June 29, 2010 At Monday night’s Town Board Meeting there were two perfunctory votes on the ball park followed by an extended session of the kind of self-congratulatory political excess that we have come to expect. The serious environmental issues were swept aside, and there was no new information on the real numbers of this project, numbers that have so far been kept entirely out of public sight.

A Wobbly League of Their Own
The two votes ended the environmental investigation that began with the Town’s own engineering group warning that there were significant environmental issues with the wetlands on the site as well as other concerns.

The first vote that accepted the findings of the FEIS (Final Environmental Impact Study) did so with incomplete, and we think illegal, "solutions" for the objections—solutions satisfied with statements like "there will be a plan to address. . ." This check-is-in-the-mail promise does not satisfy SEQR. State law from the DEC is very specific: "SEQR requires the sponsoring or approving governmental body to identify and mitigate the significant environmental impacts of the activity it is proposing." Apparently, when Clark Associates pointed out the environmental problems, no one passed a dictionary among the board members, and consequently, the legal requirement to "mitigate" got mitigated.

The second vote was for project approval, and it also was unanimously accepted. The votes were followed by an all-out rush to the cosmetic cases as the members then took turns putting lipstick on the pig.

Some Facts
No facts hindered the discussion. It was an evening for wild speculation that reached some pretty absurd extremes. Smiling broadly and bobbing his head, the Supervisor asked how great would it be for us to maybe get outdoor winter ice hockey like the NHL’s Winter Classic? That’s what he said, the NHL. First prize, though, hands down had to go to an odd fugue state reverie created by the junior board member Friedman who pictured himself in the middle of the field of the new park looking up into the stands where he saw Ultra-Orthodox and Secular fans embracing each other in the winds of a sports euphoria.

Not surprisingly, none of the anecdotes or prophetic visions mentioned the retired residents teetering on the edge of being forced out of their homes and the $25 million weight soon to be added to their tax burden.

It’s one thing to dream and quite another to hallucinate and pull numbers out of your. . .well, out of places they shouldn’t come from. Several times during the evening, the Supervisor guaranteed revenues of one million, or more, even in the first year. This is the same individual who continues to violate New York State law by withholding the financial reports of his Local Development Corporation (LDC) after a Freedom of Information Act request was submitted for those documents. St. Lawrence is the President of the LDC that is steering Project Grand Slam. He also claims he has a business plan for this venture but sees no reason to release any of that information to the public. Leaves little question then why his numbers have that off-putting fragrance.

As the celebration finally came to a close, and the move to adjourn was seconded, I went over to Ken Lehner who was sitting in the audience. Lehner is one of the business group called Bottom 9 Baseball that will lease the stadium and share revenues with St. Lawrence’s Ramapo Local Development Corp., the quasi-government agency that will own and operate the ball park. I had a few questions, and he was kind enough to offer a couple of answers.

First question was about the group’s business plan. The Journal News reported Lehner saying, "We did our due diligence. We looked at the density of the population in Rockland County and the passionate baseball fans in the tri-state market. This is a great opportunity to bring affordable baseball to Rockland County."

I asked if the group had a formal business plan, and when he said they did, I asked if they would be willing to share it with the public. His answer was, "No." There were confidential decisions and proprietary matters that could not be shared.

I explained to him the issue of the Town withholding financial information from the public but he had no response to that, nor could you expect him to. So here we are on the edge of loading up the taxpayers with $25 million more in long-term debt and the Supervisor continues to illegally withhold the numbers that would define either the soundness or the foolishness of this project and the business group is equally silent.

I then asked about the obligation of the Bottom 9 group. They will, he explained, incur a one-time $1 million payment toward the building of the ball park. The other cost will be an annual $1.5 million to license the team paid to the Miles Wolf and the Can-Am League. The lease is a 20-year arrangement. Depending on the terms of the agreement offered by the town, this could be an amazing bargain for the five Bottom 9 partners. People just don’t build new $25 million stadiums for teams in this league. Well, most people don’t.

The Can-Am League has only six surviving teams. It is the smallest of all the Independent Leagues and by several standards the shakiest. To add one team would unbalance the schedule, so I asked Mr. Lehner if two teams were going to be added and what would be the eighth. He said the decision belonged to the League, but he thought the 7^th and 8^th would be Ramapo and Ottawa.

Ottawa is a dead, former Can-Am, franchise. Its history offers an insight into the nature of the Can-Am League.

Go to the team website, http://ottawarapids.com, and you will see the following letter of apology to the fans appearing on a funereal background of blackened team logos:

Note in the second paragraph the reason for the team’s demise. The city, which owns the stadium, wanted $1million back from the team. It killed the deal. Christopher St. Lawrence says the Ramapo team will kick back more than a million a year to the town. Hmmm? Is that one of those frankly fragrant numbers? Ottawa is the fourth largest city in Canada, and they couldn’t afford the team.

But this is not the first time the Ottawa team has failed. According to Wikipedia, the Ottawa team has had a short, very bumpy ride.

"The Rapids were established after the Lynx, an International League team, moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania after the 2007 season. The Ottawa City Council discussed different possibilities regarding the city-owned stadium and accepted the offer given by Can-Am League president Miles Wolff. Following their sale to zip.ca, the team name spelling was modified to the Ottawa Rapidz.

On 29 September 2008, amid reports of a $1.4 million team debt, Rapidz management notified the Can-Am league that the team would be dissolved and that bankruptcy proceedings were planned. Rapidz management blamed the City of Ottawa for the situation, citing failed negotiations for the future lease of the stadium.

Despite the first-season bankruptcy, trading of Rapidz players continued in the Can-Am League offseason, with such activity reported as late as 13 October 2008. The Can-Am League announced on 13 November 2008 that a team would operate in Ottawa for 2009, operated directly by the league while new ownership is sought. Can-Am league commissioner, Miles Wolff, confirmed this development in Ottawa. In February 2009, the team was rechristened as the Voyageurs after a name-the-team contest.

However, the Voyageurs would never take the field as the Can-Am league announced on 30 March 2009 that the team and the Atlantic City Surf (another Can-Am League franchise) would both cease operations. League commissioner Miles Wolff indicated the team lacked financial support and "solid ownership" in order for the franchise to continue.

On 3 April 2009, Voyageurs players were made available to the six remaining teams in the league in a dispersal draft."

Click on the official team website today (www.ottawavoyageursbaseball.com) and you land on a Polish language site owned by Pawel Tykwiaski who lives at 24 Lechitow St. in Mielno, Poland. It looks like Pawel is selling books on the site.

So, two versions of the Ottawa franchise have gone belly up, and they sold their players. And now they will be entering the League again paired up with a Can-Am team from here in Ramapo?

There’s another problem with team alignment in the League right now. A team called the Colonials, playing in Pittsfield, Mass., is having an abysmal year. They have the worst attendance record averaging less than 600 at a game and are solidly in last place with a record of 9W-20L. "The Colonials, previously known as the American Defenders and the Nashua Pride, played in Nashua, New Hampshire from their debut as part of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball in 1998 until the end of the 2009 season, and called Holman Stadium in Nashua home until the summer of 2009 when the team was evicted from the venue because of nonpayment of rent (Wikipedia)." Now part of the Can-Am League, the team’s future looks pretty cloudy.

I know, following the course of Can-Am teams is little like trying to keep your eye on the pea underneath the moving walnut shells, but with so few franchises, individual failures reflect on the credibility of the entire enterprise. The League has had to put together emergency "traveling teams" to fill out the remainder of the schedule when regular teams fold midseason.

Maybe that scarlet-lipped pig is not as enticing as St. Lawrence and his board would have you think.

The sad history of these two teams are only part of the picture. These are the facts that St. Lawrence would prefer to obfuscate in the smoke of promised Fireworks Nights at the new stadium:

Michael Castelluccio
Preserve Ramapo
www.PreserveRamapo.org 　
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