Croton Week in Review: June 9-13
Dana Levenberg weighs in on ICE, displaced Bari Manor residents get little help from the owners, Lot A sale moves ahead, and school superintendent is awarded an additional five years on his contract.
Tuesday June 10
Today our New York State Assembly member, Dana Levenberg, issued a statement about the ICE raids in California and the Trump administration’s military response to them. It read in part:
“Through increasingly frightening immigration actions, the Trump administration is attempting to turn our communities into a police state. The unnecessary federalization of California’s National Guard and deployment of U.S. Marines are a massive escalation of this effort. Notably, Trump declined to take similar actions during riots in 2020 or during the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, strongly suggesting he knows he is wrong right now. As a state legislator, I stand with the many governors, including our own, who have condemned this abuse of power against California.”
On Thursday a federal judge ordered the administration to turn the California National Guard back to Governor Newsom, but that decision was quickly stayed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit pending more legal argument this coming week.
Wednesday June 11
Today the Chronicle reported that the owners and management of the Bari Manor Apartments were doing very little to help residents who had been displaced by the fires that swept through several apartments on May 25 due to a faulty hot water heater. We quoted some of the temporarily homeless residents about their plight, as well as the disappointment of Trustee Nora Nicholson that more was not being done. The owners and management did not respond to repeated requests for comment, and they have continued to maintain their silence on the matter.
This evening the Board of Trustees met in regular session. Among a number of items on the agenda was yet another milestone in the transformation of former Parking Lot A and an adjacent property into 100 affordable condominiums by WBP Development LLC, which is buying Lot A from the village. The trustees unanimously approved a resolution authorizing the Village Manager to execute the contract of sale with WBP which will finalize the deal.
The trustees also passed a resolution declaring that the month of June would be LGBTQ+ Pride month in Croton. On June 1 the Pride Flag was raised at the village municipal building in a ceremony attended by the mayor and trustees to kick off Summerfest.
Friday June 13
This morning we reported on the Croton-Harmon Board of Education’s decision at its meeting the evening before to appoint school superintendent Stephen Walker to an additional five more years on his current contract. The move was protested by about a half dozen parents who pleaded with the trustees to delay the extension until a detailed evaluation of Walker’s job performance could be carried out. (A few parents also showed up to support Walker.) However, the board declined to do so. After several trustees delivered glowing tributes to Walker’s achievements, the modified agreement with Walker was approved. His salary will receive an initial boost of 14.6% to $282,000 per year, with provisions for additional raises depending on his performance.
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