Did Anyone Bother to Tell the Grand Rebbe about all those OSHA complaints?
The plot behind that fire truck with the Island Time ad thickens.
According to the people at Daily Monroe, this time last year, the Satmar Grand Rebbe—not identified by name—came to South Blooming Grove to observe the construction of the Island Time Supermarket at 700 N.Y. Route 208. Below is what the property looks like at the time, according to Google Maps.
Now, I have to confess, it’s not clear which Grand Rebbe appeared. This is likely deliberate on the part of Daily Monroe and the rest of the websites in their news network.
This is because, as fellow goyim know, Grand Rebbe Aaron Teitelbaum (Kiryas Joel, head of the Aaronite faction of the Satmar) is in a blood feud with his brother, Grand Rebbe Zalman Teitelbaum.
Zalman is head of the Satmar down in Boro Park, where the Daily Monroe has a sister website known as Boro Park 24.
It’s not good business to recognize the opposing Rebbe, especially when your news may require the blessing of Hanhalla (leadership or administration) prior to publication.
The Rebbes, because they’re brothers, also look a lot alike. (Aaron is older.) So I really can’t tell from these pictures which one it is. But one detail suggests who it may be.
Zalman’s flunky, Joel Stern, “runs” South Blooming Grove as the unelected “Village Executive.” So, while it remains a guess on our part, we’re assuming the man pictured is Zalman (center), with the belief that Stern is pictured at the front next to him.
(We tried a TinEye reverse image search to confirm the identity of the men in the photo with no such luck. From seeing him in person, the man at the front center does look like Stern.)
Update: A couple of readers confirm that is Zalman in the picture, but not Joel Stern next to him. According to them, it’s not Stern, but one of Zalman’s assistants. On the far left is Livy Schwartz, the developer of the Greens at Chester. We’ll talk about him in the future.
Which Grand Rebbe appeared doesn't matter too much beyond the fact that one of them did, and they visited a construction site that came to be known for a lot of safety issues that the Village of South Blooming Grove's Village Executive, Joel Stern, apparently couldn't be bothered to address.
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Pictured Above: Photos from DailyMonroe.com depict the current state of the Island Time Supermarket a year, and a bunch of OSHA violations later, in July 2026.
We’ve talked before about Guilmar Montufar v. Keen Equities, so potential criminal negligence when it comes to construction sites in South Blooming Grove shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.
Neither should the increase in accidents occurring on South Blooming Grove’s side of 208 (once you’re past the Orange and Rockland building).
If you’re mad about the road conditions, the people to blame are Joel Stern and Isaac Ekstein for fast-tracking the construction of a city on rural infrastructure because their boss (Grand Rebbe Zalman Leib Teitelbaum) wants to circle Kiryas Joel and cut off its ability to grow. It is nobody’s fault but their own.
That’s why all those accidents keep happening, and despite the human toll, Stern and Ekstein will continue to use this as “proof” that they need their Mangin Bypass through Gonzaga Park.
They’ve been beating that drum forever now. (We’ll circle back to that latest iteration involving Monroe Mayor Alex Melchiorrie on Monday.)
What also won’t come as a surprise is that the Village’s Code Enforcement Officer, Fusco Engineering & Land Surveying, remains nowhere to be found—despite the firm’s frequent claims to residents to the contrary.
For years, the Village of South Blooming Grove has refused to turn over any emails sent by Fusco and his team, claiming they did not exist.
We can now, thanks to that big Department of Health data dump, demonstrate the existence of those emails.
And there are LOTS of these emails from Team Fusco that demonstrate they are actively engaging on behalf of the Village in them.
So we submitted a new FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) request to the Village of South Blooming Grove the other day. Want to see it?
Let’s Talk OSHA
If you're not familiar, OSHA stands for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. They cited Total Property Care Inc., the crew building the Island Time Supermarket, five times just weeks before whichever Grand Rebbe decided to come and "bless" the project. Of the violations, two are labeled as Serious.
(By the way: If you’re wondering if Total Concrete Inc. is related to Total Property Care, there’s no conclusive proof it’s the same but there’s definitely overlap with the usual suspects, including local slum lord, Moche Halpern.)
The mailing address for Total Property Care Inc. given to OSHA is 14 Fort Worth Place, which is owned by Lazer Weiss.
Where have we heard that name before on The Monroe Gazette?
Here’s where else you saw it:
Dorey “I Spent Almost $500,000 On Racist TV Ads” Houle took $3,300 from Lazer Weiss during her previous campaign for State Senate.
This $3,300 from Lazer Weiss is the single largest campaign contribution Dorey Houle received from an individual in 2024. It is also the only political campaign contribution made by Mr. Weiss — assuming he’s not the same Lazer Weiss living in Brooklyn. Since names are commonly recycled in the Haredi community, you can’t assume they are one and the same. (However … I am currently looking into some court documents that may suggest otherwise. I’ll let you know.)
So, color me puzzled every time Dorey Houle and her friends, the Monroe Town Republicans, are constantly ranting about “The Hassidim.”
Maybe Dorey Houle can explain to us why Lazer Weiss gave her so much money the next time she shows up at a Monroe Town Board meeting to talk about public accountability?
More importantly: Weiss is also the Second Assistant Chief of South Blooming Grove Fire Department 1. This is the fake, play time fire department Joel Stern set up as part of his wider scheme of putting as much state and federal money into his pockets as he can.
This is also the same fire company with the Island Time Supermarket advertisement on its fire truck. The one where Mr. Lazer Weiss, who is doing the construction work for Island Time Supermarket, is a Second Assistant Chief.
So here’s a fun question to ponder while we continue our investigation:
Who paid for the fire truck, and if it wasn’t Island Time Supermarket, why is Island Time Supermarket being advertised on a truck in a fire department where the Second Assistant Chief is assisting in the construction of the supermarket?