Keep Fishkill Beautiful!

Expanding my project

fishkillnyresident — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:37:53 +0000

So – while I’m not going to get too lazy about the Baxtertown Woods Development – I still want to keep that on my radar- I’ve decided to take on a new endeavor, and that is to remain aware of the various building projects that rear their heads from time to time around the Village and the Town. I realize that there is a distinct difference between the Town of Fishkill and the Village of Fishkill – but at the same time I think it’s important to acknowledge that what is good for the Town is good for the Village – and vice versa. So I have no problem sticking my nose in either area.

One nice thing is that I’ve actually got volunteers helping me out. Some good friends have offered to information-gather and do some legwork. Love you guys!

Could this have been prevented?

fishkillnyresident — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 20:54:27 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEEjhQ9invk

9 months ago over 200 trees were illegally removed from the forest behind my house without any regard to the effect that this would have on the surrounding area.

This is a view of the back of my house – shot at around 11am this morning. No question there was a lot of water coming out of the sky today as it was hurricane Irene – but the nagging question remains…if there had not been such a haphazard & irresponsible amount of deforestation occurring this year – would the flood have been anywhere near this bad?

My letter to the building inspector and Town Supervisor

fishkillnyresident — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:10:24 +0000

I just keep reading this. This is the Stop Work Order & the letter that I wrote in response to the fact that it took them MONTHS to follow up on my phone calls. Note: I never received a response to this letter. Surprise.

stop work order

Haiku

fishkillnyresident — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 14:54:55 +0000

Trees felled against the law
Leaves fall
Unpredictably
Your condo plans are
Beautiful ashes

WOOT! WOOT!

fishkillnyresident — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 02:15:56 +0000

WOW! I don’t know what I was expecting from tonight’s meeting but this was NOT IT. I was so excited as the meeting went on that I took TERRIBLE notes, but here is what I’ve gathered in a nutshell…because of the ILLEGAL logging that was done between November 1 and January 4 (when a stop work order was finally issued, but only after repeated phone calls from area residents to Building Inspector Joel Petrus), the ability of the builder to do the development has been SET BACK. WAY BACK.

My understanding is that – the environmental studies that were done by the builder are now completely moot as the terrain has been completely altered by the logging. I can’t speak for what is going on in anyone else’s head – but if I was that developer I’d be … unhappy.

I would like to send out a big hug and a kiss and a THANK YOU to the landowner shot himself in the foot with a double barrel shotgun full of GREED.

Manor Estates on Town Agenda for Thursday June 9

fishkillnyresident — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 17:22:41 +0000

Manor Estates is listed to be reviewed tonight. Please note that there has been a lot of activity regarding Manor Estates over the past few months and things have been amped up over this past winter. My gut feeling is that sometime in the next month or two there will be a public hearing at which point we will have to deal with the reality of this development being pushed through by the current administration.

Please try and be present for tonight’s meeting. It starts at 7pm and will conclude at 11pm. I will be at the front of Town Hall in a pink t-shirt that says “Got Traffic” with the www.keepfishkillbeautiful.com website on it .

Memo from the DEC

fishkillnyresident — Tue, 17 May 2011 19:17:05 +0000

I contacted the DEC to see if they had anything on file regarding this proposal and received the following comment:

“at this point DEC does not have any official permit applications in for this proposed project. So far, DEC has only been contacted for a pre-application assessment. The Town of Fishkill sent in the plans for DEC comment (resource screening). DEC responded to the Town in Feb 2008 with a template response that only identifies what resources are in the vicinity of the project. At this point, according to DEC Environmental Permits staff, it looks like a State regulated wetland (WF-20, Class 3) is located on the proposed project site, however, based on preliminary plans, all proposed work is located out of wetland and 100 foot adjacent area.

This is the extent of the information DEC has at this point. DEC does not have an environmental assessment form (EAF) for the proposed project and no information yet re: other DEC permits (such as water supply, SPDES wastewater).”

Stop Work Order regarding timber harvesting at Baxtertown Woods

fishkillnyresident — Fri, 13 May 2011 14:12:13 +0000

The first week in November I called Joel Petrus (town Building Inspector) twice to let them know that enormous trees were coming down in the woods- literally flatbed trucks of huge trees were being brought out daily. I never had a response from anyone. You can see my note published on my Facebook Page on the dates that I made the calls. Just scroll down to the posts from November.

Then, a stop-work order was (finally) issued…on January 4. Almost two months after my phone call. An enormous amount of damage took place in that time, and since the work was stopped there are huge trees and tree limbs hanging half-cut throughout the woods. Talk about dangerous!

May 1 meeting follow up & next steps

fishkillnyresident — Tue, 03 May 2011 23:01:39 +0000

Well MANY thanks to all of the people who showed up on May 1. Clearly this is a big concern for local residents. It was great that so many people showed up…and I am more committed than ever to continue moving forward with distributing information.

I’ve gotten a lot of questions regarding what the “next steps” are. So here goes:

I’m forming a group called Residents for Responsible Development in Fishkill (RRDF). This will be a watchdog style group of volunteers who will focus on this particular project (and possibly more down the road) and do what we can to make sure that whatever development is done on this property will:

1. Reflect the CHARACTER of Fishkill and it’s neighborhoods and not detract from the aesthetic beauty of this unique town.

2. Put no additional stress on our schools, roadways, waterways, and natural ecosystems.

Meeting May 1 at 2pm

fishkillnyresident — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 22:00:38 +0000

We’ll be meeting Sunday May 1 at 2pm in Fishkill. I will be putting up a copy of the latest development plans & talk to individuals regarding what’s going on with this development (whatever I know – and hopefully more people will have more information!).

If you are interested please contact me at fishkillnyresident@hotmail.com for directions & to rsvp.