News Flash

https://greenburghny.swagit.com/play/05122020-1882

 

The Greenburgh Town Board heard from department heads last night. A link to the discussion can be found below.
MEMORIAL DAY MOTORCADE INSTEAD OF PARADE Chief Howard Reiss of the Fairview Fire department and Chief Ray Maseda of the Hartsdale Fire department spoke about Memorial day preparations. Because of COVID-19 issues traditional Memorial Day ceremonies will not be held. They are organizing a different kind of ceremony -a motorcade (participants will stay in their cars) throughout the town. They have been in touch with Volunteer Fire departments in the villages -inviting their participation. We hope to finalize details within the week.
THANKING CHIEF REISS AND CHIEF MASEDA FOR PARTNERING WITH TOWN -TAXPAYERS WITH COVID HARDSHIPS ABLE TO PAY TAXES LATE WITHOUT PENALTY:We thanked the Hartsdale & Fairview Fire departments for partnering with the town and providing residents who are out of work due to COVID-19 with the opportunity to pay their taxes late without penalty.  We paid each of the three fire districts 88% of the taxes owed to them last week. I asked the Comptroller if we can make a second payment on June 15th (taxes collected between last week and the 15th)  And will pay the balance  to the three fire districts by July 15th.  
The Greenville Fire department declined to participate in our department updates. I sent the Fire district Board of Commissioners an e mail offering to air meetings of their Board of Commissioners  on public access TV(which are required to be streamed on Zoom) so residents of Edgemont can receive updates about their fire district.  Hartsdale & Fairview have provided weekly updates since COVID-19 began.

Gerry Byrne, Commissioner of Parks provided the following updates:

POOL SEASON:

The outdoor pool season at AFV Park was scheduled to open on Sunday May 24^th of Memorial Day Weekend and the Massaro Park pool was scheduled to open on June 20^th too.  Due to the pandemic and the governor’s orders to remain closed we have rescheduled for a tentative opening for both pool facilities for June 20^th.  We have been in constant contact with other municipalities (recreation departments), county and state officials and once we receive notification a public announcement will be made on our official opening.

 

Staff has been working very hard in recruiting lifeguards and attendants for the summer and taking the preseason steps for opening up the pools.  It takes two to three days to fill up the main pools at AFV Park and another 10 – 12 days to balance chemicals and get the equipment up and running.  Once an announcement is made that we can open the pools we will need two weeks.

 

 TENNIS

We plan to open up the tennis courts at Yosemite (one court only), Massaro Park (there is only one court), Travis Hill Court (three of the four courts) and at East Rumbrook Park (one court only) this Saturday May 16^th.  The East Rumbrook Park platform/pickleball court will be open too but for singles only.  At AFV Park permits will be required and a paid seasonal staff on a modify schedule will be present.  Those courts will be open the following Saturday on May 23^rd.

WILL CAMPS BE OPEN?

Andre Early of the Department of Community Resources and Gerry Byrne of the Parks department mentioned that we are waiting for the Governor to provide us with an OK to open camps- which may or may not happen.  Both departments are planning for the possibility of camp openings.

SUMMER VIRTUAL  INTERNSHIPS

  Judith Beville, Town Clerk, is working with other departments on an exciting Zoom internship program this summer for students.  The program’s foundation has 4 pillars upon which activities, projects, gueset speakers, group work and presentations are designed: communications, teamwork, leadership development and problem solvving. students will work on pedestrian, motorist safety, participation in the US Census and helping local businesses.   E mail tbanks@greenburghny.com for an application.  Unless we receive a grant these will be non paid internship opportunities. Will post info later this week. 

GRIEVANCE

Assessor Edye McCarthy indicated that her office is accepting, via e mail grievance applications till June 16th. She is conducting  remote meetings with residents to discuss their assessments.

SIDEWALK ON CENTRAL AVE - Garrett Duquesne, Commissioner of Planning, announced that a pre-construction meeting is being scheduled to discuss the sidewalk being built on Marion to W Hartsdale Ave. Work should start soon. We received a grant from NYS a few years ago --it took a long time to finalize engineering plans with the state. But, the sidewalk will finally happen.  Capital projects for 2020 are on hold but this project was approved and bids were awarded last year.

FEWER EMS COVID-19 CALLS: Jared Rosenberg who heads our EMS program confirmed that COVID-19 calls are down and the Police Chief, Brian Ryan gave a report on police incidents. Officers who tested positive for COVID-19 are back!  And, Victor Carosi, Commissioner of Public Works provided the community with updates on his department --DPW has not been replacing employees who have retired --they’re doing significant work with fewer people. We are trying to reduce the workforce via attrition, not layoffs. Steve Fraietta, Building Inspector discussed inspections of supermarkets and mentioned that a few construction jobs had to be shut down due to failure to comply with the Governor’s COVID-19 directives. Winsome Gordon of our Philanthropy department mentioned that the town will be eligible for FEMA reimbursements for COVID-19 related work the town departments did.  Roberta Romano, Comptroller had estimated a few weeks ago that the town could lose 7 million dollars in revenue due to COVID-19. Hopeful for a federal stimulus package. But we need to be prepared if we don’t get federal help.

LINK:
https://greenburghny.swagit.com/play/05122020-1882

Paul Feiner