County to spend $300,000 to study Camp LaGuardia purchase

Chester — The Orange County Legislature has agreed to spend $300,000 to study whether it would make sense for the county to purchase Camp LaGuardia, New York City’s 1,001-bed homeless shelter in the towns of Chester and Blooming Grove. The study will determine whether the 285-acre site has major environmental or other problems that would give the county pause before it hands millions over to the city. The shelter has long plagued local officials, with neighbors applying intense pressure on them to alleviate what they say is a badly deteriorated way of life. Residents have for years complained bitterly about the men who live at the shelter — how they drink in public, urinate on front lawns, shout threats to children and menace shoppers outside the supermarket. Local officials have in turn pressured the county to make New York City accountable for these problems. When New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the city would be closing the shelter, the county seized the chance to solve the problem once and for all. Bloomberg and Orange County Edward Diana emerged from closed-door negotiations last month to announce that the county would buy the campus for $8.5 million. Frank Fornario Jr. of Chester, who represents the 5th legislative district, told the legislature Thursday: “We are not going to preserve the quality of life in Blooming Grove and Chester. We are going to improve the quality of life. This is the first time in 25 years that people will not have to lock their doors.” Kenneth Tocyloski, a neighbor of the camp and one of its most vociferous opponents, told the legislature before the vote that “everyone in the county will be able to benefit” if the deal goes through. Noel Spencer, another legislator from Chester, representing the 8th district, and a former town board member, applauded the deal and said, “I have not heard one negative word from any legislator.” n Some legislators express reservations However, some legislators did express dismay at the loss of tax revenue and jobs that the shelter now provides, as well as the loss to local merchants who count camp residents among their customers. Some also objected to the idea of the county “getting into the real estate business” and “buying its way of out problems,” as well as to the “backroom” negotiations conducted in New York City without the legislators’ knowledge or input. “We must recognize the sacrifice of the county to do this,” said Legislator Daniel C. Depew of Middletown. “We can’t get into a groove of buying our problems ... or letting problems so severe to exist so that we have to.” Legislator Wayne A. Decker of Cuddebackville warned that the county will have to offer “employment services” to those who will be left without a job when the Camp closes. Thomas Pahucki of New Hampton, representing the 21st legislative district, said he agreed to the study only after making sure the county would obtain a certified appraisal of the property, to see if it is really worth all the millions that the city wants for it. He said he doesn’t know how the county and city arrived at the purchase price, or whether it is even necessary for the county to buy the camp in order to see it closed. He objected not only to the closed-door deal, but also to the lack of a plan to make districts “whole” in wake of revenue losses, and the lack of a plan about what to do with the campus after the county gets it. He provided numbers on how much the county and each town, village, and school district now receives from the camp. The Monroe-Woodbury School District, which received $733,398 from New York City in the current year, stands to lose the most. While that figure represents less than one percent of the district’s $120 million budget, Superintendent of Schools Joseph DiLorenzo said the loss of that much revenue would be substantial. He declined to speculate what might happen regarding the revenues once the city closes the camp. Pahucki said he asked County Attorney David Darwin whether the camp’s closure depended on the county’s buying it, and that Darwin did not answer. He said he’s heard contradictory reasons for the closure. “Here is Bloomberg, the great man who walks on water, taking credit by saying it is no longer economically feasible to run the shelter because the city had reduced its homeless population,” Pahucki said. “And then here comes Diana, saying the only way to close the shelter is for the county to buy it. Well, which one is it? Darwin said he had met with all the legislators in executive session last week to answer their questions, and that Pahucki never asked him whether the purchase was necessary. And he accused Pahucki of violating an agreement by disclosing what went on at that meeting. Darwin said the terms of the contract negotiations demanded they not be conducted in public, and that he was unable to answer the question, anyway. He denied that he kept the legislature in the dark, saying he was talking to Michael R. Pillmeier, the majority leader, and Anthony Marino, the minority leader, all along the way. n Camp’s property tax bills for 2006 • Town of Chester — $107,443 • Town of Blooming Grove — $173,054 • Village of Chester — $111 • Chester School District — $698 • Monroe-Woodbury School District — $733,398 • Orange County — $120,163