Leave to Reese to Waste More Taxpayer Dollars

The following appeared in January 25, 2009 Journal News

North Castle looks to split cost on buying Dubos open space

By Elizabeth Ganga
The Journal News • January 25, 2009

NORTH CASTLE - With Mount Kisco in contract to buy the Dubos property overlooking Byram Lake, what's left in the long saga to keep the 30 acres as open space is to divide up the $475,000 purchase price among the interested entities.

The Westchester Land Trust has committed up to $15,000 in seed money. North Castle Supervisor Reese Berman has said the town will likely split the rest with Mount Kisco. The North Castle Town Board will have a public hearing on spending the money from its open space fund at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The purchase price is low because the parcel, on Baldwin Road, is essentially undevelopable. The current owner, the Rene Dubos Center for Human Environments, attempted to sell the land to developer Michael Cappelli, who wanted to build luxury homes on it, for $1.2 million. But the sale was blocked when the state attorney general objected. The attorney general, who oversees charities, convinced a state judge in White Plains that the sale would have violated the intent of the donations used to purchase the property in 1979. The Eugene and Agnes Meyer Foundation and the DeWitt Wallace Fund donated $275,000 to the Dubos Center to purchase the land and keep it natural. The center had wanted to build an environmental education center nearby but it never happened. Instead, the center hoped to sell the land to pay its debt.

The state Supreme Court will also have to review the sale to Mount Kisco and North Castle.

Way to go Reese. If Mount Kisco wants to pay $475,000 on land that the Court has already rule cannot be developed, let them. Why should North Castle pay a cent? The Attorney General blocked this sale and the price is low because the property cannot be built on. Reese just can't stand the idea of having all that conservation money in the bank burning a hole in her pocket and has to do something with it.