Ramapo Gets Short End in Stadium Deal

Letters to the Journal News July 18, 2010

            Ramapo Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence has been pushing his proposed baseball stadium through the regulatory thicket with the passion of a desperate man.  Unfortunately for him, he has discovered that sometimes it doesn’t pay to cut corners.

His environmental impact statement claimed that all environmental issues had been fully addressed.  We knew this was not true, but politics, not truth, rules Ramapo.

            On June 25 potential bidders were given the proposed specs for site preparation, but the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) had not yet approved of these specs.  When potential bidders met on Tuesday, July 6th they were told that the DEC had finally approved the project subject to its mandated changes on Friday, July 2nd.

            Now the mad scramble began.  Civil engineers started burning the midnight oil.  Potential bidders were told the new plans would be sent out, and the sealed bids would be opened, not on July 12th as originally scheduled but about two weeks later.

            Bidders were also told that the winning bidder would be expected to work ten hours a day and six days a week to meet an extremely tight schedule.  Work over 40 hours a week is paid at 1.5 times regular pay.  So with 20 hours of overtime a week the direct labor costs of this project could increase by as much as 75% with an overall cost increase of 25% or more.

            So we now have a project that almost no one wants, that has barely been started, and it is already behind schedule and most probably over budget.

            But if you think this is bad news take a look at the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Ramapo Local Development Corporation (RLDC) and Bottom 9 Baseball (B9B). (Full text of the Memorandum of Understanding appears here.)

            Read the agreement!  It is totally one-sided.  There is no guarantee that Bottom 9 actually will be able to field a team, and if it can’t do so by October 8, 2010 then its only obligation to Ramapo will be to pay a penalty of $675,000.  By then, of course, a once beautiful forest and meadow will have been destroyed and millions of dollars will have already been spent on the stadium.  On the other hand, if a ball team is actually found, but the stadium is not completed on schedule Ramapo will have to pay huge penalties.

            Assuming this project does go forward as planned B9B will have 85 “priority” dates on which it can schedule ball games and anything else it can sell.  It will receive most of the fees collected, and get a 20 year lease.  All maintenance costs will be paid by Ramapo.

            Almost all of the risk created by St. Lawrence’s frivolous nutty project will be a gift to our Ramapo taxpayers, and almost all of the revenues will go to B9B.  Please take the time to read the entire agreement and the opinions of outside experts.