Citizen Demands New York State Ethics Probe Of Feckless Piermont Village Government.
[Depicted above: current Village of Piermont, New York "Mayor" Bruce Tucker, proudly posing with the Cuban flag and the image of Tucker's apparent spiritual inspiration, callous executioner Che Guevara].
Law
Office of John J. Tormey III, Esq.
John
J. Tormey III, PLLC
1636
Third Avenue, PMB 188
New
York, NY 10128 USA
(212)
410-4142 (phone)
(212)
410-2380 (fax)
jtormey@optonline.net
https://www.tormey.org
Thursday,
June 6, 2024
VIA
FAX: 1-845-255-3042, U.S. MAIL, and E-MAIL:
central.dispatch@dec.ny.gov
Kelly
Turturro, Regional Director
New
York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC)
Office
of the Regional Director, Region 3 – Hudson Valley Catskills
21
South Putt Corners Road
New
Paltz, NY 12561-1620 USA
VIA
FAX: 1-518-474-3767, and U.S. MAIL
The
Honorable Kathleen C. (Kathy) Hochul
Governor
of New York State
NYS
State Capitol Building
Albany,
NY 12224 USA
Re:
The Paving-Over Of A Former Sunoco
Gasoline Station Site
Location: 447-477 Piermont
Avenue, Piermont, New York 10968 USA
Dear
Director Turturro, and Governor Hochul:
First,
thank you to both of you and to your colleagues for your attention to this
matter, as recapitulated in collective Exhibit “1” to this letter which I
attach for your reference.
Second,
Ms. Turturro, I would like to take this opportunity to give you, Governor
Hochul, and your respective colleagues, an update on what the residents of
Piermont, New York and I have discovered since my April correspondence to each
of you.
The
subject property was indeed used as a gasoline station – a Sunoco
gasoline station. We found photographs. Copies of those photographs are
attached to the Affirmation of Louis A. Terminello, hereto collective Exhibit
“2”. For good measure, I also attach a few close-ups of the Sunoco gasoline station
at Exhibit “3”.
As
you might imagine, I since conversed with the General Counsel’s office of
Sunoco, as well. It was thereupon confirmed to me that the photos indeed depict
a real Sunoco gasoline station as it would have looked at the relevant time –
and that such gasoline stations normally deployed one or more submerged
gasoline tanks. Based upon my review of records since, it appears that the Sunoco
gasoline station could have been on the subject property from roughly 1942 to
1962.
Again,
the problem that the good people of Piermont face, a number of whom are my
friends, is that even in the face of a recently-issued TRO out of the New York
State Supreme Court in New City, the soft Village of Piermont government including Piermont Mayor Bruce Tucker appear to continue to enable New Jersey real estate developers to drop a
non-conforming structure smack in the middle of the picturesque and historic village,
while thereby paving-over the site of the Sunoco gasoline station in the
process. Meanwhile, neither the New Jersey real estate developers nor the soft
Village of Piermont government have given the residents of the Village any meaningful
assurance that the developers or village government have paid any attention to the obvious environmental
concerns thereby triggered. That lack of citizen faith and confidence was in no way
assuaged by a recent oil spill in another part of the Village:
https://westchester.news12.com/dec-says-its-monitoring-oil-slick-found-at-village-of-piermont-creek
… nor
assuaged by the realization that 447-477 Piermont Avenue is within 792 feet of
a Superfund site:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/05/why-dig-because-there-is-superfund-site.html
I
am asking both of you, please, for further New York State governmental
intervention to stop the environmental harm-in-the-making that is the 447-477
Piermont Avenue real estate development project. For example, if there were
ever an argument for eminent domain accompanied by a New York State ethics inquiry
into village government malfeasance, this is that very case.
Thank
you both, again, for your careful consideration to this letter and its Exhibits.
Respectfully submitted, and Excelsior,
John J. Tormey III, Esq.
cc:
VIA
FAX: 1-518-402-9016, U.S. MAIL, and E-MAIL:
PressOffice@dec.ny.gov
Maureen
Wren, Deputy Commissioner
Office
of Communication Services, Press Office, Constituent Relations (DEC Press
Office)
New
York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC)
625
Broadway
Albany,
NY 12233 USA
VIA
U.S. MAIL and E-MAIL:
info@kathyhochul.com
The
Honorable Kathleen C. (Kathy) Hochul
Governor
of New York State – Attn: Press Office
P.O.
Box 1463
New
York, NY 10021 USA
