|
Project Grand Slam—the Cost to the Taxpayers So Far
January 28, 2011 The question that’s likely to occur to anyone driving by the ballpark site out on Pomona Road is, "With no investors, how is he paying for this?" The unfortunate answer, so far, has been, "The taxpayers are paying for it." Forget what he told the paper the day after the public soundly rejected public funding in the August 24th referendum vote. The measure of what Mr. St. Lawrence’s word is worth appears below. "No taxpayer dollars!"—you add them up for yourself. Cost of land for ballpark: All of the expenses below were voted on and accepted by Christopher St. Lawrence, Frances Hunter, and Daniel Friedman after the referendum vote and the pledge "There will be no taxpayer dollars." So far, this group of three on the board has redirected a total of $4,590,415.40 taxpayer dollars to the baseball park. It’s important to note that Councilmen Pat Withers and Itzy Ullman have voted against all these expenditures. Sept. 13, 2010 Ramapo Town Board Meeting Resolution 2010-540--Passed 3-2 Accept Turco bid for turf and other work on the playing field. $796,510.63 Sept. 13, 2010 Ramapo Town Board Meeting Resolution 2010-538—Passed 3-2 Accept Fairway Testing proposal to test soil at ball field $35,000 Oct. 13, 2010 Ramapo Town Board Meeting Resolution at Town Board Meeting—Passed 3-2 Accept proposal for surveying services for Project Grand Slam from Jay A. Greenwell PLS LLC $8,700 Nov 4, 2010 Ramapo Town Board Meeting Resolution for tree cleaning and grubbing done by Harris and Son, Inc. on the Grand Slam property—Passed 3-2 $336,296.00 Dec. 22, 2010 Ramapo Town Board Meeting Town Board accepts three change orders (cost overruns) for Project Grand Slam work—Passed 3-2 Turco Golf, Inc. Approve change order for natural turf playing field system: $214,907.38 (added to $796,510.63 already owed to Turco)Morano Bros. Corp. Approve change order for Grading, Site Work Drainage: $1,765,314.88 (added to $4,125,000.00 already owed to Morano)Acceptance of bid for Route 45-Firemen's Memorial Drive improvements (road widening to handle increased traffic from ballpark: $154,000.0 Curiously, Morano was the only bidder for this work.Jan. 12, 2011 Ramapo Town Board Meeting Town Board accepts three more change orders (cost overruns) for Project Grand Slam work—Passed 3-2 Two new change orders for Morano Bros. Corp. Change order no. 7: Hydro seeding and site drainage $263,330.50Change order no 8: Additional detention and drainage $247,385.18(These increase the total amount owed Morano from $5,890,314.88 to $6,401,030.56) Two new change orders for Fairway Testing Change order no. 1: Additional soil testing: soil and concrete $25,000Change order no. 2: Additional soil testing: steel $9,000(These increase the total amount owed Fairway from $35,000 to $69,000) Two new change orders for Turco Golf Change order no. 1: increase project amount from $796,510.63 to $1,011,418.01 adding $214,907.38Change order no. 2: Installing soil stabilization fabric and underground utility: $520,063.45(These increase the amount owed Turco from original $796,510.63 to $1,531,481.46) If this total of more than $4.5 million weren't enough, consider this. In a bid (#2010-907) Piermont Iron Works agreed to "to quote on structural steel framing for Grand Slam Ballpark. . .to provide material, labor and equipment to furnish and install structural steel framing, stairs, guard rails and wall support for a total cost of $2,058,000.000 TWO MILLION FIFTY EIGHT THOUSAND DOLLARS." That was Sept. 27, 2010 a full month after the referendum and the pledge of no taxpayer dollars.Eleven days before this, Nikko Construction Corp. quoted a price for all concrete foundations, slabs, concrete stairs and miscellaneous concrete pumping, curing/sealing compound, and grouting base plates. Their total was $3,949,400.00 THREE MILLION NINE HUNDRED FORTY NINE THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS.These two costs for steel and concrete will add $6,007,400.00. But St. Lawrence's Ramapo Local Development Corp doesn't have $6 million. It didn't have the $4.59 million to pay Turco, Morano, Fairway Testing, Greenwell, or Harris and Son. That money had to be taken from otherlines of the town budget such as 7197H14 Improvement and Embellishment of Parks, 34460 New Construction and Improvement, 34460FMD Fireman's Memorial Drive Improvement, 5197H36 Road Resurfacing. So where will the St. Lawrence/Hunter/Friedman cabal filch this additional $6 million? Same place as where they got all the rest of it—the taxpayers.Does it embarrass the Supervisor and the two board members that they lied to the residents about the source of this money? Apparently not. In fact, they are now hiding these expenses by not mentioning the ballpark at all in the spending resolutions. They have renamed the project the Firemen’s Memorial Drive Improvement Project. Michael Castelluccio If you would like to be added to our email list and receive updates on the articles posted on the site, send your email address to pr.webmaster@gmail.com
|