Officials Must Be Held Accountable for Peekskill Hollow Road Debacle
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Why are Putnam Valley residents being asked to pay an additional $5 million in taxes to fix Peekskill Hollow Road?
The Peekskill Hollow Road Town Hall Forum in Putnam Valley on Aug. 2 at the main firehouse meeting hall was advertised as being hosted by Putnam County Executive Kevin Byrne, Putnam Valley Supervisor Jacqueline Annabi and Putnam County Legislator Bill Gouldman.
Bridge repair work has been going on for well over two years on a number of Peekskill Hollow Road’s bridges, much to the consternation of many town residents. The construction work has gone on longer than expected and caused people driving the road annoyance and inconvenience.
Apparently, mysteriously (since no one seems to know why), the contractor doing the job stopped working on the project months ago. Rumors abound, from incompetence on the part of the contractor to the county changing the parameters of the job during the work causing cost overruns and extending the completion time, which was unfair to the contractor. Nobody seems to know for sure. The county and the contractor are going to court to sort things (and the finances) out. Presumably, that will take many, many months.
But that’s not the worst of it! Taxpayers are being asked to pay an additional $5 million, plus money to pay another contractor to finish the job. All of the work on this county road falls within Gouldman’s county legislative district.
At the beginning of the Town Hall, Byrne was quick to give Legislator Gouldman a pat on the back for a job well done addressing the problem of the bridges over the past year or more. What is he talking about?
Where was Legislator Gouldman when this project was going south and the contractor walked off the job? Where was the oversight? Nowhere as far as I can tell. I heard not one peep from him as this debacle unfolded. Where was Gouldman? Byrne’s pat on the back may have been motivated by the fact that Goldman is up for re-election this November. Should Gouldman be held accountable at all? Should Gouldman be re-elected?
Laura Zagarell
Putnam Valley
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