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Mayor’s Monday Morning Message

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Ossining participated in the global Climate Ride this Saturday with a guided ride around the Village. Thank you to Green Ossining for organizing the event—including a pedal assist bike from Pedal Peekskill for cyclists to check out.

Interested in more ways to cycle through your community? Next week Ossining is hosting a Lime Bike pop-up! To learn more about how this dockless bike sharing program works, please visit here. You can begin by downloading the Lime Bike app today. The weeklong pop-up is a chance for us to see how bike sharing might work in Ossining.

We chose next week for the pop-up so that it would coincide with Car Free Day, happening Friday, September 21. Please visit here to learn more about ways that you can join the movement to go car free or car-light for one day. That could mean cycling, walking, ridesharing, or taking public transit. This is the first year that Ossining has joined with other Hudson Valley communities in promoting this global initiative to reduce the detrimental impact of single occupancy. Please visit here to take the Car Free Day pledge!

At last week’s meeting the Village Board voted to enable ETPA, the NYS rent stabilization program. While members of the Village Board differed in our conclusions about the impact of ETPA, we are unified in our desire to preserve affordability for Ossining residents and improve the quality of housing conditions. ETPA has demanded substantial time and resources from Village staff this year. Now that the vote has been cast, we have the opportunity to focus on a comprehensive approach that feeds our local economy and balances the needs of our crowded schools. If we have learned anything with our recent focus on housing, we know there are a lot of strategies for improving our local economy, keeping taxes low, and providing safe affordable housing.

With so much attention at last week’s meeting focused on ETPA, the very substantial proposed updates to the Village building code enforcement went largely unnoticed. New provisions have been created to address vacant properties, improve oversight for new businesses, and establish more pathways for inspecting properties with indications of overcrowding. We continue to increase the staff dedicated to code enforcement to improve the safety and desirability of residential and commercial buildings, as well as very thoughtfully establish policies that will welcome and support new and existing businesses. Please visit here to read the proposed local law.

This Week’s Work Session

This week’s Work Session will include a report from the Landlord Tenant Relations Council (LTRC). Tenants of any apartment, regardless of ETPA status, are encouraged to reach out the LTRC if they have concerns. The LTRC may help prevent an issue from going to the courts or entering a lengthy bureaucratic review. To learn more, please visit here.

We will also hear from a representative of Riverkeeper to learn about the proposed storm management proposals offered by the Army Corps of Engineers. Thank you to Assemblywoman Sandy Galef for inviting the chief elected officials of all the Hudson River communities she represents to learn about these proposals. The Village Board has the opportunity to express our concerns and recommendations before multi billion dollar decisions are made. Individuals who would like to have their voices heard during the comment period, can visit here to learn more from Riverkeeper.

As always, Work Sessions are an opportunity for the Village Board to have discussions with staff and invited experts regarding potential policy or legislative changes. We invite community members to reach out to us by e-mail at bot@villageofossining.org anytime, or to speak during Visitor Recognition at Legislative Sessions typically held on the first and third Wednesdays of the month.

Connecting This Week

There will not be Open Office Hours this week. L’Shanah Tovah to all who are celebrating. Open Office Hours will resume on Tuesday, September 18. No appointment is necessary, and all are welcome to discuss any topic, concern or idea of interest to you.

Have a burning question or idea, at any hour of the day or night?… E-mail me at mayor@villageofossining.org, the Board of Trustees at bot@villageofossining.org or Village Manager Debbie McDonnell at dmcdonnell@villageofossining.org.

With regards,

 

 

 

Victoria Gearity
Ossining Mayor