Back in mid-2011, I wrote about the arrival of the Rockland Boulders onto the minor league baseball scene in the region.
The site, not far off the Palisades Parkway, is convenient for Rockland as well as some northern Bergen County residents. It’s also scenic, and the ballpark got good reviews.
But even before it opened, there were concerns, as I noted:
“Voters in the town of Ramapo, which includes Pomona, voted by more than a 2-1 ratio last summer against using public funds to pay for stadium construction. Undaunted, Town Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence and the town board responded by forming the Ramapo Local Development Corp., a quasi-governmental agency, to issue $25 million in bonds…..
An opposition group called Preserve Ramapo faults an economic study’s projections for the park — especially assumptions that the Boulders can attract more than 3,000 paying fans for 50 home games, and that the fields will be rented out extensively by other non-baseball-related activities.
“There’s no way they can get those kinds of numbers,” said Mike Castelluccio, editor of the PreserveRamapo.org website.
…………
Fast forward to last week, when St. Lawrence and others were arrested on “22 charges of federal securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy charges for allegedly selling $150 million in municipal bonds based on fabricated town financial documents.”
St. Lawrence has pled not guilty.
The key relevance to the American Dream Meadowlands project is that the Ramapo stadium bonds were guaranteed by the town, which now stands to be left holding the bag. This is exactly why the $675 million in bonds issued by East Rutherford would be “non-recourse” – meaning, even if the expected revenues fall short, that’s not the town’s problem, it’s the bond buyers’.
