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NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document r h

GIBSON. DUNN & CRUTCHER LLP AAS. A. GIBSON. 1652-1922 LOS ANGELES W. E. DUNN, 1061-1925 LAWYERS 333 SOUTH GRAND AVENUE ALBERT CRUTCHER, 1860.1931 LOS ANGELES. CALIFORNIA 90071.3197 A REGISTERED LIMITED LIAEILITY PARTNERSHIP INCLUDING PROFESSIONAL CORPORATIONS DALLAS CENTURY CITY 1717 MAIN STREET 2029 CENTURY PARK EAST 200 PARK AVENUE DALLAS. TEXAS 75201.7390 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90067-3026 NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10166-0193 DENVER ORANGE COUNTY A PARK PLAZA IBOI CALIFORNIA STREET (212) 351-4000 DENVER. COLORADO 802022641 IRVINE, CALIFORNIA 92614.6557 FACSIMILE: (212) 3514035 SAN DIEGO WASHINGTON

1050 CONNECTICUT AVENUE. N.W. 401 WEST A STREET SAN DIEGO. CALIFORNIA 92101 September 14, 2000 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20036.5306

SAN FRANCISCO PARIS

ONE MONTGOMERY STREET. TELESIS TOWER 104 AVENUE RATMONO POINCARE 5ANFRANCISCO. CALIFORNIA 94104.4505 75116 PARIS. FRANCE

PALO ALTO LONDON 1530 PAGE MILL ROAD 30,35 PALL MALL PALO ALTO. CALIFORNIA 94304.1125 LONDON SWIY SLP

OUR FILE NUMBER WRITER'S DIRECT DIAL NUMBER

(212) 351-3825 04473-00001

Hon. Joel A. Miele, Sr., P.E. Commissioner Department of Environmental Protection 59-17 Junction Blvd. Corona, New York 11368

Re: Abraham Rubashkin

Dear Commissioner Miele:

I appeal to you to review a situation that will result in a terrible injustice absent your intervention.

My client is Abraham Rubashkin, who was the sole shareholder of RPL Realty Corporation (11RPLI'), a New York corporation dissolved in the late 1990s. RPL was the listed owner of a property located at 5301 1st Avenue in Brooklyn (Block 812, Lot 1) that received enormous water bills over a several-year period. With interest and penalties, those bills now exceed $2.4 million and were made part of a lien sale in 1998.

Mr. Rubashkin is a senior citizen who use to operate a textile business there. He left the business to a relative in the early 1980s. Thereafter, the relative ran that business into the ground and apparently failed to pay many bills, including these water bills. Mr. Rubashkin was himself unaware of both the non-payment and the magnitude of these water bills. He advised that he did not receive notice of them and, therefore, was shocked more recently to learn of this huge outstanding liability. Tragically, his relative ran that business into the ground and abandoned the property, which is now in total disrepair.

As the situation now stands, Mr. Rubashkin would like to rehabilitate that abandoned property but could not possibly afford to do so if saddled with such a huge lien. Had he

) NYC-WTC 000137585