Supervisor Blog

So ends another week! Hope you enjoyed the cooler weather and are ready for it to heat up yet again.

Unfortunately, we once again had occasion to observe a moment of silence at the TAown Board meeting this week. Tuesday’s shooting in Uvalde, Texas was disturbing and heartbreaking, especially given the age of most of the victims and coming so quickly on the heels of the shooting in Buffalo. It is long past time for our nation’s leaders to take concrete action to stop the proliferation of guns, particularly assault weapons that enable killers to take dozens of lives in a matter of minutes.

Here in Ossining, we continue to make progress toward a greener, brighter future. With our colleagues in the State legislature wrapping up the 2022 session next week, I have signed on to a few letters advocating for the passage of critical legislation to incentivize and in some cases, require, clean heating and cooling and renewable sources of electricity in buildings. These efforts will move us closer to meeting the goals of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, but it is so important that these efforts are financially and legislatively supported by New York State to make the conversion easier for homeowners and local governments.  I am hopeful that our legislators will pull through to advance this legislation before the end of session.

We also continue important processes that maintain the fiscal health of our community. The Town has completed its annual assessment process for the 2022 assessment roll, and property owners will be receiving New York State Official Change of Assessment Notices in the mail soon. We continue to maintain accurate property assessments at 100% of full market value, as we have since 2016. Please contact the Assessor's office directly at 914-762-8274 if you require more information regarding your 2022 tentative assessment. We’ve also shared videos of Town Assessor Fernando Gonzalez explaining what’s coming in the mail on our Facebook and Instagram pages; click here to view it in English and here for Spanish.

We encourage you to visit the Assessor’s page on the Town website to view property information, a neighborhood map and an interactive sales map display to put your own assessment into context. Note that a change in your property’s assessment does not necessarily indicate that your taxes will change, since the assessment is just one of a few factors that determine tax liability. On average, most properties in the Town of Ossining saw an 11% increase in assessed value. If the increase in your assessed value is at or around an 11% increase, the proportion of your tax burden is not likely to change significantly, nor will your annual tax bill. 

However, if you disagree with your full market value estimate, you are entitled to challenge your assessment through the Board of Assessment Review from June 1 through June 21st, 2022. Grievance applications (form RP-524) are available on the Assessor's page of the Town website. The Assessor's office is open from 8:30 AM until 4:30 PM, Monday through Friday or you can e-mail your Grievance form and supporting documentation to .

No one likes taxes, but without them we wouldn’t have the schools, services and amenities that help us maintain our standard of living. Speaking of amenities - Our Parks Department is in the process of installing a new gaming area next to the pavilion at Ryder. Soon you’ll be able to enjoy lawn games there - consider the pavilion for a summer party! 

Parks has also recently fixed a few of the beds at the Cedar Lane Community Garden! The wood was milled from trees that needed to be cut down in other parks. 

We also continue to seek, and receive, grants that offset costs to taxpayers. This week, the Town Board also signed a contract enabling us to use $250,000 in grant funding from NYSERDA. These funds will allow us to purchase an online permitting software system to make it easier for residents to apply for building permits and increase transparency of our permitting process.  The remaining funds will be used for clean energy projects–we have so many on our list! We are still looking over our options and where the money can be best spent to maximize value and positive impact for the environment.

Speaking of grant-funded projects: be sure to give your input on our shoreline revitalization project! Let us know what you enjoy about the waterfront and how we can design it to be more resilient using this survey link. This survey closes at the end of May, which is rapidly approaching!

This weekend we observe Memorial Day, a time to pause and remember those who have given the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country.  This year, Ossining and Briarcliff celebrations will return to in person parades.  Ossining’s will step off at 9:30am at Croton Ave and Calam Ave, ending at Nelson Park where Ossining’s local veterans will hold a remembrance ceremony.  Briarcliff’s parade will take a new route this year, starting at Todd School at 11:45am, following Pleasantville Road to Law Memorial Park for a memorial service.  

Please note that Town Offices will be closed on Monday, May 30 in observance of Memorial Day. Please check the Waste & Recycling calendar (or better yet, download the Recycle Right app!) to see if there will be any changes to your pickup schedule given the holiday. We also have a 5th Tuesday in May, so we will not be back with a Town Board meeting until June 7. 

Memorial Day is also the unofficial start of summer, and the Spray Park in Engel Park is officially open as of now, for the long weekend, on schedule! (Once again thank you to our Parks staff for making sure it was ready to cool down our kids for the summer!) Cheers to the beginning of summer fun. If you are a business owner or other organization looking to purchase sponsorship in summer events like the Ossining Village Fair or our RiverJam concert series, click here for the Chamber’s Sponsorship Application - the deadline has been extended to June 6. 

For more ideas for what to do this weekend and beyond, keep scrolling! We will see you soon - till then, be safe and healthy. 

--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 complete this form. 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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Happy Friday! Hope the week has treated you kindly.

I started this week with a heavy heart due to the shooting in Buffalo. At this week’s board meeting, we observed a moment of silence for all of the victims. This tragedy is a reminder of the fact that white supremacist extremists are the number one terrorism threat in this country. We must, at all levels of government, wholeheartedly reject racism and hate in all its forms and prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in schools and communities.  We also need to enact common sense gun reform at a federal level and strengthen existing laws here in New York State. I applaud the Governor’s recent executive order intended to address domestic terrorism here in New York. Our Community Equity Task Force has also been working on some new programming, including the development of a DEI strategic plan for the community, which I will share more about in an Update in the near future. Let us not allow this tragedy to pass us by without taking meaningful action to ensure these acts of violence are prevented here and nationwide.

Here in the Town, we are gearing up for summer, and in particular, the return of Food Truck Fridays and the Summer Concert Series, which we have renamed Ossining RiverJam to fully encompass and encapsulate the vibe of Summer Fridays at the waterfront. I am so grateful to the Greater Ossining Chamber of Commerce, Sing Sing Kill Brewery, Mike Risko Music, Recreation Department Superintendent Bill Garrison, Brian Sheridan from Hothouse Designs, and most recently Jermain Smith from ENU Builds for helping the Town make these amazing moments possible.

There is really nothing like food, drinks, music and dancing as the sun sets on the Hudson River on a balmy summer night. And with the return of Independence Day fireworks, the Ossining waterfront will definitely be the place to be this summer! We are excited to use the Gatherboard Jermain has brought to our attention as another resource and go-to place for finding and promoting all the wonderful things going on around Ossining.

In more good news, as the weather has been warming up, we’ve been able to resume a number of improvement projects. Our Parks department recently dug trenches in preparation for installing an air source heat pump at Cedar Lane Arts Center, and the pump was powered on for the first time today. Cedar Lane will now have more energy efficient heating *and* cooling – there was no AC before. We're grateful for the NYSERDA Clean Energy Communities grant that is enabling us to make this sustainable improvement!

The parking lot at Ossining Boat and Canoe Club was washed out due to flooding during Tropical Storm Ida. Our Parks Department has made some temporary repairs there as well. We are seeking funding from FEMA for a mitigation project to re-pave this lot with improved drainage so it can be more resilient against future flooding and sea level rise. 

Parks Foreman Mario Velardo also recently met with volunteers from NY/NJ Trail conference to scope out trail work that will begin soon to connect an existing trail network at Ryder Park! 

As you know, we are all about using grant funding to make improvements throughout the Town, to offset the cost to taxpayers. Keeping that in mind, please be sure to give your feedback on the proposed Downtown Revitalization Initiative projects, including the Town’s proposal for a state of the art performance space at Louis Engel Park. Today is the last day to submit feedback via the form, if you haven’t already done so!

And also be sure to give your input on our shoreline revitalization project, funded by a Department of Environmental Conservation grant! Let us know what you enjoy about the waterfront and how we can design it to be more resilient using this survey link. This survey closes at the end of May.

It’s going to be a hot weekend, with lots of fun things to do! Unfortunately, the splash pad will have to wait owing to repairs that could not be squeezed in last minute in order to respond to the 90 degree heat. It will officially open on Memorial Day, on schedule. If you’re looking for a place to beat the heat, the Joseph G. Caputo Community Center will be open regular hours, with open swim on Saturday from noon - 5:45 PM, and Sunday from noon-2:45 PM.

For more ideas for what to do this weekend and beyond, keep scrolling! We will see you soon - till then, be safe and healthy! 

--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 complete this form. 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!

Subscribe to our email blast list and receive Town news and updates. 

Happy Friday! Hope you’ve been able to enjoy the beautiful weather this week! 

It was an eventful week in the Town. On this Friday the 13th, we commemorated events that began, for us, on another Friday the 13th - March 13, when we began shutting down to distance and adapt to COVID. I along with Councilmembers Liz Feldman and Angelo Manicchio joined the Village of Ossining for the COVID-19 Remembrance Memorial Ceremony at Nelson Sitting Park this morning. Proclamations were presented to our first responders - Ossining Volunteer Ambulance Corps, Ossining Fire Department, and Ossining Police Department. Joyce Sharrock Cole (who also happens to be the Village Historian and played an instrumental role in memorializing the history of the pandemic in real time) accepted a proclamation on behalf of Richard Wishnie, Commissioner of Emergency Services for Westchester County.  

In Ossining, we really all pulled together during the pandemic to do everything we could to ensure that everyone in Ossining stayed as healthy and safe as possible, and it was great to come together now and acknowledge those incredible partnerships strengthened during extraordinary circumstances.  As Chair of the County Board of Legislators Catherine Borgia remarked, we all got into public service to serve our communities.  It was some of the hardest work we've had to do, but it definitely reminded us why we chose to do this work in the first place. 

In other big news: after two-plus years of work, many Steering Committee meetings, public hearings, surveys, and much more, we are finally adopting our new Comprehensive Plan with Sustainability Elements, Sustainable Ossining!  

Thank you to my current Board colleagues, as well as previous Town Board Members Jackie Shaw and Northern Wilcher, for supporting this project. Thanks also to the Comp Plan Steering Committee, and to all the members of our public who came to meetings, put stickers on poster boards, emailed, called, or participated in some way in shaping this plan. And of course, a big thank you to the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation for helping to fund it with a grant from the Climate Smart Communities program.  

This plan sets forth laudable goals in the areas of Connectivity & Mobility, Open Space & Natural Resources, Housing, Preservation & Development, Sustainable Infrastructure, Community & Culture, and Economy.  We now have a fantastic roadmap to make the Town of Ossining more sustainable in every sense of the word, and we can’t wait to get the work going. 

At next week’s Work Session, our Town Planner, Valerie Monastra, will be back before the Town Board to discuss next steps to bring this plan to life.  We do not intend for it to sit on a shelf collecting dust; we want to work towards implementing the goals it sets forth and make our community better for the future.  Let’s get to work!

In other Town news, we celebrated National School Nurses Day this week. On Tuesday, the nurses were presented with a proclamation at the school board meeting, and on Wednesday I attended a virtual luncheon with the nurses to thank them for all of their hard work. Especially in these most challenging times, we are extremely fortunate to have the caring, intelligent, dedicated staff that we have taking care of our children. 

We also participated in the State’s Climate Action Council draft scoping plan process. NYS is leading the way on climate with the adoption of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), and this scoping plan will serve as a roadmap for meeting climate goals. Last week, the Town Board held a discussion of the plan. We are happy to support it, and yesterday I voiced my support at a public hearing in Peekskill at the Paramount theater. We all need to do our part to reduce emissions and curb climate change. The scoping plan will give us much-needed guidance to take more impactful steps. 

You can learn more about the CLCPA and the draft scoping process at a lunch-and-learn webinar coming up at noon next Wednesday, May 18. Sustainable Westchester and the New York League of Conservation Voters will be hosting a panel of experts. Click here to register.  

As you’re going about your weekend plans, consider taking some time to think about the Village of Ossining’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI), and how the different project ideas might enhance our local area. Last week, the Town presented to the community and the Local Planning Committee of the DRI our request for funding for a new performance space at Louis Engel Park. It was great to hear that the project was well received by the community members and LPC members, and we are now working on refining our vision with concept plans for the new stage. You can review our plan and all of the project plans in the Virtual Meeting Room, and share feedback using this link. The survey is open until May 20, 2022. 

Other things you might do this weekend: browse the Westchester Craft Crawl; attend the rescheduled I Love My Park Day at the Old Croton Aqueduct on Saturday; take the Westchester County Health Survey; and swing by Fable’s Farm Fest this Sunday! For more ideas, keep scrolling!

--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 complete this form. 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!

Subscribe to our email blast list and receive Town news and updates. 

We’ve made it to the end of another week! Hope your week was a good one.

First, a round of applause to our local police and schools for responding effectively to an incredibly frightening situation yesterday at Ossining High School. We are glad that no one was gravely injured. Kudos to everyone who handled this situation so well by looking out for one another and following the protocols that keep our community safe.

In other youth news, earlier this week I attended a coalition partner meeting for Ossining Communities That Care (CTC), our local coalition dedicated to improving the overall well-being of youth and families. We listened to updated data from the annual teen substance use study, and I was happy to learn that, in spite of the pandemic and recent moves to decriminalize and legalize adult marijuana use, teen substance use in Ossining has continued to decline. It is important to have conversations with young people in your life about substance use and abuse, to ensure they are well-informed about the risks and also the fact that substance use and abuse is not the norm among their peers, despite what they may think. Visit the CTC’s Grown Ups Show Up page to learn more about how to start these conversations and keep them going. It makes a difference.

This week, the Town and the Village of Ossining received 2,000 free COVID-19 test kits to distribute from Westchester County, and we are very appreciative of the resources from our partners in County government.  A portion of the test kits will be dedicated for our community’s seniors and will be distributed via our Senior Nutrition Program.  We are also distributing free COVID-19 test kits to residents at the Ossining Volunteer Ambulance Corps (OVAC) Headquarters at 8 Clinton Avenue in Ossining. Residents can pick up two kits per household while supplies last, anytime between 9 AM and 5 PM on weekdays. Additionally, we received COVID-19 test kits from State Senator Elijah Reichlin Melnick, which we have distributed to our essential workers in the Town.  Assemblywoman Galef’s office has also provided additional test kits to OVAC per our understanding so please do take advantage to pick up these kits now while you are healthy, in case you need them when you are not feeling so great. (Hopefully that will be never, but better safe than sorry!)

COVID-19 is still unfortunately still very much here, so remember all the tried and true mitigation efforts – wear masks in indoor public settings, get vaccinated and boosted, get tested if you are exposed or are experiencing symptoms, and of course, stay home if you are feeling sick!  We hope these test kits, and the free testing available at OVAC every Monday and Friday, will help our community stay resilient in the face of another wave of COVID cases.

Now that it is spring, many of our road paving and rehabilitation projects can resume, including the McCarthy Drive Road Rehabilitation project.  The Town’s contractor paused operations during the winter months, but will be re-mobilizing on site to complete the project starting Monday, May 16.  Residents along McCarthy Drive and surrounding roads who are directly impacted by the project have received a more detailed update, which can be found here.  We also anticipate that the Morningside Drive paving project will start back up sometime after Memorial Day; stay tuned for more updates.

Yesterday we learned that so far this year, the Food Scrap Recycling program has diverted 15 tons of food waste out of the trash stream. Now, instead of creating greenhouse gas emissions at (and reducing the efficiency of) the incineration plant in Peekskill, those scraps are turning into nourishment for our gardens. And today, the Food Scraps Recycling Program began our second annual Compost Give Back! 

In case you missed it, there’s still time to pick up your compost. Participants in the program can pick up 6 gallons of free compost at Cedar Lane Park anytime between 9 AM to noon tomorrow as well.  Registration in advance is preferred, but not required to participate in this fun day and get your garden started! Click here to register and let us know you’re coming. And if you haven’t yet begun recycling your food scraps, visit ossiningcomposts.org to learn more about our program and order a kit to help you get started.

For other green news and goings on in and around Town, scroll on! Many events this weekend, including the Riverkeeper Sweep events here in Ossining, will be happening rain or shine, but you should check in with the organizer on their social media or otherwise if you are unsure. Green Ossining will call a rain date for the Town-wide Tag Sale if indicated by tomorrow at 7 AM; check their website before heading out tomorrow, if that’s in your plans! We have heard that I Love My Parks Day is being postponed until next Saturday, May 14. As always, we share everything we receive here, but if you want an even more comprehensive list of events happening in and around Town, visit the new OssiningEvents.com community calendar, sponsored by the Greater Ossining Chamber of Commerce. 

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone celebrating this weekend! We will see you soon - till then, be safe and healthy! 

--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 complete this form. 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!

Subscribe to our email blast list and receive Town news and updates.