Conrad to Bailey: “You’re telling this board a load of crap!”

“You’re telling this board a load of crap!” was Town of Coeymans Code Enforcement Officer Laverne “Larry” Conrad’s response to the blather that Village of Ravena council member William “Bill” Bailey was dribbling at a joint Village of Ravena—Town of Coeymans workshop that was held with just three members of the public (one of whom was a reporter for the Ravena Nose Herald) in attendance—on Tuesday, June 24, 2014, at 7 p.m. in the Ravena village hall. Having witnessed the night of the living brain-dead that evening, we tend to agree with Mr Conrad’s assessment of Mr Bailey’s drivel.

Joint Village of Ravena-Town of Coeymans Water-Sewerage Workshop
Night of the Living Brain-Dead!

Let’s start with some basic information before we give you a quick summary of the dog-and-pony act that the Ravena-Coeymans clowns performed for an empty house on this past Tuesday: It was supposed to have been a constructive dialogue between the two elected bodies, the Ravena village council and the Town of Coeymans Board, to resolve the long-standing problems of water and sewerage management between the two adjacent communities. After all, isn’t that what a workshop is supposed to be? An orderly dialogue dealing with specific questions with the goal of arriving at answers. Well, not in Ravena, not in Coeymans, and not when Ravena and Coeymans sit in the same room to have a joint piss-down-each-other’s-leg session. It was the Night of the Living Brain-Dead!

Ravena trustee Bill Bailey: “we’re better off paying the DEC fines…”

Fact: Ravena wants Coeymans residents to pay 40% of the bills. Fact: Ravena has approximately 1600 users compared to about 400 in the Hamlet of Coeymans. In other words, Ravena should be paying at least 75% of the bill if we want to be fair and look at usage. But according to Ravena’s Bill Bailey, ‘We have the infrastructure so that’s why you [Coeymans] have to pay more than your fair share.’ But what Mr Bailey fails to admit is that Ravena’s infrastructure is stone-age, it’s falling apart, it’s failing! What Mr Bailey doesn’t admit is that Ravena is under the gun and is facing the DEC because of the van Hoesen street disaster. Ravena is under the gun of a DEC Consent Order and is paying fines to the DEC for its mismanagement of the water/sewerage problems in the village. According to Bailey’s assessment of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s requirements for managing the runoff is that “The DEC’s requirements are too stringent.” What’s Bill Bailey’s response? It’s incredible but here’s what Bailey responded: “We’re better off paying the fines…” That’s one of Ravena’s elected official’s response to the question of compromise!  So, Mr Bill Bailey, a leftover from the notorious Bruno quarter-century of mismanagement has no problems paying the DEC fines with your tax money.

 Conrad to Bailey: 

“Stop talking that crap !”

What irked us to the point of puking is that Bill Bailey was given the floor for almost the entire meeting. Mr Mayor Moose Misuraca was eerily silent throughout and the only sign of life coming from him was when he got up to apparently relieve himself. To his credit, Keith Mahler opened his mouth with some fairly decent comments and questions but Mr Mayor Moose just sat with his eyes glazed over! Of course, Nancy Warner, another leftover from the Bruno debacle stepped up with nonsense comments that simply aligned her with her goomba Bailey.

Bailey: “We’re throwing in $1,000,000.” Who is? Where’s it coming from, Bailey?

Bailey repeatedly sung the refrain, “We’re throwing in one million dollars…” Our question is, Mr Bailey, who is “we” and where are you getting the $1,000,000 you are “throwing in”?  Bailey, you’re an idiot! And what’s worse, you’re a freaking monkey on a string, a driveling Chatty Cathy: Just pull your string and something stupid comes out of your mouth!

Apparently the past contracts that cover the approximately 30 years of water and sewerage mismanagement between Ravena and Coeymans are the basis of some contention and are up for re-writing. We will have the contracts foiled so that we can review them and report on how the Coeymans community has been and continues to be getting screwed by Ravena. But it’s scary, very scary.

According to Mr Conrad (Code Enforcement Officer for the Town of Coeymans) “camera studies” done on the connections between sewer system users in Ravena-Coeymans have shown that “every connection” has a leak. Does anyone know that the public health ramifications are of these “leaks”?  Do our elected officials care?  Time that some pretty heavy-duty public inquiry is made. We need some answers and quick!

Apparently, the arbitrary figures of 60-40 coverage of costs is just that: arbitrary. You see, there have been meters installed to monitor the flows—and that’s a great idea if you want to get the real story on usage—but the meters are broken, they don’t work most of the time. They’re useless!  Again, Mr Conrad responds to Mr Bailey, Ms Warner, and Mr Misuraca (who still hasn’t said a word): “Let’s give residents a chance; let’s let the meters determine the usage.” Well, Mr Conrad, that’s all fine and dandy, but you first have to either fix the meters or get ones that work!

It seems Mr Bailey and the village of Ravena want to give residents a chance; a chance to have another hike in their sewer rates! A couple of years ago the rates for Coeymans hamlet residents DOUBLED from about $250 to about $525 a year; Mr Bailey estimates that the cost even to Ravena residents may go up to $550 or as high as $600 a year. One town attendee mentioned that such a hike in rates will send residents over the edge; that the Hamlet of Coeymans will have nothing left but empty buildings. What do you think? Does Ravena-Coeymans have to drive the remaining residents from their homes?

We haven’t even addressed the Oakbrook Manor situation. That’s another story all together. You see, Oakbrook is in the territory of Ravena and has about 400 units, each one of those units pays separate rates for infrastructure. A couple of years ago, the owners of Oakbrook spent millions updating their infrastructure but got no relief from the village. Oakbrook is pretty much a community in and of itself but is being taken for a ride by the village of Ravena. But that’s another story. We’d like to hear from the absentee owners of Oakbrook, though. How do they feel about what’s going on in these almost “private” workshop meetings where “Dud-ley Do-Littlles” like Bill Bailey are talking crap and spending taxpayers’ millions irresponsibly.

Tell me you love me!
What’s Right or what’s Legal?

Coeymans: “Do we want to do what’s legal or what’s right?”

Look, years ago Ravena and Coeymans were one community, Ravena-Coeymans, under one roof. Some moron decided to split the village of Ravena from the Hamlet of Coeymans and we all know the rest of the story. There’s no reason why two separate communities whose boundaries no one seems to know—that’s how intermingled they are, should have two governments who traditionally have never been able to see eye-to-eye. There’s no reason why idiotic contracts and unreliable hearsay and undocumented statistics should be deciding what’s fair for residents! During the discussion of the cryptic contracts, one of the town board attendees asked the interesting question: “Do we want to do what’s legal or what’s right?” What is legal is not necessarily “right”. For example, slavery was “legal” but we can all agree that it was  not “right.” Stoning someone for adultery is “legal” in some countries but we can all agree it is not “right.” Ignoring the United States Constitution and telling people who it’s illegal to have firearms is not only constitutionally “illegal” but the law, it’s not “right.” Our position is this: we elect our local officials to represent our best interests. In other words, to do what’s fair and right. We don’t expect them to do what’s “legal” if what’s “legal” is not fair, right, and in the public’s interest or for the common good. That’s a no-brainer but it appears to us after having witnessed the joint Ravena-Coeymans workshop that where there’s no brains, even a no-brainer is a problem.

 You don’t have to take our word for all of this. The entire dog-and-pony act was recorded by the Coeymans town clerk. It’s public information and anyone who wants to review the recording can request it from the Coeymans town clerk. We will be reviewing the recording and a number of relevant contracts and documents in the coming days and will be reporting on the facts on this blog. So stay tuned.

Misuraca’s Performance
Is he up to tackling the real issues? Answering the big questions?

 In conclusion, we were very disappointed with Mr Misuraca’s silence. We were very disappointed that he let Warner and Bailey take control of the meeting. We were gratified that Mr Mahler spoke up when he did with some very good questions and suggestions. Maybe the wrong “M” was elected to be mayor of Ravena. It seems Mr Mahler has a hell of a lot more on the ball than Mr Mayor Moose. It was, in total, a disgrace and an embarrassment to have allowed Warner and Bailey to represent the village of Ravena as they did. To have a town official say outright to Mr Bailey, “You’re telling this board a load of crap.” Says it all.

Finally, before the workshop started up, we walking in on what was apparently a working meeting and Ravena Health and Fitness Center “director”, Cathy Deluca, was pitching the village board for more support. That came as a real surprise given the fact that the Ravena Health and Fitness Center should have been eliminated and purged from the current budget completely. Worse still, it was during Deluca’s blather that Mr Misuraca woke up and actually showed some signs of life. It seems that Deluca wants to attend more training seminars and wants to do more advertising. It seems that she is touting Silver Sneakers as a big accomplishment. It seems she wants access to the school pool and to the village pool. Even Nancy Warner had to admit that the Ravena Health and Fitness Center has only about 200 members (it needs more than 400 to break even). Deluca and Warner noted that under the village and town insurance plans, employees can join a health club and get reimbursed for part of the membership fees. That’s all nice and dandy, but our question is, of course, “Why would anyone put more than $200 in cold hard cash up front to join a dump like the Ravena Health and Fitness Center, and then wait to be reimbursed for part of that from the insurer?” Here’s another one for ya: “Why wouldn’t you pony up less for more by joining Planet Fitness or Bally’s?” (If you have an answer to those two questions, we’d be very glad to hear from you. Please leave a comment.)

It seems that Cathy Deluca’s only “major” accomplishment is really nothing big at all—unless you think that stealing programs from other organizations is a big deal—is the Silver Sneakers senior fitness program, which the Ravena Senior Center is quite capable of running but Deluca needed to grab it in her desperate attempt to make it look like she’s actually doing something. The bottle-blond-bimbo simply applied on the Internet to be a location for Silver Sneakers, just like she bought her certifications on the Internet. Not really what we’d call qualifications or even an honest (OOPS! Did we say “honest” in the same breath as “Deliuca”?  Shame on us!) day’s work!

we’ve recently published a report on the expected miserable failure of Cathy Deluca’s THIRD failed fitness center. If you haven’t read that report, please click this link: Ravena Health and Fitness Center: Year One = Miserable Failure!!! After you read that article and considering Nancy Warner’s comment that the Ravena Health and Fitness Center has only about 200 members (mostly non-village, apparently) you may want to recall that Misuraca, Mahler and Coye ran on  promises of transparency, accountability and fiscal responsibility. After having heard the village’s statements and having noted the conspicuous silence of mayor Mr Moose, we’d like to ask Mr Misuraca, Mr Mahler and Mr Coye how they can account for the crazy allocation of another more than $100,000 to the failing Ravena Health and Fitness Center, when the village of Ravena needs so many other vital programs. How does the Ravena Health and Fitness Center measure up to Misuraca’s, Mahler’s and Coye’s promises of transparency, accountability and fiscal responsibility?

 And here’s an even better question for Mr Mayor Moose “Misuraca” and his village of Ravena council majority: “What in hell is Cathy Deluca and her illegal, money-pit playpen, the Ravena Health and Fitness Center, still doing there, sucking up more than $100,000 in taxpayer dollars again this year?”

The Clock’s Ticking
Time for Action
The Editor