don’t have my wife’s support, it’s, it’s just not happening.”

            His partnership with his wife goes deeper than just her support for his work on the council. She’s a doctor of audiology and he is a speech language pathologist, and has worked with all populations, children, adults, seniors, all types of, disabilities, speech language and hearing disabilities.

            People generally don’t just jump into the political arena because it can be a brutal place to play. What brought Axelrod into politics? “I’ve been dabbling in politics for a long time. In the county here it’s been over 38 years, but I’ve been really more into it over the last 20 years and I was involved with Ed Day’s initial campaign back in 2005 when he was running for the legislature in Legislative District 5, and be honest with you, I was running against him as a Republican, not as a Democrat. We went up the convention. Whoever got elected in the convention was going to be the candidate.” We try not to do a primary. We want to make sure that people who our party choose as the candidates we all support those people.”

            He praised Ed Day stating that he was in the party for a long time and he beat Axelrod at convention, and he pledged his support for him at that particular time and worked for him to become a legislator and they became close. “Ed is a force to be reckoned with in the county He’s amazing. He’s very strong-willed, determined, honest and a person that really cares for the people and what’s going on in the county, and you can see in terms of the results of what he’s done over the last 12 years.”

            “At first, I was a little overwhelmed because it was back in the way back in December. It’s almost a year that I’m on the board, it was during the holidays and one event after the other, going to this and that oh my goodness, this is a lot.”

            He said he was really overwhelmed at that point, but he was going to stick with this. He even went to looked at George one time, we went to one event it was a holiday event and, and he looked at George, (Supervisor Hoehmann) and said, George, how long have you been doing this? He knew he was doing this for 7 years as the councilman and 10 years as a supervisor plus before that he was very involved.

“I said, you’ve been doing this forever. I’m doing this for 4 days now and I’m already exhausted. I absolutely love it. I’ve grown into it. As a matter of fact, it’s energized me. I have more energy now doing what I’m doing and where I look forward to just getting up in the morning and looking at my activities, looking at my list of things to do, planning it.”

            “I’ve been in politics a while, and I’m talking about from 2005, but I’d be remiss and if I did not indicate that I was a Democrat like Tom Morahan was like Reagan was. I got to see both sides and I think it’s important for people to see what was going on and to be able to make a comparison and see the difference. I did run as a Democrat for the legislature back in 1997.”

             “I switched because I wasn’t happy with what was going on behind the scenes with the Democrats. There was a lot of backbiting. There was no appreciation or recognition of people who actually worked hard for the party.  I wasn’t so thrilled in terms of the ideals that they basically stood for. As I indicated, there was a situation where there was a domino effect of people who were put into certain positions, the supervisor position, the assembly seat, and the legislative seat was a domino effect that people would put in there without any election. It just had to do with the majority and certain people that were in there one specific person I was really upset about and that’s why I went over to the Republican side and said I would like to run.” He explained.

One of the most important local issues that people talk about is infrastructure. The roads, all the pipes and everything else that’s going on, tell me what you think about the infrastructure in Clarkstown and how what you’ve done to help to improve it and anything you see that might need to be improved.

            “Well, first of all, we have a, we have a terrific town hall. It’s an amazing place. People here about town hall, but I don’t know if people really recognize the work that goes on there. One of the things that I’ve learned as a town councilman is to respect the work, the expertise that goes in there, the building department, the engineering department that, superintendent of highways department, the planning department, the people in there are incredible. The work that they’ve done. We save a lot of money in terms of our budget because a lot of the work, the engineering, the construction, the building, like the revitalization, a lot of that work is done in-house.”

 He stated that a lot of the work they put together like the new fields, Zucker field, Truman’s field, new turf fields and playgrounds, were done in-house and how much money they saved by not contracting out but doing things within. Adding that, these people who do the work are incredible.

            “We have 300 miles of roads within the town and we are years ahead paving them. There are definitely roads that have to be paved. People have still have a right to complain, you know, but it does take years to be able to pave all these roads, weather conditions and things like that and you know, situations, but we, we, we’re miles ahead in terms of roads that are paved. Look at the revitalization in West Nyack over there between West Nyack Road and Strawtown Road. The work has caused traffic, and apologies were made by the town council and by Supervisor Hoehmann, but the work needed to be done in terms of the flooding that goes on over there.

Culverts (a tunnel carrying a stream under a road or railway) being put in and as a result of that, the roads are now being arranged so these situations are being taken care of.”

            His take on all of this is that the infrastructure has improved but it’s constantly being worked on. Areas that need to be done are being investigated, explored, and done. Not everything goes as planned. Like in the West Nyack revitalization, there were obstacles where a pipe was broken and they had to replace that. It brought things back to 3 to 4 weeks, and caused delays. People would start getting upset that businesses were being affected, but eventually all those things were just taken care of.

            “These things do happen. You can’t control these things, but it’s how it’s being taken care of, how it’s being rectified, and it’s done within days if not hours.”

As far as other roads in the town, he explains that there are state roads that have to be worked on. These are things that they work in conjunction with the county and state. “I think the biggest problem that we see now, I wouldn’t say as a result of infrastructure, but it does have to do with the roads. There’s a, there’s an inordinate amount of accidents that go on in the town, specifically, Route 303 and 304. Last year alone on 304, there were 11 deaths and 303, there were 5 deaths. So you’re talking about 16 deaths in one year just on those two roads.”

            He says there are studies being done. It’s work. It’s a partnership between the town and the county, and it’s being sponsored by the state because they are state roads, to work out how they can rectify this type of this situation. “I’ve been on top of this to see, what’s going on. A lot of people ask me about that. I’ve been bringing a lot of information out to people. There’s supposed to be a public hearing on this to talk about what the results are of this particular study. We’re going to be hearing about that because a lot of the problems of people making left turns, cars coming in, you know, from the other side there trying to rush around cars because there’s no left turn turning lanes.”

            According to Axelrod, a possible solution could be roundabouts. They’re talking about 6 roundabouts on, on Route 304, which would make sense. He says he’s also gotten clobbered by people cutting around and not signaling and things like that. He understands where you’re exactly. They’re also looking to add left turn signal and left turn lanes and that these are things that are critical.

            Another infrastructure issue which he has received a lot of complaints about is the bridge by the Ford dealership on 304. They don’t know how long that that’s going to take. If you have traveled there recently, you find that one side was closed and then the next time you find that the other side is closed. “It’s again that becomes an imposition to the people. We want to have it rectified. It’s a bridge, but how long should something like that take? I’m hearing it could take over a year. I’m not an engineer, but I know people who are, and I’ve got some background with things.” He stated.

            “I would say that as far as how long that’s going to take is what they find when they start pulling things apart. When the first examination of something like a bridge, it’s all together, okay, we’ve got to see it and then all of a sudden they pull things apart to fix this, and they find, oh my God, now we’ve got to fix that too, things pop up that you get on its back. I’m not trying to make excuses. I’m just venting for the people. I’m hearing about it and they’re asking me. I’m telling them this is a state road, and they may have found some more damage that they didn’t know about then. Now we’ve got to bring in more steel or more this and more that and all the other things.”

            There are only two guarantees in life, death and taxes. Both of which no one likes, but we have to deal with them. How does Axelrod feel about the tax structure in Clarkstown and what can he do to possible help to lower them?

            “I think over the last number of years, I think Supervisor Hoehmann and the town board have done a great job in trying to keep the taxes down. We’re very cognizant of the high cost of property taxes and that’s going on in town and everything else. This is the first year in a number of years that taxes have been increased, I think it’s by 4%. I think a lot had to do with the Palisade Center in terms of the payback, $27.5 million for the overassessment that I think that was a big thing and also there was the hiring of four new inspectors. The 7.8 million for the mall the town was responsible for has already been paid.”

            “The mall brings in a lot of tax dollars now to the town, it’s better. It wasn’t always 100%, you know, because that’s why they’re going into foreclosure. At this particular point and right now they’re in a receivership for a possible sale of the of the mall. So, the revenue there hasn’t been that great. Although Clarkstown, thank goodness, is doing very well in terms of its economic development and actually Clarkstown it accounts for 60% of the county’s commercial rateables. Which is excellent. So that helps act as a buffer by keeping the taxes low for the residents. They pick up, a chunk, and so that helps the homeowners in that respect and plus we have other revenues for buildings and things like that permits that people have to get and so that’s what we’re doing in terms of we’re trying to keep the budget balanced. One of the things that we’re able to do this year is to have a zero-based budget with no increase in terms of expenditures.”

            We’ve were under the Biden economy for the past 4 years and starting October 1st, we’ll be under the new Trump economy with the BBB going into effect. How is the economy in Clarkstown doing and what are ways maybe you can improve it or, you know.

            “One way of helping the economy is by having successful businesses in Clarkstown, and as I indicated before, Clarkstown is doing extremely well. We are bringing in lots of businesses, but as I indicated before, Clarkstown accounts for 60% of the county’s commercial rateables. We have new businesses opening all the time, and I know that because I’m there at the ribbon cutting ceremonies. I’m there constantly, helping out and, speaking to these commercial owners. It helps the town and the residents so we’re able to generate revenue to try to keep taxes and inflation in the town and we’re working on that.” Axelrod explained.

            One of the new businesses that came into Clarkstown recently, that will help with the economy and tax base was the first Chick Fil A in Rockland County. “We have great pizza we have coming in. Mathnasium which is already on Main Street that opened up that’s the summer. We possibly have and I got this from a good source a Trader Joe’s coming in, shortly. Walmart is another possibility that we’re looking at.”

            A Walmart on this side of the county would be a great thing for the residents here so they would not have to travel to Airmont or Monroe. The question is, where would you put a Walmart in Clarkstown that would be big enough to have it?

             “I’ve heard it’s somewhere off of 59. I can’t tell you the exact location that might be, but I know that, Trader Joe’s could be somewhere around where the Sears building is or was in the shops in Nanuet, in that area. I can’t tell you. It’s just a rumor and I can’t tell you exactly at this particular point, the location.

            I’m not asking you to tell me where it’s going. But where in Clarkstown do you have enough unused land that you could put something like that?

            “That would be Ward 3. That’s not my Ward. I try to keep my heads in every place in Clarkstown but I’m pretty sure that that’s Ward 3 over there. That would be Franchino. He’s good with these rumors.”

            The economy is not one thing he hears complaints about from people. He does hear complaints about illegal housing that’s next to them. They don’t want to have to deal with this, buildings that are not being taken care of and can you do something about that. He also hears complaints about neighbors, utilities, bills that are too high in terms of, gas and electric, that and need to be looked at.

            Even though he is in Ward 4, he tries to take every phone call that comes to him. “That’s one of my responsibilities, helping other people and not only just from my ward but from other wards as well. I do take the responsibility for all that and where I’ll take phone calls and I’ll get a lot of people say, ‘Wow, you actually called.’  They don’t expect you to call. I’ll call back because I feel that that’s in terms of courtesy and that’s my responsibility to be able to help others and in terms of what their needs are and if there’s a problem that I can help them with or rectify that then I’ll do that. I am constantly advocating for others not only in my ward but other wards.”

            He says that ss a whole in terms of the economy, he really hasn’t had any complaints with regard to that, as to why is this so high, why is this so difficult, what are they going to be doing about the gas rates or what are we going to be doing about this and that. “When groceries are like 30 to 40% higher than it should be, you know, yes, then I would hear it, but not so much complaining as a council person, but just in terms of discussion, as an everyday individual, you know, just.

            With major protests and what some people call riots going on across the country, public safety is a major concern for people. According to Axelrod, how safe is Clarkstown?

            He added that whenever they have an event that goes on in the town, they (the police) are there to help out and the auxiliary police are also an amazing group of individuals. They supplement the police, and he doesn’t know of any other towns that have auxiliary police.

            The one complaint about the police department has nothing to do with the performance of their job. The complaint is overtime. “I don’t I don’t hear much about overtime anymore. Like years ago, under the previous administration before George Hoehmann, yes, there was a tremendous amount of overtime and build up of salaries but if there is overtime now, it’s because of there’s a shortage of police. They have been hiring now, we’ve hired a number of police officers over the last few months. I think 77 police officers who went through the academy were hired and that we reviewed their resumes and they fit right into the model of the of Clarkstown Police Department. That’s being worked on there. People retire, people are out sick, the pregnancies, things like that, so there’s a need to fill in. It’s lucky that we have individuals to fill in, so they’re entitled to overtime in that respect, but that’s about it.”

            Another hot topic that is a national issue, but is a local issue as well is the illegal immigration. In Clarkstown, they’ve had a number of arrests of illegals in housing and stuff like that.

“It’s there. We have it. It’s hard. The way we find out is through other residents who basically let us know and complain about that and we send out inspectors to investigate. They do investigate and sometimes they come to investigate and they’re alerted and never get into the house or never see. It’s a difficult situation to handle at this particular point that if they do find out that through the house owners, then they go to court, they’re fined and until they comply they’re fined higher so it’s incremental in terms of what could be done, but it’s not an easy situation. Town Hall is on top of it and it’s through the inspectors, the building department we send out and the police if it’s necessary, but there’s no real situation or incidents with regard to that. It’s there. It’s being addressed as best as possible.

            People have said if not for Ed Day and Theresa Kenny stopping Mayor Adams from sending many illegals here to Rockland, the illegal immigrant situation could have been a lot worse than this county. Our County Executive is extremely proactive and he’s forceful and he gets results.

            The Palisades Mall is a major tax ratable for the town and the county. It has been having major financial problems over the last few years, stores going in and out and major stores, McDonald’s, Friday’s, you all sorts of stuff going out of there, Hallmark, leaving it with empty stores.

            “It’s changed over. Originally it was a high-end, type of, a mall. I know my wife used to love to go shopping there, you know, JC Penney’s is gone, yeah, absolutely, Lord and Taylor, they have a lot of those, those, those key, businesses that used to draw people. Now you have a lot of these arcades and game and mystery rooms. From what I understand, it’s drawing people and it’s making revenue.

            Is that’s the way to go. A lot of people are buying stuff online these days, a lot of these stores like JC Penney are consolidating their inventory into warehouses to be able to ship merchandise. It’s cheaper for them and having a million stores around.

            “It’s difficult for a lot of these superstores considering the type of rentals they probably have to pay in the overhead. Yes, a lot of people do shop online, but it’s coming back to the, I think, people coming to actually shop in person. During the pandemic, obviously it was something that was, it was, it was necessary, it was critical, and it carried over, but, I think more and more people are coming in to go shopping. You see some of the other malls. I go to the other malls around, like New Jersey, you know, they’re kind of packed, and, you know, the Palisades, I don’t always see that when I go there. Sometimes there on weekends, but again, it’s upstairs where you find a lot of the restaurants that people go to. They still have a lot of good restaurants that are over there.

            Does he think the situation with the governance of the mall and the ownership plays a part in these big stores leaving and possibly not coming back?

            “What it really depends on what’s going to happen, you know, with this receivership and how if they if they sell this at the mall and who takes it over and how they want to have to deal with it, how they want it to run. Only time will tell, to be able to find out what’s going on with this place.”

            Is the poor management of the mall under pyramid under the current ownership what caused people to leave? The rents were astronomical. Do you think that’s why they left and do you think under a new management, they might actually come back?

“It could be, it’s very possible. A new management is good. What’s happening with the Nanuet Center over there. That’s pretty much on the new management at this particular time and hopefully it’s going to be a revitalization is there as well. They’re looking to bring new housing over there if they have like 160 units housing, they’re looking there. That could generate business, bring people in, and sort of revitalize that area there. Again, stores are coming and going over there as well. Hopefully, if there’s a new management over at the Pyramid, or the palisades that, we could have that type of, revitalization as well.

            He thinks a hybrid of residential and commercial would be beneficial. What they call it the transient oriented development. We have these mixed developments over there between commercial, residential, and recreational like in the Ridge Hill Plaza, you have the apartments when you come in, right across the street, you have the commercial. That’s good. That’s really more of the urban type of development and we probably want to see more of that here, you know, with more building, you know, over by the, you’d see that by DeCiccos they’re looking to do that over by Shoprite.

            When you go through Clarkstown as opposed to other places in the county is that there are not that many empty storefronts. What do you attribute something like that to?

            “Well, it’s bringing in successful businesses. Businesses where these are businesses that people can benefit from, that you have all types of shopping whether it be food, clothing, or services. I think we have a great mix over here in Clarkstown, and people appreciate that. Hopefully you keep the businesses we’re keeping trying to keep the taxes down for them as well, you know, so their overhead is reasonable and they could make a living and that they could stay and I think that’s also something that we want to give credit to the New City Chamber of commerce that we have the Nanuet Civic Association, all the associations that we have that are working with businesses there and helping them and they’re being educating the public about them, sending out notices. I think that it’s a sort of a team effort around the around the town.

            Finally, it all comes down to, why should people elect Axelrod?

            “So I’m out there. I’m helping. I’m working on a daily basis. My wife says to me, do I need to go to all these activities to be at every place? I answer, probably not, but the thing is I want to, I need to do. It’s something that I enjoy doing and being out there, being part of the community and helping the community. I’m working hard and for the people here in Rockland, for us as myself as well, my family. If you want to look, look at my website page. Friends of Bob Axelrod, just go on there, look at my friends of Bob Axelrod Facebook, just look up there. You could Google that and they’ll give you all, all my from the last 11 months I could show you all my activities. Just scroll down and I’d like to give a like a write up to an explanation of all these activities, so I tell you what what’s going on. If you want to see a little bit more of who I am and my philosophies, go onto my website which is Axelrodforus.com. You can check that out and you can get more information about me and it’s all kinds of pictures about my family and the community and my involvements and it’s just something that I feel that I want to continue doing for as long as I can do.”

  He concluded, “I’m a senior myself and so you know but whatever time I can put into it, I would like to be able to still contribute my time until it’s time to move over and give somebody else that’s a little bit younger the opportunity. So I thank you for giving me that opportunity as well.

BY: Keith S. Shikowitz Editor/Investigative Reporter and Robert Jowaiszas Investigative Researcher

            The general public has lost faith in the national legacy media because of all of the now proven false stories that they have been promoted over the past 10 years. These same people are now more reliant on local and social media for their news. The history of local newspapers is one of covering local stories with truth and accuracy.

            Politics is a dirty business and anyone who gets involved has to expect a lot of mudslinging and accusations from the opposition. Today, this mudslinging has reached a new low level with the opposition to President Trump, and anyone associated with him or the Republican Party being called Nazis, Gestapo, King, authoritarian and that he is going to end all elections and kill the American Democracy.

            Locally, this opposition has fallen on Erin Crowley, a paid staff member of Congressman Mike Lawler (a staunch supporter of President Trump and his America First policies) and a Putnam County Legislator. After the Somers Westchester County Town Hall, on May 4, 2025, according to a DCCC press release using a story from LoHud reporter David McKay Wilson, as the only source of the information stated, “A mobile phone number belonging to Rep. Mike Lawler’s deputy district director was used to infiltrate an anti-Lawler’s organization’s private Signal chat group and urge disruptive behavior at a Town Hall.”

            The one thing that people who have attended Lawler’s town halls have noticed, is that all of the people who are opposing him are there with the sole purpose of disrupting the event. They are also the same people attending each meeting regardless of the location. If there are so many people opposing Lawler throughout the district, why would Rockland constituents need to go all the way to Putnam, and Dutchess County events. There should be enough people living in those counties who can do the same job of disrupting and protesting for that side of the political aisle.

            There are questions about the federal legal status of The Fight Lawler group whose co-founders Maureen Morrissey and Ann Starer, are also key figures in Indivisible Rockland and Westchester. They describe the group as a private, volunteer-run effort aimed at opposing Congressman Mike Lawler in New York’s 17th Congressional District. Its organizers communicate through private Signal chats and coordinate public events through the national organizing platform Mobilize.us.

While Fight Lawler claims to be grassroots and volunteer-based, the scale and consistency of its operations raise valid questions about how it is funded and whether it is operated under any formal legal structure. We have emailed multiple times and even left messages but there have been no responses to our inquiries.

How is the group funding its use of Mobilize.us and other digital platforms? Although Mobilize offers free access to some users, larger operations often require paid accounts. Is Fight Lawler operating under its own subscription, receiving assistance from a larger group like Indivisible, or using pooled private funds?

Is Fight Lawler registered with the Federal Election Commission or IRS in any capacity?

If the group is spending more than $1,000 in activities opposing a federal candidate, the law requires registration as a political action committee (PAC). If the group claims to be nonprofit in nature, has it filed with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4)?

Given that Fight Lawler directly targets a sitting member of Congress and plays an increasingly visible role in local politics, the public deserves clarity. Is this truly a small, private volunteer movement—or a coordinated political operation that falls under campaign finance laws?

Fight Lawler needs to publicly respond and must be open and transparent. This will be the only way  they can lend credibility to their accusations aimed at Crowley.

            The accusation adds that the phone number attached to the aide, Crowley, didn’t just use the alleged fake identity to infiltrate a group chat of constituents who opposed him, she allegedly attempted to manipulate them into disrupting one of Lawler’s town halls and inciting chaos in the room—where multiple attendees were forcibly removed by police after Crowley’s apparent comment in the chat.

DCCC Spokesperson Riya Vashi said “Mike Lawler’s taxpayer-funded staff allegedly spying on his own constituents isn’t just gross, it’s a disgraceful abuse of power. If true, Lawler owes voters an immediate explanation for his staffer actively trying to stage chaos at an official town hall for his political gain.”

She added, “Mike Lawler eagerly ran to Fox News to attack his own constituents for opposing him — but now that reports show his own staff member was allegedly one of them it’s suddenly crickets. If he has nothing to hide, why won’t he answer a single question about it?”

A valid question about the release of this accusations in this story is, if this event took place on May 4, 2025, why wait two months to publicize it by the DCCC and multiple media outlets all echoing the LoHud David McKay Wilson story practically word for word?

She was asked, if it’s found out that Erin Crowley never did that would you apologize?

Vashi answered, “I mean, if, if they fully answered and came with proof, like, yeah, we’d let it go. But I don’t foresee that happening.”

Wilson, in an email to a reader said about the chat site which Crowley allegedly infiltrated, “It was a group of retired suburban women running the Signal chat group. It wasn’t a sophisticated operation, and their verification system was flawed.”

This statement opens up the question of the legitimacy of the accusation and identification of Crowley as the “infiltrator.” It could have really been this Jake Thomas who was the alleged person in the chat.

The one thing that these people are not acknowledging is that not answering is not a sign of guilt or having anything to hide. Which is what they are saying about all of the people being questioned by Congressman Comer’s committee looking into the Biden Autopen scandal and his cognitive abilities who are not answering questions by falling back on their rights under the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination.

JR, a constituent in the 17^th Congressional District said, “This is the usual double standard that the Democrats live by. If a Democrat does something, it’s okay. If a Republican does or is accused of the same thing, it’s criminal and a threat to our Constitutional Republic.”

            The problem is that there is no solid forensic evidence that the alleged phone number belongs to Crowley. Lawler’s office has not commented on this accusation.

            In an interview Vashi said that Lawler went on Fox a bit before that town hall and was saying that, you know, there was expected to be chaos, which there was, and, as you mentioned, Indivisible, they do plan to organize and make their voices heard at these things, and they had signaled.

The first three town halls Lawler held had protestors from Indivisible Rockland and Westchester creating havoc and chaos to the point where people had to be physically removed from the event for disrupting and not following the rules set down at the beginning of the event even before Lawler’s opening statement and questions. They also did not comply with and defied law enforcement requests to peacefully leave. So, his stating that they were expecting chaos was a legitimate concern.

            The interviewer asked, “Who was saying it was Crowley, and you know I think as he mentioned in that article it was showing up as Jake Thomas? It was then pointed out that her name and number can be spoofed and that the phone numbers alone are not definitive proof.”

She acknowledged the possibility stating, “Oh of course, of course, and I think that’s, you know, that’s why even in our press releases we say alleged.”

            Morrissey, a retired educator from Mount Kisco, teamed up with Ann Starer to launch Fight Lawler, a grassroots group aimed at holding Rep. Lawler accountable for what they say are his inconsistent positions—on immigration, the SAVE Act (voter laws), and federal programs—calling him “obfuscates” and “anti‑immigrant”.

            Lawler in a press release counters this position. “Now, onto the substance of their false attacks. Let me be crystal clear: I have consistently lived up to my pledge never to cut Medicare or Social Security. In fact, last Congress, I helped champion passage of the Social Security Fairness Act to end the unfair reduction of benefits for millions of Americans, including teachers and police officers. Now, they are collecting more of their hard-earned money to help with their retirement.”

He added, “Likewise, I will never cast a vote that takes Medicaid away from eligible recipients who rely on this vital program, such as seniors, children, the intellectually and developmentally disabled, single mothers and families facing tough times. Rather, my commitment has always been to strengthen these programs by cracking down on scam artists exploiting them at taxpayer expense.”

            A person who said they have followed Congressman Lawler, and asked not to be named because of the possibility of being doxed and physically attacked as people have been across the country, since he was running for the New York State Assembly and has been to his town hall meetings, said, “The one thing I can say about Congressman Lawler is that he has not been inconsistent in his views and answers to questions. All someone has to do is watch all of the interviews he has done, including with the local media and they will see that accusations of inconsistency of his positions are, to use the current vernacular, “fake news”. He is not anti-LEGAL immigrant. He is anti-ILLEGAL immigrant.

            Another point that was made is that if Crowley is a paid Lawler staff member, why would she take a chance on losing her job by inciting people to cause havoc and chaos at one of his town halls? It doesn’t make any sense.

            The person added, “He has fought for the people of his district, whether in the NYS Assembly or in Congress. There is a phrase, half a loaf is better than none. This refers to the idea of compromise, something the people on the left don’t understand. The one thing that people don’t understand about our government, on any level, is that this is the way it works. You go in asking for the world and you hope to come out with at least one continent. Sometimes you can’t get everything you want, but you get the best you can for your constituents. They also say that, if people come out of a negotiation and no one is completely happy with the end product, it is a good and fair deal.”

            If you look at the news you find that the problem is that there are people out there who believe that you have to go into a negotiation with the idea of all or nothing and if you make a deal and don’t get everything you said you were shooting for then you are inconsistent and have betrayed your constituents.

            In an interview Morrissey spoke about the Crowley situation. She constantly pointed to the Wilson article. When asked if they gave Mr. Wilson any kind of proof, any pictures, that kind of stuff, she replied, “His article delineated out everything that we gave him. Yes, we gave him, we showed him the proof, and he did his own digging. So yes, absolutely we have proof of everything that’s in that article.”

            She continually refused to show the “proof” they claim they have that it was actually Erin Crowley and not Jake Thomas “infiltrating” the chat.

            After being asked again if she had pictures and data and logs and why he doesn’t put that up because the only words they use are allegations and allegedly. Her response can be interpreted, that this is simply a political hit job.  “I think that’s a legality thing and yes, we have everything, but unless it comes down to a legal issue, which I’m kind of hoping it does. We’re kind of hoping this blows up and takes Erin Crowley down and Mike Lawler with her. So yes, we have everything. We’re holding on to it close to the vest until it’s needed to accomplish our goal.”

            Starer says, in a story by Jessee King of WAMC, Northeast Public Radio, she initially didn’t think anything of it, except that she didn’t think walking out was a good idea. But while the messages she saw appeared to be from Thomas, another member of the group already had the phone number associated with Thomas’ account in her contacts, so his Signal messages showed up on her screen with another name: Putnam County Legislator Erin Crowley. Crowley, a Republican, has been Lawler’s deputy district director in Carmel since 2023. Starer says she remembers seeing Crowley at that town hall, and others in the group recalled seeing Crowley point at individuals in the crowd for removal.

            When questioned about the possible motive for this attack by King, a constituent said, “This seems like a bitter radio personality who is upset about the fact that their federal cash flow has been stopped by President Trump as of a May 1, 2025, executive order.”

            Lenny Harrington, who is running against Crowley for her seat in the Putnam County Legislature, said in a letter to the editor of the Mid-Hudson News, “I am deeply troubled by the allegations that Erin Crowley, Putnam County legislator and Congressman Michael Lawler’s deputy district director, used a fake name to infiltrate a private Signal group chat and then urged disorderly behavior by members of our community at Congressman Lawler’s Town Hall meeting. The actions that have been reported show a shocking lack of integrity.”

            The question was posed, “Why at the same time conveniently would Lenny Harrington write a letter to the editor that would be in the Mid-Hudson news. So as a third party, you can see it looks very suspicious. It sounds like a political, you understand what I’m saying, a political hit job.”

            Morrissey’s answer can lend credence to the political hit job possibility. “I do 100%. We don’t really care what it looks like at this point, and Lenny was not the only one who’s running against Lawler who put things out there. You can search for other, you know, possible candidates who’ve also shared this in the emails, but we don’t really care what it looks like at this point. We’re not worried about it. And yes, again, the third party would probably be useful and hopefully when it gets to that point where legal issues are needed to be addressed.

            Yeah, that’s what I was saying that would be like a slam dunk for you then I guess it wouldn’t be like for me saying oh that looks very suspicious and all that kind of stuff,

            “We have the slam dunk whether you know whether it goes anywhere. I mean that remains to be seen, but we’re trying to make it go somewhere, so we have the dunk.”

In order to get into a chat group, you have to be vetted and accepted, if they were suspicious of the number as being Crowley’s and they knew the numbers, like how was she able to that easily get in and why did they accept it?

“Yeah, I, I like I said, the details we’re going to hold on to for now, but it was definitely human error. It was definitely a mistake, obviously.”

            She very abruptly ended the conversation when directly questioned about how this just looks too much like a political hit job, you know, by all the anti-Lawler groups.

            “I’m going to end this conversation because I’m in the middle of things, but we don’t care what it looks like because we have the evidence. I can’t emphasize that enough to you and anyone else who asks. We don’t care what it looks like.”

            When pressed to present the evidence she had she again fell back on the Wilson article and refused to give their “proof”. “Everything that we’re willing to share at this point is in Dave Wilson’s article. We’re hoping it blows up. We’re hoping there’s more to share.”

The Wilson article did not present evidence, phone number or other solid proof either. “This is akin to the Russia hoax in 2017. The Democrats claimed they had a ton of evidence that Trump was colluding with Russia to win the election. In reality, they had NO proof of any collusion between Russia and Trump. If they really have actual evidence of Crowley being the one who made the call and not this Jake Thomas, then why hold onto it and not be transparent like they ask Lawler to be and open it up to the public?” said a constituent.

The story began with a Lohud article by columnist David McKay Wilson, citing claims by Maureen Morrissey and Emily Feiner, co-founders of the “Fight Lawler” group, which is affiliated with Indivisible Rockland and Indivisible Westchester.

According to the group, a user registered on the site under the alias “Jake Thomas” using a phone number that activists say raised red flags. Feiner claimed she questioned the user multiple times about their identity, suspecting the number belonged either to someone in Lawler’s office or to Democratic candidate Liz Crowley. However, the user was still granted access.

Morrissey later admitted that the mistake was due to “personal error” in oversight — not Feiner’s — further complicating the narrative.

In a press release, despite the lack of forensic evidence, the article was picked up by Politico, Newsbreak,  which echoed the original Lohud reporting without conducting independent investigations. When a reader asked Wilson how he verified the claims, he reportedly said the site was “not sophisticated” and “co-founded by two suburban retired women,” adding that the verification system was flawed.

Meanwhile, Wilson’s own professionalism came under question after a video surfaced on Facebook via Putnam County Uncensored, showing him and candidate Lenny Harrington — who is running against Crowley — at a recent Putnam County Legislature meeting. In the video, both men appeared engaged in behavior that some described as unprofessional, prompting one commenter to write that it looked like “amateur night.”

The constituent also feels that the timing of the Lenny Harrington letter to the editor was not continental. “It was designed to raise his profile but also left him open to criticism for echoing unverified claims in an effort to take down his opponent for the Putnam County Legislature seat, Erin Crowley.”

Whereas our system was built on differences of opinion, the current opposition has created a toxic political climate where truth is less important than narrative and anyone involved in local government can become a target overnight. Voters say they no longer trust which voices are generally community driven and which are coordinated opposing political efforts in disguise as reality. The lack of transparency about the source and failure to identify that Fight Lawler founders were political activists has left readers questioning media’s objectivity. The Crowley accusations have sparked public doubts in the middle of a local campaign.

This is a continuing investigation and as information is gathered and presented further stories will be written.

BY: Keith S. Shikowitz Editor/Investigative Reporter

            Helaine Nemeth, a neighborhood activist is running for trustee in West Haverstraw. She grew up in New City, graduated from Clarkstown North High School and attended Rockland Community College. She got married, had 2 children, eventually divorced, and raised the kids on my own for a little while. Several years later she got remarried to her current husband, Michael Nemeth and moved to the Village of West Haverstraw.

            “I’ve always looked out for people. I’m always concerned about people’s welfare. I Just listen to people.

I’ve also been an advocate for people who have issues and a variety of problems. We would discuss them and then try to find out how I could help them through available resources. I’ve had concerns about the environment here.”

            Back in 2019, people were complaining about the smell from a porta potty company named John to Go coming from the industrial park next to North Wayne Avenue. Nemeth said that the village board members and the mayor were not helping at all. They didn’t seem to care about the issues, so she got involved.

            “It affected me as well, the smell from the porta potties being emptied and cleaned right there created a smell that wafted into the neighborhood and we couldn’t keep our windows open, even when it got hot. I went to board meetings, and I didn’t have any help from them at all, so I decided to get the media involved. I came to you, and we took it from there by publicizing the story. It took about a year and many stories but after, everything that was going on back and forth with the courts, they finally were kicked out of the industrial park.”

            Another issue that concerned Nemeth was that there are many people in Rockland County, especially women that were having issues with housing, inability to afford food and clothing for their family. “I started a Facebook group that has now over 4000 members where people help each other. I advocate for them as well with women that have domestic issues, and I get them help. I also make sure that their kids are fed and clothed through the group that I started.

            She decided to run for village Trustee because she saw that the current board really wasn’t listening to the residents of the community and they needed somebody in there that would fight for them, that would speak for them and that’s why she took the initiative to do something like this. “What made me decide to really do this was the issue with the toxic landfill that we have across from Pecks Pond on Beach Road in West Haverstraw that hasn’t been sealed and capped in over 30 years and when you have a mayor and a board that does not care about the health of the residents that speaks volumes.”

She claims that the board doesn’t care is that the landfill should have been sealed and packed, it’s letting off toxic fumes come out of the ground that can cause cancer. “There has been testing done and there have been some results. “I really have not looked at the results but from what I’ve heard, from residents that have been here for 50, 60 years that it is toxic. It has asbestos, paint and construction materials from old buildings in New York City and it’s a concern sometimes, it does smell. We don’t know where the smell comes from, if it’s from the swamp or the actual landfill itself. Once I put it out there on social media that we have a toxic landfill down here, there were so many people that did not know about this and a lot of women had reached out to me through Facebook or through private messages that they have breast cancer, so it’s very possible that this could be causing breast cancer. So many women have, you know, thank goodness survived it, but unfortunately there are many women that didn’t, and it’s all within the area of that toxic landfill.”

            According to her she has met resistance, from the government or other agencies actually. Not too long ago she spoke with John Edwards who was the lawyer that represents the village. He said to her that there is no proof that the toxic landfill is causing breast cancer. “One of the board members themselves even stated specifically one that she knows that there is a high rate of breast cancer in the area and that she lives here too, and she’s trying to, see what’s going on about that also, that it is a concern.”

            “Edwards also stated that there is no proof that this landfill caused breast cancer, but statistics do show that living next to a toxic landfill, that there is a high rate of many cancers. They may say it may increase the risk of cancers.

            Infrastructure is a very important issue to people. A working infrastructure is important to the quality of life in a community. “Everything that’s being built around here just seems to be industrial. They want to put that 450,000 square foot warehouse on top of that landfill, and I’m just worried that if they do that, it’s going to sink into the ground and it’s going to get worse by what’s underneath it coming up even as they seal and pack it over years, it’s eventually going to sink.”

            “The roads are horrible. I’ve gone around, spoken to residents in the area, and they’ve gotten flat tires, and there’s so many cracks in the roads. There are holes in the roads and they don’t really fix it, they just patch it, so they don’t do a good job of maintaining the roads. It’s nothing against the DPW, you know, they do what they’re told, and they do it well, but there’s just, it just doesn’t seem to last long.”

            In her opinion the worst streets are, Benson Street, Demarest, which has gotten better. Blauvelt Avenue, Clove Avenue. The area she lives in crosses with Railroad Avenue which is actually the county she believes is supposed to be taking care of that, but, as far as the off streets have gotten a little better, but again it’s patchwork. It’s not done properly and it actually it they spend more money patching it.

“Then what happens within a year or two, it looks bad again instead of doing it right, you know, so they don’t have to worry really about it except for maintaining it for the next 10 years. Doing it right is having it paved, milled and then repaved. There’s, and there’s children and elderly people that walk it. There’s risks of people getting hurt sometimes. There’s, not enough sidewalks. There’s no sidewalks on my street, but it’s a wide street, and they have been putting sidewalks in. There have always been sidewalks on Railroad Avenue but the sidewalks that they do have, they’re not maintained. There’s problems with that too.”

            She added that there’s cracks and holes in it. Then we have a prime example, we have Samsondale Mall where Stop and Shop used to be. There are empty stores there. The parking lot is horrific. You really can’t drive or walk safely through there.

            The main issue with that is that the property there is considered private property though, and the owner of the property would have to correct. “But then that’s when the mayor or the zoning board should say to them, this has to be maintained.” She said.

            With the Big Beautiful Bill being passed and signed into law earlier this year, the 2017 tax cuts are now permanent and there are new ones coming to the American citizens. In spite of the federal taxes being cut, New York is still the highest, along with California, taxed states in the country.  Nemeth said, “It’s amazing that the taxes keep going up. Yet our roads are not being maintained. If we had businesses here, good businesses that would help pay for the taxes instead of having these empty stores, then that would help the tax base. The Samsondale Stop and Shop just recently went out, and what I heard was that the owner is looking to make that big thing into smaller shops. Yeah, that’s going to take time.”

            “I mean that hasn’t been there for years empty but the parking lot was still never maintained, even when there was when the businesses were in there.

“I believe the village taxes went up to 7.5%. That affects, of course, people, you know, that have homes with mortgages. It’s hard enough to put food on the table and pay bills right now. That’s the last thing that they need. People that rent here, you know, if, if the taxes go up, the landlords are going to put it on them as well.”

  “It’s not warm and inviting when you come into the village at all. It’s a huge eyesore everywhere you go and no matter how well you maintain your home. I always felt that the tone of the village that you live in is an extension of your home. If that doesn’t look good, as nice as your home looks, that could bring down the value of your home no matter how nicely your house is done because it’s, it’s not inviting to drive through this area.

            According to Nemeth, in order to bring down taxes on the people as a trustee in the village of West Haverstraw you need to bring businesses here where people from other areas will want to come to and make this area look good and more inviting. “If you have nice restaurants, nice cafes instead of laundromats instead of these little bars, you need something to make like they did in Nyack, they put like boutiques in there, they have, you know, a nice park in there where people can come and sit down. Actually, Nyack is going to hell now too, so many homeless people there.

            Is there a homeless situation in West Haverstraw? “Yes, so there have been people that have been living under the bridge under Samsondale Avenue. Recently I tried helping this woman that’s homeless in West Haverstraw, and she is a drug addict, she was hungry and needed some place to stay as well as clothing. I was able to supply her with the group that I have. We tried to get her help. Unfortunately, she refused to get any other help. I know she was off the streets for a few weeks, but she’s back on the streets again and but that’s, that’s an issue with the laws.

            She says that the cause of the homeless situation in the village is that there’s no affordable housing really. “I know in the Village of Haverstraw, there’s a bunch of complexes going up near the river that’ll have affordable housing in the village, yeah.

            What other ideas does she have besides building affordable housing to help alleviate the homeless situation? There is a problem with building more housing in the Village of West Haverstraw, where would you put it? “Well, you can’t put it on the toxic landfill, obviously, but there really is no place to put them in in the Village of West Haverstraw. Unfortunately, they should be given resources, you know, where to go.

            Nemeth feels that the solution to this should fall on the village because it’s affecting the area that they’re in control of and that the village should go to the county, town or state to get extra funding and help because more and more people, are homeless. “It’s not even one or two people. I don’t even know how many there are, I know there’s many at least 15 to 20 people that are living under the bridges they get pushed out and then they come back because they have no place else to go.”

Public safety is a concern across the country. “So yes, recently there have been a few shootings in the area outside of the village in Haverstraw which is very, very concerning. People were killed the other day I believe. There have been people breaking into cars and you know I personally don’t know who it is, but that could have a part to do you know to do with the homeless, you know, because that’s the way for survival.

            “I have seen people coming on our streets, which just happened the other night, going on my neighbor’s property and collecting bottles, and I understand people need to survive out there, but they shouldn’t be looking into people’s cars or trying to pull on the doors to see if they can get something out of it and that’s a big concern and going on to the property is a problem.”

            What is something she would do to increase public safety as a member of the board? She would want more police officers, to go down the streets at night, have a neighborhood watch where you have neighbors that look out for each other. “You can even like can even hire, which I think is worth people investing in with their taxes, is maybe hiring one or two people to canvass the area at night to see what’s going on, to make it safer, to make sure that there’s less issues with somebody breaking into your house or breaking into your cars.

Nemeth also thinks that cameras on the street, not in every street, but at least in areas where there are a lot of issues and crime.  “This is a good investment because it makes the people feel a little safer that somebody’s watching. They have them in Haverstraw. People’s ring cameras and other security cameras. Now you can’t tell people that they have to have a camera, but I mean, but to have a few cameras here and there would help the police.”

            “I mean, the ring cameras are great because of things that are going on, packages delivered and stuff like that, but it doesn’t always catch something that’s happening. It does have its peripheral limits, but you know, if you have enough of them on the block, you can basically have the whole block covered.

            Why should people vote for Helaine Nemeth? What can she bring to this position that the current person in it doesn’t. What new ideas does she have to make life better?

            “The main thing is listening to the residents about their needs and what they want to see done in our community and enforce it on our current mayor and board and not approve everything that they want to approve just because I feel they’re doing this for themselves and not for the community.”

What if her constituents in the village decide they want something that she doesn’t agree with? “Well, that’s going to happen in a lot of things that I’m not going to agree with. “What do I mean let’s say a majority, let’s say 60% 70% unless it has unless it’s going to benefit the residents, I’m not going to approve of it. They want to approve that warehouse, what is it going to do for our community? Look at the roads. They will not be able to handle all that traffic. The mayor just put out something the other day about the traffic with the buses here.

West Haverstraw Mayor Robert D’Amelio School is back in session, and we all need to

do our part to keep our children safe. Please drive carefully, slow down and stay alert,

especially in school zones and neighborhoods. Remember, when you see a school bus

with its red lights flashing, you must stop. It’s the law and it protects our kids.

Thank you for helping.

            “He seems to be looking out for the people, but what’s going to happen when all these trucks are going to be going down, I mean not well 9W and Railroad Avenue at 6 or 7 o’clock in the morning, is this going to be safe for the children? How safe is it really going to be? How are the roads where you’re going to have buses and trucks at the same time passing each other, these big trucks, trucks, is this safe for the school buses? It can cause accidents. We have a train that goes past there too. I mean, the roads aren’t that wide.” She explained.

She added, “That the traffic is so bad right now with school, but with school that just started. I’m in my house and I hear all these horns, where the hell is it coming from? Kathleen texted me telling me that you wouldn’t believe the traffic here on Railroad Avenue. Now once this, you know, it’s bad enough now what’s going to happen with all the noise, all the pollution, it’s not safe for the kids with all these trucks if they’re standing on the sidewalks, with these trucks going by, is that safe for the kids to walk?”

            If that the warehouse gets approved, what can she do to increase the safety of the people, not just the kids, but people walking on there? “You would think a sidewalk, but it’s not wide enough to put sidewalks in.

That’s why it shouldn’t be there. Is there any place to build a separate access road to the site? No, it was never put into the plans that I’ve heard that they have.”

            She said that the warehouse going there is going to affect everything else in general. It’s going to be a 24/7 operation. It’s going to ruin the quality of life. It’s going to be worse on the roads than they ever were before because there’s just going to be more traffic with the trucks going through there. The underground infrastructure is going to be affected. It’s going to shake and rattle people’s homes, also, which can do something to their foundation it’s possible it could do something to the pipes underneath the ground. All that vibration could cause the pipes to burst and it will cause a lot of damage including flooding.

            According to Nemeth there is no other place in the village where they can build that warehouse. This will have a major effect on the residents there, especially if these trucks are going to go down private roads.  “They’re going to have the noise because these trucks are not going to wait for the train, and they’re just going go around Samsondale Avenue and then go down Peck Street. They’re going to go down Tanneyanns. t’s just going to be so unfair, and you know what, they’ll get a ticket, and they don’t care about the ticket because their employers will pay for it, so they won’t care about the ticket. That’s what’s going to happen.”

What is it, what separates Nemeth from her opponent that would make people say, hey, you know what, maybe I’ll give this lady a chance?

“I plan ahead. I look at how it’s going to affect the residents, not just to say, let’s do it and we’ll worry about it after it’s done because there’s no going back once that once after this is done. Then all they’re going to say is, well, I’m sorry, or we’ll see what we can do, and nothing’s going to happen because there’s nothing really, they can do about it.

            “I’m a new voice that can bring new ideas to the people.”

BY: Keith S. Shikowitz Editor/Investigative Reporter

            Mike Graziano, a devout Catholic, is a father of 4 children – 3 girls and a son, was baptized in Saint Paul’s Church and went to Saint Paul’s School is a lifelong resident of Clarkstown and six year Clarkstown Town Council incumbent from Ward 2 is running for reelection. He has been involved in the community through his 36 years in the Congress Fire Department coaching basketball and baseball. He is involved with Saint Paul’s Church in the Usher Society, so I’m pretty big into my church. He raised his family in Congers

            One topic he is adamant about is transgender males playing in female sports. There are people around the country who say that these transgender females are mediocre sports players in male sports and are doing this to win.

            “I am a religious person and I believe in the decency of people and I believe in decency of life. There’s some people that I have gone a little bit to the extreme that I do not conform to my lifestyle and, what I mean by that is with the transgender, I don’t believe that boys should be playing in girls’ sports. They don’t belong in the, in the girl’s locker room. I believe males should play against males because I think physically, they are stronger than girls and it’s been proven. Look at the Olympics of last year when the Italian boxer got beat up by a male.

If you want to, say you’re a female, then have transgender against transgender sports and create another league.

Keep the male league, female league, and transgender league.”

            He says that you train your kids mentally and physically, you go to all these tournaments and they’re going to go for a scholarship in college. They’re playing sports and they get beat by a male in a female sport. It’s not right.

            When it comes to his service to the town, “I’m very involved with my community in every way and aspect of it. I love doing this position because I do help many people, not just in my ward. I have many people that call me from other wards. I appreciate that a lot of times I referred that wardsman to that individual, but then I always ask them, and even Paula asks them our secretary, she says, why are you calling Mike Graziano he’s not in your ward.” The response is, “Well, we hear he gets things done. I’m proud of that, the fact that I have that reputation. It’s that simple.”

Crumbling infrastructure is a major complaint people have in communities around the country. There’s a lot of construction being done on the roads in Clarkstown. Some are state roads that the town has no control over like the repairs to the bridge on Route 304 by Schultz Ford and the work on West Nyack Turnpike by the town.

            “I’m all about quality of life, right, so my point is. I meet with real estate agents because I want to know from the real estate agents what they hear from young families what they want out of the town, and they tell me cleanliness, which is very important to me.”

He says it’s really simple. The elderly people are leaving or passing away, unfortunately, and we have young families coming in. He works with Sheriff Lou Falco, to get people who have to do community service to clean the roads which is done once a quarter.

  There is also the subject of recreational infrastructure meaning great parks and facilities. “I don’t know if you noticed, but in the 6 years since I become councilman, we’ve done some great work with the supervisor and the rest of the town board to our parks departments look great.

He says that people have, have concerns about it. He grew up around Congress Lake and he has them too. He fished there and it’s so over, grown that it bothers him and he’s glad that when started as a councilman we started attacking this. According to Graziano, they have been successful this year killing it as well as last year, but it takes a while. “It’s a 4 year program that’s why they got the appointment for 4 years from the state of New York.

“But it’s just some of the things, but it’s also the roads. I believe in great roads. It’s unfortunate that I can’t control state roads. I guarantee if Clarkstown controlled the state roads, they will not be in the shape they’re in. Supervisor George Hoehmann is big on that as well as the town board and me, but all the local roads that are in Clarkstown, you can say they’re in great shape like 300 miles of road, and the great thing about it is that we pave the roads.”

“We have a program and superintendent of highways has a program with Bob Malone and Robert Zinowski, our road inspector. He goes around and literally looks at roads and sees what’s got to be done. We work a lot with Veolia, Orange and Rockland, and you say, what do you mean you work with them? We ask them, well, you guys going to do any infrastructure work on these roads? They say no because once we pave it they can’t open up the road for 5 years unless it’s an absolute emergency. If you have your home on that road and your gas line goes bad or your water line goes bad.”

            After the utilities do work on a road, the town typically paves the year after the work is done. This is because they put binder down and they want the road to settle. Once the road settles, they come in and pave the road.  The infrastructure is improving. I was talking with, Supervisor Hoehmann a couple of weeks ago, that you’re almost done with the current cycle of paving. We’re getting to the end of it, and we’re pushing to get the roads done that we had on the list. If we cannot get to those roads, they’ll be on top of the list. We’ll start paving again in April when the plants open up.

According to Graziano, West Nyack Turnpike should be done hopefully by November. That’s what they’re saying, if not sooner. That job is taking a little bit longer than I thought it would take. “It’s unfortunate. some of the people there got hurt on the business end, and I feel really bad over on West Nyack Turnpike. Well, now thank God it’s paved, but they’re still working there, but it’s going to be beautiful. Think about what we’ve done there. We worked with the state to get us the money, federal government. They’re going to have new sidewalks, streetlamps, new paving, water and sewer infrastructure, along with lots of other infrastructure, so it’s all new. It’s going to be fantastic for them.”

            “I come from the private sector it’s the way I work. I build networks, networks of banks and brokerage firms. I also build homes on the side. So somebody who’s an entrepreneur I’m working on your private sector.

You try to cut ways and try to do more with less and you learn from that and that’s what municipalities have to learn and we have to learn that, you know, and we’ve done more with less in the 6 years I’ve been in office so it’s been great. But you mentioned the taxes. I’m a little disappointed with the county. The county has $400 million in surplus. Clarkstown is the number one contributor of sales tax to Rockland County. We received the least amount from all the 5 towns of Rockland County, with being the biggest contributor of the sales tax into

Rockland County. It’s not because of the mall. We should definitely get more money from the county. County legislature won’t give more to Clarkstown and, and I’m a little disappointed, with the way it’s run.”

            He feels Clarkstown should get more money. While we’re the biggest, tax revenue producer, as he mentioned, in all of Rockland County he says they are getting the least. That would help their taxes, and that’s not right. The reason he gives for this is greed by the county, they want to make themselves look great.

“While we’re working hard, Clarkston works hard to bring businesses in. I’m pro-business and one of my great things that I like is that I help Chick fil A to get in here. I pushed these things, these projects working with Jeff Gilly, you know, our business development individual working with them.”

He says that they’re pro-business and pro small business and always trying to get new businesses into the town and loves when a small business opens up. He listed some that have opened recently. A restaurant in Valley Cottage, a barbershop came in, in Congers a pharmacy closed, Rite Aid in Valley Cottage one was opened up in Congers. “These are individuals that live in our community that touch our community more direct than the big business franchise. But we also do need the big franchises because they contribute huge taxes to us. I believe in rateables and if we have to get commercial and new franchises to get our rateables up, yes, because I’d rather get rateables from them than small business.

What about things like school taxes and property taxes? “School taxes, obviously school taxes they can’t control. That’s from the school district. We’re all in the same dilemma. I pay school taxes. I have no children in the school system. I think someone who’s been paying into the school system for so many years. Like the seniors like us should definitely be absolved from paying school taxes. I truly believe in that.”

He also believes that people should have school choice and pay only tuition if they want, but not school taxes and tuition. “As a father of 4, one went to Albertus Magnus. I paid school taxes. I also pay tuition I think that’s, that’s not right.

            “What is the remedy to that? Well, that’s where the school district comes in. I don’t have control of it, trust me, if I had control of the school district, I would be putting in some kind of laws in here for us to help the seniors that want to live here that have no children in the school system and pay less tax, but I don’t.”

            Then there’s the issue of property taxes. “We’re trying to keep property taxes low as much as we can, but there are costs to do keep the town safe, keep the town clean, infrastructure, operate, operate the town, the street. The streetlights, paving the roads, keeping the sidewalks in good shape, plowing in the winter time, leaf pick up. Everybody doesn’t look at, doesn’t remember these things and the men that we have. You bring your leaves to your curb, and we pick them up. I suppose in the old days when I was a kid we had to put in a bag and take them down to the dump and see when I was living on Long Island, same thing. These days they don’t have the dumps where you can do that, right? Now you can just put the leaves on your curb and the town picks it up. So that’s a big amenity and that’s for the fall season. They come around once or twice. It depends on, on the load.

            He said that this shows what people actually get for our tax dollars. Safe town, great police department, clean facilities, great parks and amenities, plowing, leaf pick up road paving. This is a great place garbage pickup all these things including fire service even if your fire service is the least tax, on your tax bill, you’re getting great fire services.

            The Republicans in Congress and the Senate recently passed the Big Beautiful Bill and the salt deduction was quadrupled. It is going to have a major effect on the country.  “I truly believe that, you know, you’re going to get a break on your, on your taxes you’re paying and your interest. I think it’s a great thing and taxes will get lowered, thank God. I think Mike Lawler did a fantastic job with that, and I’m glad the President listened and got it quadrupled. The deduction was set at $10,000 in the 2017 tax bill he got us to 40,000, that’s huge. That’s going to be a great write off for us.”

            The economy was a major issue during the 2024 Presidential Campaign. During the past four years prices and inflation were up. Real median income was down. People were complaining about it a lot.  What has the economy been like in Clarkstown? “Inflation is at 3% right now, OK, compared to when it was 9% and they were saying there was no inflation. Gasoline prices are down. A year ago, this time we were paying $3.50 to $3.75 a gallon. Now we’re paying $3.01 down to $2.99 and in some places it’s even less and when the, when they start really drilling, it’ll go down even go down even further, fuel affects everything.

            Graziano points to groceries which are being delivered by trucks that use fossil fuels to make the deliveries and when that price goes down that’s why inflation and prices have dropped. “They’re still a little high in my opinion, because I still believe what we were price gouged during the pandemic. From food to basics to cars to anything you wanted to do in your home to windows, everybody’s saying oh COVID, COVID supply chain to me they did a terrible job, the Biden Administration and Transportation Secretary Buttigieg did a terrible job and it affected us. We all we all felt the pinch back then.”

            One group he’s worried about is the seniors he goes to the senior clubs. “They’re suffering because they’re on fixed income, we all are, we all hurt, but they say prices dropped and we’re happy they’re dropping. We’re hoping we get back down to like 2016 numbers that that’s I like to see it that way.”

            In Graziano’s opinion the police in Clarkstown are the best in the county. How safe is it in Clarkstown compared to places like New York City & Chicago, big cities which are not safe.

Overtime is something that many jobs have. The complaint about government jobs overtime is that it costs the taxpayers more money. There is a lot of overtime in Clarkstown. “The reason why we do it is just because we knew, there’s times when police officers take vacation. They’re out ill and we need coverage, so over time does come into play. There was about $2 million in overtime last year. It’s unfortunate but it happens. If you really think about it, with overtime you actually do save money according to the chief, we do save money with overtime as opposed to having an extra 6 or 7 officers because you think it’s not just paying them salaries. It includes benefits, pension and all that other stuff. In general, we know there’s overtime we’re trying to cut the cost. I work with the Chief as well as the Supervisor to get the cost down, we actually cut the cost down tremendously on how when we have events, street fairs and events in Clarkstown. We use the auxiliary police which are fantastic. They’re all volunteers.”

  I truly believe the police auxiliary should be eligible like the like the first responders in in Rockland County as the state pushed and Hochul passed the law which the great thing she did was that eligible for a pension. I truly believe that should be done for these volunteer police officers. Volunteer firemen are eligible for pensions after 10 years, and the tax break. Hochul passed that law last year and the tax, they should get a tax break in their school and property tax.

            The open border policy from January 2021 – January 2025 made every state a border state, every community is a border community, the border is now closed permanently. What’s going on in Clarkstown with it?

            “Well, first of all, let me answer that question in two ways. First, I’m going to say this, they’re not illegal immigrants. It’s an illegal invasion of our country. These people invaded our country, they, and the Biden administration when Mayorkas was saying that the border is secure and safe, he lied to the American public. We know that for a fact, and I believe that we should deport these people. Because we don’t know who they are. We have criminals here in the United States that are violent people, and we’ve seen all over the news, you know, that and, and they cannot read and they drive a truck, a tractor trailer.”

Graziano, like many people in the country doesn’t understand how did they get a license?  The answer to that is, somebody in Washington, New Mexico, and California, sanctuary states gave them a license. “These sanctuary states and cities are detrimental to the safety of the United States. These governors and these mayors that don’t want ICE to go in there and the federal government to help out, especially, with what the National Guard in Washington DC did to curb crime there.” He said.

            Graziano doesn’t call these people immigrants. He explained about how his family as well as millions of others came into this country LEGALLY through Ellis Island. They, unlike the ones that came across the border during the Biden administration, were interviewed, vetted, had sponsors and a place to go so they did not become a burden on the American Society.

“These people are just these, these migrants came in over the border. We don’t know where the hell they are. We’ve dealt with that here in Clarkstown. We have people out there and we would see these homes that have 20-30 people in the house. One of the particular cases last year was on Hempstead Road had 32 to 35 migrants living there. They had them up in the attic with no egress and in the basement with no egress. They had, them on the main floor scattered with the mattresses, blankets and so forth.”

“That’s how we’re dealing with it. We’re cracking down on this. Also, we’re cracking down on illegal housing and illegal daycare. We cracked one down the road from Maple Avenue. There were 70, cribs in that house. Can you imagine in the basement with no windows. They had a gas can. I don’t know if it was filled, but still, what are gas cans doing in there? They had electrical cords running everywhere. We don’t know if it was full. Could be fumes, could be brand new empty.”

He didn’t see the actual gas can, but he saw the photographs. His point is that they’re cracking down on these illegal homes that have many people. He says they are looking at the stuff.

            With the advent of online shopping and the two years of dealing with the COVID 19 lockdowns, the era of the big shopping malls being the place to get everything you want, and need has been coming to an end. The Palisades Mall is no different. It has had stores coming in and out of there since it was built. Major companies like McDonalds, Fridays, Hallmark and others are only a few. The owners have been having major financial problems to the point of being $415 million in debt to the point of bankruptcy. There are people looking to buy it but nothing has happened yet.

Graziano explained, “The creditors of the mall took it over. The pyramid company was not a good company for Clarkstown. Why? They spoke to their creditors and said okay, we need another $400 million and the Conjo family and the and the Pyramid family would take out $60 million out of there a year and leave the debt and that’s why they lost the mall. I believe Summit is the company that came in and took them all over and they’re going to try to redevelop it.”

He believes they have to reinvent themselves and he’s willing to work with them. He’s pro-business and, pro housing if they want to convert some of the mall to housing and make it into an entertainment mecca while still keeping the stores upstairs. He absolutely supports the idea of mixed use doesn’t want to sit with a big white elephant down in West Nyack with a big building if it’s empty.

            What is the next step? What are specific ideas and things they have in mind for the mall? “We’re going to be held stuck with the bag on that thing plus it’s a big contributor to the tax rateables, I wanted it to strive. I want to work with these people and we’re hoping they’re going to be coming in soon with a plan. I’d like to see housing happen in there, bringing back retail strong.”

            There have been a number of new entertainment centers coming into the mall. “I would love to see the mall in a couple of areas. I’d love to see the housing and make it entertainment mecca, number one. Maybe bring some Broadway plays, make it a Broadway theaters in there, you know, and have Broadway shows in there, have great restaurants in there and bring a couple of anchor stores back like a Lord and Taylor, or Macy’s. More into a multipurpose use, from housing, entertainment, restaurant, to retail stores, major retail stores.

            Graziano is up for reelection this year and with the law that Governor Hochul signed in 2023, making all elections in New York happen only in even years, he will have to run again next year, and he is not happy with that.

            Hochul’s reason for this is that she believes it will increase voter turnout in local elections because during these off-year elections, odd number year elections, very few people got out to vote. Looking at patterns of voting in local elections, the percentage of people that got out to vote was a lot lower than it is during Congressional and Presidential election years.

 “I know a lot less people do but that does not mean that it’s right to do that because the local elections, their message gets lost on a national, the state and the congressional levels so people are just going to hear the national level, which is the presidential the state level, which is gubernatorial or congressional, so our message will not get hurt because they’re going to be hearing this message. People are going to vote across the board, whoever they’re going to vote for wouldn’t it be behoove the local official to have more public events within the community to get your word out. It would, but how many more public events can you have, how many more public events can you do?” He stated.

            He added, “You get lost in the shuffle on an even year election. Media and TV, you know, in, in, into, you know, into paper print. You’re going to get lost in that we don’t have that kind of disposable money like they do on a national or on a state level. A local, a local candidate has to raise money to get the local word out. It’s very costly. It’s unfortunate, but you’re going to get lost in that shuffle.”

            “The national level, yes, it affects us generally, but on a local level, does it really? What gets really done by supervisor, you know, you want something done like getting a new park, you want something done like a new street sign, you want something done with the roads. Do you go to the president and say, hey, I want to park in my neighborhood? Are you going to the governor and say, I want a park in my neighborhood? No. Where do you go? You go to your local government, and you want people who are going to be able to know how to negotiate with the contractors. People are going to know how to like doing things and, and like I said, more or less they just spend, spend, spend. So that’s why I truly believe local elections should be in the odd year because our, our message gets, gets conveyed.

            Should he win, this will be his 4th term. What is it about Graziano that people should say, you know what, give this guy another 2 years?

            “Things I’ve done. It’s that simple. Look at my track record, what I’ve done for the community. I’m a family person that lives here. I live in Clarkstown in Congers. I’m a volunteer fireman, involved with my community. I have the pulse of my community, so I know what needs to be done. I hear the people. I listen to people. I go to church. I shop in the local stores in town. I go to events and senior clubs. They tell me what their concerns are, and I listen to them, and I address them.”

He does admit that even he cannot get everything done and that unfortunately he doesn’t have a magic wand to get everything done. “I’ve had a great track record of success in getting the majority of things that I’ve asked that I’ve been asked to get done.”

Graziano says people say he is a doer and gets things done.

            “That’s what Hochul wants to do tax the people that’s what she’s been doing. Biden did that tax, tax, tax. We’ve got to help the people out, and that’s why I’m here for.”

            Sometimes elected officials have a big project that they’d love to be able to get done. What’s the one thing in Clarkstown that is not here that Graziano thinks would be a great thing to put into the community.

            “Well, listen, Clarkstown is a great place to live and one of the things is the burden of taxes here. So, one of the great things I want to do is to get the taxes down is to work with businesses and make sure they are productive and contribute to our taxes to lower our taxes that includes the shops in Nanuet as well. Work with our retailers to get the highest ratables we can get to help us reduce the cost for the people that live here, that’s one of the great things.”

            “I mean, there’s not much property left in Clarkstown for us to build anything. We have great pools. These are our pools. There’s really nothing else to do besides keep them, maintain them well in a cost effective manner and reducing the taxes for the people that actually that live here. You can’t. Open up our, pools and our parks to every individual in the state. These are Clarkstown and these should be, enjoyed by the people of Clarkstown.”

He points out that you can’t go to other towns without a permit or showing an ID that you live here to use their parks. I really believe that I believe we should have some kind of control on Clarkstown and those are just some of the things I want to work to make sure that we’re maintaining our controllability of our parks and our facilities.

“I want to say it’s been an honor to work for you. I’ve enjoyed this position immensely. My biggest joy is when I see somebody smile, when they’ve done something good. One guy said to me about a month ago, he goes, oh, you, you guys in the government you make all this crazy money. I average 30 to 35 hours a week for Clarkstown. If you do the numbers, how many hours I put in when I get paid, I think my accountant said I made $13.11 an hour which is below minimum wage. I enjoy what I’m doing. I’m not doing it for the money. I’m doing it for the betterment of all Clarkstown, not only just Ward Two, because, you know, I do a lot for Clarkstown and, and I enjoy it.”

            Graziano summed up his candidacy in the following way: “I work with all people. All the constituents, I don’t care what party line you are. If you’re a Democrat, Republican, so-called Independents, but there’s still people listening like that, working family, conservative. I represent all people and it’s funny so much so is that I have prominent Democrats that endorse me. Two years ago, Alex Gromack and Vic Alfieri endorsed me. This year I have other Democrats that want to endorse me and I don’t want to say their names yet, but we’re going to have probably an endorsement letter from them as well, prominent Democrats that that served they know that I represent all people. I’m not just representing a Republican. It’s that simple. I’m a people’s person, that’s, you know, and I work with everybody.

BY: Keith S. Shikowitz Editor/Investigative reporter

            Greg Sheehan is running to unseat six-year Clarkstown Ward Two Council member Mike Graziano. He has been a resident of Clarkstown for most of his life. “I was born in the city, grew up in Orange County until 2nd grade when my grandfather subdivided his property. My family built a home in Valley Cottage right on Lake Road, near the Five Corners, and I went to Nyack Public schools, graduated, high school in 2001 just before 9/11 went to college and bounced around a little bit. I was in Louisiana for Hurricane Katrina, so I’ve had a lot of big events happen around important parts of my life that have caused, and I think a lot of people have this in their lives where they come across things that throw them for a loop.”

After a brief stint at the culinary institute which he left because they were developing the 2 year program into a 4-year program which was not what he wanted, he went to study business at LSU. Hurricane Katrina came along and messed up what he had down there, so he came back to Rockland in his early twenties and finished an accounting degree at RCC. He was studying at Ramapo when he lost my father in 2012. “I’ve had a lot of turmoil, but I’ve always seemed to come out doing well because of the people in my life, my determination and my positive attitude.”

Since losing his father in 2012, he worked for Apple, run restaurants, as an IT specialist in the grocery industry and in his early 20’s he got his boating captain’s license. “I have been an emergency responder with CO, basically AAA for boats, and, had a lot of interesting experiences up there and then joined the union. I’m an operating engineer with Local E 25, so it’s heavy equipment operations, heavy construction. I was brought in because of my captain’s license to work on the bridge for 5.5 years.”

            This goes to what you said to me before about having no plans, right, so we were talking about leadership and you’re saying that you can’t tell what the Democratic Party is going to do. “I don’t think the Democratic Party necessarily will do what it’s going to do at all times, and I’m not worried about nationally. I’m running for a town council seat. I’m focused locally. There’s a reason why I didn’t get on this board and that board and make connections to work my way to running for Congress. There are 8 or 9 candidates running for New York 17th right now. It’s a zoo and while I’m part of that as chair of Clarkstown Democrats, I’ve sat down with many of them.”

            He thinks there are a number of wonderful candidates, but they’re running for nearly 2 years from the first announcement to when they’re going to end up being possibly elected, and that takes an enormous amount of energy, money, time to possibly win.

            “Meanwhile, a local race where you have to be re-elected every other year, just like in Congress, you can have direct effects that will come into effect much more quickly. A lot of things are going on national level now. People are very afraid of what it’s going to do to us societally which is going to take a year more just to come into effect. That’s not the case locally. You want to be able to help stabilize taxes or make sure that the government is supporting people properly those things can be decided on a month-to-month basis almost, and so for me wanting to. Be a utilitarian to come in and get things done that are the best effect for the most people possible and local government is the way to do it and I think we need good leaders in our local parties and policies.”

            One of the main things people complain about in their communities is the crumbling infrastructure. What plans does Sheehan have to improve it? He agrees that we’re in decent shape. “To say that it is because of the current or you know, recent past administration, I don’t know, the biggest issue for infrastructure is money.

Most municipalities, even one as big as Clarkstown, don’t have the money to do most of the improvements that are necessary, and they have to deal with county and state jurisdictions for roads and highways and drainages and things like that and that becomes much more complicated because if you look at getting something like 303 or 59 by the mall fixed, where there’s been flooding for quite a long while. That’s a state road.”

            “It also, as these developments come into place when we’re stopping using Indian Point and we’ve lost the coal plant up in Bowline, our infrastructure while functioning also now requires us to run on hydroelectric from, you know, far away to the city to help reinforce it. Meanwhile, we could be doing a lot more locally even in small pieces, it makes a difference. It makes us more sustainable. So I think looking at ways to bring that into our infrastructure to modernize certain portions of it comes a long way.” He explained.

            One of the things he thinks should be done, and he soke with Jose Simoes, the town planner, a few weeks back about this is thee is a lot of developing being done in the New City area, a lot of 100 plus, housing units being put up on Main Street and off of Drummond’s there, right across from Felix Festa, and people are worried about traffic and there’s been studies done, but he was talking about town wide. The town has more stoplights in it according to him, than the rest of the town’s combined because of state roads, local roads, and the way that it’s organized, he thinks there are 53 stoplights.

            “That means busy intersections, to keep those running smoothly, there is technology that can be implemented to smooth it out to make it correct itself. You would probably need someone to help manage the system because it’s not a full city-wide system, where it would be self-managing. If you, he said, you know, we need to do a study, which is $30,000 somewhere in that range, a little more on some of the areas and then install camera-based systems to track the movement of traffic for this to then give data to the personnel from the town to make the adjustments and that would help alleviate a lot of the traffic because most of our traffic is in relatively small portions of time.”

            “Infrastructure is often looked at as drainage, electricity, sewer, things like that but when you’re looking at continuing to develop, which we will be doing in this area, there’s almost no way not to. There’s too much money coming in and if we want to survive economically, we have to develop but we have to do it intelligently.”

            What specific things would Sheehan bring up to the board to try to implement?

            “The one I was just talking about with the traffic lights, we need to start getting ahead of some of the things if members of the town and the work that we want to do is going to be immediately impeded by traffic, even construction causes traffic, trucking deliveries, things like that, right? Workers coming into the area that aren’t there normally. You know, which I, I have no basis to know of its validity was $30,000 for a study. Then $2 million or so for cameras to update the system and then a personnel in order to manage the data and get the system working properly, and that will help mitigate traffic and allow us to adjust when these new developments come into functioning, you can adjust almost real time as you see the traffic coming in in terms of the town so maybe months or so, that would be one of I think one of the first things to do.”

            He also thinks the drainage systems need work. “There had been a lot of backing up in our plumbing, the drainage itself we’ve been encroaching on wetlands a lot, as we’ve continued to develop because it’s a hard place to develop, but when you start running out of lands, it starts looking more profitable, more viable but it naturally does things that we don’t do well as humans because it will continue to sustain itself. Meanwhile, we need to continue to maintain those systems, even if it is. Later down the road, so, and we don’t always understand the impact that we’re having half a mile away on something that is going to be done.”

            He feels that there are a number of things that need to be done, but you also need to make sure that there’s extra buffers put in because we don’t necessarily always understand the impacts that we’re having. “We could design something to function now in this location, but because of other things that we do, they be it. There becomes a problem in that location and because it’s a low lying area, any time we do this, we need to build extra buffers for things that we can’t control, changes in weather, changes in other drainage systems and just environmental changes.”

            There is a saying that money makes the world go ‘round. Government gets its money from taxes. New York is the highest tax state in the nation and that always filters down into the local communities, What does Sheehan feel about the taxes in Clarkstown and what proposals does he have to deal with them and lessen the tax burden on the citizens of Clarkstown?

            “I don’t know that there’s any way to do that right now. I was just looking at a review of the budget analysis from 2020 through 2023, and there’s a lot of areas where we’re not ready to survive as a town financially. So to say that you could lessen the tax burden or freeze raising taxes right now to me is a lie. The pension, specifically the health care pension requirements, are unfunded. There’s a $230 million shortage. They’re paying year by year rather than drawing off of the savings account, which I go to my union and I can’t see the numbers, but we are usually between 95% and 105% funded in our pensions and healthcare and subsidies and all these other things because they’ve done a very good job of maintaining the money that comes in, but they also take 3% of our check and they raise that if need be at a time if there’s ever a problem.”

            “Last year, the taxes had to be raised significantly, both for commercial and for residential, and I believe that was necessary, but I cannot because of my being on the outside for as long as I have tell you exactly where that is. It’s probably from almost everything we’re doing in the town. There’s too much money being poured into just about everything.”

            He thinks what needs to be done is they need a supervisor, town counselors, and the town, other representatives from businesses and people who live here but maybe don’t work here, to dig in and find where they can make savings. He says that he is well below the average income for Clarkstown residents, but he makes it work because he says he has found creative ways to keep his costs down. One way he did this was to buy an electric car and solar on his home. “It works for me because of the position by all the variables that are necessary, won’t work in every circumstance. Which is why I’m saying that we need everyone on board.”

            “We need more transparency in the decision making of the agendas in order to get in and find where we can cut maybe where we need to spend more money because it will save us somewhere else. Our law enforcement is tremendously expensive and hard to do. They often go about a million dollars over budget on overtime. I believe that in 2023 they spent $2 million on overtime.”

            Why does Clarkstown have so much money being spent on overtime for the police? Sheehan says that’s a very good question and something that isn’t necessarily known without going to speak with the chiefs of the police, and he’s going to do that. I’m going to try to sit down with Chief Wanamaker and start asking those questions rather than thinking he’s going to walk in with a sledgehammer and fix everything. He added that there are a lot of questions and answers, true understandings necessary to start making cuts, reinforcements in budgets, shifts of things to make sure that we’re handling things properly.

            “I think we spend a lot on personnel that could probably be redirected to be more effective if not cut, but once again I don’t have all those answers, but I do have is the background of my education of accounting, my natural ability to find effective ways to save. Now that being said, when we start getting on the right track, we can get rid of some of these bonds that are weighing us down. We’re playing a significant amount in interest on bonds and it continues to go up because we are in budget deficits at the moment, so. There’s a lot of work to do.

            Every person and municipality in the country is facing economic problems that were created from the economy we were living under for four years since January 2021. What does he see as the major economic problems in Clarkstown and some of the major economic benefits?

            “I think there’s a lot of potential. One of the big problems that we’re having in Clarkstown is the thing that you’re seeing in the nation and I think even worldwide, which is a major shift in the American way, especially of doing business where you had malls all over the place, large malls like we have in West Nyack, where they’re not functioning the way they were because of all of the internet shopping and deliveries that you can do, which is an efficient way to do it. So I think that there needs to be now that we have these large buildings, these large areas, the shops at Nanuet, which were done not that long ago. I moved with the Apple store from the Palisades Mall to Nanuet and now the shops are getting gutted because they can’t be sustained.” Sheehan stated.

            He thinks that leadership in the towns and counties could have a major effect in making a shift to give people a place to locally spend their money to make their lives easier or more enjoyable, right? You can have entertainment. “I’ve had this idea, which is, I know, kind of bonkers. I just think it would be fun because I like it. Take one of these, Lord and Taylor, that shut down. You have 3 or 4 stories of a major box where that’s largely empty. Get it doing something. You could, since it’s large and empty, turn it into like an indoor paintball arena. It would cost almost nothing to change it. There’s bathrooms in there already. You just throw some obstacles in there, a little shop for selling stuff, and here’s equipment, and then it brings people to the mall. But you need to start doing small quick things.”

            According to Sheeehan, pop-ups are very popular in areas where you have business, commercial real estate that isn’t being utilized. You just want to get something in there quick. They were doing it in Nyack with them opening stores and other places around. He feels you need to get something quick in there while you’re developing your long term plan. “I was speaking with one of the leaders from the Rockland Business Association, and they’re talking, they, they want to do something with that mall property. There’s a lot of people interested, but it’s a huge project.

            His idea is to do mixed residential and commercial. He thinks everybody understands that you have an easy way to handle a massive amount of traffic. “One of the biggest problems is updating the infrastructure to handle the amount of bathroom usage and things like that for continued commercial but adding and residential, which has slightly different uses than most than most commercial areas, but you build parking structures, housing some more, maybe outlying buildings for different types of businesses that you want separate medical outside of the malls things like that but it would be a major job to do that. I think it would be great for the economy to build it than to have a place for people to have relatively easy transportation.”

            One major problem for people in Rockland County who have to commute to NYC is that there is no single ride directly to Manhattan. Sheehan’s plan would still not be a single seat ride, but it will still be a quick hop on a bus from those outlying malls across to Tarrytown, to get on the train and you’re in the city.

            “When you mix the residential and if it’s properly put together and with our housing shortage, you’re going to get the bodies there. You’re going to be able to bring people in. I think the important thing is to make sure you have a good mix of the types of housing from smaller affordable apartments like studios for younger people all the way up to multiple bedroom, you know, for larger families maybe that are in a transitional state trying to move, things like that and I think you’ll see a lot of benefit out of it. We have that, that’s a bigger situation. Then there’s the Shops at Nanuet, which should be doing a similar thing in the next few years.”

            Sheehan says that we need a base that can support those businesses right there plus other people coming in and out which allows you to have a lot of stability in an area so when you do the investment like building a giant structure you should over long term be able to rely on its steady functioning which we didn’t have at the mall, right?

            He also said that we owe them millions of dollars in back taxes because we were overestimating what they owed and didn’t make any adjustments and they won their lawsuits and now we owe them that money.

It’s one of the other reasons why our taxes are going up because it wasn’t handled properly over time.

            Supervisor Hoehmann, when asked, said that this is a false statement. “We don’t owe the mall anything.”

            The Palisades Mall gives Clarkstown and the county a lot of tax revenue. If it fails, that would definitely put a strain on the people. There needs to be a way to bring businesses into the ,all for the long term.

Sheehan was talking about how to stimulate business for them all. “In the end, I don’t think there’s anything that can be done for the mall on its entire scale, with its current construction. It’s just If you have realty space available across North Jersey, Rockland, everywhere else, why would you come to Rockland where the taxes are high, where, where businesses aren’t doing as well, where we don’t even have the population density to keep people from having to drive from Westchester or North Jersey or other places to do that. They’ll go to Woodbury Commons where they can get out prices and things like that. There is no way to save it right now.”

            He feels that there’s ways to maybe help to keep it on its feet while the purchase and redevelopment is being done but doesn’t see any other way to do it. “Am I willing to try? Am I happy to start to talk to business owners, RBA, things like that? Yes, I think maybe, turning some of it into more medical space would be helpful because anything that brings bodies into the mall will hopefully get them to utilize other things, other parts of it, food, entertainment, things like that. I think entertainment is something that we could utilize a lot more often, which is why he had gone to that fun little paintball thing, but, right, it’s and you could have different age ranges, you can do all different kinds of fun things, or I have a tip.”

            He has other ideas for entertainment venues. One is having an Airsoft downstairs because it is something that’s been very popular because it’s less messy. Adding that you have to think of how things can get off the ground and talk to people with investment money when you’re running the town and you have organizations like organizations like the RBA.

“There’s enough money in the area to at least help, but I think in the end nothing’s going to save it but reorganizing what the space is going to be, and we need to make sure that happens as fluidly as possible, but in an intelligent manner.”

Throughout the nation there are governments and people calling for the defunding of the police. Sheehan is not calling for that, but he does have a problem with all of the overtime the Clarkstown Police is using. This policy creates an issue with public safety in these communities and around the nation.

“One of the things that I have heard is that they’re having trouble hiring cops, which is surprising to me seeing as how we pay so well in this area, and it’s a safe area. The police officers here coming from the city, say, where you get a lot of cops who will after their initial stints of doing a beat will want to get out into the suburbs if they can, it’s difficult to find and fill the positions is what I’ve heard, but if you don’t have enough cops, then you have to fill in with people who are already on and then you have to pay them overtime, which of course then you could have how many more police officers instead of time and half and whatever they are.”

            He agrees that the town can’t be blamed for having to utilize overtime if people are not coming to work there. The question he has is why can’t you get police officers then to fill the hours and the needs of the of the department causing you to have to pay overtime? “That’s something that with how much we spend and put into our police force to make us one of the safest towns in the country, flat, most of our statistics say that people say, oh, they don’t report everything.”

            He asked, “Do you feel unsafe in our town? I very rarely have. That being said, the police force is doing a fantastic job. I’ve been through a number of the events in the area where they’re putting in overtime, whether it’s, the fireworks department or when you have 3000 people protesting along 59, they’re not going to get run over, so they put out barriers and everything has gone on without a hitch, because our police force does such a good job, I feel like they’re doing a good job.”

            In spite of his compliments about the police force, he still thinks there is a portion that needs to be scrutinized to see what they need to do their job efficiently on an economic and cost factor and to maintain the level of security that we all have so that comes with communication and continual looking at the problem. “If the problem is over time, figure out the solutions, but in terms of how safe we are and even on the national level, everything else. They’re doing everything they can.”

            When people complain about government paying a lot of overtime to the public employees and say that the government needs to hire more people to avoid the overtime costs which in Clarkstown comes to about $2.5 million a year. What needs to be looked at is, does hiring more police officers and the benefits, health benefits and stuff that they would get, which, which way does the scale balance to cost less?

Since 2021, the issue of illegal immigration has been a hotbed one across the nation. Every state and local community have been affected. Sheehan thinks one thing that they could stand to do is to address some of the national issues locally and that there’s a lot of people who are worried about what is going on with immigration, right? He added, “So they, they could speak to the public more openly about how those outside forces are affecting what we have here that’s running pretty well.”

The effect of illegal immigration in Rockland County was minimized because of people like Ed Day and Teresa Kenny stopping NYC Mayor Adams from sending many of them from New York City up to here into the hotels. What’s the effect of illegal immigration in Clarkstown and what does Sheehan have in mind to help get these people that are here illegally, safely, picked up to remove them from where they don’t belong?

“I think the question or the answer comes to whether they do or do not belong, right? If someone is here legally going through the process of becoming a nationalized citizen, paying taxes and working and everything else and not breaking laws along the way, they should be able to stay. My family, I would not exist without that. Just flat out. I’m half Dominican. My father came here by means, which I don’t know the full aspects of, but it’s very likely that him or his family would not have come here without people seeking asylum or going through the immigration process, but that’s through the process.”

The issue is about the people who came here without going through the legal processes. Sheehan responded, “So those who haven’t gone through the process, which the ones being bussed in weren’t, those people should be sought for, but it’s very difficult to do. We’re a nation of 330 million people. There are any number of corners. It comes down to really communities and municipalities keeping good track of the people in and around their spaces. I think the way that, the national government and how they would interact with us here in Clarkston, right could be done better to alleviate a lot of the fear and be more effective because if they know that you could be coming, they’re not going to be there.”

            “You end up having to go get people who you know are in a specific place who are trying to use the system properly and it’s just creating havoc, right? So I think the best thing to do is to increase the ability to handle things in a legal manner, right so you can control the border as best you can. We’re ingenious human beings when we want to do something, we find a way, but once they’re here, if you make it so that they can come into the system to then either successfully join our society or be returned where they should be coming from. You’ll end up with a better benefit with a more reasonable way to do it because right now you have people with masks walking around scaring everyone, not just people who should be detained, investigated about their situation.”

Being a police officer or any form of law enforcement is a dangerous job under normal circumstances. But when you have Democrats out there doxing ICE agents and other federal law enforcement and scaring and doxing their families, putting them in danger, which they should not, but that’s why they’re wearing the masks. They have to protect themselves and their families, and they’re not wearing the masks just to be a terrorist group. They wear them for their own protection and the protection of their families.

“I think it could be handled better on both sides assuredly. I would be worried seeing somebody without a uniform, proper ID things like that, walking, because if I’m not very close to you, I can’t see your ID, but I can see that you belong with this organization. It’s tough.”

            Sheehan talked about ICE disrupting communities and people’s normal life. The one thing that certain people don’t talk about is the disruption to families of people who have been killed by illegal immigrants like the three people in Florida who dies due to the actions of the illegal who had made the illegal U Turn.

            “You’re not going to be able to stop that just immigration, but you’ve got people who are disrupting our lives.”

            As we have seen on news programs, about how many people nationally we’ve seen killed, raped, beaten, by illegals that should never have been allowed in here to begin with. You’ve got people like the Boston Mayor, Newsom, Pritzker, Murphy, all that protecting these. People who should not have been here to begin with, that are killing American citizens, robbing American businesses, and, and they’re creating havoc and disruption to the lives of people who are American citizens.

            “I think what ends up happening is you end up having two different narratives talking about two different things. One is what you’re talking about the safety of our people and one that’s talking about humanitarian care. When you’re talking about two different things, you’re going to argue because you’re not actually talking about the same thing when you’re talking about national safety, you’re right. Those people should never have been here, and we should have a way with which to stop them. When you’re talking about all of the people who don’t fall into that category who are breaking laws, whether they’re here legally or not, but are looking for a way to join our society in a reasonable way, you then fall into the point where they’re not criminals that should be set up or not killing or doing anything else they are here working, paying taxes and not gaining many of the benefits in the long run.”

            He says that those people need to be protected and that’s what the Democrats should be focusing very specifically on what they’re talking about and they don’t. “Both sides, I think are right on their individual topics.

Now, how to solve those two problems are vastly different things. When you’re talking about law and order and safety, we need to expand the ability to handle the immigrants trying to get here so we can take advantage and I will say take advantage of those who want to come for the American dream and will be American law, right, become part of our society and uplift it because that’s what we’re built upon, right, and be able to identify those who maybe come through the process but don’t actually live that don’t become part of the society and don’t uphold the laws.”

            “Now the actual statistics of who breaks the law and causes that crime and fear that everybody has of immigrant populations is actually much lower than the standard American. I’ve heard as much as half the state because many of them come here fear police in a way from their home countries that you don’t have to in many cases here in the United States, and they fear doing anything wrong or they would then jeopardize your ability to join the illegally is not the problem, but the people here illegally is a much smaller proportion than a lot of people talk about. Now, as you say, the people who are here illegally, those that they already committed a crime by coming in here illegally.”

            The argument on the right side of the political spectrum is that the people that came across the border illegally under the Biden administration is that they committed a crime by crossing the border which is a violation of American law. That’s a crime. Additionally on the news you’ve seen many times, pedophile arrested.

A guy who had that had child porn in his computers, trafficking children. You say, you’re thinking about finding an easy way to get these people out. How about stopping these sanctuary policies, and if they’re in, you got them in a prison, turn them over to ice that are having to go back out you’re worried about people being scared in the community. You have already arrested this guy for a crime that he committed. He’s in jail. The Democrats complain about the disruption to the community by ICE coming in looking for these people. Just give them to ICE from the jail that ICE doesn’t have to go back out of the community now to find him.”

“That and, and that comes to a national level thing. I do not have a good understanding of how they’re handling that.” He said.

You even have one judge in Milwaukee who helped a guy out the back to avoid ICE. Sheehan asked if he was guilty of a crime. He was. He then asked, “How do we know that?” ICE had the arrest warrant and they had a deportation order on them. “But that’s not proof of crime.” He stated.

ICE was there a deportation order because he had been found to be deportable, and the court said, you’re out, but you’ve got them in jails where ICE can go and take him out safely. But you’re scared about people in the community being scared. You got the guy in jail, you let him back out and he’s committing more crimes. If he’s in jail you do not have to go into the neighborhoods to get him. This would minimize any fear of the residents and you won’t get collateral people picked up with the criminal whose only crime was to come in illegally, even though they’re going after the bad guys.

            “It’s become a same thing with American citizens in terms of our bail reform laws that have been put through that needs to be wiped and redone right. Whatever the case may be with that, but it’s, it’s not much different. We need to make sure that we aren’t infringing upon the rights of those who have done nothing wrong to protect us from a very small percentage of the population that does do something wrong because when they start doing that, all you need is someone to say that something that you do is wrong and that you need to be the next thing and it’s, it’s what causes the society to be affected over a long period of time it’s protecting from.

Marginalizing people’s time and time again because then you end up where everyone’s been marginalized, so. Everything you’re saying is absolutely right. Those are things that should be handled efficiently.”

            He stated, “Instead of finding a legal recourse, trying to help the person some other way, they’ll do things to obfuscate justice, as it’s being carried out, You’ll hear a lot of people that will hate anything that Trump is doing or other members of his cabinet just because they’re doing it, not try to find any of the positive benefit that can happen, not try to come to the issue with the solution.” He admits that too many people just want to argue about this is what we’re doing, this is wrong, they just want to point fingers and not do the work to fix things and that they become more part of the problem than the solution.

            I mean, you know, look at what Trump has done in the 200 or 210 days he’s been in office, a lot more than I think any other president in American history in that time frame, and all the opposition, the Democrats can do is find is attack, attack, attack, attack. “Oh absolutely.” Was his response.

            After covering a plethora of topics, the only question remaining was that he is facing incumbent Mike Graziano who has been there for a number of years. He’s got a good following and he keeps getting re-elected, no matter who goes up against him. What does Sheehan have to offer to the residents of Ward 2 for them to vote for him over Graziano?

            Sheehan has never met Graziano and has never seen him speak anywhere until he went to town council meetings and started becoming more involved directly in the political aspect. “I think being a civil servant you need to be more available outside of that and, and I would plan on taking it to another level of integration. I’m looking at scaling back my outside work with the union and things like that to be as full time of a councilman as I can with other smaller outside financial gains so that I can meet with more people, make more decisions, be more involved with the supervisors running of the town to just help. I don’t want to take over. I don’t want to change anything. I wan to have conversations and then hopefully if they’re the right solutions that come forth, have those things come through, and I don’t see Mike doing that. Nobody sees Mike doing that because he’s not doing it.”

                               

BY: Keith S. Shikowitz, Editor/Investigative Reporter

            George Hoehmann is running for his sixth term as Clarkstown Town Supervisor this year. He will then have to run again in 2026 based on the 2023 law in New York mandating that all local elections take place in even years.

            Clarkstown has been cracking down on illegal immigrants and illegal daycare centers. A couple of months ago they were able to close down one of the latter. Recently information came about, that the people who were running this were filing a suit to make it legal on a religious exemption.

“Yeah, so, so it’s, it’s not exactly that. Basically, what happened is, This, the people, the Altmans bought the property under a corporation, as a religious entity, as a, as a congregation. It does not appear that they ever opened up as a congregation. A religious organization can have daycare as a secondary use, that’s actually to the original, use, and so, they don’t appear to have ever operated. They already have a religious exemption, they bought it and we’re opening it up as a house of worship, the one building, not the other, the other building is commercial, and so basically where we stand is there, there’s a, a number of, legal actions the town took.” Hoehmann explained.

            Anyone going down North Main Street in New City can’t miss the building going up pretty quickly on the north side.

“135 North Main is 47 senior housing units, and that, should be done, you know, probably by the end of the year.  Yeah, they’ve been working on it. That said out front that says what it’s going to be usually you know coming soon, you know that that went through the planning department, the planning board it was approved, you know, and they started construction earlier this year. I’m not saying it wasn’t all done, yeah, I guess, people would become aware of it through the planning board.

            According to Hoehmann, the builder didn’t come to the town board and there wasn’t a zone change or anything like that. It was under the current zoning where they could do senior housing on Main Street.

            People were curious because usually there is a sign on the fence saying ‘Coming soon, a 47 senior unit housing complex or something along those lines’ so at least people know what’s going up, that wasn’t there. Now we know.

            It was hard not to notice that a few weeks ago, the traffic light at Phillips Hill and Little Tor was missing. The reason for this was that there was a car accident that took down the light. The board approved the replacement which cost $200,000 and it was done sometime in mid-August.  Hoehmann said, “We’re going to be trying to recoup as much as we can through the person’s insurance. It was a car accident where they took the pole down and they destroyed the light.”

            A lot of municipalities are going to solar powered lights to try to save some money on electric bills but Clarkstown is not doing this. They are putting in a smart light which will have a modem and it will have a camera so that it can be programmable. So instead of many of these lights in some of these areas have loops in the ground, that’s old technology.

“The new technology now is a camera, with a computer system with a modem that can allow the lights to talk to each other. Now it won’t be that initially it’ll have the camera, it’ll have the modem. Eventually, we’ll work, we’re working to try and have the lights to be able to talk to themselves, through a, a computer program.

In fact, the state, the state is doing that on a bunch of the state roadways, so there’s been a number of lights that have been replaced on a number of the state roadways, recently, and that will enable the state to have the lights speak to each other so that they can make automatic adjustments through the use of a computer program and AI to improve traffic flow at different points. Synchronize the lights.” Hoehmann said.

            One major issue people have in their towns is the infrastructure. They want the roads in the town to be safe to drive on, yet they complain about the inconvenience that the construction and repaving caused them. This does not deter the Clarkstown Highway Department from doing their job.

During Hoehmann’s last reelection bid two years ago, we discussed how the town had 300 miles of roads to keep paved. About half of them had been done, have they all been repaved?

            Every government agency is looking to save money and not have to do things like repaving constantly. They would love to extend the time between repaving’s. I’ve heard when they’re talking about there’s a new type of surfacing that has like glass recycled glass in it that makes it a lot more durable. It doesn’t have to be taken up as often. Are you using something like that?

            He explained, “So, we’re using a whole variety of processes. We’re doing everything from micro paving to full mill and fill where you where you re-crown the road and, and, you know, put down, you know, 3 inches of asphalt, various technologies, so, I think a lot of the, I’m not certain what have a straw what they’re talking about, you know, oftentimes some of the recycled materials don’t last as long as the traditional, so I would, I’d be very curious on that, but we’re using a variety of, of, of applications.”

            There is more to the infrastructure in a town than just the road system. Hoehmann reviewed a number of other projects that the town is working on for the benefit of the community.

“So, obviously downtown West Nyack, it’s a major project it’s, all in about $11 million. We’ve got several million dollars in grants that will be finished up by the end of the year. That’s a complete overhaul of the downtown streetscape, that includes, all new drainage, raising the road, brand new culverts, will help to eliminate the residual flooding on Phillips Lane, which is behind the, the business district, as well as some of the flooding that takes place on West Road.”

            He said that they were going to have all new, decorative streetlights as well. “We buried a lot of the utilities down there at no cost to the town, through an O and R resiliency project. So that’s a major infrastructure project, and that will be done, you know, as I said, by the end of the year.”

            Many places around the country where severe weather and other factors create power problems are replacing aboveground wires with underground wires for safety reasons. Is there any possibility that Clarkstown will be doing that? Hoehmann explained what they are doing about that. “Yeah, but that wouldn’t be us, so for example, down in downtown West Nyack, O&R was doing a resiliency project, the 705 line where they were putting an underground link between two substations. As part of that project, we had a conversation with them.

We’d like you to bury the lines in that area so they did that at no cost to themselves. It’s quite costly to bury the lines.”

            The thing about doing anything with the power lines it that the town doesn’t own them or the poles. Those are owned by the utilities. They asked O&R and the other utilities in certain areas and they have listened, to bury them.

            An example, of why this is important, as Hoehmann said is, “We had constant power outages at the causeway, and that was a real success of my administration. We pushed Orange and Rockland we had I think we had, 2 out of 3 or 3 out of 3 consecutive years where we had, major power outages, thousands of people out for days as the lines going across the causeway were taken down by wind, you know, they were basically sails, you know, heavy winds coming across the causeway.”

            He added, “During major storms, so O & R listened to us, they cost them over a million dollars to do that because it was over 1 mile, and they buried the lines at no cost to the town, so we’ve asked O&R we’ve given them areas where we’ve had historic power outages, and we’ve asked them to look at as part of their resiliency programming to bury the lines when possible. So we got it down in West Nyack in the Main Street area, we got it over the causeway and there’s other areas, but that’s entirely up to OR, Verizon, and, the other utilities, and there are multiple utilities that operate within the town.”

            The one thing that every person in the country can agree on is that they hate taxes. When Hoehmann was reelected two years ago, he said he was going to try to maintain the tax levels at the current levels. “So we’re, we’re in our budget process now, so, you know, obviously we’re, we told all of our department heads that, to employ a zero-based budgeting, mentality, which means that, no increase at the department level. Obviously, things cost money and I can tell you that I’m very proud of my record on taxes as Town Supervisor in Clarkstown, we’ve had multiple tax cuts, tax freezes throughout my 10 years, and we’ve had some increases.”

            He added, “We’ve trended far below the other towns and villages within the area and you know, we won’t know until we’re done with our budget process in late September what our budget will look like for next year, but, we’re being as aggressive as possible. I will tell you that I’m very encouraged by the reinvestment in the town. With new rateables coming in that’s an encouraging thing. People are investing in the town. We do have 62% of the commercial rateables of Rockland County and Clarkstown. hat’s a sizable amount of money, but it also costs a lot of money for us to sustain that.”

            Over the four years of the Biden administration, the economy of the country was a disaster of 9% inflation, up to like 16%. Now back down to I think 2.4% inflation or 2.1%, hundreds of billions of dollars coming in from the tariffs and things like that. How does everything that’s happening nationally and statewide it’s going to affect the economy here in Clarkstown?

Hoehmann responded, “I think, you would like to see interest rates come down because I think that we’re slowing maybe some of the reinvestment and redevelopment across the country. I think we’re doing well in terms of the local economy again because we do have 62% of the commercial rateables. There’s also been literally houses go on the market and they sell almost immediately a lot of new people moving in and that shows positive signs of the local economy.”

Hoehmann attributes having so much of the rateables in the county to smart growth, smart planning, you know, the town has had a down zone throughout the years. “We are the heart of Rockland. We are the central portion of Rockland County. You have the state, highways that come through, the thruway the parkway that comes through, so over time we’ve, we’ve really developed as the hub. We are the county seat, West Nyack with the mall, Nanuet with the Nanuet town center and all the commerce there. So, it’s just been a factor of development that has been appropriate throughout the years, but I think the other piece is we’re the only town with an economic development staff person, Jeff Gillies, we have a real focus on it, like for example.”

The first Chick Fil A opened on Route 59 recently, and Hoehmann said that he had a friendly competition between himself and Supervisor Teresa Kenny, for, that first Chick Fil A in the county, and we won, and we won the competition and how did they do it? Gillies had made inquiries. Hoehmann had also made inquiries we worked hard, and then when Chick Fil A wanted to come on in, so they sped them, through the appropriate process talking to the county and the economic development folks, and then, worked with them, through the planning process so they were able to open up in August. “I’m glad I’ve been waiting for Chick fil A. We’re targeting a lot of different, businesses and we are seeing real reinvestment within the town and that help, that will help with the residential tax base as well.”

            Throughout the nation, public safety is a concern. President Trump deployed the national guard to deal with this issue in Washington D.C. Many cities are experiencing record levels of crime and the threats to public safety it brings. Hoehmann said, “Clarkstown is one of the safest communities in in the entire country, certainly in the state in the northeast, and you know, frankly we have 87,000 residents so obvious and we have a lot of commercial property, so obviously you’re going to have typical white collar crime, And we’re the suburbs you’ll have, you know, minor vandalism and things of that nature but we are a very safe community we’ve got an exceptional police department, very well trained.”

            Illegal immigration is a major national problem. ICE has been removing criminal illegal immigrants across the country.  How has that affected Clarkstown? Have a lot of illegals, been caught by ICE being here?

            “So we have, we’ve had I come in a couple of times, you know, we’ve been told anecdotally, most recently there was a situation where there were illegal immigrants that were living in a house and there was a dispute amongst them and some of the illegals called on the other illegals in the house and ICE can, ICE will not will sometimes notify the police that they’re coming into the town.” He stated.

            “How has it really affected us? Well, you’ve seen it in the past. You’ve covered some of the things like the house on New Hempstead Road, those were likely all illegals you know, that came on in, so we’ll continue to, we’ll continue to crack down on it. I do believe that with the border essentially being shut that you’re seeing less new people coming in, obviously, and so we’re not seeing the numbers that we saw in the past 4 years where we had, you know, literally hundreds of people that were coming up from the city, you know, here, and they were getting into houses that were illegally. So I think overall, you know, we’re seeing a obviously a downturn in that, and again we’re, we’re aggressively enforcing our codes, to make sure that people, you know, comply with their buildings on the codes.”

            Anyone who shops in the Palisades Mall has seen the constant comings and goings of stores and restaurants. TGIFridays is one of the latest major chain restaurants to leave the property. What may not be known to a multitude of people is that the mall has been having major financial issues. They’re in debt in the neighborhood of 413 million dollars. It is also a major contributor to the taxes of Clarkstown and the county.

            “So, the mall is a going concern, and we know that from the tax, the, the tax certiorari case from a couple of years ago. We had access to their books. They were mismanaged by Pyramid in particular, and you’ve seen all of the Pyramid malls are all in foreclosure. I’m encouraged by it because since they are in the foreclosure process, they’ve actually had a, 600% increase in capital maintenance on the mall. If you go through there, you’ll see it’s looking better. They’re actually investing in the building.” Hoehmann explained.

            “According to the revenues, they’re a going concern. I do believe that, eventually there probably will be a new mall operator, and, you know, we’ve had some conversations with the current management company, and the potential for reinvestment that they’re looking at within the facility. So I’m, I’m heartened by what’s taking place there. I do think that, you know, that there’ll be an opportunity for some reinvestment, going forward in the future at the moment.”

            Will the town be in involved in the reinvestment or improvements in the mall? “No, we’re not at that level. It’s a very valuable commercial asset, and you know it’s not going to shut its doors, you know there’s too much of an investment. People are going to look to make money off of the investment and how are they going to make money? They’re probably going to look for new types of applications to come on in. I know Pyramid had been looking for a residential component. Many of the malls in the area have done that, where they’ve reinvented themselves, where they’ve kept some commercial, and they’ve brought in some residential, and other uses. So we’ll, we’ll, we’ll take a look at that going forward.”

            According to Hoehmann, right now there’s no proposals that are out there but he does expect that there probably will be somewhere in the future when the whole ownership issue was is resolved, but he says that they are a going concern. They know that from their all their financial filings because they’re in court are now an open book and they’re making money. “What was happening was the prior mall operators were taking the money from the mall and putting it into their other locations. Now that it’s having to be treated as a standalone, you know, they have to stand on their own in terms of the financing here. They’re, they’re, they’re making money and that’s good.

            One idea in revitalizing the mall is to add a residential component. Will there have to be a rezoning done to accommodate this? “Yeah, they would they would they’re under our code, under a comprehensive plan, that’s a use that that is contemplated, but it would require a zone change based on what they would be looking for. Our code allows for hotels and, you know, those types of things already at the mall. That was one of the things the pyramid was looking at. It doesn’t allow for housing like permanent housing, but it does allow for, temporary stays, hotels, suites, that type of thing.

            Will this be like people moving in and living there as a like, like Co-Op City type of place? “No. I wouldn’t say Co-Op City. You’d want to take a look at what happened down at Tyson Farms in New Jersey. Take a look at, Ridge Hill over in Yonkers. So literally you, you keep the commercial and then you add a residential component, a couple 100 units, that’s always been something that I think has been contemplated and it would require a zone change.”

            Hoehmann is up for reelection again. Why should people vote to keep him in office?

            “Oh, certainly, thank you so much for the opportunity. Look, I have a record of accomplishment here in the Town of Clarkstown and keeping taxes in check, investing in our infrastructure, and bringing rateables and, also maintaining the quality of life. Since I’ve been town supervisor, we’ve created new parks, you know, continuing to do that, the West Nyack, playground and park. Firefighter Memorial Park that’s new. We added the Bear Swamp Nature Preserve, next to the county park. We’ve, redone, all the pickleball courts at Zucker, the Mark Woods, playground, walking trails  around Zucker, you know, we did the pickleball courts over in Conger’s.”

            Being an elected official has a lot of challenges. What does Hoehmann see as his biggest challenge should he get reelected?

“I think it’s economy, economy but that’s for everybody that would be for me, that would be for President Trump, that would be for Governor Hochul, Congressman Lawler, you name it, at every level of government, continuing to figure out how you can track rateables and continuing, you know, just deal with the struggles of what’s happening economically. Families’ budgets are, are stretched, and we need to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to continue to, to deal with that situation.

            He says that a lot of that is beyond the control of the town, adding that some of these issues, as you mentioned are international issues that affect the economy and some of them are federal issues. “So I think that’s the big challenge. It’s always going to be economic for everybody. I think we’re well equipped for it because we have a record of maintaining costs, at a low base here within the town, and we’ll continue to do that.

            With all of the challenges, there are always going to be easy issues to deal with. Hoehmann responded, “I don’t think that there’s anything that’s ever easy in, in, in from a government perspective. You work. I think what we’ll continue to do is be accessible. We are the most accessible local government that’s out there. I do tele Town Hall calls. We broadcast our meetings. We’re one of the few municipalities that in live time. The meetings are up, people can see them on TV, and we’re always accessible, so we will continue to do that, and, I’ll continue to have coffees with the supervisor and our tele-town hall meetings. We’re the only municipality doing that.”

“I’m the only supervisor doing that for the last 10 years. We’ve been averaging 8 or 9 a year of the Tele town Hall calls I love doing it. It’s not necessarily easy, but it’s something we’ve made look easy.

            If a resident of Clarkstown wants to participate in these Tele – Town Halls, you can call 845 639 2150. “When we have them, we announce them. We send out a voice notification to, anybody that signed up for our list. We encourage people to sign up for them and as I said, I’m the only supervisor that’s doing this.

            You can sign up through the Supervisor’s office or online, so you can just contact the supervisor’s office. You can go to supervisor at Clarkstown.gov. Supervisor Clarkstown.gov and say you want to be on the list.

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