I am running for one of the two open seats on the Town Council. I will seek one of them in a Democratic Party Primary to be held September 14, 1999.

As the founder and first SHCA president, as a Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) member since 1995, as an Antenna Review Board (ARB) member since 1996, and as an unabashed advocate for empowering civic associations throughout town, I have tried to protect our residential communities from needless over-development, commercialization, and decreased quality of life. Some of our local achievements in the SHCA area are outlined on the back of this flier. There is much more that needs to be done to protect our residential neighborhoods, and prominent members of civic associations throughout town have urged me to run in the primary. But first I must get on the ballot.

To get on the ballot I must get 1,000 "good" signatures from registered Democrats within the next few weeks. It is a formidable task but no more formidable than the accomplishments we have achieved by working together.

If you are a Democrat, I ask that you sign my petition when one of your neighbors calls on you in the coming weeks. Signing simply means you agree I should be given the chance to appear on the ballot in the September Democratic primary. Regardless of your political party, I assure you that you can have no greater advocate on the Town Board than I. I will listen to your concerns and act on them as I have in the past as your civic association president, and as a ZBA and ARB member.

Please be aware that my opponents for Town Council are trying to prevent a primary and the debates that go with it and are said to have devised their petitions with so many candidates on them that if you sign their petition on or before the date you sign mine your signature for me is invalid. It's legal but it certainly isn't democracy at its best. My petition only has my name. I am running on my record, no one else's. If you sign my petition first, on a later date you can still sign a petition for the Supervisor, the Town Clerk, any two judges, and one of the two Town Council members seeking re-election. Therefore,

IF YOU WANT TO SIGN FOR ME, PLEASE DO NOT SIGN ANY OTHER PETITION BEFORE SIGNING MINE OR YOUR SIGNATURE FOR ME WILL LIKELY BE INVALID

It is unlikely that a district leader in the SHCA area would ask you to sign a petition that would negate a signature for me, one of your own neighbors. However, others may come to this area and ask. Therefore, please carefully read the petition to make sure it has my name on it before signing.

In the weeks and months to come you will hear more about my vision for the town and why this election is critically important. First I must get on the ballot and I must devote all my attention to getting the signatures. If you want to help participate in this truly grassroots effort and work with great people who are concerned about preserving our neighborhoods as residential, then please give me a call.

My two opponents have been in office a total of 24 years. I hope you agree it is time for change, not for the sake of change, but because we need fresh ideas on how to address uncontrolled increases in traffic congestion, development, etc. Changing just one member can make the difference. Please help make it happen.

Here are just a few of the accomplishments we have achieved in this area in recent years by working together:

• preventing the new Ferncliff mausoleum from being built seven feet higher than permitted. After the building inspector was made aware of this error in the building plans, the building was erected at the lower and permitted height.

• lobbying the Town Board in 1994, with the backing of the newly created SHCA, to change the zoning laws so that no additional mausoleums can be built on the property. (The previous code allowed a building density in the cemetery greater than that permitted on Central Avenue.)

• preventing Ferncliff cemetery from building a maintenance facility with massive underground fuel tanks on a parcel of land next to WFAS and the homes on Eastern Road, Joyce Road, and Vista Place by uncovering, after diligent research, that the land had changed title in 1971, thereby making it ineligible to meet state-mandated requirements for a use variance to build such a facility. It can't be built.

• lobbying the Town Board to abandon the garbage pickup reduction (one pickup per week) initiated by my opponent. We, along with other civic associations, warned the Town Board that their approvals of overdeveloped properties would stretch services too far and we were right. We fought to get the collections back to twice a week and won.

• discovering that Nextel needed at least three more cell sites in Greenburgh, using Nextel's own consultant to prove that alternate sites to the WFAS tower existed, and keeping them from needlessly increasing a non-conforming use.

• writing an Antenna Law which caused illegal antennas mounted on the WFAS tower in 1989 to finally be removed (in April).

• attending court proceedings regarding the topsoil/gravel business near Jennifer Lane-- that my opponent was "monitoring"-- and discovering that the Town was knowingly helping the illegal business operate on residential property in our civic association, and then following up until the Town stopped ITS participation and took action against the illegal business.

• exposing the impact of cryptic language hidden in a Town Board proposal which would have classified Secor Road along with State roads to allow nonconforming greenhouses and nurseries on Secor Road to expand and bring more truck traffic into our residential area. (We can't afford these kinds of provisions to be hidden in our Master Plan, the most important land-use document to be generated in this town for years to come.)

• identifying the need for targeted police coverage in our area and spearheading the campaign in September 1998 to highlight the town's serious police understaffing levels and the Town Board's refusal to address the problem. Once the Town Board recognized that ignoring the data would have political ramifications they used the federal funds available to hire three police officers who will start this August.

As you can see, we, as a group, have been very successful. All our "wins" against the Town Board have been group wins. Your support has been terrific. I now need your support to win election to the Town Board to make "winning" easier and less time-consuming for all of us. If you are willing to help, please let me know. Any help you can offer is appreciated. Everyone is welcome to participate in this grassroots effort.

FRANCIS SHEEHAN
SHCA Founder and First President

e-mail: FSheehan99@aol.com

For general information about town issues, please check out: http://home.att.net/~grassrootsforgreenburgh