February 27, 2011 At every Ramapo Town Board meeting there are cost overruns and change orders approved for hundreds of thousands of dollars for St. Lawrence’s ballpark. The Town Attorney Michael Klein doesn’t identify the project when he abbreviates the reading of the resolution, and only two of the council vote for approval along with St. Lawrence. Fran Hunter and Daniel Friedman vote to approve the spending. At the last Town Board meeting, Feb. 23, the total approved by St. Lawrence/Hunter/Friedman was more than $2million. This time, the baseball tax trio voted while the other two council members, Itzy Ullman and Pat Withers, were out of the room.

The Feb. 23 Ramapo Town Board meeting began with a celebration of African Heritage Night. At the end of the ceremonies, the Supervisor announced that there were refreshments in the hallway, and he invited all to partake. As people filed out, he was still reading the list of those who had contributed to the evening’s celebration. Board members Pat Withers and Itzy Ullman both went out with the others, assuming that the regular board meeting would resume when they returned.

Town Clerk Chris Sampson has the notation "Withers, Ullman absent 10:00pm" just above the listing of Town Attorney’s items on his official copy of the printed agenda. St. Lawrence reopened the meeting with the two council members outside in the hall, and for the next 17 minutes, attorney Michael Klein read the 9 items in his list and the trio, St. Lawrence, Fran Hunter, and Daniel Friedman, voted 3-0 to approve all items. Included in the list are the following resolutions itemizing new charges to the taxpayers for the ballpark:

Res. 2011-162 Additional surveying services from Jay A. Greenwell "with respect to construction of the Fireman’s Memorial Drive recreational facility"—the new name for the ballpark. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $80,000.00

Res. 2011-163 Payment to Orange and Rockland for the relocation of gas mains on Fireman’s Memorial Drive due to the widening of the roadway—widening was required for additional traffic for the ballpark . . . . . . . . . . . . . $215,880.00

Res. 2011-166 Change Orders for Morano Bros for construction on ballpark site:

Change Order no. 12 Snow removal and entrance road bridge installation excavation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $465,672.66

Change Order no. 13 Trap primers, gas pipeline changes . . . . . $287,986.45

Change Order no. 14 Park access road bridge concrete . . . . . . $234,645.00

Change Order no. 15 Sound system for stadium ground work . . $741,334.85

Res. 2011-167 Change Orders for Turco Golf Inc. for work on the turf of the field and conduit for gas pipes.

Change Order no. 3 Underground conduits, Winter turf blankets . . $201,119.45

Change Order no. 4 Install conduit for gas pipe sleeve, add lighting for Lot C..

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $89,251.89

In the two weeks from the last Town Board meeting, when there also were large cost overruns and change orders, the bill to the taxpayers since the Feb. 9 meeting was more than $2.3 million or, put another way, that’s $1,157,945.15 per week.

The taxpayers are now paying more than one million dollars per week for St. Lawrence’s ballpark despite his vow: