WPCNR MR. & MRS. & MS. WHITE PLAINS VOICE. December 3, 2005: A reader takes the Common Council to task for neglecting to sign on to a water purification project, costing the city grant money for purification of the Bronx River in White Plains:

Dear John

An extremely disturbing fact has come to light yesterday. Rob Doscher, Environmental Planning for West Co. has lamented that as of Dec.1, 2005, White Plains has still NOT submitted its approval of a Municipal Understanding Agreement, signed off to by all municipalities bordering and within the Bronx River Watershed (WAC7 area) except North Castle, which would enable the Army Corp of Engineers to give $200,000 to the NYC D.E.P., which in turn would spend $80,000 in our neck of the river, through the County - free federal $$ for clean up and study of the Bnx Rvr.

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This MUA was supposed to be signed off to in March of this year, White Plains balking continuously - for no reason. Upon information from Tom Roach, after major pressure from me and Tom, the Mayor signed off on the MUA a few days before the November election, the Common Council threatening to sign off to the Agreement during a special vote if Joe did not.

Nothing was apparently done to date. Blame lies at the feet of the mayor and ALL Council members for failing so miserably - our Council and Mayor are still not paying attention to environmental concerns and are now actually obstructing the grant of $200,000 from the federal government for study and clenup of our Bronx River.

The County has cancelled 2 press conferences already. The Bronx River Alliance and countless other groups are now stymied in their projects. There is no excuse for the malfeasance in office now being exposed. Did everyone lie at the debates about how concerned they were about the health of our environment and about proactively partnering/working with other agencies/organizations/governmental bodies  and the need to find outside funding sources for the jobs we cannot afford to do right now?

I now believe they all were lying and paying lip service to survive another election, preserve income streams and lifetime (?) health and dental benefits. The proof will be in the pudding and apparently the pudding has not even been mixed. It is interesting to note that as of this p.m(Riday, December 2),  Rita Malmud had NO IDEA  what I was talking about when I brought up the Bronx River MUA and did not exhibit the slightest interest - I am beginning to suspect she has absolutely no idea about what is going on in this town, let alone how a watershed works or why we need to get federal money to clean up our river.

Why do we pay these people salaries? You can print this if you dare.



Dan Seidel