Hold school officials accountable for 'scam'
Letter to Editor in the Journal News...
Reading coverage of the Eastchester schools' plea deal in the fill-for-fields issue, you might think
that Dirtman Enterprises and a caravan of haulers acted alone creating illegal dumps on school
property in three Westchester districts. You might lose sight of the fact that the unscrupulous
haulers acted with full participation and approval of school officials who entered into contracts
to allow the creation of these dumps on school grounds.
In Valhalla, where the dump borders the Kensico Reservoir, there was no written contract.
What amounted to a handshake deal created two unneeded fields that have been locked for
four years, destroyed the high school track that has been gone now for six years and resulted in
a state audit that found the whole deal, including the leasing of an artificial turf field as
educational equipment, to be illegal. The illegality, according to the comptroller, was not that
Dirtman was paid for his service, but that the school districts allowed the dumping in exchange
for the creation of fields. I have documented the entire scam on my Web site;
www.valhallavoice.com
When will these school officials be investigated and held accountable for what they did? Are
taxpayers expected to simply continue to pay for official misconduct? Can we expect yet
another bond to cover their illegal actions? Is state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo only
interested in pursuing small business owners, or is he up to the task of investigating official
corruption?
John F. Fitzgerald
Valhalla
The writer is a former member of the Valhalla Board of Education