Finally, confirmation. While no Sloatsburg official made any official statement, or could even confirm that Rockland County Executive Ed Day was, indeed, meeting with the Town of Tuxedo, local gadfly and activist John Kwasnicki was able to shine some sunshine on the issue.
General map for the proposed Tuxedo Reserve 1,195 unit development / TPFYI.com
It was Kwasnicki who repeatedly peppered the Sloatsburg board of trustees over the years on how the village was spending the nearly one million dollars Tuxedo Reserve has paid the municipality for community improvements. Spent in general funds, came the answer.
“How come the people of Sloatsburg, of Rockland, didn’t know anything about this?” said Sloatsburg resident John Kwasnicki to The Journal News about recent behind-the-scenes sewer meetings between Rockland County Executive Ed Day and Tuxedo officials.
Laura Incalcaterra reported in The Journal News Thursday, March 27, that Ed Day and Dianne Philips, executive director of Rockland County Sewer District 1, recently met with Tuxedo town officials and Related Companies Vice President Andrew Dance to hold conversations about the possibility of hooking up the proposed Tuxedo Reserve development into the nice new Hillburn Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Rockland County Executive Ed Day
According to LoHud, Day said that Related offered to provide the “county government with a $2 million payment, in addition to monies it would pay to the sewer district.”
Tuxedo Reserve, which is possibly being rebranded to the more rural-sounding Tuxedo Farms, would consist of some 1,195 single-family homes, condominiums and townhouses on 1,266 acres just northwest of Sloatsburg.
The Rockland County Executive has no direct authority over the sewer district, which has some 13 commissioners who are appointed by the County Legislature. Sloatsburg Trustee Dan O’Leary serves on the board, as does Hillburn Mayor Craig Flanagan. Sloatsburg’s representative is appointed by Mayor Wright.
Former Sloatsburg Trustee Mark Reimer served on the board and advocated aggressively against the Tuxedo Reserve hookup throughout his tenure.
In The Journal News article, Day defended the meetings, calling them a sort of fact finding mission before he made any formal presentation to the Legislature.
TPFYI.com first reported on the Day, Tuxedo and Western Ramapo Sewer meetings in its coverage of Town of Tuxedo meetings. In a March 10 update, Tuxedo Supervisor Michael Rost reported on-going meetings with Ed Day, sewer district officials and town consultants.
Several legislators made it plain as day where they stood.
“Nobody in western Ramapo wants anybody hooking up to this sewer plant,” Legislature Chairman Alden Wolfe said in the LoHud article.
It all flows down hill
Day’s comments indicate he may view the sewer district as a revenue stream for county coffers, a sort of free flow of brown waste through Western Ramapo that turns green in New City.
Since 2004, the Rockland Legislature has said no, no and no to the Orange County sewer expansion into Rockland. Related purportedly has repeatedly attempted to hook up the Tuxedo Reserve development into Rockland County Sewer District No. 1’s new Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Legislator Ilan Schoenberger, D-Wesley Hills, was quoted as saying, “If we passed five resolutions saying don’t do it, how many more do we have to pass?”
Day commented about the meeting on his Facebook page Thursday that “Past resolutions did not ban this connection but simply said a local law was needed to do so, and that would require public hearings affirmation by the legislature and county executive.”
Tuxedo Farms/Reserve has been on the drawing board for a long time, with many amendments to its layout, including the addition of multi-family units, and would occupy a large swath of mountainous wetlands area that runs off and feeds the Ramapo River. Opponents point to the enormous impact on traffic in the already dense Rt. 17 corridor as well as various environmental concerns for communities that have intentionally carved out semi-rural lifestyles — for better or worse.
The arrival of sewers in Western Ramapo brings with them the opportunity for development that can hook up and easily flush away a once insurmountable problem. For many in the area the idea of big development on the rocky ledges and watersheds of Wester Ramapo was similar to the local legend that sewers were coming — as in, not likely.
Well, the sewers are being built.
The Related Companies has few options for sewer waste for the proposed massive development that don’t include spending a lot of money, something the company appears willing to do (and already has). Related can build its own sewer treatment plant, while making expensive improvements to the Town of Tuxedo’s waste facilities so it can handle the tie in. Or the company can convince someone who already has a waste treatment plant that can handle the flow to take more.
Apparently Related is working on any and all options. According to Incalcaterra, Related’s Andrew Dance said the company will start building its own $7.5 million plant in September. Dance also dangled the benefits of a Rockland hookup instead, “including $1.5 million to the county’s general fund” and “$7.4 million to the sewer district to offset future capital costs.”
