More Allegations Against Rhau, et al. I received the following letter on October 14, 2006 from a "concerned taxpayer," which is reprinted here, in part, in order to share it with the public:   Saugerties Central School District in Competition with Local Health Clubs? "Dear Mr. Heidcamp: "You have been doing a great job of exposing the problems that the current school board and Mr. Rhau have created and are continuing to create for Saugerties: "When the Board of Education and Rhau asked the taxpayers to fund the original bond for major renovation and improvements, they had no real plan for spending that money or what it was to be used for. The packet that they presented to the public looked professional and complete but it was only a façade. The whole plan was only conceptual, they had no real clue as to what they would ultimately do and how much it would cost. As you can see, the plan still hasn't been finalized yet. They are still asking for money to cover up for their incompetence. This failure to have a complete plan and present it to the State in a timely manner has resulted in much of the now requested money. This is money that could have been spent to add classrooms or other needed repairs, instead they want to use this EXCEL money to bail them out of Rhau's incompetence and the board's failure to properly supervise him. One of the items kept from the public was the fact that Rhau wants to use the bond money to build a state of the art fitness center in the school. This would be larger than the current fitness centers in town and be outfitted completely with state of the art machines, a professional trainer, and to ease the complaints from the taxpayers, it would be open to the public for a token fee.   A Fiasco in Mt.Marion? "Also, look into the current off budget renovation project at Mt. Marion. They put out bids for this work, only gave the bidders two days to look it over and return the bids. Of course the bids came in way over the original estimate of $200,000. They rejected the bids because they were too high. They hired a contractor to do the work for time and material. The cost of this project is now close to $500,000 and school employee are now having to finish the work because of Rhau's incompetence. They wasted so much money on this project that they had to go to Home Depot for the cheapest replacement windows that they could find, so they could open school on time in September. "Rhau is way over his head in this job. He came from a very small city school district in South West New Jersey. The entire population of the city is only 5,700. He only had three small school buildings to look after. He had less than half of the administration and staff to supervise. When he finally retired after 16-years as superintendent, his major accomplishments were overseeing $5,000,000 renovation bond and starting boys and girls soccer at the district." (As a side opinion (my own), perhaps this is why he was so persistence about pushing for crony Tim Price to oversee the bond project?....GH.)   Complaint Generates Another FOIL With the hope of finding answers to some of the comments and/or questions raised in this letter, I have requested the following information through the FOIL process and, upon receipt, this information will be made public: "Please make available for my review, anything and everything relating to the Renovation Project at the Mount Marion School. This should include, but not be limited to: • initial plans, date thereof, and estimates therefor • all proposals put out for bid, including date(s) put out, how advertised or posted, and due dates for bidding • parties responding together with their estimates, projected costs or straight bid amounts • awarding or non-awarding of job(s), together with information as to basis of decision, and if not awarded, by whom and reason why, including substantiating documents • how the job was completed, e.g. has there been any deviation from the initial plans, and, if so, what the deviation(s) is/are • has the job been completed and by whom • if the job was not awarded, who oversaw the project together with his/her credentials • total detailed cost of job, including equipment and materials,* salaries, professional fees such as architect or attorney, etc., insurance(s) and any and all other costs to complete project in detail (*if materials were purchased separately, from whom and the basis on which they were chosen); and • whether any portions of this project were charged to any other District accounts (a hypothetical example of this would be liability insurance for the project being paid by the "general insurance" account, or equipment rental being absorbed into the account earmarked for another area where equipment is rented) Please also advise whether this job is considered now to be complete."   Bottom Line Not Negated by Walter In closing, and with respect to the "barbed" remark Lanny Walter made about me, I may have been in error as to how long he (Walter) served on the school board but I was not in error as to his vote to give former superintendent Singleton and his wife (non-residents) health insurance at a cost of $12,000 a year for life and that is a FACT! Stay tuned.. George D. Heidcamp, Sr. October 28, 2006