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Mayor’s Monday Morning Message

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Celebrations & Volunteering to Serve

Were you part of the festivities in the heart of downtown yesterday? Thank you to Ossining Padres Hispanos for organizing our community’s first Hispanic Festival! I look forward to this becoming an annual event.

At last week’s Work Session we heard from Board of Ethics Chair Peter Madison regarding his Board’s proposed amendments to the Village’s Code of Ethics. This recommendation is a result of questions raised after a former Village employee, who now works for a private sector firm, was involved in a potential development in the Village. Ensuring integrity in the review process, is critical for wise land use decision making.

Recommendations and insights from the volunteers appointed to serve on Village boards/committees inform priorities and decision making by elected officials. Have you considered serving your community on one of these committees? There are a number of positions currently available, as well as several terms that will be expiring at the end of the year. Please visit here to learn more about applying to serve as a volunteer.

Public Hearings at this Week’s Village Board Meeting

This week’s meeting will begin with two Public Hearings. The first proposes changes to the noise ordinance which would limit the use of gas powered leaf blowers. This proposed legislation has been drafted in response to concerns raised by homeowners and environmentalists. We have heard from a number of interested parties with a range of concerns regarding small businesses, safety, health, and quality of life. There are currently 14 Westchester municipalities that have similar legislation already in place. The second Public Hearing is regarding a proposed community residential home intended for four adults with developmental disabilities. All are welcome to comment on either topic for up to four minutes.

Corporation Counsel Stuart Kahan has been busy this year crafting legislation on a number of fronts. This week the Village Board will be voting on proposed Local Law 9 regarding dog tethering. You may recall at the Public Hearing there was a suggestion that we review legislation passed recently by the state of New Jersey. At last week’s Work Session we reviewed our proposed legislation. It was informed by Corporation Counsel’s review of similar legislation across NYS, and we have now compared it to the NJ code and determined that our approach achieves the same goals of protecting dogs in our community, with parameters that best suit the intention. Below you could watch last week’s Work Session discussion regarding this proposed local law.

Because this week is a Legislative Session, following the Public Hearings referenced above, there are a number of invitations for community members to comment. If you would like to spread the word about an upcoming event, please take up to two minutes during Organizational Announcements. Folks who would like to comment on the resolutions included on that night’s agenda may do so for up to four minutes at the start of the Village Board Resolutions portion of the meeting. The meeting closes with an invitation for community members to comment for up to three minutes during Visitor Recognition about any topic of relevance to the common good of the Village. We invite community members to reach out to us by e-mailing bot@villageofossining.org anytime.

Also happening this Wednesday will be two NY Harbor Storm Surge Barriers Scoping Meetings. The meetings will be held at the Westchester County Center from 03:00 – 05:00 p.m. and 06:00 – 08:00 p.m. This is a critical time to speak out before the comment period closes on November 5. You may recall that the Village passed a resolution clearly stating our opposition to short-sited proposals from the Army Corp of Engineers which would have a detrimental impact on Hudson River communities like Ossining. To learn more about the proposals, and to express your opinion, click here for information provided by Riverkeeper.

Connecting This Week

Open Office Hours will take place tomorrow from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon in the Board of Trustees office on the first floor of Village Hall. 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