Scarsdale Wins Award for Christie Place Development

Here are remarks from Mayor Carolyn Stevens made at a joint meeting of the Village Trustees and Board of Education on May 27.  Earlier this week I attended the New York Conference of Mayors (NYCOM) Annual meeting in Saratoga, New York. One of the reasons I attended was that Scarsdale was awarded First Place in the area of Economic Development for the Christie Place development. NYCOM found the project to be an innovative and creative. The project, as many of you know, involved a public/private partnership, that provided the Village with many benefits, including much needed parking, senior housing, and accessibility to transportation, while adding to the vitality of the Village center with retail on the first level and housing above. In addition, the development provides the Village with several streams of revenue. For all these reasons, the NYCOM board found the project to be a model of progressive and innovative problem solving. While I accepted the award at the dinner last Sunday, it really belongs to former Mayor Beverly Sved and the trustees who worked with her to create a better solution. I would be remiss if I also didn’t mention Abby Stillman – a resident who first raised the concept in conversations with Beverly and other board members as well as Doug Brout who had vision and perfect timing.

I learned a lot while at the conference on governmental issues but what I learned about our own government and staff was perhaps most interesting. There are a number of communities in the state with serious economic issues that threaten their very existence, while we are extremely well run and on sound financial footing. I found that this Village has produced a number of professionals in government who now occupy positions in a number of communities throughout the state. I learned how well respected our professional staff members are regarded among their peers and how well the staff informs the Board on issues and governmental principles, and how well we are kept a breast of the ‘best practices’ for governmental practices and processes. Sometimes when we are close to a situation and focused on how we can do things better we lose site of our well trained, dedicated and highly professional staff and the service they provide to our Village and its residents. That does not mean that we do not seek to constantly improve our practices and services but it does mean that we should acknowledge the high level of professionalism out staff provides. So I personally want to thank Al Gatta and all of the staff for their dedication to good government and for the high level of professionalism they bring to their positions.

I would also like to remind folks to patronize our farmer’s market that has moved out doors at Village Hall parking lot.

This weekend is Memorial Day. While I recognize for many this signals the beginning of summer, barbeques and the beach or pool, the day is about remembrance…remembrance of those who gave their lives and continue to give their lives today in Afghanistan and Iraq. Please take some time to remember why we have the day off. It is to pay tribute to those who are not here to share in our festivities but whose blood has made them possible. So come to our parade, sponsored by the American Legion on Monday and bring your children or grandchildren so that they might understand the meaning of the day, or visit our lovely memorial garden and learn the history of Scarsdalians’ contributions to the armed conflicts our nation. If nothing else, take some time out of your day to pay tribute and remember those who died so that we might enjoy our freedom.