Sleepy Hollow Trustee: Shocked by Lawsuit

Editor's Note: The following comes from Sleepy Hollow Trustee Bruce Campbell, who wished to note that this is his own statement and not intended to come from all Trustees. He can be reached for additional comment at brucec7777@aol.com. Have a letter to the editor you'd like to share with our readers? Send it to krista.madsen@patch.com. You can also blog it by clicking here.

As a Sleepy Hollow Trustee I am shocked and perplexed that Tarrytown has filed notice of appeal in its lawsuit against the Village. A month ago a State Supreme Court judge issued a sweeping decision, ruling that allegations made by Tarrytown in the suit were either without merit or had no standing. Since Sleepy Hollow’s position in the case had already been upheld in separate rulings, Tarrytown had every reason to expect it would lose. Yet Tarrytown’s Board spent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars in court, forcing us to do the same. Now, after a resounding defeat, it proposes to spend tens of thousands more on what is surely a lost cause. This frivolous lawsuit has cost both villages dearly and delayed the start of the badly needed development on the General Motors site, a development that will benefit the entire area.

Especially troubling is Tarrytown’s misleading assertion that Sleepy Hollow must use part of the funds it won in long, difficult negotiations with GM to mitigate traffic impacts on Tarrytown. This is not true. Nothing in the agreement with GM or the judge’s decision requires this. Those funds are for Sleepy Hollow infrastructure. The judge found that Sleepy Hollow has done all it must do regarding mitigation of traffic.  

The Tarrytown Board should drop its appeal and should do so immediately. In the best interest of both its residents and ours it is time to move on. We need to tackle problems created by the growth of both of our villages as neighbors, not with protracted and costly lawsuits. Sleepy Hollow applauded the Hudson Harbor development in the interest of our shared community. We would welcome a similar sense of community from Tarrytown’s leaders.

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