News From Scarsdale Village Hall re: COVID, Downtown Business and the Library

Drawing by Yanjun LiCOVID continues to dominate Village business, affecting all areas of residents’ lives and goings on at Village Hall, where there is a 50% staff reduction to limit COVID exposure. At the Board of Trustees meeting on December 8, Mayor Samwick sounded the alarm about a dramatic increase in local cases, as Scarsdale’s active case count has risen from 9 to 67 in just one month, with 44 new cases in the past week. He warned that the virus appears to be spreading inside households and asked residents to be vigilant and wear masks.

The meeting followed a public work session on proposed renovations to Freightway Garage and during public comments at the Village Board meeting Robert Berg and Robert Harrison both commented on what should be done at the site. Berg said he had wanted to offer input at the session but was not given the opportunity and said, “I think the Freightway Project should be put in a deep freeze.” He asked that any funds that were allocated toward development at the Freightway site be used for the maintenance of the existing garage. Harrison also said he wanted to comment at Board of Trustee work sessions.

Liaison Reports:

Trustee Justin Arest read a statement from the Reopening Task Force that was created to assist Scarsdale business owners during COVID. Though the dining tent in the Village has been taken down and the picnic tables will be removed the group is doing research and gathering information and ideas on what additional measures can be taken to improve business in Scarsdale.

Their “goal continues to be removing all unnecessary red tape and providing support to the community so that we can offset the horrible impact of COVID-19 and the associated restrictions on businesses to the extent possible,” and they invite resident to share their ideas by emailing [email protected].

In the meantime, they asked the Village Board to amend Village code to allow merchants, restaurants and service providers to use the sidewalks in the Village to conduct business. They may also ask the Board to fund a long-term planning study to determine the community’s vision.

Trustee Lena Crandall highlighted a free exercise program via Zoom offered to seniors via the Scarsdale Recreation Department. Information on the program can be found here: 

She also said that due to COVID, the Arthur Manor Association will not be able to hold their annual tree lighting and sing this year but that they thanked the Village for the putting up the holiday lights in Davis Park.

Trustee Rochelle Waldman provided an update on activities at the library on Olmsted Road. Contactless pick up and drop off is available at the new library and they have expanded their hours. Find information about picking up materials here. They will revise their schedule based on demand. The new café is open and available for breakfast and lunch pick-up and you can find their menu here. 

Other Business:

In other business, the Board accepted a gift of $1,000 from Sang Han of Paddington Road to the Scarsdale Fire Department for support training, safety and operational efficacy of career and volunteer firefighters.

They approved a Memorandum of Agreement with the Uniformed Firefighters Association of Scarsdale.

They approved a resolution to award a contract for fluoridation and water quality improvements at Reeves Newsom Water Supply Station.

During the meeting of the Town of Scarsdale, the Board approved resolutions naming Anna Scaglione as the custodian of taxes, naming the Scarsdale Inquirer and the Journal News as town newspapers, naming several banks as official depositories, naming O’Connor Davies LLP as independent auditors and approving that Village meetings can be held via Zoom.