Hudson River Radio dot Com.
It beats listening to nothing.
It's Frank.
My goodness, it's Franks being Frank.
Fright where the only way to be is Frank.
Hello everyone, and welcome to being Frank. We're the only way to be is Frank.
I'm your host, Frank.
Lebono, and I'd like to thank you for joining us on what we like to call the Intelligent Conversation Podcast, where no conversations out of bounds and all points of view are welcome. Listeners should know that we record live to tape. I give you the date for context and relevance. It is the twenty eighth of October, just before election day. We will be talking about that on this program. Piermont, New York, is both unique and typical of many small
towns throughout the United States. Its location and history make it unique. Located at the base of the Mighty Palisades on the banks of the historic Hudson River, in just a mere twenty miles or so north of midtown Manhattan, it has been a prime spot as a rail and shipping depot for goods flowing from the fertile Hudson Valley to New York City. The long pier extending from its shores, provided the point of embarkation for the gis from nearby
Camp Shanks to join the D Day Normandy invasion. In fact, over seventy percent of the invasion force shipped out from that pier. In recent years, it's quaint downtown, with its tony restaurants and shops, have made it a tourist mecha for day trips from the city. The downtown is also
home to the legendary Turning Point music venue. However, Pierremont face is a common question typical of most ust villages in the twenty first century, and that is how can it maintain the character associated with small village life, incorporating its history and charm with the need to contintinue with the growth necessary to keep a village alive and vital. This, of course means responsible development. However, there is a wide
range of opinions on exactly what responsible development means. This debate can get quite visceral and emotional, with passionate arguments often reaching a fever pitch. The good part of this debate has been the activism of residents to be heard on the subject and to provide a united front to present their needs and desires. This has recently been the case in the village of Piermont, when a developer proposed a fourteen unit apartment complex on a vacant lot virtually
in the center of town. When discovered, opposition was swift and vocal, with many residents expressing their displeasure with village officials. They felt the project was completely inappropriate for its location and incompatible with the villages downtown. Some local officials disagreed setting up a showdown with residents, so they organized Preserve Piermont, a grassroots organization dedicated to their vision of responsible development
and open government, to discuss this issue and others. We are pleased to have some intelligent conversation with four members from that organization. First, Dennis Hardy. Dennis is a former mayor of Piermont and village trustee, as well as the former chair of the Piermont Democratic Party and a lifelong resident of the village. Professionally, he works in customer solutions for the Watts Corporation. Welcome Dennis, thank you good to be here. Next up, Robert Zi. Robert is a local
attorney and small business owner. He lives in Piermont with his wife, who is also an attorney, and their two small children. Robert is also a member of the Piermont Fire Department. Robert, thank you for joining us here on being.
Frank so much. Frank, I appreciate it.
Jeff Gordon Jeff has been a practicing lawyer in the state of New York for over forty years. He is also a real estate developer and court appointed mediator. Jeff moved into Piermont in twenty twenty three, so he'll give us kind of a newcomers point of view hopefully. Jeff, welcome.
Thanks for having me, Frank.
Okay, Next up, Kate McCabe. Kate is the current candidate for Piermont Village Trustee. She moved to Piermont in nineteen ninety seven. She works as SVP of Talent Solutions and Strategy for Human Capital Solutions firm. Kate welcome, Thank you, Frank.
It's a pleasure, guys.
Let's get into our conversation, but let's again, you know, context is important, so let's set things up a little bit first. I think we have to talk a little bit about about Piermont itself, it's history and it's people. What are some of the important things we need to know about Piermont. Dennis, you've kind of been the longest time resident. Why don't we start with you there?
Okay, I mean a little bit of the history of development. You know, Piarmont was a paper mill village for many years, and then in the nineteen eighties the paper mills shut down and we started with the first phase of the Pearmont Landing development project. And then what happened in nineteen eighty nine the real estate market tanked and the project went bankrupt. Then it restarted again in nineteen ninety three, and then they started proposing building phase two, three and four.
I was fortunate, or maybe not fortunate, to be mayor when we built phase three and four of the Hearmont Landing development, and all that was done with full engagement of the community, notice to all the residents, to you know, all the stakeholders, to be really fully engaged as opposed to the current development that you spoke about earlier. So and now we're here today with the proposed fourteen unit
apartment complex. And that's how I sort of came out of retirement and got involved with Preserved Pearmont, and I'm very glad I did and so that's where we are.
No, Deennison, you mentioned a few things within that we want to talk about a little bit more detail. The backstory obviously of how we got here in the first place, but you also mentioned being a former mayor, and eventually want to get to the point of, you know, taking on that kind of responsibility and special especially in small towns. Some people might call it a thank job, because no matter what you do, there always seems to be some
kind of opposition. But we'll get to that. I want to talk about some of that more detail, but we need to know, I think a little bit more about the beginnings of Preserve of Piermont, and guys in the conversation is open for all all of you. Please feel free to jump in at any time. You know, we have maybe a lead person on any individual topic, but certainly it's open for open conversation, as we like to call it, intelligent conversation. I'll let you, guys handle that part.
I'll just set you up, okay, But so let's go to Robert rob We'll give us a little bit of a backstory and the beginnings of Preserve Peremont.
Sure, so I think late late twenty twenty three or maybe early twenty twenty four, I happen to be sitting on my couch and my wife sort of mentioned that she had seen something on Facebook, and I guess another resident in the village had sort of brought to life fact that there were a number of projects that.
Were being proposed in the area.
One of these projects was pretty close to our house. We live in the past, which is sort of a low lying area in the village.
You know.
So once once you brought that to my attention, you do the you do the next thing that you typically do. Right, You go to the You go the village's website. You see what they have there. I couldn't find anything. Uh So I started submitting foil requests to the village sort of got stone walls on a number of occasions, and I started foiling different you know, agencies, I guess with sort of advisory or or responsibilities related to the project.
The one project in particular is on this little triangular lot sort of as you're making your way into uh into the into the downtown, rob.
If I if I might jump in here, because again I think it's context is important. Again, we're we're thinking off the top of our heads. I'm from Nayak, I spent a lot of time in Piermont, so we kind of know the place. Again, assuming that not all of our listeners are from here, and again we stream internationally. Even I think it's important we described Piermont's really kind of a tiny place. There's really only so much room.
Can you can you can you describe that also in a little bit more detail, so people kind of understand the scale of this project, kind of being shoehorned into a relatively small area at least the way I see things. Knowing the town, so as you go along with your conversation, if you could, you know, bring that into the conversation as well, I think that's important.
Sure.
Sure, So the downtown is severely compact, right you have you have restaurants next to coffee shops, you have uh, you know, other small businesses next to restaurants, et cetera. And it's you know, it's it's it's the bustling it's the bustling area of the village. It's where everyone goes. People people out of the village come in primarily to
you know, to walk the village's main street. So when we found out that they were planning on putting this this large project on such a small piece of property. You know, a number of us tried to try to investigate, and eventually, eventually we were able to see rendering of
what this project would be. At board meetings. You know, there were audible gas and I think for the organization, the backbone of it was talking to neighbors, talking to other residents, talking to law enforcement in the area, talking to other agencies, and you know, it became somethany where we would walk door to door, we would hand out pamphlets. We would tell people, Hey, this is what's going on. And at the beginning of it, it seemed like nobody was really aware.
Of what was happening.
So you know a number of us kind of put in that put in that effort to notify neighbors, say, hey, come to these come to these meetings. They are important things that are being discussed, things that you should know about because it's going to change the villages downtown. And that was sort of the you know, the the impetus for for I think Preserved Hermont. And you know, one of the first people I reached out to was Dennis Hardy, Uh,
you know, Dennis on on Facebook. He you know, he lets people know that he was he was an elected official in the village and he and he's fist something he's proud of. So, you know, some things that a number of us did were reach out to elected officials, and Dennis was one of the first people that I reached out to, and he was certainly helpful, uh in getting momentum behind the movement.
This is an open ended question and for all of you also, and something that Robert said about the difficulty in finding information, is there a suggestion that this was done surreptitiously because there would be opposition? Can can anybody comment on that? What are your feelings towards that? Why do you think it wasn't so transparent? Anybody's opinion? Anybody can jump in, frank if all right, I'll Jeff please, Jeff Gordon please, And.
For the sake of clarity, and in my own defense, you would describe me as a real estate developer. I'm actually a real estate investor in my own defense, very good developer.
For this discussion, that's an important that's an important distinction.
Particularly in this discussion.
There you go, so one of the problems, one of the problems I had Frank is I or my career forty three years ago as a municipal lawyer for Briarcliffe, Manor, Tarrytown and Irvington. Forty three years later up until now, I mediate for the courts, and I thought I was going to come to Piermont and you know, retire. But I noticed it was a problem to address your question.
The first thing that hit me was I went to I started going to board meetings and at the board meetings, I noticed that public comment was really a one way street. There was no dialogue, there was no response any questions. Now a lot of people would come to vent some people would come to ask questions. They were asking questions about any number of things or issues that they had with their own particular property or with the village in general. Parking was an issue at that point, the CBM was
an issue. There was no response from anybody on the board.
They just sat there. You spoke for you three minutes.
Or you were cut short if you wanted to go longer, and that was the end of it. And that troubled me as a formerly mumissial lawyer. You know, I know how a village should run, and I know how it shouldn't run and something was a miss here. And to further answer your question, so I went to the village website and I started looking for documents that should have been uploaded and were not. We've got something called open government laws in New York, and municipalities are supposed to
abide by it. Most even put it in their own village charter or a village code. In this particular case, I noticed that during the seminal period of time that this CBM zone was being proposed, and this development was also being proposed on the triangular A lot, there were
missing minutes of important meetings. There were documents that should have been uploaded that had not been uploaded, not only for this project, but in general, when you have something an application come before the planning board, of the zoning board or the bot.
More for the previous two boards, the.
Applicant is supposed to provide the village with documents so they know what they're looking at, site plans, things of that nature, inspections, reports, surveys, and it was silent, not only for the CBM and the proposed development, but generally there was a big hole in the village records and that created a problem and a suspicion in my mind that you know, during this crucial period of time when CBM was being developed, and when I say CBM, I'm
talking about the zoning amendment that would have allowed this development to have been done, they were missing.
Now, that could have been an accident. I didn't suspect it was. The presumption is that government is open and.
Compliant and transparent in this particular case.
In my opinion and from what I found, and I know.
That Kate did a lot of research on this and what was sorely lacking as far as being published and available to the public to comment on, which is a requirement.
They were empty. Nothing was there.
So to answer your question, in my opinion, yeah, this was intentionally done. There was too many there were too many holes in the record and what wasn't published on the village website for this to be an accident.
Perfect And I want to bring both Kate and Dennison at this point to talk a little bit about the history of development in Piermont. Is this something that's kind of typical for administrations the history of Piermont or is this an aberration? Okay, why don't you take it first and Dennis you contribute as well.
Okay, so yeah, I've lived through many administrations in Piermont, including Dennis's and or the end I guess the end of Dennis's. But no, this was not the norm. Also with public comment at public hearings in prior administrations, it was a back and forth. There was a dialogue. But like Jeff said, you know from the time that this particular project related to that triangular lot is how we
refer to it in town hit the planning board. They stopped uploading documents on the village website until after the zoning amendment was passed and adopted. They were also not publishing public notices. They were kind of doing the bare minimum of putting a notice in the newspaper, a notice tacked outside the village hall. You know, they weren't using all the village communication assets we've invested in to communicate with the public. And that was definitely a new thing.
And like Dennis said, when the four phases of Piermont Landing, which is where Jeff, Dennis and myself live, were developed, there was a lot of public engagement and a lot of public meetings and a lot of extra effort given to make sure that you know, there were site renderings, you know, in our public spaces in town for people to see them. There were flyers and things that went out. Our community news letter was highlighting these projects and various
different things. So yes, this appeared to me to be a very big change, and like Robert and Dennis said, you know, this really became a neighbor to neighbor effort. Got I heard about this in I think April of twenty twenty four through a text chain with my neighbors who said, there's this really important village board meeting on
Tuesday night. We've all got to go, And I went, and I met Robert on the street outside of Village Hall after that meeting, and so yeah, this was definitely a grassroots effort of people realizing, like Jeff said, that things didn't look right, that things weren't being handled the way they had previously been handled. It definitely seemed like this zoning change, in my perspective, was adopted to accommodate this particular project and perhaps another project you know that
might be coming up in the downtown as well. So it seemed like it seemed like there was a desire to build this project and that the most expedient way to get it done was without a lot of public engagement.
Yeah, I think Kate correct, and if I certainly want to point out that all four of us have been to the village board meetings and planning board meetings and we've all expressed our concern. But I want to contrast, the original Paramount Landing development was a heavily noticed to the community. However, this recent development, it was the bare minimum required by law that was noticed. So I guess if you want to slide something under the radar, that's
what you do. You just provide the bare minimum required by law. And it was noted at one of the meetings that there were notices sent to Paarmont Landing. I've lived in Pearmont Landing for almost thirty years. I never received the notice. So that was a concern, and that lack of transparency because this development project was going to impact our one block square of the village of Piermont.
We only really have one block, and as Richard Esnard, or member of our Pairmunt Historical Society said, you know, we only have one block. We need to get it right. And so that's what energized all of us and I was really grateful for that initial call when Rob called me. Uh, and I'm happy to be fully engaged now and here I am tonight.
I love when things segue like this. You guys make me look smart because this is perfect lead into my next question for Robert. It's obvious, but let's let's talk about it. Why participation in government is important. It's it's an active duty. To talk to that a little bit. You just can't sit and take things. You've got to be involved, Robert, you takes the lead, and everybody contribute, please.
Oh yeah.
You know, everything that everyone has described is sort of culminated in this organization and we've used it primarily to get information out there to residents that's work or that was otherwise unavailable. You know, you compare you compare a village, the village of Piermont, to to other surrounding municipalities, right the town of Orangetown, for example. They they notice every single meeting, every document is made available on the website,
you know, compared to to to Piermont. At the time this came out, Uh, it was like night and day and and to the to the village's benefit, you know, they've been they've been doing a lot more lately to sort of make the public aware of of what's going on. But you know, the the intent behind the organization was primarily to let residents know what's happening, how it could
impact them, and how how they could participate. So, you know, prior prior to to this, Frankly, I would attend village board meetings and there would be maybe three, three to five regulars. Right at the first at the first meeting, I think that this project was being heard before the village's planning board. It was it was standing room only. I had I had never seen anything like that in my career, in my life as an individual, and it
was it was. It was gratifying because you know, a lot of the efforts that we had put in in terms of notifying people and walking and saying, hey, do you hear about this? When you see that sort of result in a standing room only village board meeting, it's it's great.
And if I just may add, you know, we preserve Pearamont. You know, we have our Facebook page which is almost eight hundred members strong, but we we advocate to residents please attend village board meetings if you can attend the board meeting, put your thoughts and your concerns in writing to the village board. Uh, that's the way to get
something done and to get attention. Maybe in this case we accomplish exactly what we wanted to because you know, the project was moving ahead, but we had four courageous residents who you know, initiated the lawsuit and it was you know, blocked in Supreme Court. And so that's that's what community advocacy is all about.
You know, again, the perfect segue into my next Okay, do you want to say something first? Please do so, please, thank you.
I just wanted to add to what Dennis Sett and Robert said that. You know, the other thing that I think is really this is really highlighted for me is all the gifts and talents of all of my neighbors within the community. You know, people have contributed their talents, either their legal skills or their communication skills, or their marketing skills, or their organizational skills whatever they might be, or their use of social media, or their or their
own networks within the community. And these little little networks within networks. You know, we have a village of you know, twenty five hundred people. Right, It is literally a mile square and part of that is a creek. So this is a tiny place. And as much as it's a tiny place, we are between the Hudson River and Closlin Mountain and the Palisades behind us, so we are kind
of landlocked here in this little place. And there's lots of hills here, so there's lots of people who you know, who have been knocking on neighbors doors and trying to communicate with people. And as I said, that's how I heard about this was from my neighbors. And it's been really a pleasure to get to know all the people that I have through this effort. Having lived here as long as I had, I've met so many new neighbors and friends through this that I know are going to
be neighbors and friends forever. So I'm very grateful for that. So I think it has created, it has cemented our community in a lot of ways, but it is it is still an effort to communicate with people because right now, the only you know, the formal vehicle that you have to do it is Facebook, right, and we all, you know, everybody hates Facebook, and we all wish we didn't have
to spend me time on Facebook. But you know, we don't have another vehicle, right, we don't have another communication channel. So I think the two point zero of this effort is figuring out what those communication channels could be going forward, and what this could look like going forward. You know, could it be a newsletter, Could it be a blog. Could it be something that goes out in our Piermont community newsletter as an article, you know, from the perspective
of this community group. So yeah, I think to watch the evolution over time, to see everything that's been accomplished and see hopefully everything that will be accomplished, is really inspiring to me, you know.
Yeah, and it's perfect. You really answered My next question is how you do keep people engaged? You certainly answered that. And then the thing about Facebook is, you know, I always say that people I feel like I use use it as much as it uses me. So it's kind of it's kind of a fair trade off. Contacted you guys, you found me through your Facebook. I will promote the heck of this podcast on Facebook, so it has certain advantages. But let's get back to a topic at hand. It
led me to a question. You know, I take notes as we go along. How does the current administration defend this behavior?
Anyone?
Jeff, you want to you want to take this first in your experience. How do you defend something like that?
You know what? I think they were caught on their on their on their.
Heels, and they didn't think that they would be found out. They didn't publish documents for the entire period that this was going down. Their minutes went from verbatim to summaries of the various minutes that they did publish. I understand there was a an edict that village Board of Trustee meetings were not to be videotaped.
I think that at one time they were, so I.
Started videotaping Board of Trustee meetings when I heard.
That, and when I feel felt like something was going on. How do they defend it?
I hate to use the word gaslight, but they have their own narrative, and they feed that false narrative, and they you know what, most people, most people presume that their government is open and transparent and honest and has their you know, their best interests at heart. And I think that's what they were lying on until Preserve Piremont and other other social media came around.
I mean Kate and I knocked on six hundred doors.
I was an unsuccessful candidate for trustee and I ran with Kate in the primary in June.
We knocked on six or seven hundred.
Doors, and they all knew and they were scratching their head and they said, what's going on with this zoning downtown and that.
Nonstrosity they want to build?
And I don't think they would have known about it if it wasn't for the what Kate alluded to. Their their networks, there are little community discussions social media.
There there are four four or five.
Facebook pages that deal with Piermont, including Preserved Piermont. When they was talk about ripping up a baseball field.
To put parking in, it was really our.
Only baseball field and we have a horrible parking problem.
As you know, there were hundreds of people. There were not hundreds of people.
There were one hundred and twenty people maybe overflow out into the hallway of the of the.
Boardroom, and it was it was slapped down. It didn't go forward.
Now I don't know how sincere the village really was about ripping up our only baseball field and putting in a parking. But any event it was struck down, and that was because of civil engagement. People knew about it,
it was publicized and they came out. I think the problem is there's a lot of apathy and people presume that their village is doing the right thing and it's open and transparent, and when you bring to their attention that it's not that, it's hard for them to believe, and you have to keep, you know, banging on it, and eventually they believe. As we saw when we knocked on our doors. They all knew about it.
They jump in on anyone. You want to say something here, please do Yeah.
No, And I just want to say thank goodness that Jeff started recording the meetings because he was able to get them uploaded to YouTube and people could watch them after the fact, and that was a tremendous community service. And if you look at what the village of Nayak does up the road from us, they live zoom all of their village board meetings, which is obviously the technology we're using right now. It's and it's a wonderful technology to allow people to participate in real time. And I
hope someday we can evolve to that. But you know, giving people access you know, who might not be able to be in the room to watch it after the fact and then engage with the government like like like Jeff said or Dennis said about emailing and asking for you know, providing their comments or asking questions. I think
accessibility is a huge thing. Accessibility of documents and ease of ease of participation for people who might have young children at home like Robert does, or you know, perhaps you work a different shift, or you know, you might have an ass you know, inability to get out and attend a particular meeting. So I think Jeff has provided a tremendous service to the community, and I look forward to the village, you know, providing that kind of accessibility
directly to residents. I think it's it's appropriate.
And in all of the meetings that I attended since Robert got me up off for the couch, and all of the meetings regarding this proposed development, this fourteen unit apartment complex and the CBM zoning, particularly the fourteen unit apartment complex, not one resident, not one resident, got up and spoke in favor of it. So that's just what that demonstrated to me that you know, many members, including
the mayor. Look, I know the mayor. You know, I'm friends with the mayor, but he was tone deaf regarding that, and I had conversations with him regarding that, and so why did they continue to push forward? And so, you know, hence Preserve Piarmont was started and we're here today and we've had a lot of success.
I'm going to all give you all an opportunity to talk about the future and your vision of the future. Kate, you wanted to add something there, and then I have a specific question for you as well.
Yeah, I just wanted to note, you know, specifically, as it relates to some of our built constraints, a lot of our village is also in a floodplain. So typical, what is typical of our downtown today is that typically we have retail first floor and then apartments above, two or three stories of apartments above. That's our current built environment. Most of it was built probably about one hundred years ago, like Dennis said, when we were a factory town, and
so that is kind of what is common. And you know, with with climate change being on the river here in the Hudson not far from the Atlantic, you know, we have we have flooding events here that happen with you know, some frequency, and certainly her superstorm Sandy had a big impact on the village when we had one of those
year storms. So that is very much part of the equation as well in terms of what type of structures are suitable here and and what have we committed to in our own village, uh, you know, documentation about what we recommend being built in different areas of the village that are subject to flooding.
I think I think the key word is responsible. We mentioned in the opening, you know response, there has to be some type of developed development or villages die. It's it's the responsible development. Okay, Well, I have you in the microphone, and Jeff mentioned you're running for office. Some people, especially locally, kind of see that as a thankless job because you're always going to you're going to, you're going to you're going to please some people and you're going
to piss some people off as well too. I think it's kind of a Yin and yang. Talk to that a little bit, and of course, dan Is anybody can add to the conversation please.
Well, I will say I did not start twenty twenty five with running for office on my Bengo card. I have a busy life. I have a busy job, I have a big family. I've got a lot of interests in friends, and you know, I this was not what I anticipated. But as things sort of rolled into the New y year, and we knew that there were two trustee seats that were up for reelection on our board of four trustees, the mayor is the fifth trustee on our board, we knew that this was going to be
a mayoral election year as well. But you know, I conferred with a lot of people, Jeff and I talked about it as well, Dennis Robert, we all, you know, a bunch. I sought counsel from as many people as I could about whether this was a good idea or a bad idea, and what it would require. And so, like Jeff said, I mean, we just hit the pavement. We knocked on over six hundred doors. We you know, got our petition signed and got them submitted to the
Board of Elections, and then you know, started campaigning. I guess this is what canvassing campaigning, you know, getting out to talk to people. And I think, you know, we've really been on a listening tour and I think the last year and a half of being involved in this initiative has been a listening tour for me. And you know, Jeff and I were talking about this a week or so ago. Because we're in the general election period now.
Is that sometimes I feel like we're playing inside baseball because we have we've we've been in this for a year and a half or some of us two years almost. And you know, you have the facts in your head,
but not every resident does. And we've also had a lot of new people move into the village over the last couple of years, and so you know, making this understandable to everybody about you know, how we got here, what's important, what we all hope for for the future of the village and the future of the village government is I think where we are today.
Dennis add something quickly.
I just want to say that, you know, community service has certainly been part of my family and my brothers in the fire department, my two sisters are in the fire department. It's just something that we do, but it allows you to to take action and implement. Like when I was mayor, we implemented the first inter municipal agreement with Grand View to provide fire coverage. Uh, and then
since then they now we've now provide police coverage. So those are the kind of things that you can work on and and it's exciting and you're part of the community.
So yeah, let's let's involve everyone. Now, I want to talk about your vision of the future, Robert, Why don't we start with you? What is your future vision for Peremount.
That is a difficult question because it's going to depend.
On who I'm here to ask those difficulties.
Well, it's going to depend on who you're talking to. But you know, ideally, I think I'd like to see the village continue to grow as sort of a welcoming and transparent community.
You know.
The last the last year, year and a half I think has been difficult for everyone. But in terms of the future for peermore, you know, I think I think small businesses have to stay. I think infrastructure has to be improved and and and really the best thing I think for the village is to keep the residents involved and keep them in form and and sort of encourage people to come to board meetings and and you know, throw down the gruntlet and ask difficult questions about decisions
that are being made by the government. You know, I I never realized how how much local government actually has an impact on us. You know, it's it's it's a greater impact than than state and federal government. Frankly, so ideally, you know, for me, having having more people involved and and and educating you know, kids when they're younger about local government is something that's important to me, and it's something i'd like to see the village welcome.
Well, Jeff, you're up your vision.
I think we've seen over the past two years or so that there's something that was sorely lacking in village transparency and that led to, I guess an apathy or a lack of engagement.
And then when these issues.
Were brought to light, you know, people started to get engaged. What I'd like to see for the future is I'd like to make it as easy as possible, frank for the residents to get engaged, whether that is not public comment at a board meeting, but public dialogue where the residents have their questions and concerns and even their venting responded to by their elected officials. I'd like to see, as Kate alluded to, we had discussed this and I hope it happens.
When Kate is elected.
We go back and we zoom all of our meetings for people who aren't able to get out, whether they're sick or infirm. I mean, someone said the average age for Piarmont resident is I think in the sixties, Kate, something like that. It was at older, so you know it's an elderly or it's a growing in years population. Let's make it as easy as possible for them to
get engaged. The website was an abomination that I understand is in the process of being improved, and I'm hoping that all of the documents that need to be updated are uploaded. Pursuing too not only compliant with open government law, but you'd.
Want to do that.
As a government who is serving its residents, you want to keep them informed, you want to keep them engaged, you want to tell them what's going on in the village, and you want to hear their comments. So I'm hoping for Frank is make it as easy as possible for people to get engaged in their local government.
Get your Europe next your thoughts.
Yeah, so the average age of the Piermont resident is fifty one, but the largest cohort of residents in this community are between the ages of sixty and sixty four, so and you know, and we also have you know, obviously young families like Robert's family, and then empty nesters like Dennis, then Jeff, and you know, lots of different lots of different groups of people, which I think is
one of the things that creates a thriving community. And I think, you know, we we love to see that Piermont also has many multi generational families like Dennis's family, and that's a wonderful thing. And then you know, we have lots of new people who want to live here
because this is a very special place. And so I think bringing everybody together and also a shared vision, right and we this just this year, Peer Month passed its first Comprehensive Plan, which has been something that was discussed for many decades here in Peer Month, but it was passed this year and it will be an evolving document. That's one of the goals that Rockland County, or one of the things that Rockland County recommended, was having a
committee to update the comprehensive Plan every year. So it's a living document that that grows as your village grows and innovates as innovation comes and and responds as circumstances change.
So I look forward to that. I look forward to, like everyone has said, continued increased participation, but also you know, some visioning about large projects or large initiatives coming from the government in a really transparent and open way to explain why something you know would benefit the community or you know, in all of these public meetings and hearings.
And I love many of the charming things that Piermont used to do before there was technology to do these things, you know, like putting big poster signs outside of village hall on the sidewalks on a frames, and you know, putting you know, lots of letters and postcards and people's mailboxes, and so I love all of those high touch things as well.
I think.
I think Piermont is a small community, twenty five hundred people who live within you know, one mile square. I think we have an opportunity to work together and come together, you know, somewhat easily, you know, and in leveraging technology, but also the high touch that makes this a really special place.
Dennis, the last few minutes, we would take a break, your thoughts, your vision of the future.
Yeah, thank you, Frank. You know, I mean, we all know why we moved to Piermont. It's wonderful charm, it's wonderful character. And as mentioned earlier by Jeff and Robert and Kate is we need to fully engage the community to develop zoning that protects the character and the architecture in our village and allows for smart development growth. That's key, and you know, just continue to be the wonderful community
that we are. But we know that pair moners are very passionate about how we feel about these issues, and so we'd like that passion to remain, but like the temperature level to go down a little bit.
So we can move forward. You know, it's interesting because I'm just up the river, as they say, from you guys in Niaga and face the same situations I speak with Joe Randon mayor irresponsible development. You have to grow or you die. You know, it's interesting anyway, it's a story for another some of that you've heard about these one dollar homes in Sicily that in a sense, it's kind of what's happening here. The little towns are dying there, They're losing their young people.
Et cetera.
So this is not only a national problem, it's an international problem. How do you continue to grow yet at the same time maintain the charming characteristics that makes the place so special. It's been a wonderful conversation. We're going to continue a little bit more. And you mentioned it, and you've heard that, You've heard the slogan all politics are local. So I want to know how some of the federal and state things going on affect you on
the local level. I think that's been an interesting question to answer. So we've got all that and more coming back on Being Frank. I'm your host, Frank Lebona or guests from Preserve Piermont the wonderful conversation. Don't go away. We'll be right back after these brief commercial messages.
Hudson Riverradio dot com.
This is Hudson River Radio dot com. This is Hudson River Radio dot com.
This is Hudson River.
Radio dot com.
This is Hudson River Radio dot com.
Welcome back to Being Frank, the Intelligent Conversation podcast. Thanks for sticking with us. I'm your hosts Frank Gubono and as always, our engineer as the mailman, mister Neil Richter. We bring our audience a fresh topic every week and we stream from Hudson River Radio, located and beautiful and historic Stony Point, New York. But remember, you can catch Being Frank anywhere you get your favorite podcasts like Apple, Spotify,
iHeartRadio and all the others. And because every Being Frank is archived, you can listen to any of our programs.
Anytime you like.
You can find a link to Being Frank on the Hudson River Radio Facebook page or at our website Hudson Riverradio dot com. Just click and you're there. We're back with our conversation, our intelligent conversation. It's been that and more with our guests from Preserve, Peirmont, Kate Cabe, Robert Zitt, Jeff Gordon, and Dennis Hardy.
Guys.
As I mentioned before the break its, and I think it's important. There's so much going on in our country. Okay, the current thing that's really affecting us most locally is the potential loss of snap benefits, which will feed a lot of hungry people, and that leaves local organizations, local municipalities, et cetera, villages to pick up the slack. How do things on that grand level, state, national, etc. Affect you, guys, and how can you deal with it? Anybody can pick
that up, Kate, Why don't you start us off? Sure?
Well, I mean, of course it affects us. I think we see it in every community. Frank, I know you and I have gone to some people to people fundraisers this year. They've had more than ever because they are anticipating I think half a million dollars worth of cuts to come down, which is a huge hole in the services that they're able to deliver to our to our
neighbors and friends. I think the number that I heard at the last event I was at was forty one thousand people in Rockland County on shore of where their next meal is coming from. So absolutely it affects all of us, and you know, I think it's incumbent upon all of us to do our part right. However you
can help, you should help. I know that during COVID one of our current trustees, who's actually also running for mayor this year, is started a COVID food pantry in Piermont because you know, some of our neighbors weren't able to go to work, so you know, we're their work was disrupted and so that was something that was stood up in our community five years ago that provided a
tremendous service to our neighbors. As it relates to some of our historical assets that you mentioned, the Piermont Peer being the largest emvocation point for soldiers going to the D Day invasion in World War Two. The end of our Piermont Peer is now closed to foot traffic or car traffic because it has been deemed unsafe. So that would be a large project to re establish, you know, safe opening of the end of the pier which would
require federal grants. And I know that there are conversations going on between different people in our community and our congressional representative about you know that about the historical significance of that peer to our village and and also our World War two history, but also you know, our maritime
history in our country history. Yeah, yeah, yes, So so that is certainly something that will be deeply impacted by whether or not the federal government is willing to give these kinds of grants to UH to restore and and save historical assets. So all of those things hit us at home, gentlemen, Dennis, would.
You like to Yeah, I mean so a couple of thoughts.
One, you know, it's so it's sort of like a slow motion horror movie. You know, all the decisions that come down out of Washington on a on a daily basis, UH that are are starting to impact the community. It's terrible, and so you need to get involved. And you know, the president of Lines International said, you can't start doing something for someone unless you start doing something for others.
And that's important that what we do as a community, and that's getting involved in grassroots organizations like Preserve, but also you know, on a local level with elections and every single vote counts. I will say I lost my first election for mayor by twenty one votes, so every vote counts, and it's important that you.
Be engaged and involved.
Dennis, since you mentioned that, I want Robert and Jeff to pick it up to the importance of the vote. You hear so many people, you know forgive the awful analogy, but it's often used. You know, choice between cancer and polio terrible, but often said, so why bother? They're both bad? How do you address that? Jeff take it first, and then Robert you finish up. How do you explain to people how important the vote truly is like Dennis, I.
Lost the primary by twenty one votes. You know, what can I tell you it was? It was a non presidential year, I guess, and there wasn't a large turnout. If we have twelve hundred register Democrats. I ran it as a Democrat in the primary. We had kitus better with these numbers than I am. But we had roughly three hundred people come out and vote out of the potential of twelve hundred. It's twenty five percent. That's what
can I say about that? It's it's it's I don't know if it's if it's necessarily a singular to to to Piermont.
I think that's just generally.
How it goes unless there are groups that actively try to.
Get out the vote. And that's what we need to do.
To have, you know, twelve hundred registered Democrats and have three hundred come out and vote in a small community. You know, that's not good. And like Dennis said, and I could tell you offices or one or lost on a very small margin of votes.
So it's important to get out.
We're into early voting now and we're hoping that everybody comes out of Republicans, Independence, Democrats.
On November fourth.
Robert, you're up police your thoughts on the power of the vote.
Sure, yeah, you know, I think I think Piermont is predominantly a Democratic village, Democratic stronghold, but I think there is a large number of residents who are either moderates or some are Republicans that don't necessarily, you know, associate themselves with with either the Democratic Party or any party
in particular. I think it's it's incredibly important to involve people from different parties to address what's important to them, whether it be a Republican, you know, an independent, or a Democrat. I think it's I think it's sort of necessary. So yeah, voter voter turnout in the village has been has been disheartening, but I'm hopeful, you know, that more residents come out this time to vote, and I'm hopeful that more residents continue to come out.
Peter election guys, I just want to make sure that we get some website information in because we're talking about how important information is. So what Kate would you tell people if they want to know more about preserve Peermont? And again we talked to this is local, all politics being local, but these are things that affect every small town in America. So it's important that we have this
discussion and we continue the discussion. So if people want to become involved with Preserve Peremidt, there's also Preserve Ramapo. You guys are not alone, but let's start with Preserve peramid How can people get in touch with you?
Well, as of right now, Preserve Piamont does not yet have a website. It's really been communicating with the public through Facebook. But I think it is a bucket list item to create a website. To do you have a Facebook site, which is Preserved Pyermont, but you know, I think it's a bucket list item to have a website as well as, you know, kind of a repository of
information for people that are not on social media. One of the things that Jeff and I discovered in the June primary was about half the voters were on social media and half were not. And so I think we need ways to reach out to people and to engage people, and that also relies on, you know, leveraging the current structures that are there. Up until about fifteen years ago,
Piermont actually had a caucus structure to choose candidates. They didn't use the primary structure, and there are still caucaus structures going on, you know, or there had been until a couple of years ago when when the New York Coalition for Open Government kind of uh, you know, did away with them formally and did you know, closed caucus political caucuses. But you know, we rely on the infrastructure
right when you decide to run as a candidate. You know, however many people you know in your community, maybe it's one hundred, but if there's two thousand people who live here, it's a lot of work to get out to them.
So I think that's hopefully one of the things that you know, this this effort to get everybody engaged in our community can do as well, is to create these communication channels so that people can be more engaged and informed about elections and that it doesn't require you know, leaning on any one or two or three, you know, two political parties or you know, it can really just be more of a community effort.
Well, hopefully being Frank helped to get the word out.
I appreciate it. Again.
I think there were strong messages here that all local municipalities should hear and and implement wherever possible. Well, particularly engagement and transparency. That's a common theme that we need to hear more of. Kate McCabe, Robert sid Jeff Gordon, Dennis Hardy from Preserve Piermont. I want to thank you for your intelligent conversation, guys. This has really been a pleasure. Thank you much, thank you, and of course thank you guys.
Of course, we offer special thanks to our listeners who take time to give us a voice in their lives. Remember you offer a fresh topic every week. Catch us wherever and whenever you get your favorite podcasts. Check us out on the Hudson River Radio Facebook page, leave us a comment, and we also ask that you consider sharing being Frank with others. I always leave you a two
little little extra I like to do. That one is, of course a slogan that I think is appropriate, and this one is going to be very and then some great original music. This one from Fdr Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who said, nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves, and the only way they could do this is by not voting. Guys. November fourth, Okay, if you're watching us now, next Tuesday.
Please vote. I'm seventy years old and I'm very proud to say I have never missed and as long as I am able, I never will. Okay, some great music to close with. He's my friend. He's the most talented guy stand up bass player. He's a magician with it. The Jim Donica Quartet with a heroic plan.
For our engineer, the mail man.
Mister Neil Richter. I'm your host, Frank Lubono, and we hope to have you join us on the next being. Frank, We're the only way to be is Frank. Thanks everyone, and.
Ann and that sad.
Anything.
But get.
The story of the Goat.
And the.
Good Loves, Another Chance and everything anything had away
To us A never Radio dot com