Trustees Commend Firefighters at July 13 Meeting

Before the Board of Trustees meeting that took place on Tuesday July 13th, there was a Law Committee meeting to review a lease agreement on Weaver Street. This was discussed quickly and behind closed doors and a decision was not made at that time. In addition, the trustees discussed and decided to cancel the Land Use meeting that was scheduled for Wednesday July 14th.

Mayor Stevens opened the July 13th meeting and Trustee Eisenman began by discussing Scarsdale’s bills and payroll. Mayor Stevens followed with her comments. She discussed Scarsdale’s water conservation and the restrictions on lawn watering that are now in place (the details of which can be viewed on the village’s website). Mayor Stevens commented that many residents have called her questioning the need for the new water restrictions since there is currently no drought. She explained that Scarsdale is facing serious water pressure issues especially between 5 and 8:30 AM, a problem to which sprinklers, are contributing. In addition, the village is experiencing issues with pumps and the backup pumping station is not working properly. Public safety is a serious concern if the water issues do not get resolved, which is why the restrictions are in place. However, Mayor Stevens noted that a number of residents do seem to be complying with the new restrictions and she thanked them for that.

Mayor Stevens also discussed the power outages that many residents experienced last Wednesday that were the result of a Con Ed sub-station outage. She said that Con Ed had a rather quick response to the problem by rerouting and installing several generators. Most people regained power by 9 PM the same night as the outage. Mayor Stevens continued by discussing two resolutions, one regarding the Open Space Fund and the other regarding the Ad Hoc Traffic Committee. The resolution regarding the Open Space Fund provides staff the ability to, among other things, research space for the adoption procedure if Scarsdale ends up using the fund. Mayor Stevens noted that communities that used the Open Space Fund had a positive experience and now have much greener space. The resolution regarding the Ad Hoc Traffic Committee is a resolution to begin exploring the feasibility of building a modern roundabout at the Heathcote Five Corners.

Trustee Toder continued after Mayors Stevens finished and commented on the Scarsdale firefighters’ response to the July 7th fire in Bengal Tiger, noting that the Scarsdale Fire Station’s Ladder 28 really helped with the response. 180,000 gallons of water flowed from Ladder 28 to help put out the fire. Trustee Toder said that the village was very proud of Scarsdale’s career firefighters for their bravery and of the volunteer firefighters for helping at the station while the career firefighters were in White Plains.

Village Manager Gatta discussed the construction going on in the village of Scarsdale on the bridge by the train station. While the construction has in fact been going on for awhile, it is now very visible and detours are in place diverting traffic (including pedestrian traffic). The detours will remain in place for the next 18 months. The first day of the detours, Tuesday July 13th, resulted in a lot of confusion among commuters and residents. Many people were ignoring the barricades completely. Mr. Gatta asked people to do their best to follow the detours, and he hopes people will get used to the changes. He advised commuters to leave an extra 2 or 3 minutes earlier than they normally would. Details of the detour can be found on the village’s website.

After a couple of comments and announcements from people viewing the meeting, the the trustees continued with the resolutions for the meeting. Trustee Toder presented a resolution on the Scarsdale Uniformed Firefighters Association “Day in the Country Event” to raise money for the Manhattan based Ronald McDonald house. The resolution, which was approved by the Village Board, approved the use of the Crossway Firehouse and the Scarsdale pool on July 29, 2010 for the “Day in the Country.” Trustee Toder then presented a resolution regarding the subdivision recreation fee of 123 Brambach Road. The resolution passed. Trustee Totdr also presented a resolution regarding the adoption in Scarsdale of “The Hudson Valley Preservation Act” and the establishment of an Open Space Preservation Fund. The Village staff is going to research what would be required to implement a community preservation fund, and to determine if such a fund would be beneficial to Scarsdale.

Several other resolutions were presented and approved; the acceptance of a gift by the Board of Trustees from Citibabes for cosponsoring an event, the establishment of mandatory laws for watering restrictions (making the voluntary restrictions in place since June 21, 2007 mandatory), the request for proposals for traffic engineering services for the roundabout at the Five Corners (as mentioned earlier), the approval of the Scarsdale Sidewalk Sale for July 29, 30, and 31, the participation in the Mutual Aid and Rapid Response Plan Intermunicipal Agreement, and the authorization of the Village Manager to execute the furnishing and delivery of one police motorcycle to NewRoc Harley-Davidson.