ASTORINO PAYING BIEDERMAN $20K A MONTH TO TELL US WHAT'S WRONG AT PLAYLAND

The Rye City Review has a very good piece out today on the SPI draw down.

http://www.ryecityreview.com/spi-out-wont-run-playland/

While it's certainly good news to those of us that love the park to know that the incompetent SPI group will not get management duties, and that (for now, anyway) the Field Zone construction project has gone down in flames, the fact that those SPI folks *are* still involved in a limited capacity should be of great concern to everyone. 

Further, Dan Biederman, who has absolutely NO BACKGROUND in Amusement Parks, has been brought BACK by the County Executive to "evaluate" things at the Park  this season and give his (expertise?) feedback on how we should proceed in the future. Ummmm....didn't he already do this prior to getting involved in fomenting the SPI plan a couple of years ago? Can't we just use the analysis he's already given? And if he didn't evaluate things at that time,  why were we taking his advice THEN?

Concerns run deep that Biederman is just a Trojan Horse carrying a resurrected version of the Field Zone and Amusement Park-eliminating Great Lawn. And oh, talking about wasting Taxpayer money, we’re paying him $20K a MONTH to tell us what we already know??  And then Astorino is going to try to squeal about the park LOSING MONEY??  Rob is literally flushing taxpayer money down the toilet!

Don't forget to count four months from now off on your fingers. That takes us to just around Election Day. Looks to me like *someone* running for Governor was desperately trying to find a way to make this thing go quiet and dormant for the duration of the election cycle without actually conceding defeat on the cock-a-mamie stand of continuing to support it when it was becoming more and more clear by the day it was a disaster.

That park isn't going to be safe until SPI is completely disengaged from all aspects of involvement. Period. They are about the LAST group who should be in charge of overseeing any fundraising or management of historic preservation. Because of course, their "vision" of historic preservation was to include eliminating the iconic pool grand entrance and replacing it with a water park and also constructing a Costco-like building in the parking lot.

There was absolutely no reason to bring Biederman back on board. If they *really* wanted a professional analysis, they could have, should have  and would have consulted someone with an Amusement Park Industry back ground.

$20k a month of your taxpayer money. Think about it.