Woodyworld: The Land That is a Town and a Village

Dear Nieces and Nephews,

From Wallkill to Woodbury and every point in between, everyone should ask every candidate for elected office, what their plan is to make sure that the law applies evenly to ALL municipalities, including KJ. Ask HOW they will battle the obvious corruption in the State Government, which is allowing KJ to skirt around the law and meet their needs at the expense of others. This is immediately crucial in Woodbury, Blooming Grove and Monroe.

In Woodbury, as in Wallkill, we have a well-entrenched Republican, Ralph Caruso, as a candidate for Town Supervisor. He was elected to complete the term of the deceased John Burke. (and now that John has passed, Ralph is more comfortable referring to his deep friendship with the deceased Democratic supervisor. Riding coattails are we, Ralph?)

Ralph is the former “Right-hand Man” (I-know-where-the-bodies-are) to State Senator (and crime victim) William Larkin. Ralph purports to “fight KJ annexation attempts” but, aside from the multiple municipality lawsuit, he has not taken any concrete steps that we can see. Ralph was not even at the annexation meeting in the KJ Banquet Hall. Maybe he is still seen as representing the Senator, who probably does not want to alienate the bloc vote, and Ralph’s being there would have made the Senator look bad to those block voters. (As an aside, we find it absolutely amazing that, in the 21^st century USA, a whole group of people would vote as they are told to do ala Jim Jones of the “People’s Temple’ and Jonestown, Guyana- just google)

  

·         So how, is Ralph “fighting” KJ’s annexation and pipeline?

By vigorously speaking at the annexation meeting in June? No, he was not even in attendance.

Same for the meeting at Palaia last week regarding the Mountainvile well.

By drafting intelligent, poignant letters to the DEC to make the case for Woodbury? No, he signed on to letters initiated by the Village of Woodbury and other municipalities but if he didn’t, it would be too obvious that his statement is just campaign bluster.

 

By initiating a lawsuit against the illegal annexation attempt and the obviously flawed, corrupt decision regarding the Mountainville well? No, he just piggybacked onto one again, initiated by the Village of Woodbury.

By asking his buddy the Senator from Cornwall to intercede?  No, not a word from Senator Larkin! (It is almost as if the Senator/crime victim was avoiding the issue- can’t lose the Block Vote when you are 87 and seeking office AGAIN, otherwise you might actually have to campaign, which is difficult at that age especially since he no longer has his consiglieri, Carmen Dubaldi)

·         Continue quality Services? Construction and demolition materials?

Services such as road repair, water and sewer, good planning and zoning? IN case you were not aware, Ralph, those services are not under your control as Supervisor but are the responsibility of the VILLAGE of Woodbury not the TOWN of Woodbury. And you have no control over any c and d, so, unless you plan on overthrowing another government by political force or subliminal messaging, it is not in your job description.  (Are the people in Woodbury so misinformed that they truly believe this statement?   

If you are referring to other services such as the Parks, Library and Police, then by all means please do.

But that require a FULL TIME Supervisor? Especially when there are independent boards and commissions that do the work for these respective departments?

So what exactly would you be doing all day from 8 AM -4 PM?

·         Responsibly manage the budget

Oh yes! The budget! The budget for those few departments! That does not require a full time supervisor, since the largest portion of the budget is now the responsibility of the Woodbury Village Mayor and Board. But you could stand there and cheer them on, that is a good expenditure of Taxpayers money and surely a reason for you to draw a full time salary, being a cheerleader! 

Let’s look at Ralph’s campaign literature from 2014 when he ran to complete the previous Supervisors term.

  

Here again we see more rhetoric and no action on his own. He co-opts others positions and takes them as his own.

More talk of departments controlled by the Woodbury Village. In 2015 he still doesn’t know that. Duh!

More talk of fighting KJ.

Since the time of writing in 2014, the Village of Kiryas Joel has obtained approval for annexation and the Mountainville well, two of the major factors to support KJ’s exponential growth and expansion.

Good job, Ralph!

Let’s take a look at another of Ralph’s missives from 2006. You see, Ralph was the Mastermind behind the creation of the Village of Woodbury, probably one of the most misguided and horribly planned moves in the history of Orange County.

Ralph promoted the village of Woodbury creation because “no other village(s) can be created in a village*.”  So what? If the population becomes predominately one group or another, they will just take over the existing village and not bother with creating a new one. Just look at Bloomingburg, who was looking to DISSOLVE their village. And to rely on your zoning laws to ensure quality of life issues, well, those can be changed by a majority of a village board.

People were told that this village creation would “stop KJ” and voted out of fear.

Stop KJ? It didn’t turn out that way, did it, Ralph?

Another good one!

Ralph goes on to discuss annexation in 2006,

“Annexation of lands from one municipality to another municipality is not just a land gab by an adjoining municipality, as some would have you believe. There are New York State Laws that set forth procedures, as in General Municipal Law, Article 17. This includes the following; a petition must be filed that is signed by 20 percent of the residents or more then 50 percent of the assessment of property owners of the area to be annexed. Both Boards of each municipality must hold a hearing to take in information. Both Boards must approve the annexation for it to move to the next step. If one Board denies the petition, the petitioners have only one recourse, that of taking it to court. If both Boards approve the annexation, a special election is set where a vote by the residents for the area to be annexed must take place. It's not as simple as people are being told*”. (typos his)

When this goes to the people in the land area to be annexed, how do you think the residents in the 164 Acre annexation area will vote? Yes! to the annexation, since those residents are Satmars. (They bought first, annexed second)

Way to go Ralph!

The best part of this letter is his prescience in regards to the operational costs of the Village.

“...the Village of Woodbury will contract with the Town of Woodbury for all services for a $1.00 a year for each service, NO TOWN SERVICES will be CHANGED, NO EMPLOYEES WILL LOSE their JOBS, the FIRE DISTRICT WILL NOT CHANGE. we could continue listing the services, that will not change, however, it is better stated that all services and benefits now received by the residents of the Town of Woodbury, will continue as we know them, when the Village of Woodbury is created and we all become residents of both the Town of Woodbury and the Village of Woodbury*”  

Wow! How did he know that? That sounds like the kind of talk that someone who was planning on being Mayor would say. Or a Swami.

Wait! You don’t think he worked so vigorously to establish the village because he wanted to control it, do you? Is that why he did ran to be the first mayor of Woodbury?

*This letter is page two of the Town of Woodbury Preservation Kit 

Citizens for the Preservation of Woodbury

15 DePalma Drive

Highland Mills, New York 10930

845-928-2059

Chairman, Ralph Caruso        Vice-Chairwoman, Carol Mullooly Secretary, Veronica J. Quercia      Treasurer, Jeanette M. Caruso

Dear Residents and Neighbors,

We the residents of the Town of Woodbury are about to reach a critical fork in the road, where on

August 10, 2006 we will go to the Town Hall between 12:00 noon and 9:00 pm and vote to create the Village of Woodbury.

To answer the questions you may have, we have prepared this package of information. Many of us who are part of the Citizens for the Preservation of Woodbury are among those who organized the effort for the Petition Circulation to Create the Village of Woodbury, two years ago in the Spring of 2004. There were about 1 ,800 registered Woodbury voters that signed these petitions that were filed with the Town Clerk of Woodbury, on July 12, 2004.

Shortly thereafter, a lawsuit was filed with the State of New York Supreme Court, 9^th JD challenging the petition and in effect the creation of the Village of Woodbury. July 11, 2006, this year, the Courts rendered a decision in favor of the people to have the right to vote for the Village of Woodbury. That now allows us to move forward with the village creation election, as mentioned above.

We firmly believe, that the village as proposed, that covers all of the lands in Woodbury with the exception of that part of Harriman that is in Woodbury, is our salvation, for a variety of reasons. No other village(s) can be created in a village, the Village of Woodbury will contract with the Town of Woodbury for all services for a $1.00 a year for each service, NO TOWN SERVICES will be CHANGED, NO EÑPLOYEES WILL LOSE their JOBS, the FIRE DISTRICT WILL NOT CHANGE. we could continue listing the services, that will not change, however, it is better stated that all services and benefits now received by the residents of the Town of Woodbury, will continue as we know them, when the Village of Woodbury is created and we all become residents of both the Town of Woodbury and the Village of Woodbury.

Annexation of lands from one municipality to another municipality is not just a land gab by an adjoining municipality, as some would have you believe. There are New York State Laws that set forth procedures, as in General Municipal Law, Article 17. This includes the following; a petition must be filed that is signed by 20 percent of the residents or more then 50 percent of the assessment of property owners of the area to be annexed. Both Boards of each municipality must hold a hearing to take in information. Both Boards must approve the annexation for it to move to the next step. If one Board denies the petition, the petitioners have only one recourse, that of taking it to court. If both Boards approve the annexation, a special election is set where a vote by the residents for the area to be annexed must take place. It's not as simple as people are being told.

To get all the information you will need, please read all the material in this package, and if you have any additional questions, you can call me at 928-2059.

This community is yours, ours, and we believe the only way to protect our community's zoning, our community's land, and our community's quality of life, for the over 10,000 residents who live here, is to vote for the creation of the Village of Woodbury, on August 10, 2006 at the Town Hall, Rt. 32.

The information contained in this entire package will be available on the Web Site: www.villageofwoodbury.info.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter, and to review this information.

Sincerely,

Chairman, Citizens for the Preservation of Woodbury
Former Councilman, Town of Woodbury 

Citizens for the Preservation of Woodbury? Are the people of Woodbury really buying this nonsense? The only thing that Ralph appears to be Preserving is his own political butt.

Auntie and the Team took a Vote about who was more outrageous, Danny in Depewville or Ralph in Woodyworld.?

It wound up being a case of Co-joined twins that even Presidential Hopeful Dr. Carson could not separate, a tie.

SIDENOTE: While Ralph is running for Supervisor, John Burke’s son is seeking the office of mayor. His only rationale is that you should vote for him because his dad was Supervisor. The people of NY voted with that sentiment in mind when they voted for Andrew Cuomo.

Look where that got us.

Do your civic duty: Please Vote on Tuesday November 3^rd

Do your moral duty: THINK before you vote!