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1 BEFORE THE NEW YORK STATE SENATE 2 ------------------------------------------------------ 3 PUBLIC HEARING 4 TO HEAR TESTIMONY ABOUT COAST GUARD'S CONTROVERSIAL 5 PLAN TO CREATE TEN COMMERCIAL BARGE ANCHORAGES FROM 6 YONKERS TO KINGSTON 7 ------------------------------------------------------ 8 Croton-on-Hudson Town Hall 9 1 Van Wyck Street Croton-on-Hudson, New York 10520 10 October 19, 2016 11 7:00 p.m. 12 PRESIDING: 13 Senator Senator Terrence Murphy 14 Chair 15 Matt Slatter Chief of Staff to Senator Murphy 16 17 PRESENT: 18 Senator David Carlucci 19 Senator Sue Serino 20 21 22 23 24 25 2 1 OPENING BY: PAGE 2 Dr. Greg Schmidt 4 3 Mayor Croton-on-Hudson 4 5 SPEAKERS: PAGE 6 Liam McLaughlin 10 President 7 Yonkers City Council 8 Jason Baker 20 Sr. Assistant to the Mayor 9 Office of Yonkers Mayor Michael Spano 10 Linda Puglisi 26 Town Supervisor 11 Town of Cortlandt 12 Eoin Wrafter 31 Planning and Development Commissioner 13 Office of Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro 14 Jim Monaghan 35 Supervisor 15 Stony Point, NY 16 Deborah Milone 38 Executive Director 17 Hudson Valley Gateway Chamber of Commerce 18 Robert Astorino 42 County Executive 19 Westchester County, NY 20 Ned Sullivan 47 President 21 Scenic Hudson 22 Edward Kelly 55 Executive Director 23 Maritime Association, Port of NY and NJ 24 25 3 1 SPEAKERS (Continued): PAGE 2 Barbara Scuccimarra 83 3 Legislator Office of Putnam County Executive MaryEllen Odell 4 John Testa 86 5 County Executive Putnam County, NY 6 John Cronin 90 7 Senior Fellow for Environmental Affairs Pace University Environmental Law School 8 Betsy Garthwaite 105 9 Chairman of the Board Clearwater 10 John Parker 110 11 Director of Legal Programs Riverkeeper 12 Frank Bergman 121 13 President Hudson River Boat and Yacht Club Association 14 Emily Majer 127 15 Deputy Mayor Village of Tivoli, NY 16 Jerry Faiella 133 17 Executive Director Historic Hudson River Towns 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 1 MAYOR GREG SCHMIDT: I pledge allegiance to 2 the United States of America, and to the republic 3 for which it stands, one nation under God, 4 indivisible with liberty and justice for all. 5 Thank you. The door is open. How exciting. 6 So I am Dr. Greg Schmidt, the Mayor of the 7 Village of Croton-on-Hudson, and I just want to 8 thank everybody for coming here today, and I want to 9 thank Senator Terrence Murphy for sponsoring this 10 public hearing tonight. And I'm glad he came to 11 Croton because Croton has been at the forefront, as 12 many other river communities, in terms of helping to 13 keep the Hudson River clean and viable and the 14 economic resource that it really is. And the 15 biggest thing that we've worked on for many, many 16 years is to keep it clean. 17 Here in Croton, we've had the dump that was 18 here from the early 1920s that finally shut down 19 several years ago. So we have a long history here 20 in Croton of the environmental damage that has been 21 done to this river. So I'm very proud to see how 22 many people have come out to really voice their 23 concerns about this barge project. 24 We are going to be hearing from many eloquent 25 people tonight to tell us their concerns, but for 5 1 now, I'm going to turn it over to my dear friend and 2 I'm very happy that he has led the charge on this, 3 Senator Terrence Murphy. Thank you very much. 4 SENATOR MURPHY: Thank you, Mayor. 5 [ Applause ] 6 Thank you so much, Mayor, and thank you 7 everybody for coming out here to tonight's hearing 8 on the U.S. Coast Guard's proposed federal rule that 9 establishing 10 -- or excuse me -- 16 new anchorage 10 sites from Yonkers up to Kingston. The Hudson River 11 as we all know is one of the most cherished natural 12 resources in the Hudson Valley. It is crystal clear 13 the public needs abundantly answers that we must 14 have, and that's what tonight is all about, is about 15 transparency. 16 It was October -- I'm sorry, August 8 -- when 17 we had our first press conference about finding out 18 about these proposed anchorage sites, and we had 19 immediately called the Coast Guard to find out what 20 this was all about. And unfortunately, I'm not sure 21 if we have a representative here tonight from the 22 Coast Guard, but I do know they were invited. 23 We invited as many people as we could 24 possibly do to get the answers that we are all 25 concerned about. 6 1 I had the press conference on August 8, and I 2 immediately put up a petition on my website, and 3 within three weeks we had 1900 people sign up to 4 figure out what this was all about. 5 And this is the reason why we are here 6 tonight. Not only are we all looking for answers, 7 and as your elected officials between the three of 8 us represent close to 900,000 people within our 9 districts combined. 10 These are extremely important issues. 11 Senator Sue Serino here, Senator David Carlucci and 12 myself, we all have part of this with regards to the 13 Hudson Valley, and there are a tremendous amount of 14 answers we are all concerned about. 15 I see a lot of elected officials here. County 16 Legislator Testa, Mayor Catalina, Barbara 17 Scuccimarra, Liam McLaughlin. 18 I'm looking for all your input tonight and 19 actually the public's input, so I look forward to a 20 robust conversation tonight. I do know we have a 21 bunch of speakers. 22 First of all, and I would just like to -- 23 I'm not sure where he went, but thank Mayor Schmidt 24 for hosting us tonight. It is awful kind of him and 25 we've had multiple conversations about this, and we 7 1 are here tonight to find out some answers. 2 So with all due respect, we are going to be 3 on a tight timeframe, and I would just like to turn 4 it over to my colleague Senator Sue Serino who came 5 down here to be with us tonight. 6 Thank you, Sue. 7 SENATOR SERINO: Thank you Senator Murphy and 8 Senator Carlucci. 9 I think it's so important for the public to 10 have their voice heard. 11 Public comment gets lost under the radar so 12 often, and you really need to have your questions 13 answered. 14 I know myself, I had the opportunity to meet 15 with the Coast Guard, and I can tell you, I have a 16 lot more questions than I did before. So I just 17 think that it's fair for the public to be able to 18 have their time with the Coast Guard and ask those 19 questions directly. 20 You know, as a mom, I worry about my children 21 and my grandchildren having our beautiful majestic 22 river to enjoy like I have for most of my life, 23 boating on the river, and so many people rely on 24 that resource. 25 So I just want to say thank you to everyone 8 1 that is here tonight, our other elected officials, 2 and I look forward to hearing your thoughts. 3 Thank you. 4 SENATOR MURPHY: Thank you, Senator Serino. 5 Senator Carlucci, thank you for being here. 6 SENATOR CARLUCCI: Thank you, Senator Murphy, 7 thank you, Senator Serino. 8 I want to thank everyone that's here, the 9 elected officials. I know Assemblywoman Sandy Galef 10 is here, Supervisor Monaghan from the Town of Stony 11 Point. Thank you for being here. 12 And I thank each and every person for being 13 here for this very important issue. 14 For decades now, many of the people in this 15 room, environmental advocates, local government 16 leaders, have been working to clean up from the 17 mistakes of prior generations. 18 And that's why this hearing and this issue is 19 so important because we've learned from the mistakes 20 of the previous government, from the business 21 interests that went up and down this river that we 22 can't tread lightly on this issue. 23 We've got to make sure that every I is 24 dotted. Every T is crossed. No stone is left 25 unturned. Every question is answered. 9 1 That's why it really boils my blood that the 2 Coast Guard is not here tonight at a Senate hearing 3 to answer these important questions. 4 That's the big problem here. There is no 5 transparency on this issue. When I'm walking down 6 the street in my district, people are asking 7 questions and rightfully so. 8 So I want to thank everyone that is here. I 9 think together if we continue our vigilance that 10 we've done over the past few decades that we can 11 once again enjoy the majesty of the Hudson River. 12 And I have been working with the students at 13 Ossining High School in collaboration with 14 Riverkeeper, and we have been out there every week 15 monitoring the river, testing the water quality of 16 the river.
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