Rye Corporation Counsel Kevin J. Plunkett Lands New Day Job

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JXoSway7uo

Watch another environmental mess up by the City of Rye, Shew and Otis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLq4SDawfSg

What is going on?? Are Otis and Plunkett trying to make us look like we don’t care about the environment????Watch this one. http://youtube.com/watch?v=lD5U4FAPIQM

It’s a shame one individual, Ray Tartaglione, posing as someone who cares about Milton Harbor and Rye, NY, is continuing his childish, hurtful and untrue rants about Hen Islanders’ and Mayor Otis’ neglect of laws pertaining to the enviornment….This individual, who has summered on Hen Island, by the way, for the past 9 years, without mentioning anything about pollution or the City of Rye, transparently began his campaign when the shareholders of Kuder Island (Hen Island) voted him out as an officer as well as a board member….He now has disguised his hatred for the Hen Islanders with a lamb’s clothing of “caring for the harbor”…It’s painfully obvious to anyone who visits his Heal the Harbor website, he is only promoting his positions with regard to everything BUT the harbor….His website is littered with untruths….If you see his Mr. Floatie car parked on Milton Rd., and he’s in it, ask him what his beef is…..I guarantee you, after listening to him rant you’ll come to realize what lots of others know about him….Perhaps you should go to http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C05E1DB1738F93BA35754C0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1……..and read the New York Times article, which contains an interview of Mr. Tartaglione, wherein he does nothing but promote the wonderfulness of Hen Island…The article was done in 2001, PRIOR to his removal from the Kuder Island Board of Directors….
I grew up in Rye, NY..My father, H. Clay Johnson, was once Mayor of Rye….It’s a place I love…Hen Island is a place I’ve been going to for over 30 years…Read the NYT article and make your own decision about Mr. Tartaglione…..
Mike Johnson

Please get this idiot tartaglione off of the net.Freedom of speech is great but this moron is guilty of harassing and slandering an entire community. WHEN DOES IT STOP?My children spent many happy hours on Hen Island when there were no elitists with there petty beefs and childish infighting. I knew this would happen when the first phony landed on the shores of Hen Island. Where have all the normal people gone? God bless them all.

In response to Mr. Caesar J. Warrick’s comments about Ray Tartaglione. I would like to say that I have known Ray Tartaglione for many years and have served along with him on the board of directors for Hen Island. Mr. Tartaglione has been a personal friend for many years. He has owned and operated his own business for over thirty-five years in White Plains. He has lived in Purchase for over 25. He is one of the most respected businessmen in White Plains in addition to his hometown. If you are not familiar with his reputation just ask anyone in either community. During the time Mr. Tartaglione and I sat as directors he was personally responsible for coordinating a joint effort between The County Medical Center and RVAC for emerangency medical evacuation (Statflight) from Hen Island. A much-needed service that was long over due and opposed by most of the islanders. Tartaglione personally raised money from concerned homeowners for a defibulator even though islanders opposed the purchase; as a result there is now one available on Hen Island. He was also responsible for the procuring and instillation of over eight life size art sculptures on the north end of the Island. Additionally he designed and placed the first children’s playground on Hen Island, which includes a marble ping-pong table and a ten-foot chess and checkerboard. Along with the guidance of the DEC he supervised the instillation of over three hundred indigenes plants to prevent erosion and planted over five hundred individual plants and ornamental grasses on Hen Island. In 2001 shortly after 9/11 (I might add he worked as a volunteer digging at ground zero on day two) he corronated a team of personal from The Departments of Emergency Management from NYS, Westchester County, The New York State Forestry Service, The DEC, and The Rye Fire and Marine Police to make suggestions on how to make Hen Island a safer community. Again most of the islanders were opposed to the meetings fearing too much involvement from the government agencies. To date not one of the suggestions from those meetings (including dry fire hydrants) were ever implemented on Hen Island. My point Mr. Caesar J. Warrick is Mr. Tartaglione is far from the idiot you suggest he is. He is a very practical, principled and determined person and I am very happy to be on his side of the effort to clean up this mess that has gone on way to long. I don’t know you and obviously you don’t know Mr. Tartaglione, maybe you should take him up on his offer to meet anyone concerned with the issues.
One last thought. Three years ago a small child was flown from Hen Island due to complications from a recent medical procedure and just last summer, the current president Ben Minard’s life was saved as a result of the opposed medi-vac service Mr. Tartaglione implemented.
Claudio Iodice

Mr Iodice,If you need all of these services on an island sanctuary then I suggest that you and your crony Ray just stay home.I am sure you would feel more secure in your own back yards. Also,if your buddy is as an exemplary human being as you claim he is why is his chief ally a character called Mr.Floaty? I think Mr.Floaty is not the only thing that stinks around Rye these days.from Caesar J. Warrick

Mr. Iodice has outlined reasons why Mr. Tartaglione fell out of favor with the Board of Directors as well as neighbors on Hen Island….Once in office, he began treating the island as his private fiefdom….without apparent understanding the concept of ownership of the island..Hen Island is owned by Kuder Island Corporation, whereby each campsite owner has a “share” in Kuder Island Corp. This share does not entitle any campsite owner to anything other than the campsite they occupy; the footprint of the building and the building on it….The land itself is ALL common ground, owned by the corporation…planting, erecting statues, erecting “playgrounds” cutting trees, clearing land, all require approval by the Board……much of which Mr. Tartaglione proceeded to do without such approval…..Mr. Tartaglione, while he may be well-intentioned, needs to understand the rights each stockholder has….including the right to maintain the island as it has existed for the past 60+ years….to “modernize” Hen Island, destroys the simple way of life the MAJORITY of the summer residents want to maintain……By the way, Mr. Iodice, in the footsteps of Mr. Tartaglione, writes 1/2 truths…Mr. Minard’s life was not saved by helicopter..He was removed from the island after falling and breaking his leg…Mike Johnson

Mr. Johnston,
All of Tartaglione’s projects had majority approval on the north end as directed by the Board when we were on it. You never sat on the Board of Directors and are not aware of its workings and rightfully so, you are not a stockholder.It is your wife (a member of the board) you are protecting. The plantings and the placement of the art pieces were done at the direction of the individual cottage owners and were designed and supervised by Tartaglione. “The right to maintain the island as it has been for the last sixty years” as you say does not include the right to pollute the waters and threaten the safety of the residents, guests and boaters that use the harbor and the island. I say it is thinking such as yours, that does not take into account the public who needs to be protected. Please try and stick to the facts and the facts are as such:
Hen Island is polluting the sound and the building practices used in your homes are an accident waiting to happen.
I have witnessed this first hand. My grandchildren are no longer allowed to visit Hen Island after my family and I have realized the potential for disaster that exists on the island. I have witnessed my daughter-in law administering epi-pen shots to my grandchild after being bitten by a mosquito infestation that only rivals the Panama Canal epidemic in the early 1900’s. AND Yes, my cottage is for sale.
The problem appears to be that Hen Island has not been policed for years, if it had been there would be no violations to contend with. The city has not forced anyone’s hand along the years and unfortunately, that is what happens in communities without regulations. People take advantage. Sometimes they do it out of ignorance and sometimes out of stupidity. If the Soundkeeper is calling for testing why not comply with the testing? It’s a lot less expensive than all the money you are spending in court trying to say you are a safe community and not polluting the sound. If the pictures and statements in the commercials and on the website are lies, I say you should go after Tartaglione and any of us that support him. If the pictures are true, Mr. Johnson you should be the one wearing the Mr. Floatie costume. I agree with Tartaglione, your stepfather would be ashamed of you. Regarding my ½ truth about Minard’s broken leg. They flew him from the Island fearing too much movement of the broken femur bone in the leg would sever an artery; as a result he was flown. Sounds like his life was saved to me, Mr. Floatie I’m sorry I meant Mr. Johnson.
Claudio Iodice

Would it not make sense that the stockholders of Hen Island would keep Mr. Tartaglione AND yourself as President and member of the Board of Directors if the “work” being done was approved and viewed as favorable ?…..The FACT is he was removed….And, if you think using the term “stepfather” will raise my ire, you are incorrect….and, as usual, misinformed or, speaking 1/2 truths… A stepfather is defined as, “the husband of a woman who had a child by another man”….FACTUALLY, I was adopted by H. Clay Johnson and his wife, Rosemary, who never had children of their own. With all the hooplah caused by Mr. Tartaglione, I’ll be curious to see how the sale of your house progresses…..