Town Administrator’s Report of November 10, 2014
November 14, 2014
~ from Town Administrator Jill Simon Shapiro
• DOT agrees to screen its Millwood yard
• Bank of America South Greeley sidewalk replacement
• Take It or Leave It Shop wraps up its season on November 22
Improvements to DOT yard in Millwood get the go-ahead
On October 31, 2014, Mike Stern Co-Chair of the Millwood-West End Advisory Board, Rob Greenstein, myself, Bart Carey, Charlie Bergstrom met with New York State DOT Jorge Argote, P.E, Resident Engineer, Region 8, Northern Westchester, and two NYSDOT Landscape architects, Jason Wolfanger and Kyle Buser. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the planned construction project to improve the Millwood DOT yard located on Route 100/Campfire Road.
We were shown a sketch of the project which included a planting list of 38 new trees—5 white pine, 8 Colorodo spruce, 8 Norway spruce, 10 river birch and 9 red maple—as well as and their placement along with fencing to screen the fuel tanks from the public view. The project is identified as PIN 41135-C:- Construction Maintenance sub-headquarters Buildings 4 and 5.
This project is going out to bid in January 2015. They expect to break ground in the Spring of 2015. It will take two years to complete the project as the yard will continue to operate during construction. The newly installed guardrail will be black vinyl-coated galvanized fence to blend into its surroundings. The fuel tanks will be shielded from view by 8 foot high fencing: 6 foot pressure treated stockade fences will be set two feet up off the ground, with the first two feet shielded by lattice.
Bank of America- sidewalk replacement
On Monday November 17- Bank of America will be replacing the sidewalk out side the bank on South Greeley avenue
Work is expected to last from Monday, November 17 to Friday, November 24 – the sidewalk will be allowed to cure under blankets for the weekend—Nov 22-23—and reopen for public use on Monday Nov 24. The contractors will be working 7:00 am – 3:30 pm.
As pedestrians will understandably not be able to use the sidewalk, fencing will be erected to provide a 4-foot wide corridor along South Greeley Avenue. Four (4) parking spaces along South Greeley will be cordoned off for this use. There will be signs and flagmen during the actual construction and concrete-pouring. We will also lose 4 spots in the south Greeley parking lot for the dumpster, but handicapped parking will not be affected.
Take It or Leave It Shop
Saturday, November 22, is the Take It or Leave It Shop’s last open day of the season. It has been a fantastic run for the shop this year and we so look forward to its reopening next spring. The new location at the edge of the commuter lot and adjacent to the farmer’s market has been a huge boon for this perennial favorite—just another reason to for wish for an early spring!
We have to think out of the box and plan for the future when the future can be planned for today. The Municipality of New Castle will once again face a budget shortfall in excess of $3,000,000.00 at some point in the future, when this happens is only about “When,” and not about “if.” The D.O.T yard should be closed down on this site and we as a Community should strongly consider making it a beautiful New England Coffee house plaza, having a bagel shop, and whatever other businesses can be located in a newly built out building of around 8,000 sqft. It would be great for a McDonalds. What would be better are the property taxes that it would pay into Town Hall keeping all residential taxes stabilized going forward, or as stabilized as possible for all. The D.O.T can be moved to Hunts Lane in Chappaqua. Town Hall needs to lead the re-use of locations and exposure to help both residential and commercial uses. Stop the re-development of D.O.T and let’s all see how the Government can copy how the private sector thinks and acts for the benefit of all. Call up Town Hall if you think this sounds good! Team Green has the ability and the mindset to get these kinds of ideas done! What do you think Adam? The D.O.T site is too a valuable site in terms of consumer exposure to be used for Government operated trucks and gear; we can find them another great location on Hunts lane. Do we really want to memorialize the combination of all the consumer dollars driving past the D.O.T site with a newly built D.O.T site to be built once again on that location? Does not make sense or cents!
Can’t the town board or planners or whoever mandate a certain style of sidewalk that must be used throughout the town? This piecemeal approach to the sidewalks makes the town look sloppy, unkempt, and tired. Let’s get a cohesive plan or style (like that near the park at Citibank) and put it throughout the downtown—before more money and time is wasted on the continued piecemeal approach.
And can someone do something about the weird slant on the parking lot across from Susan Lawrence? We can’t even park in there anymore (which means, sorry, no money spent near there) because leaving the parking lot results in scrapes to the carriage of our cars.
All well and good to have landscape plans for the DOT yard in Millwood……..Look at the plantings at Rt 120 and 133 (light) also Rt 100 and Rt 133 (Somerstown Road)great landscape plan …. NO PLAN FOR THE UPKEEP.
