HealTheHarbor.com -Letter to Mayor Otis

February 13, 2009

Dear Mayor Otis

After listening to your rhetoric for over two hours last night at the City Council meeting and for the last two years regarding Bob Shubert's Wetlands, I am very relieved and disturbed to read the MYRYE.com report today. The article includes comments from Chantal Detlefs, Rye's former City Naturalist. It includes statements such as "I can't believe the Schubert controversy is still ongoing. In my opinion, the neighbor's building project would have been subject to the wetlands and watercourse review process by the Planning Commission. When I got to see the plans, after the fact, it was clearly not a 'replacement-in-kind' as the City has maintained, as there was no dry well on the Magnolia Place property." Detlef's statement continues to report; in a meeting with City staff after Mr. Schubert first contacted the City, "I expressed concern that the City made an error. It was heard and known but swept under the carpet and Mr. Shew decided to deal with the issue in a different manner."

It is unfortunate that Rye City Mayor Otis has just lost all credibility not only with the Schubert issue, but with many of the building, safety and environmental issues, including the Hen Island controversy. The statement "I expressed concern that the City made an error", speaks volumes in that it evidences that the City once again was aware of the truth and chose to hide it from the public.

Not only did the City choose to hide the truth from the public, they took it upon themselves to try to intimidate and harass a senior citizen and WWII veteran. This terrible injustice should be rectified immediately and without hesitation. We at HEAL the HARBOR support Bob Schubert and his tireless efforts for helping to expose environmental injustice in the City of Rye. Unfortunately, and embarrassingly, this time it was a municipality controlled by a mayor that just does not play fair to say the least.

I am confident that a similar scenario will be forthcoming in regards to the reports from Deputy Health Commissioner Lenny Meyerson and again Rye officials with regard to Hen Island. The differences being, the inaccurate reports relative to Hen Island were submitted to The Supreme Court and will hopefully have legal implications attached.

Below find a link to the complete article from MYRYE.com:

Swept Under The Carpet in Rye / Watergate in Rye NY