Politics & Government

Tombstone a 'Death Wish' to Republican Candidates?

Democrat Yazdi says he has no ill intentions and only wants to send a message.

A Republican candidate for called the Halloween decorations that bear her name on an opponent's front lawn "shameful" Thursday and said she "can't say" that the intentions of the decoration are not harmful against her.

Mixed in with a set of Halloween decoration tombstones on Democratic council candidate Ray Yazdi's front lawn are several tombstones that contain campaign messaging, including one that has the names of Republican candidates Linda Huntley and Ron Caputo on it.

Yazdi said the decoration, which reads "Huntley and Caputo will make every excuse to cancel our town events," is not meant to be harmful to either of the candidates. However, Caputo's wife, Judy, wrote in a Letter to the Editor that she considers this to be a "death wish."

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"This 'death wish' is a form of bullying and as our town was recently , this tombstone sends the message to children that bullying is OK with the Democrat candidates. It is not," she wrote.

Ron Caputo declined to comment about the tombstone.

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When asked if she thought the display was a "death wish," Huntley said, "I would certainly hope not, but the way that they've treated us, I can't say that."

"I think it's shameful," she said. "I have a huge front yard and I would never think of doing something like that."

Yazdi said the decorations are not a "death wish."

"A death wish? Absolutely not," he said. I respect them very much."

Yazdi said his friends and neighbors got together and decided to put the tombstones out to send a message that the residents of Bloomingdale are frustrated that events, such as the , were canceled. Yazdi also considers Nightmare on Bailey Avenue, a Halloween event that he has helped produce for the past six years, to also have been canceled.

For the past five years, the event has been public to the borough, with the borough blocking off the roadway, allowing residents from surrounding neighborhoods to gather on Bailey Avenue for Halloween festivities. Yazdi and his neighbors would construct haunted houses and props and the Bloomingdale Recreation Commission has reimbursed them between $1,200 and $1,300 per year for materials used since the entire community attended, about 1,000 people per year, Yazdi said. Yazdi said the costs of paying for costumes came out of his own pocket and he also donated the manpower.

In May, Huntley said the event will no longer be public and that the Bailey Avenue residents could continue the event privately if they wish, but that they would not be reimbursed. Yazdi said that by making the event public to the community and blocking off the road, attendees are granted the safety needed with such a high volume of residents on the road.

"If they don't do what they normally do, now I'm creating a nightmare, a true nightmare, because cars are going to come through and they're going to clip someone," he said.

But Huntley said Thursday that Yazdi and his neighbors could have still requested that the road be blocked off for the event, but that no one has done so.

"They'd have to come in and ask for it. They never came in," she said.

Yazdi maintains that he was not given permission to hold the event.

"They told me 'Sit down, it's over,'" he said.

"[The decorations] serve two things: One, it's to let everyone know that [the event's] not going to happen this year and here's the reason why it's not going to happen this year and two, if you want it back here's the people who are going to put it back," he said.

When asked if he has any intentions to take the tombstone down, Yazdi said "no."

"It is my property so the answer is absolutely no," he said. "If they're putting signs up lying saying 'It's all about taxes,' I can do whatever I want on my property."


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