Dueling noses: Vinnie and Vito go at it over Owls Head

January 27, 2007
Dueling noses: Vinnie and Vito go at it over Owls Head
By Matthew Lysiak
The Brooklyn Paper

Councilman Vince Gentile and Rep. Vito Fossella haven’t always seen things eye to eye — and now you can add their noses into the equation.

While Gentile (D-Bay Ridge) is still fuming about the city’s slow response to the stink at the Owls Head sewage treatment plant, Fossella (R-Bay Ridge) said the mayor and his Department of Environmental Protection have come out of the nasty fight smelling like roses.

“The DEP has been less than forthright about the status of the plant,” Gentile told the mayor in a Jan. 16 letter. “They have failed in their commitment to the Bay Ridge community.”

Gentile also questioned Hizzoner’s commitment to dealing with the odor problem “in a timely manner.”

“As it currently stands, the [smell-fixing work] will not be completed until 2010, due, in part, to the DEP having fallen off its initial schedule,” Gentile wrote. “The residents in my district have been dealing with the odor problem … for many years now.”

But in politically fractured Bay Ridge, there are two sides to every story — and Fossella had his.

“I applaud Mayor Bloomberg for agreeing to take immediate action to resolve this problem,” Fossella said in a press release this week.

Fossella did urge the DEP to 0p the installation of the remaining seven of nine sewage tank covers, but still commended Bloomberg and the DEP “for keeping its promise to Bay Ridge to clear the air from Owls Head.”

He claimed “recent action” by DEP would “help contain the foul odors this spring and summer.”

Taken together, it appears that Bloomberg is breaking his commitments and acting negligently while keeping his promises and acting quickly at the same time.

Thank goodness for the two-party system.