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Rocky Alexander, Leading the Coalition of Businesses Hurt By Pipeline Project, Accused Officials At Press Conference on Tuesday of Political Grandstanding
By Tina Traster
Exhausted and feeling despair, restaurant owner Rocky Alexander of Rock’s Kitchen called out politicians at a press conference Tuesday for “grandstanding” about the CHPE (Champlain Hudson Power Express) pipeline project that has devastated businesses in the Route 9W corridor over the past year for political gain.
“This is political grandstanding,” said Alexander, addressing Sen. Bill Weber, Senator Minority Leader Rob Ortt (62nd District), and County Executive Ed Day. “This is a political thing. Nov. 4th is around the corner. But we’re not being heard. There’s been zero follow-up. Why hasn’t that happened?”
Since August, town, county, state and federal officials have called multiple press conferences to listen to North Rockland businesses explain how they’ve been damaged by the project, which has caused traffic bottlenecks and havoc on the roads in North Rockland, especially Route 9W. Patrons have stopped coming to their establishments — from gyms to delis. The North Rockland Chamber of Commerce has been inviting local and state officials to hear from the community. Its been leading the charge on behalf of local businesses in asking for financial help to make up for revenue losses. At least two businesses have closed since the project began; a host of others say business has slowed to a crawl because patrons cannot get to their places of business.
Business owners are peeved because some landlords and the towns of Stony Point, Haverstraw and Clarkstown struck deals with CHPE for financial relief, but none of that aid trickled down to local businesses. Town officials cannot use CHPE funds to make businesses whole; those monies must be used for town-wide projects that benefit residents at large. Hurting businesses say they have not seen anything material come from the press conferences held by local, state, and federal officials.
The strategy among state representatives and Congressman Mike Lawler, who held a press conference on Oct. 6, appears to be a “pressure campaign.” At podia and on daises, they call for Gov. Kathy Hochul to apply pressure to CHPE, which is owned by Blackstone (which owns TDI-USA Holdings LLC.), one of the world’s largest corporations. They concede there is no state funding and no emergency relief to make businesses whole. Direct pleas to CHPE have only yielded an offer of $150,000 to compensate for losses to North Rockland’s businesses. All agree $150,000 is inadequate, and the North Rockland Chamber estimates losses in excess of $10 million, according to data they’ve collected from area businesses.
Weber, along with Assemblyman Pat Carroll, sent a letter to CHPE on Sept. 16th, that said, “We are aware that a fund exists to support local businesses negatively impacted by the construction; however, current efforts to communicate and distribute this support have been insufficient.”
At the press conference Tuesday, Weber said the letter had also been sent to the Governor’s office, without response. However, his spokesman later said Weber misspoke because the letter had not been copied to the Governor’s office, adding it will be sent within the next few days.
To date, CHPE has been clear in its position, stating repeatedly that it made deals with the towns.
“CHPE has fully negotiated and completed PILOT discussions with all involved taxing jurisdictions in Rockland County, creating revenue certainty for years to come. Construction of the CHPE transmission line will wrap up in Rockland this fall, and the project will begin operation in Spring of 2026.”
Prior to construction, CHPE secured agreements with affected towns and villages to utilize the rights-of-way owned by municipalities. The Town of Haverstraw got $6.8 million for a Community Fund; the Village of Haverstraw, $3.5 million for a Community Fund, and $3.85 million for a Streetscape Fund; the Village of West Haverstraw got $2.5 million for a Community Fund and $2.23 million for a Streetscape Fund; and the Town Clarkstown scored $3.9 million for a Community Fund. The Town of Stony Point is slated to receive $5.3 million for capital improvements, with $2.9 million for road improvements once the project is completed.
On Oct. 6th, Lawler called a press conference to criticize New York State and CHPE for leaving businesses in the 9W corridor in a financial lurch. He, along with town, county and state officials who’ve held previous press conferences to air concerns about CHPE’s devastating construction project, was unable ride to the rescue with federal dollars.
In response to our request for comment after Lawler’s press conference, a spokesperson from the Governor’s office said: “The Champlain Hudson Power Express is a critical clean energy project that advances the Governor’s key priorities of ensuring a reliable grid that will keep the lights and heat on for New Yorkers while boosting the state’s business climate. The contract the state signed with project developer TDI provided for tens of millions of dollars in local community benefits and hundreds of millions of dollars in local tax revenue, on top of any money TDI agreed to provide to impacted businesses. We would expect the company to continue to work with the community to mitigate any impacts.”
“CHPE when it it becomes operational next year will deliver 20 percent of New York City’s energy, all of it clean, making up much of the clean energy lost with the closing of Indian Point,” he added.
Reiterating his feeling that politicians have been using the issue to boost their political profiles during election season, Alexander called Lawler’s conference a “political stunt,” adding that the Congressman falsely took credit for the re-opening of the James Farley Bridge.
He added, “People keep saying they’re helping us, but no one is showing up for me, no one is taking it to the next level. We’ve gone all around, and it’s falling on deaf ears.”
About a dozen businesses showed up at Tuesday’s press conference to share anecdotes of woe. The press conference was held at Global Collision on Route 9W in Congers. No Clarkstown officials were at the meeting. Beckerle Lumber explained how business at two of its four locations (the ones in North Rockland and Congers) have been negatively impacted by the project. Stephen Beckerle said business is down by 20 percent at the Haverstraw location and 15 percent at the Congers site.
“But our other locations have not been affected,” he said.
Ortt, the Senate Minority Leader whose district covers the region around Buffalo, said he came to the press conference to familiarize himself with the issue.
It is an “unfortunate reality to crush and wipe out the backbone of our economy,” he said, referring to small businesses. “We have to do something.” He added, “You have to pile on or shame people to do the right thing. The governor really has to be involved.”
The state senators, along with Day, believe applying pressure to the governor, or having the governor lean on CHPE, is the route to bringing relief to the business community.
Day says a threat to withhold his signature on a PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) agreement he negotiated with CHPE might bring them to the table to negotiate. He is hoping a tactical ploy will bring CHPE to the table to cough up more funds to assist businesses that have been negatively impacted by the pipeline project. However, even if the county does withhold the PILOT – and CHPE is on the hook for more taxes over a 30-year period – the difference in monies does not translate to the businesses or residents seeing a penny of those taxes to compensate for losses. Those with knowledge of the agreement say the county cannot legally use public funds to make residents or businesses whole.
