Happy Friday! Hope you’ve been able to enjoy the lovely temperatures and longer days this week, especially today!

Before getting into the administrative update for this week, I need to acknowledge a disturbing incident that occurred late last week. A hate symbol was found on the Park School playground. The Community Equity Task Force has issued a statement in light of this and other recent incidents that make clear the need for, to quote directly, “proactive and sustained commitment to racial equity work, both in and out of schools.” You can read the full statement here. You are invited to learn more and get involved in the Task Force’s work. Go to the Email Alerts signup page of the Town of Ossining website, enter your name and email address, and then click “Manage Subscriptions” to add yourself to the Community Equity Task Force list.  

In other news, we are approaching the end of our Comprehensive Plan drafting process! For those who are new to the Update, click here to read more about our Comprehensive Plan, called “Sustainable Ossining.” Our Comprehensive Plan will guide all land use planning and decision-making processes for the next decade; if you want to have a say, now is the time! The public hearing on the draft plan and objectives will be reopened during the March 22 Town Board meeting, as mentioned in a previous Update. It will likely be extended to at least the April 12 meeting. Both of those meetings will be held hybrid - Zoom and in person with Zoom info posted to our website the Friday before.  The public hearings are always at the top of our agenda - right at 7:30pm - so if you would like to speak, please be sure to come on time.  If that timing is challenging for you, you can always provide written comment as part of the public record in between meetings (or in addition to meetings, if you have more to contribute) by emailing the Town Clerk at . We anticipate having a revised draft of the comp plan by the end of March, in advance of our April 12 meeting.

This is the product of over 2 years of work - we started in January 2020! - with virtual and in person engagement, with hundreds of participants in Zoom meetings, surveys, pop-up events, posters, etc.  The draft plan has been available for public review since February 1.  Huge thanks to our Steering Committee – comprised of residents, business owners, and other stakeholders – for their careful review, outreach to the community, and input throughout the process.

In other sustainability news, this week’s Board meeting also featured an update on the Westchester Power Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) Program from Sustainable Westchester. In addition to the environmental benefits of the 100% green option, this program has been particularly beneficial to Town residents in recent months as Con Ed electricity supply rates have skyrocketed, while those who are in the CCA have continued to enjoy fixed rates. 

We also began discussing possible balloon release legislation, to address the problem of balloons and other ceremonial objects being released in our parks and public spaces to commemorate, celebrate, or memorialize. As beautiful as these tributes are, the balloons or lanterns do eventually fall or end up in the water on land as litter,  and can harm living creatures and our ecosystem. Special thanks to Councilwoman Liz Feldman, who has become somewhat of a balloon expert in recent weeks! You can watch the meeting and these discussions here at our YouTube channel.

Congratulations are in order for a number of Ossinauts this week. Read all about it in the Congrats section of the Update! 

Lastly, calling all vendors who will want to be part of the upcoming Earth Day celebration on Saturday, April 23. Though the big day seems far away, the deadline to submit a vendor application is next Friday, March 25. Learn more at www.greenossining.org/earth-day-festival!

We will see you soon - stay safe and be well!

--Dana

If your business, non-profit, or community group has an event that you would like to submit to be a part of the Supervisor's Update, please email a flier and brief description to . We are happy to pass along events that provide a benefit to the community and support our local economy. Thank you for helping us to highlight all the best Ossining has to offer!

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