The United States Congress will earmark $118,750 for improvements at E Hartsdale Ave as part of the Omnibus Appropriations Act, according to Congresswoman Nita Lowey, a member of the House Appropriations Committee.
The town will also receive $76,000 for equipment and training for the Greenburgh police department. Congresswoman Lowey successfully lobbied her colleagues to include funding for these initiatives in the Omnibus Appropriations Act.
The main business section of E Hartsdale Ave is currently experiencing an economic turnaround.The turnaround is a big success story. About two years ago almost half the stores were forced to close for weeks (some for months) because of flood damage after a storm. TODAY THE MAIN BUSINESS SECTION OF E HARTSDALE AVE (between the drug store and train station) IS 100% OCCUPIED OR RENTED. A clothing store (the first clothing store in at least two decades) opened up late last year. A new bank is opening soon. Two new restaurants will open soon (including an indian restaurant). Ironically, when the economy was good - E Hartsdale Ave had many vacancies. Today, the nation is experiencing a recession and the downtown area is 100% occupied or rented.
The funds that Congresswoman Lowey secured for our downtown E Hartsdale Ave will be put to good use - to enhance the avenue, to make it look more attractive. These enhancements will help the town in our continuing efforts to make the avenue a desirable place for businesss.
UNINCORPORATED GREENBURGH AND VILLAGES WITHIN GREENBURGH WILL RECEIVE FOLLOWING GRANTS:
The Omnibus Appropriations Act contains the following federal investments in towns and villages in Westchester
• $167,000 for to revitalize the shoreline in the Village of Tarrytown
• $118,750 to make lighting and pedestrian improvements at Hartsdale Hamlet Center in the Town of Greenburgh
• o $76,000 for equipment and training for the Greenburgh Police Department
o $40,000 for video systems for Ardsley Police Department police cars
o $45,000 for a fingerprint reader for Dobbs Ferry Police Department
o $50,000 for Elmsford Police Department to purchase closed circuit cameras
o $56,500 for Hastings Police Department to purchase vehicle recorders and radar units
o $35,000 for Irvington Police Department to purchase a license plate reader
o $59,100 for police equipment for Tarrytown Village
PAUL FEINER
Greenburgh Town Supervisor
29 comments:
Think about it, if all the police departments consolidated they would not have to use the money to by equipment that the others have like fingerprint or license plate readers.
None of the money for East Hartsdale Avenue will be used for flood mitigation, which is the one thing that, if left unaddressed (as Feiner has done), could conceivably destroy the Hartsdale business sector once the next nor'easter strikes. If there is one project in unincorporated Greenburgh that should have been "shovel-ready," in time for the stimulus package, it should have been flood mitigation for East Hartsdale Avenue. Ask the former owners of Lia's Restaurant what it felt like to lose their savings when the flood struck. Ask them if they were ever able to get their business back on its feet after that. Greenburgh desperately needs new leadership that is able to address these issues.
Hear, hear! 6:43!
Not to mention that the flood was due to negligence on the towns part to have addressed the problem sewers when they were notified by Hartsdale Parking about it and when HPPD sent a video inspection of the issues.
The flood study that the town commissioned found that the town was not negligent.
Rumor has it that the Supervisor is pursuing another grant for flood mitigation and has been making progress. The flood mitigation cannot be limited to E Hartsdale Ave and will cover a broader area.
*waves to Paul @ 7:20 & 7:21*
Ya don't say? IIRC that flood study didn't say much of anything.
Great news!
Now the expired contract with the sculpture curator need not be renewed.
Hartsdale can survive on its own.
Since the exhibit is there on borrowed time, would the Town Board or the Parks Department see that it is removed.
Anon 6:39 PM
Get you facts straitght.
Your statement is an outright lie.
Can you read the report!
The town had nothing to do with the problem of the clogging.
Dear Walter,
Are you aware that the Town Board did not accept the report, sent it back and then sat on it for months until public pressure forced its release.
Not unlike the release of the Town Budget just last week (filed by the Town Comptroller the first week of January) or the NYS Comptroller's Report on WESThelp or the recent report on the Court accounting.
I guess if you work as a Town Consultant and want to get paid for your work, your report needs to follow the prevalent interpretation of an Appraiser's credentials:
MAI (made as instructed).
The Town Board and I never advised anyone not to post the budget on the web. I have always believed in open government. In the past the budget was posted on our web almost immediately after it wss adopted. This is the approach I feel should take place.
Dear Paul,
So in all the time that the public kept asking where was the budget, what do you offer as the reason it was not posted?
It wasn't as though you missed posting it by a day or two.
As the head of the government, please explain why it did not get posted, especially since you indicate that was the practice in the past.
The Comptroller didn't object and now you write that the Town Board didn't object. Whose fault is it?
The adopted budget would never have been posted online were it not for the intervention of the Journal News which informed Feiner that it was planning to run a story on the budget not being posted -- and residents complaining about it. Does anyone want to see the proof that this is so?
What did the Hartsdale flood report say? Is it posted somewhere?
GREENBURGH - Confusion over an internal memo about procedures for requesting town documents has some residents in an uproar.
The Feb. 11 e-mailed memo says any town document must be approved or accepted by the Town Board before it can be released to the public through the Freedom of Information Law. It says that, before the approval, the document is not considered an official town document.
It was issued to department heads from the Town Clerk's Office a day after the Town Board agreed to its terms and just weeks after Greenburgh passed a policy to enforce a 25-cent-per-page fee for copies of documents.
Edgemont Community Council President Bob Bernstein said the memo continues the town's "circle-the-wagons" approach to open government.
"What's more important than letting the people see a document for public input?" he said. "This is part of a pattern of a town we see running amok."
Bernstein said the policy, which has since been rescinded by the Town Board, was enacted to block people from getting a copy of an independent audit that criticized the Town Court's handling of money and prevented them from speaking out at a Town Board meeting. Although the memo said "any document," Supervisor Paul Feiner said it was not a new policy and pertained only to the court audit.
Feiner said the Town Board misinterpreted a Feb. 5 memo from Michael Kolesar, the town comptroller, thinking it had to "accept" the audit before making it available to the public. The comptroller's e-mail included an eight-step procedure to handle the final draft of the court audit, which included accepting the report and sending a copy to the state. Feiner said the board thought there was a different procedure for handling the document because it involved the state court system, which appointed an overseer for the Greenburgh court last year.
Kolesar said the Town Board did not contact him for clarification of his memo.
After being contacted by Kolesar, the state Committee on Open Government sent a letter to the town last week, saying the internal memo violated state law.
"Clearly, it was a public document the day we received it," he said.
Kolesar said he received the audit in January.
Councilman Francis Sheehan said the comptroller did not tell the board, town clerk or town attorney that he was seeking an advisory opinion from the state.
"It's a bizarre circumstance when you have a town employee making a recommendation, then secretly writing to a state committee to get an opinion about the legality of it," he said.
Kolesar said he didn't want to "second guess" the Town Board and town attorney, so he sought an opinion from the state.
Town Justice Sandra Forster said the town has dragged its feet to complete and release the audit. A draft of it was released a year ago.
"It's taxpayer dollars used for the audit, and it should be available to them immediately," she said.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
With guns blazing, the Greenburgh SWAT Team rescued workers trapped in a bathroom for three hours. What's next Paul, calling in the National Guard to resuce cats in trees????
Obviously our brave SWAT members were concerned with an armed intruder inside the premisis, the question I have is, why wasn't entry made sooner since the concern SHOULD HAVE BEEN innocent civilians inside. Waiting three hours to make a rescue would have ensured innocent deaths. The police should be ashamed of their cowardly behavior. Paul, so should you.
The swat team is Greenburghs new breed of police .
What a shame.....
We pay money for the stupid behavior of this great Swat team.
Why is everybody being a Monday morning quarterback????
The SWAT team went into a possible hostage situation. Whats wrong with that? And why bring the town supervisor into it?
The SWAT TEAM FAILED THE PUBLIC!!!!! If it were a REAL emergency, all innocents inside would be dead. SWAT stands for Special Weapons and Tactics. The TACTICS of the Greenburgh Police to WAIT, WAIT, WAIT for HOURS would result in deaths in a real situation. Feiner is involved because he supports this program financially. If this is the best GPD can do, we should cancel the program and save the hundreds of thousands of dollars. This SWAT team is an EMBARESSMENT!
Wasn't the argument defending the SWAT that by having your own, the response would be quicker.
And that if you had to wait for a nearby commmunity which has (?) one, that "someone could die".
Minutes, seconds were so precious that the State Police which defends White Plains, the County seat, would not be able to arrive in time.
The Greenburgh Police Department budget was prioritized by the creators of "Mary Poppins" song, "Step in time..." however, ask taxpayers if "a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down".
3/2 9:02 AM
Kolesar DOESN'T create problems.
He keeps offering LEGAL and PRUDENT FISCAL solutions to FIVE TONE DEAF PEOPLE and an attorney who should be doing the LEGAL portion...but wants to keep his job.
Yes the GPD were involved in a hostage situation.
BUT please does it take three hours to free someone who is locked in a bathroom.
What if there was a gunman in the bathroom with them?
What if someone was in need of medical attention?
The time they waited to check out the store was a bit too long.
Had they bought in a dog the way I would have handled my men and the situation it would have been over as soon as it started.
This shows the difference between men and boys
Mature thinking men do not join the force anymore so we have to settle for boys who like to play cops.
or maybe your getting old so everyone else seems young or maybe some old man made the procedure that these young men that are protecting the citizens follow
or maybe your getting old so everyone else seems young or maybe some old man made the procedure that these young men that are protecting the citizens follow
Procedures have not changed 'What has changed is the method in which things are handled.
Yes, the new procedure is to wait so long so as to guarantee the death of innocent civilians. Hopefully, the bad guys will have run out of bullets and then GPD will charge in!
Some of this money should be used for additional street tree plantings along the avenue.
One important thing to note: Plant the right tree in the right place.
It seems that money is only available for police equipment - what about the "social" programs which have made Greenburgh the envy of its neighbors?
No one penny for Xposure, TDYCC, or the Job Club -
Doesn't that tell you something about the nonproductive, nonessential nature of those services?
Cut them NOW!
at least the SWAT team didn't throw a stun granade into the wrong store like they did on Manhattan Ave. when they threw it into the wrong apt. resulting in a lawsuit
how about using some of the funds to paint a bike lane on Central avenue - that will in return promote lower carbon emissions, better health and overall better connections among people in the community.,
Post a Comment