Eminent Domaine in Copake

The following letter is from Reggie Crowley. Clearly he and I disagree on the point of eminent domain and the idea of what proper communication is. He admits here that he didn’t tell the President of the Homeowners association, nor anyone on the Copake Town Board. That means that no member of the Copake Town board was informed by our Supervisor of the threat of eminent domain was happening in Copake. Yes, as Reggie says the town board could have gone to those public meetings, but he didn’t tell us or anyone else in Copake that they were happening. So, a tree actually fell in the forest and no one was there to hear it.

Bob, I thought that the issue of eminent domaine was put to rest at the last Board meeting, but evidently not. Once again you are giving your readers inaccurate information.

You're correct, I did not speak with Shawn McClain. I spoke with Taconic Shores Legal Director. It was a legal matter. Why do you have a Legal Director? If your Legal Director did not convey my message to your Board of Directors that is an issue between your Board of Directors and your Legal Director.

As for this information being a total surprise, come on Bob, that's a pretty lame excuse. Every bit of information I presented at the Town Board meeting was all public knowledge. Any citizen could have obtained copies of everything I presented. Your Board of Directors have had your attorney working on this for some time. You mean to tell me that your attorney did not convey this information to your Board? I can't believe that. If your attorney did not obtain this information or convey it to your Board then you have an issue with your attorney.

Every single County committee meeting that this issue was discussed at was open to the public. And the public hearing was just that, A PUBLIC HEARING. Our other local newspapers had no problem obtaining information. As a matter of fact Bob, if you remember, there was a public hearing held on the project several years ago in our own town hall.

The bottom line is this, you made accusations without even trying to find out the facts, or perhaps you chose to ignore the facts. Either way Bob, stop with the excuses. You made a mistake, we have all made mistakes. At least be man enough to admit it.

Reggie Crowley