Road closures for Chappaqua Fire Department Parade Fri., May 14
Stop!! ... and plan your return home tonight. Try to get into the train station before 6:45 p.m.
May 14, 2010
From Supervisor Barbara Gerrard: This Friday, May 14, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. the Chappaqua Fire Department is celebrating its 100 year anniversary with a parade down King Street. It promises to be an exciting and fun-filled event—with fire trucks and officials from all over the County. We hope you will come out and support the Chappaqua Fire Department during its celebration.
The New Castle Police Department would like to alert commuters and all area residents that, beginning at 6:45 pm, the following local roads will be closed until 9:00 p.m.:
• South Greeley Avenue
• King Street from South Greeley to North Place
• Woodburn Avenue
• Washington Avenue from the Train Station Parking lot exit to South Greeley Avenue
• Bedford Avenue at King Street
• South Greeley Avenue from Woodburn to Bedford Road will remain closed until 11:00 pm
To close all those streets on a Friday evening is to cause a major disruption for commuters, weekend visitors, and anyone else who needs to be in the center of town. If Woodburn and Washington Ave. to S. Greeley, and S. Greeley and King are all closed, how does one get home from the train? Go all the way to Pleasantville, take the Sawmill to Chappaqua and then Roaring Brook Road to get to the east side of town? This seems to me entirely unreasonable.
as the policeman said —Don’t worry it only happens once in a 100 years!!!
Seems like no thought was put into how this would effect local business. Had the parade been on a Saturday afternoon it would have positively helped all the local merchants, who with the economy the past year or so, could have used the boost in traffic. Instead it was held on a Friday evening when most retail stores were closed & when the local restaurants have their busiest nights. Due to the parade the local restaurants were off about 50%. Not to mention toward the end of the parade it was dark & you could hardly even see. Completely agree that a celebration was in order for the long standing commitment to serving the community, but feel that if more thought was put into the scheduling the outcome could’ve have been more beneficial & enjoyable for all.
the merchants could have planned to stay open later and maybe the restraunts could have offered something. A lot of complaints from the merchants, but no advice or cooperation on town events. The businesses that stayed open I am sure did well…..
The parade and activities were fantastic…great way to recognize the daily act of heroism that these men display to keep the town safe!!
Sorry, merchants, I know times are tough, but you can’t put a price on the kind of community event we saw last night. It was fabulous! Instead, put this energy you’re spending in resenting the interruption of business into organizing to see how you can help the town, how you could coordinate with what the town needs and wants to do. Or with the town’s efforts to spruce up the downtown. Not only would that be nicer, but it would be smarter, in the end. Come on, snap out of it!
I feel lucky my kids have lived to see a 100th anniversary celebration of firefighters and how wonderful it is to have firefighters gather so seriously, along with their fellows, to show us how proud they are of their contribution to society AND to give us the opportunity to show them how proud we are of THEM! Frankly, I’d love to see them do it every year!
Doug Hunter, you were BEAUTIFUL in your uniform!!!!!!!!!!
I am a CERT volunteer my fellow CERT members and I worked for
the parade. We were to make sure the streets stayed closed (my post Castle and King Street. What a showing and camraderie among the Westchester and Putnum fire departments. My husband wanted me to mention that the hamburgers were great. Thanks and congratulations
Every business owner was contacted via mail and in person in most instances, and informed of the event and the street closures 2 months in advance. Restaurants were told to inform those with reservations that they would not be able to access their establishments via car after 6:45 PM and to make alternate arrangements. We also invited all of the business owners to stay open and use this as an opportunity to reach out to the residents and community. It’s not fair for them to complain since they had ample opportunity to ensure they were prepared and to inform their customers.
