Supervisor Blog

Happy Friday! Hope you’ve had a great week. 

Ossining is closing out Earth Month strong! Last Friday, State Senator Elijah Reichlin-Melnick celebrated a group of Environmental Champions from around the district, and three Ossinauts - Erika Boetsch of the Village EAC, Gareth Hougham, President of the Hudson Valley Stream Conservancy, and Stash the Trash founder Aaron Spring - were among those honored. The ceremony took place at the Louis Engel Park waterfront. I was present to hand out certificates to our local environmental leaders. 

This week, the Town and the Village were recognized by 511NY Rideshare twice yesterday for distinctions in the Earth Month Challenge. We won gold for the most rideshare signups and also took home "Most Innovative Event" for last week’s Earth Day festivities. Great work to everyone who participated in the challenge and special thanks and congratulations to Suzie Ross and Green Ossining for hosting the County's biggest and best Earth Day Festival!

The in-person return of Green Ossining’s Earth Day festival after a two year pandemic hiatus was well worth the wait! More than 4,000 people attended from all over the County. It was a beautiful day, with great food, great vendors, and great organizations sharing information about how we can take steps to protect our Earth from climate change. Local Ossining school students kicked off the proceedings with a mini-climate march, and I addressed the crowd to get things started. 

Our Town Parks Department – Mario Velardo, Mark Gallagher, Alban Sylaj, and Larry Abreau – worked very hard leading up to, during, and after the event to make sure everything ran smoothly.  We also had some of our board members there, and Councilwoman Feldman joined Victoria Cafarelli from my office at our Town tent to discuss alternatives to balloons for celebrations and memorials. Also at the tent: Marcus DaSilva talking about our Food Scraps Recycling and selling our compost kits, as well as highlighting our Compost Give Back Days, coming up next Friday and Saturday, May 6 and 7. (Planning to join us? Click here to complete the form and let us know!)  

We also shared information about our draft Comprehensive Plan, as well as the work with Ossining Village on the Climate Adaptive Design project at the waterfront, which you can read more about here. And right next door we had Sustainable Westchester. You may have received a postcard in the mail from the Village and Town talking about how you can save money by reducing your energy usage during peak usage hours by signing up for Grid Rewards. So far, 304 Ossining ConEd customers have signed up for this money saving program, and you can too if you haven’t already! You have until tomorrow, April 30th, to get in on the savings action. 

All of this to say, the Earth Day festival was a great way to kick off the spring season, think about our environment, and get back to some semblance of normalcy! On Sunday, I participated in the Stash the Trash event with Briarcliff Sustainability. A fitting way to end Earth Day weekend! 

In other good news: earlier today, I attended a press event regarding the much-anticipated study of the section of State Route 9A that runs through the Town, the Village of Briarcliff Manor, and the Town of Mount Pleasant. We are so grateful to our own state legislators, State Senator Elijah Reichlin-Melnick and Assemblywoman Sandy Galef, as well as State Senators Pete Harckham representing Mount Pleasant and State Senator Tim Kennedy, Chair of the State Senate Transportation Committee for funding this study with $3 million from the State for a 10 mile portion of 9A. Also in attendance were Mount Pleasant Town Supervisor Carl Fulgenzi, Briarcliff Mayor Steve Vescio, Croton Mayor Brian Pugh, Town Board members Liz Feldman and Greg Meyer, Village of Ossining Trustee Omar Lopez, as well as representatives from the County Executive and Chair of the County Board of Legislators Catherine Borgia’s offices. 

We also heard from a Briarcliff resident, Stephanie Driver, who spoke today about flooding from the Pocantico River, which was worsened by poor drainage along 9A, coming into her home during Hurricane Ida.  We have heard from many residents in the Town of Ossining who experienced similar issues, and we are glad to hear that the study will address these drainage concerns along the corridor, including in the Town, giving us a path forward for construction to improve these conditions.  

This stretch of 9A has been a serious problem for local drivers and residents. We are happy something is finally being done about it. 

Next, Councilwoman Feldman and I headed over to Ossining High School to join Dr. Ray Sanchez, Recreation Superintendent Bill Garrison and his crew, Maddi Zachacz and Jaimie Hoffman from the Village Manager’s Office, Althema Goodson from Catherine Borgia’s office, Suzie Ross from Green Ossining, and teachers and students from Ossining High School’s Cultural Arts and Science classes for our Arbor Day celebration!  We celebrated the 150th Anniversary of Arbor Day by planting an American hornbeam by the high school.  The high school really put on a show with musical performances by the students and a poetry reading.  Even the students from OHS Band Lunch Revue put down their guitars and rolled up their sleeves to help get the tree planted! 

It was truly inspiring to see our next generation of environmental advocates doing the hard work necessary to green our planet.  Click here to view the video on Facebook. You can continue the Arbor Day fun by enjoying the Nelson Park Story Stroll with your little ones! 

In other news, at this week’s Board meeting, we held and closed public hearings on the draft Comprehensive Plan and our new proposed balloon legislation. Thank you to everyone who has shared your thoughts in person and in writing during these public comment periods. 

A communications update: Thank you as well to everyone who has, implicitly and explicitly, provided feedback on the new Supervisor’s Update format! Our email analytics (and verbal feedback) show that most people appreciate the shorter email, but also like having all of the secondary information in one place. To accommodate both of those preferences, we will shrink the multi-page format and include simple “Read More” links to the Supervisor’s Blog on our website at the beginning and end of the email version of the Update. Topics that include important information, like Assistance Programs, will continue to have a standalone link on our blog in case you have a need to look for them specifically. But all of the fun stuff will once again be in one place! 

If you like to read the Update on your phone but find iContact’s small print challenging, you might consider clicking the “Read More” link at the top to go directly to the blog. You can also follow us on Facebook, where a direct link to the week’s Update blog post is shared at the exact same time as the email blast. And for Instagram users, beginning next week we’ll be upgrading from Linktree to a new “link in bio” solution that will make it even easier to click direct links from our Instagram posts, including the weekly Supervisor’s Update post. The Supervisor’s Office is very committed to keeping everyone informed, and giving you opportunities to inform us!

To streamline the process of getting information into the Update, we also invite members of the community, including local nonprofits, business owners, group leaders, and more, to use this new form to submit items for inclusion in the Update. Items submitted by noon each Wednesday prior to publication will be included in that Friday’s Update, as long as they are appropriate for a general audience. Items do not need to be re-submitted to run multiple times; we will automatically remove events once the date of the event has passed, and continue to include items without dates as long as you would like - just tell us how long in the form. If you would like your submission to be included on the Town’s social media pages, please include a graphic that contains all the information a viewer needs to know about what you’re sharing, as well as a direct link if the viewer needs to register or learn more. Using the form and following the guidelines will help us improve readability and accessibility across formats, and ensure we include items of interest to everyone. 

Last minute reminder: Town and County tax bills are due tomorrow, April 30, but will be considered timely if received or postmarked Monday, May 2. The Tax Receiver’s office is open until 6 PM today, April 29, and from 9 AM - noon tomorrow morning, April 30, to assist with bill payment. For more information, visit the Tax Receiver’s page on our website. 

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 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. 

Supervisor’s Update – April 22, 2022

Happy Earth Day! April 22 is the official date for Earth Day every year, and it’s a special time to reflect on how we can all take better care of our home, Planet Earth. Regular readers of the Update know that the Town of Ossining is an especially environmentally-conscious place all year round, and so we get particularly excited for Earth Day and the Green Ossining Earth Day Festival, this year scheduled for tomorrow, April 23! 

This year’s festival will also be our first in-person festival since 2019, and should be spectacular. What better way to spend a beautiful spring day than down by the Hudson River, celebrating Mother Earth and learning how to reduce your impact on the environment, while having a lot of fun!  There will be delicious food, hands-on activities for all ages, eco-demonstrations, and all sorts of vendors – artists and artisans, vegetarian and vegan fare, craft beer, food foraging, textile recycling, an e-waste drive, drum and ukulele circles, a kids’ activity zone, live music all day, and much much more! 

There will be limited parking at the waterfront on Saturday so event attendees are encouraged to take advantage of the free shuttle that will be bringing people to and from free municipal parking in the heart of Ossining’s downtown.  Parking on site will be limited to those who require handicap accessible parking and for the vendors.  Below are parking guides you should save to your phone or print to help you navigate - special thanks to Village Trustee Manny Quezada for creating these beautiful and informative guides. 

The extra bonus of using the free shuttle is that you get to start and end your Earth Day adventure on Main Street! Why not grab a second lunch at Good Choice Kitchen, or a new book or fun toy from Hudson Valley Books for Humanity or Penny and Ting or a gift from Melita’s? Make an Ossining day of it!

The Town and Village of Ossining will have a double booth showcasing a few exciting initiatives including the Ossining Shoreline Revitalization Project (which is phase 2 of the Ossining Climate-adaptive Design Studio) and our Food Scraps Recycling Program.  You will be able to purchase a composting kit (or pre-order one now for pick-up at the festival at ossiningcomposts.org) and sign up for our second annual Compost Give Back Day, which will be held on Friday, May 6 and Saturday, May 7 at Cedar Lane Park.  We will also share information about our draft legislation prohibiting balloon releases and a quick guide to the Town’s Environmental Regulations that was prepared by our Environmental Advisory Committee.  The Village will also have information about Project MOVER, which aims to bring e-bikes to Ossining, and the Downtown Revitalization Initiative.  We hear there may be a chance to take a spin on an ebike yourself.  Please stop by and say hi on Saturday!

We will be set up right next to our friends at 511NY Rideshare who will have information about how to choose a sustainable mode of transportation for commuting this Earth Day.  Get a head start on your Earth Day pledge by visiting the Ossining Community Center this week through Wednesday, April 27 to visit the 511NY Rideshare Kiosk and become a 511NY Rideshare member to green your commute. 

Also in what we are going to call the “municipal corner” at Earth Day: Sustainable Westchester will be set up to talk about all the wonderful initiatives they have helped launch here.  By now you have probably received a postcard in the mail inviting you to join the Westchester Earth Month Challenge by signing up for GridRewards!  GridRewards is an easy and fun way to actually earn money for your smart energy behavior.  It is literally as easy as flipping a switch.  Learn more at sustainablewestchester.org/gridrewards, or plan on making a stop to their booth on Earth Day! 

If you’re not able to join us in person tomorrow, be sure to stop by our virtual booth by clicking here! And keep caring for Mother Earth by signing up for the Riverkeeper Sweep and I Love My Parks clean up day - more details in the Green Living section of the update.  

Lastly, we invite you to attend our two public hearings next Tuesday, April 26 at 7:30 PM, on both the Comprehensive Plan and proposed legislation to protect wildlife and waterways from released balloons and lanterns. Zoom details are below.  This will likely be the last public hearing on the Comp Plan as it has been over a month since we opened it.  You may still send comments via the Town Clerk at . 

Please click the link below to join the webinar

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86887549599

Or One tap mobile :

    US: +19292056099,,86887549599#  or +13126266799,,86887549599#

Or Telephone:

    Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):

        US: +1 929 205 6099  or +1 312 626 6799  or +1 301 715 8592  or +1 253 215 8782  or +1 346 248 7799  or +1 669 900 6833

Webinar ID: 868 8754 9599

    International numbers available: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kyLe2n5bQ

And make sure to plant something or hug a tree this weekend! Victoria Cafarelli and I planted a window garden of herbs in the office today. 

I look forward to seeing you out and about celebrating our Earth. 

--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!

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

Happy Friday! Hope you were able to enjoy today’s lovely weather after a week of lower temperatures and an awful lot of rain. 

First, a brief pause to reflect on the history that we saw being made yesterday, as Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first black woman to be confirmed to the US Supreme Court. Congratulations to our new justice, and to the nation for adding this exceptionally qualified jurist to its highest court. 

In local news, at this week’s Town board meeting we welcomed Bill Brady and Lukas Herbert from County Planning to discuss the County’s comments on our Comprehensive Plan and some possible revisions. We have scheduled a continuation of the public hearing on the Comp Plan  for our legislative session next Tuesday. Depending upon the public comment we hear at that meeting, we will determine how to move forward. We encourage members of the public to review the project website and send in comments sooner rather than later so we can look to wrap up this process, two years in the making, in the not too distant future. 

During the month of April, Town staff are receiving refresher training on CPR at OVAC to renew our certifications. This week, I got my much-needed refresher. Thank you to OVAC Captain Nick Franzoso and OVAC trainers for helping us keep up our certification, making sure we remembered what to do in an emergency, and for making it fun! I am going to focus on “compressions and calm for CPR.”  The trainer also shared a Spotify playlist of “songs to do CPR to” which can help us remember the pacing of the CPR compressions; take a listen here!

Earlier today, we had a meeting at the waterfront with representatives from DEC's Hudson River Estuary program to discuss phase 2 of the Climate-adaptive Design studio.  The Town and Village of Ossining were host communities for the first phase of this innovative program in 2019, which pairs communities with Cornell University graduate landscape architecture students to envision more resilient Hudson River waterfronts.  We were awarded a grant last fall for phase 2, which brings a professional design firm on board to bring the visionary student designs to the next level.  We anticipate having more information about phase 2 at the Earth Day festival and more community engagement events coming up.  In the meantime, community members can learn more about phase 1 at this site: https://trophic.design/cad/2019-ossining/.

In other green news, Earth Month continues! This week, consider registering for the 11th Annual Riverkeeper Sweep. And keep checking our social media feeds and/or the Green Living section of the Update to learn about ways you can help the planet!

I will once again devote some space in the Update to a plea for input on the Comprehensive Plan. The Comp Plan will guide all land use planning and decision-making processes for the next decade. We are definitely getting to the end of this process, so if you want to have a say, now is the time!  This meeting will be 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 . 

If you haven’t yet looked over the Comprehensive Plan, our consultant, Chris Rice from WXY, recommends that if you have 5 minutes…read pages 34-35.  If you have 15 minutes…read pages 1-45.  Or, if you have an hour, read the whole draft!  If you would also prefer to watch and listen instead of read, you should check out our Town Hall meeting from February 15, 2022 on YouTube, Chris gives an excellent presentation on the Comprehensive Plan and we hear from some members of the public as well. 

Lastly, just a note that there will be no Update next Friday, as multiple holiday observances will be starting. Town offices will be closed for a half day next Friday in observance of Good Friday.  Happy Easter and Chag Pesach Sameach to all who will be celebrating! 

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!

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

There will be no Supervisor’s Update today, because there is absolutely no Town news to report. 

Just kidding! April Fool’s! It’s been a very busy week, in spite of the fact that the Board did not meet Tuesday. (For those who don’t know, the Town Board holds Work Sessions on the first and third Tuesdays of the month, and Legislative Sessions on the second and fourth. No meetings are scheduled for fifth Tuesdays, if and when they occur.)

The highlight of the week was Wednesday night’s trail walk in Ryder Park, led by the Environmental Advisory Council (EAC)’s high school representatives, Ella Castrillon and Ben Mahood, with some assistance from Craig Stevens, the Town’s arborist and tree warden. I was in attendance along with Town Board Member Angelo Manicchio, Budget Director Victoria Cafarelli, Town EAC members Sr. Anastasia Lott, John Ladd, Mitzi Elkes, and Donna Sharrett, Village EAC member Kate Schlott, OHS Science Research teacher Angelo Piccirillo, Town Planner Valerie Monastra, Patrick Vipperman, chair of the Ossining Parks Habitat Stewards program and his wife, Celine, and Mitzi’s husband, Stephen. 

Ella and Ben are working on a proposal for a signage project in the trails at Ryder Park to educate members of the public on the trees and other flora and fauna that comprise the habitat in Ryder Park. Last night was a fact-finding mission to learn more about the trail and brainstorm where there should be “stops” along the trail for visitors to learn more with signage and QR codes. We look forward to hearing their proposal, and exploring how the Town can help bring this exciting project to fruition.  

While we were there, we also got to check out the site of a new trail connector that will be constructed this spring by volunteers from the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, with the help from our Town Parks Department.  The areas of our parks dedicated to “passive recreation” require a bit more care and attention, and we are grateful for the advocacy of our EAC and volunteers for focusing on these areas and helping to get this important work accomplished. 

We are also celebrating some very good news this week. Earlier this month, we had our annual site inspection with our Workers Comp carrier, New York Comp Alliance, and we received some great news – the Town had no workers comp claims in 2021!  Huge thanks to our entire staff for taking the time to exercise caution and be safe in the workplace, and our Department Heads, especially Highway Superintendent Pete Connolly and Parks Foreman Mario Velardo, for enforcing the Town’s safety protocols on a daily basis. This is good news for the Town’s bottom line, but more importantly because it is so important to us that our staff shows up to work every day happy, healthy, and safe. Keep up the great work! We celebrated with a little pizza party today, joined by Town Board members Liz Feldman and Angelo Manicchio. 

April is Earth Month! This year, Sustainable Westchester is marking the occasion by promoting GridRewards and encouraging folks to sign up. We’ll be promoting the program on our social media feeds (@townofossining on Facebook and Instagram) and in the Green Living section of the Update!  

Lastly, we will be discussing our Comprehensive Plan again at next Tuesday’s Work Session. For those who are new to the Update, click here to read more about our Comprehensive Plan, called “Sustainable Ossining.”  Since our last Public Hearing, we received some input from the Westchester County Planning Board that we are incorporating into the updated draft.  We will have some special guests from County Planning joining us on Tuesday evening to discuss their comments, and the Town Board will discuss how we can incorporate their comments into the draft at this stage.  Although we had expected to have a draft for public review before this Work Session, the comments from County Planning are significant and touch on important issues relating to affordable housing that we need to consider before developing potential revisions to the plan.  You can read the comments from County Planning via the Google Drive folder with all the supporting documents associated with Tuesday’s Work Session.   

Our Comprehensive Plan will guide all land use planning and decision-making processes for the next decade.  We are extending the public hearing to the April 12 meeting, and at our April 12 meeting, the Town Board will decide whether or not to continue the public hearing.  We are definitely getting towards the end of this process, so if you want to have a say, now is the time!.  This meeting will be 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 will share the updated draft ASAP, in advance of the April 12 meeting. 

The Comprehensive Plan is quite a document and a lot to take in. Our consultant, Chris Rice from WXY, recommends that if you have 5 minutes…read pages 34-35.  If you have 15 minutes…read pages 1-45.  Or, if you have an hour, read the whole draft!  If you would also prefer to watch and listen instead of read, you should check out our Town Hall meeting from February 15, 2022 on YouTube, Chris gives an excellent presentation on the Comprehensive Plan and we hear from some members of the public as well. 

Ramadan Mubarak! Today is the first day of the spring holiday for many and we wish everyone who celebrates blessings, joy and peace. 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!

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