Nothing on Schubert Wetland Issue from City Council Special Meeting

According to multiple sources, the Rye city council went directly into executive session last night (Wednesday, February 18th) and the Schubert matter was not the topic. The Schubert controversy will be on the agenda at the next regular city council meeting this coming Wednesday, February 25th.

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19 Comments

  1. “The Mayor reiterated that responses to Mr. Schubert have been given in the past and the facts do not change; the City is not the forum for his remedy, it is with his neighbor.” The preceding wording was extracted from the approved minutes of the Rye City council meeting of January 28, 2009. The same answer Mayor Otis has given to Mr. Schubert Mayor Otis has given to me. Difference being I sued my neighbor and the City of Rye defended them with statements such as “Paul Shew, Rye’s city manager, also questioned the validity of Mr. Tartaglione’s claims. Mr. Shew said, “No violations were found when Rye’s building inspector, along with county health and environment officials, inspected the island in July.” (Ref: New York Times September 9th, 2007)” It is my contention that Mr. Shew lied once again with regard to the Hen Island inspection/ investigation of July of 2007.

  2. COME ON NOW-DID ANY OF US REALLY EXPECT ANY OTHER OUTCOME HERE!!!!
    NOTHING WILL CHANGE UNTIL CHANGE ITSELF TAKES PLACE.”HOW DEPRESSING”

  3. Just in case you would like to view the entire New York Times article.
    https://healtheharbor.com/news/090907.html

    I wonder where all the Hen Island defenders are? I haven’t heard from them lately. Might they be hiding under a rock with egg on their face? Might they be jocking for position under the same rock with Mr. Shew and the great protector of the environment Mayor Otis? This is such a shame I even have to speak like this. I am truly sorry, sorry for Mr. Schubert and Mr. Amico and all the pain they have endured, sorry for all the people that trusted their public officials, and sorry I spent two years of my life trying to expose this horrific cover-up, when I could have spent that time fixing the problems. I know it’s not over till it over but we are half way there. Once you realize a problem exists you are half way to fixing it. I truly believe the people of Rye now realize there are some very serious problems with this administration. Hopefully they will no longer allow them to sweep things under the rug. Hopefully they will listen to the Jim Amico’s and Bob Schubert’s of Rye. These are two men that suffered great personal loss (With all due respect Mr. Amico, I do realize there is no comparison anywhere in the world to the loss of a child) and spent years to expose what I believe to be criminals that have conspired to cover-up the facts just so they don’t have to say “sorry we made a mistake”. There is really more to it than that but I will leave it alone for now.

  4. Thank you Mr.Tartaglione,
    I truly understand that you were not making that sort of comparison & would never take it that way coming from a man of your integrity. It is sad that Caring & Giving individuals such as yourself,myself,Mr.Schubert,&
    Mr.Chittenden would have to go through such lengths to get our points across for the better of all. They haven’t won anything yet except for Self Shame.”KEEP FIGHTING RAY”. Lost in all of this is our extended families. Our families are taking a hit & it just isn’t fair. Mr.Schubert stated that his fight has put a strain on his marriage. Has anyone noticed that my wife is for the most part not involved. “SHE CAN’T HANDLE IT” She is a strong woman but this would send her over the edge. And how about my daughter who was faced with the vision of the accident @ the ripe old age of “SEVEN” & for the rest of her life. When will someone in City Hall consider “OUR EXTENDED FAMILIES”
    Wouldn’t it be nice if the powers to be showed this little girl that her brother’s fatal accident held some value.
    I TRULY BELIEVE IN “WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND”. LOOK OUT SHEW/OTIS/CONNORS HERE IT COMES!!!!!

  5. Rye City Whistleblower Fund Announced
    Rye, New York, February 20th, 2009.

    After a series of emergency closed door meetings by the Rye City Fecal Matter Council, this morning council spokes-turd Mr. Floatie announced the formation of a fund to provide financial assistance to any past or present Rye City employees who chose to come forward with new information relevant to the Hen Island or Bob Schubert cover ups.

    Mr. Floatie stated “The time has come to flush away the stench coming out of Rye City Hall and so the Fecal Matter Council is now asking for donations from concerned environmentalists nationwide to create a fund to hire attorneys to protect the rights of new whistleblowers.” Mr. Floatie went on to say that “In light of the recent courage of former Rye City Naturalist Chantal Detlefs to expose the extent of the cover up on the Bob Schubert wetland destruction, the Fecal Matter Council is united in its determination to plumb the depths of this malodorous misadventure in municipal malfeasance.”

    Mr. Floatie indicated that because the council typically operated in secret (with strict rules prohibiting any hint of transparency) he would now petition Heal the Harbor President Ray Tartaglione for his official support. Mr. Tartaglione’s office stated that he would take the information under advisement and get back to Mr. Floatie. (He really has no intention of getting back to anyone. Mr. Tartaglione’s statement is a trick he has learned from Mayor Otis as he has used it many times at the council meetings.

  6. Another screw up by Shew & Company? First we lost the grant for the Post Road Diet because the City Managers office screwed up that application. I believe that cost taxpayers upwards of $200,000. Now we hear the the application for the Central Avenue Bridge did not follow guidelines. This is going to push the project back at least 1 year and cost taxpayers at least an additional $180,000.

    This incompetence should not be allowed to continue. Shew needs to get fired and someone who is committed to their job and has a strong work ethic needs to come in, Not some Massachusetts transient that has connections to Otis and Culross.

    This was in todays Rye Sound Shore Review:

    According to Assistant City Manager Scott
    Pickup, the city was notified back
    in late January that the state had
    deemed the bridge project ineligible
    for reimbursement of engineering
    expenses for not following
    New York State Department of
    Transportation (NYS DOT) guidelines.

  7. Mayor Otis has already tainted any “Investigation” into the Shew coverup by personally calling Chantal Detlefs and then talking to Shew about what Chantal said. By calling Chantal Otis determined what direction any “Investigation” would have to go in to cover his and Shew’s butts.

    Otis should be investigated for obstructing this investigation before it even had a chance to get started. In addition, Otis should be investigated to see if his motivation was to coverup his own misdeeds.

    If Shew isn’t fired already then he should be and Otis should resign.

    Journal News February 17th:

    Otis said he spoke with Shew about Detlef’s allegations, but he declined to disclose details of the conversation.

    Rye Sound Shore Review February 19, 2009:

    Otis spoke with the former naturalist on Feb. 12 as news began to break regarding her comments; Detlefs expressed a desire to provide further details of the case to the council. “She seems like she wants to communicate,” he said. “We will determine a forum for that communication to take place.”

  8. More Site Data –

    A review of the official project documents at city hall appears to indicate that the depth and size of the new Gates drywell caused a penetration of the sub surface impervious clay layer (common throughout this neighborhood) thereby allowing this device to divert existing site water flow directly down and into the water table rather than continue on its natural historical horizontal course to the Schubert wetland.

    Importantly, it is also a matter of public record that other installations attested to in these official plan filings were not in fact completed. These drawings and other relevant papers have been readily available for public and city council review for over 2 years. These documents have in essence been “hiding” in plain sight.

    Site restoration for wetland preservation here would include (1) a removal of the new Gates drywell; (2) a plug of impervious clay of the type common to Milton Point or similar material to fill the resulting hole; (3) an approximately 50 – 60 foot extension of subsurface plastic piping to the southeastern boundary of the Gates property.

    It should be noted that these extension pipes were contemplated on both the “Pre-Built” drawings and the official “As Built” post construction drawings but were apparently not installed. The lack of installation is denoted on the official post construction “As Built” drawing by the reference “to future.” This designation “to future” is simple engineering sophistry.

    The above outlined construction and repair activity would provide conformity with the legal designations on the city approved pre-construction plans (indicating on their face that no change of sub surface water flow to the Schubert wetland was contemplated) and to the actual “As Built” attestations provided by the homeowners and their agents.

    And a final comment here of an editorial nature – fellow readers, this isn’t rocket science. Things of this nature don’t normally take close to 3 years of monthly City Council meetings to investigate. This is the correction of a mundane construction error and the final completion of an existing city approved drainage plan. With very little effort, any member of the council using common sense could have seen questionable issues in the readily available public filings and asked city employees for explanations.

    “Hydrologist” – forsooth.

  9. Excellent post Ted C although I have to admit I had to look up what forsooth meant.

    I am of the opinion that the Rye City Council was intentionally forbidden by Otis, Shew and Plunkett from asking questions to get explanations in order to coverup their own misdeeds.

  10. Ted,
    Fantastic work. Now what you should do is bill the City for half the amount they are going to pay this “HYDROLIGIST”. The second thing you should do is take over as Mayor or City Manager. You have obviously,w/little effort proved you are far worthy than what/who we have in place now. No offense,but it probably wouldn’t take much for any of us to be worthy adversaries for their positions.

  11. Jim,

    I understand there is a NYS licensed engineer available here to help at no charge – oh, I almost forgot, he’s the victim.

    T

  12. Jay Sears,
    MyRye is better than going to the movies. You should charge the readers for admission.

    Bobby D

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