News for Philipstown (Cold Spring, Nelsonville, Garrison) and Beacon, New York
New date likely in December
The Historic District Review Board public hearing on demolition of the former Butterfield Hospital in Cold Spring will not be held on Wednesday night, Nov. 7. The hearing is being postponed at the request of the developer and is expected to be rescheduled for a date in December.
Type: News
News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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Recent press coverage by another local news outlet has lacked journalistic research and has been insulting of the dedicated volunteers who serve on our Village’s standing boards. State and Village laws give these volunteers powers and responsibilities that are intentionally free from election campaign politics.
Our community is not interested in editorials that lack facts, promote hearsay, and wrongly judge our committed, unpaid neighbors who spend countless volunteer hours carefully administering the Village code.
A review of state and local laws makes clear that the Historic District Review Board’s purview is preservation and restoration of buildings within the Historic District. Those same laws make clear that the HDRB may seek counsel from an expert in preservation law.
If the Village appears stalled, it may be because Mayor Gallagher has spent a majority of the last few months focused on a single issue: making it possible for an outside developer to be granted special permits and approvals to build on the Butterfield property.
A review of Village legal bills reveals that in September alone, Mayor Gallagher directed Village attorney, Stephen Gaba, to provide over $8,000 in legal services in an effort to subvert the Village code, all intended to benefit property owner Paul Guillaro and his HDRB application for the Butterfield property.
If the Mayor and the Village attorney genuinely believe they have identified problems with our Village code, they should be trying to fix them, not trying to exploit them.
Please be advised that the Public Hearing scheduled for 11/7 has been CANCELLED at the request of the developer, Butterfield Realty LLC. It is expected to be rescheduled for early December.