From Village Hall: A Welcome Page for New Residents and Guidelines for Installing a Memorial Tree or Bench

If you’ve ever struggled to navigate the Village website to find vital information from Scarsdale, here’s a URL you’ll want to bookmark:

At the Village Board meeting on May 27, Deputy Mayor Dara Gruenberg announced the launch of a new Welcome Page on the Village website. The page offers links to everything you need to know: How to register your dog, how to pay your taxes, how to sign up for pool permits, important school dates, how to get a library card and lots, lots more. It’s billed as a welcome page for new residents, but current residents will find links to navigate to so much vital information.

Here is a press release from the Village explaining the resource:

The Village of Scarsdale is pleased to announce the launch of its new Welcome Page for New Residents, a digital hub designed to help newcomers seamlessly integrate into the community. This mobile-friendly resource provides essential tools and information to make getting settled in Scarsdale easier than ever.

The Welcome Page was developed as a collaborative effort between Village staff and the Advisory Council on Communications (ACC), reflecting a shared commitment to improving the resident experience through clear, accessible, and user-friendly communication.

Key Features of the Welcome Page:

• New Resident Checklist: A step-by-step guide covering important tasks such as signing up for emergency alerts, reviewing sanitation schedules, registering for recreation programs, and more.

• Community & Recreation Resources: Helpful links for obtaining library cards, purchasing pool passes, and exploring local programs.

• Village Department Contacts: Direct contact info for departments including Building, Clerk, Fire, Police, Public Works, Recreation, Sanitation, Treasurer, and Water.

• Mobile-Friendly Design: The Welcome Page is fully optimized for mobile devices, making it easy to access important information from your phone or tablet, anytime.

“We’re excited to offer this streamlined, mobile-friendly tool to help new residents feel at home right away,” said Deputy Mayor Dara Gruenberg. “It’s part of our broader effort to improve communication and make Village services more accessible.”

Residents can visit the Welcome Page at scarsdale.gov/new-resident. We encourage all residents to review this page, as it highlights a range of village services that are often overlooked yet highly beneficial. For questions or assistance, contact the Village Manager’s Office at 914- 722-1110 or manager@scarsdale.gov.

Memorial Trees and Benches

Have you ever considered planting a tree or donating a bench to memorialize a Scarsdale resident? With the diminishment of the tree canopy due to development, planting a tree in someone’s memory would serve two purposes – it would be a permanent reminder of a member of the Village and would help to defray the loss of trees.

To make this process accessible, the Village Board, Trustees passed a resolution to formalize the procedure for installing a memorial tree, bench or plaque.

The purpose is stated as follows:

“The Village of Scarsdale seeks to honor the memory of deceased residents through meaningful and respectful contributions to public spaces; and memorial donations such as benches or trees with accompanying plaques offer a personal and enduring tribute to loved ones while enhancing the community environment; and a formal Memorial Donation Policy has been developed to establish guidelines for the acceptance, installation, and maintenance of such memorials, ensuring consistency, appropriateness, and sensitivity to the community setting; and the proposed policy outlines procedures for donor applications, eligibility requirements, plaque specifications, Village responsibilities, and long-term terms and conditions.”
Read the entire policy here:

Electric Vehicle Chargers

In other Village business discussed at the meeting, the Board passed a resolution concerning upcoming plans to install electric vehicle chargers in the Village. The resolution standardizes the chargers that will be installed, selecting ChargePoint as the vendor. In brief the resolution says:

"The Village Manager’s Office seeks to standardize the electric vehicle charging stations for public use to be ChargePoint CP6021B 80AMP ®; and the Village Manager’s Office seeks to standardize electric vehicle charging stations for use by the public because (1) ChargePoint® electric vehicle chargers are readily available and ChargePoint® maintains a robust vendor network; (2) ChargePoint® offers a wide array of services making it more effective and efficient for the Village’s purposes; (3) ChargePoint® offers electric vehicle chargers which are compatible with several makes and models of electric vehicles thereby increasing effectiveness and efficiency for public use; (4) standardization of electric vehicle charging stations for public use will be more efficient and economical to maintain and upgrade in the future; (5) standardization will be more efficient and economical to source and stock parts; and (6) standardization will be more efficient and cost effective to train Village staff to maintain and repair only one type of unit.”

Read more here:

Smokestack Lease

Trustees agreed to renew a lease with T-Mobile for the use of the smokestack at 110 Secor Road for telecommunications equipment. The agreement calls for T-Mobile to pay an annual fee of $81,600 for use of the tower with cost escalations for the subsequent years.

See the agreement here:

Public Comments

During public comments the Board heard from Mayra Kirkendall Rodriguez who said that 280 residents from all neighborhoods have signed a petition regarding the village’s intention to install a surveillance system. She said, “I am concerned about opacity. I have been emailing the Board but most of my questions remain unanswered>”
“I receive the Flock contract and annual crime data from Scarsdale which shows that Scarsdale crime is at a 16-year low. I did receive some documents regarding the grant that the Village has applied for....Did you speak to any residents before the vote? Any foreign-born people? Lawyers? Risk assessment experts? Why won’t you hold a meeting now? How could you vote on this when two new trustees had just been brought on board? How did they get up to speed? How is it that it could not be put on the main agenda? I would appreciate a response.”
She then said, “I am the daughter of a veteran who landed on Omaha Beach on DDay. He came back and had 15 children – I am number 10…. I have zero intent of giving up until I get a reply from you.”

Marian Green from the Council on People with Disabilities spoke about the “disintegrating condition of sidewalks.” She said the last time she raised this at a meeting she was told, the sidewalks were “not in the budget.”
She said, “We met with Jeff Coleman and Dave Goessl. We came away impressed by their expertise but with the idea that their hands were tied.”

She continued, “There are 20 miles of sidewalks – compared to 80 miles of roads. 50% range from fail to fair – the other 50% have a passing grade. It is a fools errand to continue to use asphalt to repair the sidewalks. It is not cost effective. It is crumbling infrastructure. We are requesting a line item in the budget for a successful conveyance. The Empire State Building was built in less than a year and a half. I think we can rectify this in less that 7 years.”

Elizabeth Lawrence from 7 Walworth also spoke about the sidewalks. She said, “I have lived here and paid taxes since 1986. I am disappointed in your response. I was a principal in the Bronx – when things went wrong in my school I addressed them. My budget was skimpy. But I found the funds somewhere. I managed everything. I pointed out that the light on the handicapped ramp is out – 3 months ago – it is still not fixed. I am angry and you can understand why. It’s the same attitude about the sidewalk between Greenacres and Fenimore Road. My PT therapist says it’s too dangerous to walk there. Next to Hitchcock they have a good sidewalk. It’s shameful – I don’t find it to be a suburban paradise.”

Village Manager Alex Marshall responded to Lawrence and said, “I spoke to the public works staff. We are continuing to discuss this and will meet to address this. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We will follow up about the light on the ramp immediately.”