The Croton on the Hudson Board of Trustees invite you all to join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
• Treasurer, may I have the approval of the actors?
Good evening. For the general fund, we have $386,252.77. For the water fund, we have $28009.72.71. For the sewer fund, we have $4,008.55 25. Capital fund is for $283,132.81, and the trust fund is for a $101,551.20.
Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Motion by trustee Simon, second by trustee Nicholson. All in favor? Aye. Aye.
• Alright. We repeat proceed to, public hearing on local law six of 2026 to amend chapter two zero four taxation of the village code to add very and update various real property tax exemptions. Before we open the, hearing manager, would you like briefly summarize those changes? Sure. Thank you, mayor. So, the village board discussed this at a work session, earlier this year in February.
There are a number of new legislative actions that were adopted by the state legislature and signed into law by the governor last year that allowed the village to extend certain tax exemptions to qualifying individuals. And so, what the two new exemptions that are able to be offered are for active duty military members, deployed in an active combat zone. They're entitled to receive an exemption up to 25% of their assessed value and, an exemption for surviving spouses of police officers killed in the line of duty. Those surviving spouses would be able to receive an exemption of up to 50% off their assessed valuation. And then there were two existing exemptions that were changed, for surviving spouses of volunteer firefighters or ambulance workers who were killed in line of duty. The law now allows for spouses of members with service between two and five years to keep, the exemption that they had, and it the we can now increase the exemption amount from the standard 10% up to 50%. And then, for seniors low income senior citizens, currently, the the income cutoff was a flat $50,000, and you received a 50% exemption. And now if you have an income less than $50,000, there's a sliding scale. So if you, have income less than 49,000, it's 55%, 48,000, 60%, and 47,000, 65%. So so those were the changes that we discussed. The board seemed to be, in favor of them, so we've drafted a law, to that effect here. Do
I have a motion now in the open the public hearing? So moved. Second. Motion by trustee Simon, second by trustee Nicholson. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Alright. Public hearing is open. Everyone has their opportunity to speak. Please state your name and address. This is specifically for speaking on local law six of, 2026.
• K. Seeing no one wishing to speak, do I have a motion to close the public hearing? So moved. Second. Motion by trustee Simon, second by trustee Nicholson. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Great. Alright. Response is submitted via email.
• Whereas the New York state legislature adopted a number of bills during 2025 which established new real property tax exemptions including for the surviving spouses of police officers killed in line of duty and members of the armed forces currently serving in combat zones. And whereas the New York state legislature also adopted bills which amended existing real property tax exemptions, including the senior citizen tax exemption and the volunteer firefighter EMS worker tax exemption. Whereas these new tax exemptions and updates to existing exemptions were discussed at a work session held on 02/11/2026, and whereas local law introductory number six of twenty twenty six has been drafted for such purposes. And whereas the public hearing on local law introductory number six of 2026 was opened and closed on 05/06/2026. And whereas the village board has determined that the adoption of local law introductory number six of 2026 to be a type two action under the state environmental quality review act requiring no environmental review. Now therefore be it resolved that the village board of trustees hereby adopts local law introductory number six of 2026 to amend chapter two zero four taxation of the village code to add update various real property tax exemptions, which upon adoption becomes local law number six of 2026.
So moved. Second. Motion by trustee Simon, second by trustee Nicholson. Discussion? Oh, mayor, this all falls under the category of a grateful village. Thanks you for your service and sacrifice in some cases.
Alright. All in favor? Aye. Alright. Now questions submitted via email? No questions. Okay. Very good. We have public on agenda items. Anyone wishing to speak on any agenda item, this is your opportunity. Yes. Please state your name and address. Everyone has five minutes. Corwin Croton? In into the microphone.
John Corwin and Croton. Okay. The DPW, week. I think it should be extended to two weeks and include, Dam Safety Awareness Day. It's, May 31. And in light of the problems at Caplan's Dam, I thought it might be a good way to recognize DPW's work.
• Len, how do you like it?
We'll we'll respond after, mister Corwin. Oh, thank you. Did you get my letter? Yes. I did. Thank you. Alright.
Margaret Connor, 36 Grand Street. I thought we were going to hear the responses to the questions submitted by email, and I had heard that those, pertain to the dog park, BlackRock dog park. So if that is so, I'd rather wait until those are read to make comments or responses. So I'm a little confused if someone could set set me on what is going on on four. Yeah. Is there a cutoff time? Because my email didn't get read either. The the cutoff time is noon of the day of the meeting.
Yeah. And and specifically to the the dog park, I didn't I didn't I received an email about the dog park, but it didn't specifically it wasn't a question. You know, it was it was asking me to reconsider my decision. It wasn't asking a question of the board. So
so this is Can we know what that response was? This is not on the agenda. The manager will pro try to pro address as completely as he can in his report. And there's public comment on non agenda items for anything that's not on the agenda, and this is not on the agenda. Okay. Thank you. Just I'll come back. Okay.
Yep. It yeah. It's on people it's a double sided for them. Anyway, okay. Does anyone else wanna comment on an agenda item?
• Alright. Seeing no one else wishing to comment on agenda items, go to reports from the manager. Okay. Thank you, mayor.
So couple of items in my report, regarding, Lot A, Corridor Point Avenue. There's been some questions that have come up about this, so I just wanted to provide an update to the board and to the public, who are watching. So the developer of the property, WBP, has provisionally secured the affordable home ownership program or AHOP funding that was anticipated during the review of the project. The village developer, Metro North Railroad, and the New York State Department of Transportation have all worked collaboratively to finalize the site development plans in regard to the stormwater drainage on the site, and we continue to move towards the closing of the property sale, which is anticipated to occur during the summer. So, there's been a lot of work that has been going on over the past couple months to bring us to that property sale date. You know, it's not unusual. You know, it it took a similar amount of time from when we, approved the sale of, 4151 Maple Street to when we actually closed on the property. So, you know, these transactions involving the, you know, the village's properties do take some time to to go through all the all the proper steps.
Can you just say what you think the next update what is the next update we can expect on Lot A?
I think once the the property is sold, assuming, you know, the I'm like I said, I'm assuming that's gonna happen in the summer. So I once the property sale is is actually finalized, there'll be more information to to share on that. Right now, there's really not much more other than what I said because it's all kind of waiting for the sale to to to close.
When once the closing date is set, though, that that would be an another sort of road mark that we could announce when the closing date is once we have that information?
Well, I would say once it's I mean, nothing's final until it's final. Right? So I but I think that once it's closed on, yes, that should be publicly noted. Correct. Yeah. Once once the closing actually takes place. I mean, dates can shift. You know, I I very clearly remember somebody had to come to my house for me to sign a pay document related to the sale of lot a because I'm sorry, the sale of the cat's property because the there were issues with the paperwork as I'm sure everyone who's ever bought a property has encountered.
So Thank you for this update. Yes. Of course. Sure the public appreciates it. Are you are we in a position to confirm the number of units, the number of stories,
the Yeah. I mean, that that really that yeah. That hasn't changed since what was what was approved. It was you know, it's a it's a five story, 100 unit, all affordable
• Okay. Next is on Con Edison. So Con Edison is continuing to work along All Post Road North as part of the gas main replacement project that they're undertaking. You may see that there are police officers on-site there. They are there for traffic safety and for, the safety of the workers on scene. You know, their their time is paid for by Con Edison. They reimburse the village for the for the use of the cars as well as for the, you know, the hours that the officers are working on that project. Con Edison is also starting repairs to the underground electric system, on Amber Drive. That work, weather permitting, is scheduled to start on May 11. I have not gotten the, official notification from Con Edison for that yet. So as soon as I get that information, I can then put it out to the community so that everybody, has that information. But has been in touch with the homeowners association at Scenic Ridge. So, I trust that they have been sharing the information with the with the homeowners who are part of that association.
• On on Quaker Bridge, so we did receive an update from Westchester County, that the memorandum of agreement with the US Army Corps of Engineers is progressing and that the permit for the work will follow once the agreement is finalized. And they did say it's hard to give a timeline on how long that process will take because it's contingent upon signatures from three different agencies. So,
• we don't really have a timeline still, but we at least know that there is some some progress.
I that came while I was on vacation last week. Oh, okay. Yeah. So I think I think I think it was sent on Tuesday or Wednesday of last week. So
• regarding the mixed use building for 325 South Riverside, so based on conversations that we've had, we anticipate that the special permit application for 325 South Riverside will be coming back to the planning board at the end of this month. They had been waiting while the village board, deliberated on local law number five, which was the the cleanup law that corrected all the inconsistencies in the code. So now that that law has been adopted and and filed in the in the secretary of state's office, they are planning to bring their application back to the planning board. So more to come on that. I'm sorry. What project was that? 325 South to Riverside. Save save more.
Thank you. Can I just go back to Quaker Bridge for a second? I'm sorry. Is there could you place that update on the projects page so that that I don't know how you are indicating what the updated information is, but is there some way to put that information on the projects page Yes. So that if somebody goes on there, they can see that most recent update? Yes. Thank you. Yep.
With regards to the three twenty five, do you know if they've completed the traffic study? I I believe that they have, but I haven't seen the I haven't seen the documentation. But Yeah. If it's there, then the plan it will be in the planning board agenda. Correct. Yes. Yes. Okay.
On the train station solar, Con Edison continues to review the updated as built design drawings so that permission to operate or PTO can be granted. Altus and Arrivon, the current and former owners, are hoping to have this finished before the end of the month. So I feel like I've been saying that of every month this year, but we're really hoping that it happens in May so that they can turn on the turn on the system. So, with regards to the Half Moon Bay Bridge, the advanced detailed design plans have been submitted to DOT for their review. Utility agreements have been sent to Verizon and Con Edison for their review, and the draft railroad agreement has been sent to Metro North for their review. So I've contacted the appropriate governmental affairs teams in each one of these groups to get the reviews expedited and get the documents returned to us to keep the project on schedule. So, you know, as everybody knows, we have a definite time frame that we're working in here, so we need to Mhmm. We need to keep things moving to stay within that. And that's to start the job in September or by September? So we so we have to have permission from the state DOT to it's it's oh, sorry. Authorization to proceed to construction. That's the technical phrasing that they use. So that's so basically, that means is that we're allowed to go out to bid. Mhmm. So we need to have that approval from them by they they say they need by August 31. I think that they're the fed the federal fiscal year ends September 30. They're they want us to have everything submitted by August 31 so that there's, you know, time for them to get it approved.
• So so we're we're operating under the August 31 deadline. So in in response to the questions that were raised, in the audience a short while ago, you know, I have received the emails regarding Kaplan's Pond. We're continuing to look at the the issues that have been raised, and, you know, we'll provide a response when we're when we're able to do so. And then the, in regards to the email that we got about the Blackrock Dog Park hours, I did respond to the writer of the email saying that, you know, I appreciate the reasoning behind the request and I will certainly give it full consideration.
• You know, that I sent that email on April 20, and as I said, I was on I've been on vacation, so Mhmm. I still am working on responding to everybody's emails that I received while I was out and, you know, I will I will do so. Mhmm.
you, manager. Thanks. Alright. We proceed to the consent agenda. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Motion by trustee Simon, second by trustee Nicholson. Discussion?
Mayor, ordinarily, I find, you know, one, perhaps two items to mention about, that are on the consent agenda, but I actually have a few a few more because they're they're, in in many cases, just all all such good news. I just wanted to congratulate our planning board chairman, Rob Lunce, for the recognition he will be getting, next month from the, Westchester Municipal Planning Federation. And I'm glad also that they recognize the efforts that the village took on rezoning of South Riverside with their with their accommodation. I also wanted to thank Eva Eva Thaddeus for her work on the the planning board and just say how much I'm looking forward to her her leadership on our conservation advisory council. Mhmm. And and looking forward to our May 9 raising of the police flag. And, of course, the February is national public works week, but we're adding on to that with which I'll I'll discuss later with our own celebration of the Department of Public Works that's being sponsored by our rotary organization. So we're we're we're stretching that a little bit. And then, of course, I think the the Cleveland paving project is is fantastic. And Mhmm. And I think people are gonna be very pleased. All of our repavings, you know, really really have been been wonderful improvements in our infrastructure. And this is this is a big one, but I I think it's it's fantastic that we were able to save the money, you know, from from the abyss. It's a long long story. And the the manager manager took took on his own own shoulders, and, I think that's gonna be an excellent project.
Yep. I agree with deputy mayor Simon, on congratulating Robert Luntz, chair of planning board, for his outstanding work and congratulating Ava for her chair position in the conservation advisory committee and all and her outstanding work that she did on the planning board. A question about the Cleveland Drive resurfacing project. Is that that project is using
repurposed federal earmark funds? That's actually not. That's not on the consent agenda. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. I I have I'm happy to answer the question. No. But we can we're gonna talk about that. Yeah. Okay. We can wait.
• Okay. Well, on the topic of National Police Week, I do wanna remind people that there will be a national police ceremony this Saturday at 09:30. Thank you. And details on the village website.
Well, and thank you to the PAC for Yes. And thank you to the was gonna say that in my remarks. But Yeah. I guess since we're talking about it now, PAC did a lot of planning, in conjunction with the Yeah. Police department on that. So, thank you to Carolyn Whiting and the entire PAC Mhmm. Police Advisory Committee for their work on that topic. And to the Yeah. VEB for That's right. Work out on flag. For the flag. It was really Yes. We have a couple Right. Projects Yeah. That
• Proposed resolution, which there's only one. Just one this evening.
Whereas the village issued an invitation to bid on 02/19/2026 for the federal aid project known as paving in Downtown Croton. And whereas this project involves the paving of Cleveland Drive from Gottwold Circle to Gerstein Street as well as the paving of portions of Old Post Road South, Wood Road, and Gerstein Street. And whereas seven bids were submitted by the deadline of 03/20/2026, and whereas the lowest responsible bid received was from ELQ Industries of New Rochelle, New York in the amount of $702,461.48. And whereas Frank Bauby, superintendent of public works, has recommended moving forward with the low bidder, and whereas the New York State Department of Transportation has reviewed the bid documents and concurred with the recommendation. Now therefore, be it resolved that the village manager is hereby authorized to award bid number one of 20 '26 to ELQ Industries of New Rochelle, New York in the amount of $702,461.48, and be it further resolved that the village manager is authorized to execute any and all necessary documents to enter into the contract with ELQ Industries.
Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Motion by trustee Simon, second by trustee Nicholson.
Discussion? Yeah. O mayor, I I would just note that my remarks about, the Cleveland project at the, during our discussion of the consent calendar, was, was based on enthusiasm for for the project. I'd I'd skipped ahead. Alan Greenspan had a word for that. Excessive enthusiasm. But but I I just repeat them quickly. I I think it's a great project. I I encourage people to take a look at some of the backup materials, particularly that excellent map that Yeah. That shows the route very clearly Yep. In in red and and also some of the other item items in the backup that explain the project, I think, very nicely.
So just I'll give a brief little history of the project, which may may answer trustee Nachteller's question. So the village received, a earmark, a federal earmark from then congressman John Hall back in, like, 2009, and that money was for, raising the parking lot down at the train station. And things moved slow back then as they move now, and so, the village didn't for whatever reason, you know, did not want to wait for that money to come through the process and decided to undertake the, raising of the parking lot on their own. And the money was then kind of in this, like, no man's land, right, of of what what the project was earmarked for had already been done, so it couldn't be used for that. And it couldn't be used for anything else because that's not what it was earmarked for. Right? So it was just kind of floating out there, and then, congress got rid of earmarks entirely so that nobody was allowed to have them, and then it came back. Right? Earmarks came back at some point. And the DOT reached out to us and said, you know, this money is still floating out here. You know, you can submit a request to have it be repurposed for, certain there were certain things that we could ask to have it repurposed for, and one of them was paving. So that was what we went for. And then they told us, well, you can have it for paving, but you can only have it for these certain type classes of roadways. And so what I forget if it was, like, functional class 17 or or, you know, the each roadways are based on their vehicle mileage and, you know, how how much people travel on them, they're rated differently. So
• these roads were the only ones that were rated in the class that, we were, authorized to use. So and it worked out well because they need some work, so that was what we went for. So we were able to get this money back into our use case. Yes. Yeah. And a big you know, obviously, superintendent Balby did a lot of work on this project, so thank you very much to him. We also had AKRF help us with a lot of the filings with the state DOT. Mhmm. So thank you for their help, you know, and and the bids, you know, I don't know if you read into the full memo that was provided, but you'll see that the bid is $701,000, and the federal share is 699,000. Wow. So this project this project is gonna cost us, like, $2,000. Yeah. It's fantastic. So it's really, really something.
if we award this contract, start working on the road? So Frank needs to schedule a pre construction meeting. We're gonna have to get insurances and bonds and all that stuff from them. So I would expect, four to six weeks from now. Hopefully, if everything goes well, we can have the paving go on you know, start. Wow. So we're looking we're looking to do it sooner rather than later. So Great. Yeah. Now you mentioned they'll always keep one side of the road open. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. They're gonna be doing the work during the day. It will be, you know, they it's not gonna take that long. They're they're thinking it's gonna take a week to do the whole Wow. Yeah. All the and, you know, paving's not that you go in, you mill it, you pave it, and you're done. Right? So it's They did all post north, for example, essentially in two and a half days. Yeah. And we've already done we've done a lot of the prep work already. If you've been driving around in the past couple weeks, you may have seen DPW has been out there, replacing and resetting all of the storm grates. All of the sidewalk ramps have been upgraded to ADA compliance. That was one of the requirements under the project. So a a lot of the prep work has already been done. So like I said, they just literally need to come in and mill and pave and That's great. Yeah.
If there are questions, please save them for public comment. That's not a problem. Okay. Alright. All in favor? Aye. Fantastic. Alright. We proceed to public comment on non agenda items wishing anyone wishing to speak on any topic, this is your opportunity. Please state your name and address. If there are queries made in the course of the comment, we will respond to them afterwards, ideally within this meeting, but if not, at some point later when the information's available.
Yes. Okay. Hi. I'm Judy Lewis. 49 Sunset Drive, Croton. As the chair of Friends of Croton Parks, I'm here to request the extension of the dog park on the weekends from 04:00 changing till 06:00. I would like to read part of, Judy Rayer's letter that was sent to the board and Brian Healy. I'm not gonna read the whole thing, but part of her points, I think, are very poignant in order to have those the dog park hours change. Hello, mister Healy. I'm writing to you and the board of trustees to respectfully request an extension of Black Rock Dog Park's weekend closing hours from 4PM to 6PM. As you know, the recreation advisory committee unanimously supported this change, and I understand that the final decision rests with you. I was present at that meeting, and I appreciate the thoughtful discussion on how to best serve our community. I'm gonna paraphrase the next part of the letter. One of the comments was having the decline of membership from 2,020, which was the height of the pandemic. Most people from Croton are actually using the Cedar Lane Park because of the dog park hours on the weekend. Cedar Lane does not have any limitation on hours from they are from dawn to dusk. And they have lights and bags for the dogs to clean up, plus other amenities like trash receptacles that get emptied, water resources, and no license or park pass are required. So, one of her examples in her letter was to of somebody from the MTA that rushes by 03:45 just to give his dog a fifteen minute bit of exercise because they work on the weekends. And having the dog park available to the Croton residents, which we all pay taxes for, would be
• a wonderful thing for the people to be able to use our dog park that we're paying taxes for. Now my oops. My comment to the board is that, I respectfully request the extension of the hours of the dog park on the weekends from four to 06:00 on Saturdays and Sundays. As a member of the dog park, I know that many dog owners cannot get to the park before four on the weekends. Many owners work during the weekend the weekend, and it seems sensible to extend those hours to an additional two hours. Many parks are open from dawn to dusk, and we are requesting just an an additional two hours. It seems a little unfair that BlackRock Bocce area is open from dawn to dusk, but there are limitations on the dog park area. I understand that the neighbors are sensitive to noise. However, it has been my experience that the dog owners are very sensitive to keeping their dogs quiet during the times at the parks. Dogs do park, but I know that owners try to contain those noise of their dogs in order to be sensitive to our neighbors on both sides of the river. Again, I request the extension of the hours from four to six, and thank you for your time. Thank you for your comment.
Hello. I'm Margaret Connor at 36 Grand Street. I don't only have a little bit to add to your, I think you've included everything. First of all, I I respectfully respectfully disagree. I think the park should be open from dawn to dusk. It is a public park. It gets utilized. COVID nineteen was an anomaly. Take a look at your parking in your, in our parking. It changes. We have to see what's coming. Thirdly, we now have a vape place. We're talking about tattoo parlors. We have a cabaret, all of which I support because the world changes. I'm a daughter of a farmer. If I told my father what I do with my dog, bringing him to restaurants and doing this kind of things, he'd be completely shocked. Okay? And I actually do sleep with the dog. Thank god he's dead. The the dog, not the dead. The dad is dead. That's it. But what I'm saying is it does change. So for all you real estate fanatics fanatics, everyone I know in the generations following us bring their dogs into restaurants. They want off leash. They believe in socializing their dogs. They believe in all. It's much more than I had a Irish setter with a flea collar, 99¢ flea collar. The world is different. We should adapt to it. And I'm gonna tell you people's schedules are different, and people should adapt to it. I don't have kids anymore, but when I yes. I do. But when I did have kids, you're running around all goddamn Saturday. You know? For you to be able to go at 06:00 on a summer evening and sit with your dog over there is a difference to bring your children to. The world is changing. The hours are changing.
• People don't work nine to five Monday to Friday. People don't have stay at home moms or dads, and people do different things. And you should be respectful just as we are when we changed a vape shop and we're talking about a tattoo parlor and a cabaret, which I think everything's wonderful. Remember that the world is changing, and the people who are buying houses here expect different things than we do. So I ask that the dog park be treated like every other public dog park that we have. Dog I love a pub park. I didn't think I was gonna speak tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Hi. John. I'd like to make a few comments. So with the dog park, it seems also like for daylight savings, we have more light out. And with the, you know, the weir on the river there has got a bunch of damage to it, but it makes a lot of noise. So I'm amazed that the neighbor can complain about the dogs barking. You would think you could put up a sign, no dog barking, and people would have to tell their dogs to be quiet. But as they got more socialized, they wouldn't be barking. So it might be helpful to have summer hours and winter hours.
• Getting back to, Kaplan's Pond, I'm very concerned about it, and it's the dam of Kaplan's Pond. And, as you know, we've found a few things. Brian, have you gotten any feedback? This is not a question and answer. Okay. But you'll respond hopefully this week or something? As I said, I'll respond when we have information. Alright. Could you have a set up a meeting with Vincent and Frank so I can speak to them about the 2004 renovation that was supposed to go a foot higher?
So, anyway, I'll just read my letter or whatever. So dear mayor Blow, Lynn Simon, Joshua, it's good to see you here tonight. I I didn't include you, but I'll include you now. All the trustees and other helpers and our fellow, Croton residents. Kaplan's Pond has become a major, storm retention infrastructure in our town, and it should be, a class c dam because it's, elevated over Metro North. And as such, the town has a responsibility to start doing required New York State DC dam safety inspections and preventive maintenance for class c dams. It, it's gotten out of hand. We have tall trees and bushes on the dam that if they blow over in a storm, it could be catastrophic. Glenn Glenn, you don't agree? You don't agree? Excuse me. But you don't agree? You look like you were making an expression like you thought it was nothing. No. You're just taking Okay. Sorry. Not again, not a question of answer. That's there's several safety problems that have been reported over the month of April, the depressions, a bulge, the low area near the bench, the weed infested emergency spillway, the overgrown freeboard, plants that have grown taller than two feet tall on the berm, trees on the berm. The toe has gotten all swampy, And there's the, you know, the sinkhole that was on Giglio Lane that got repaired a few years ago that could also be a sign of the dam having problems with leakage. But the bulge and the slides on the grass side are bad signs. And, we should keep it under a watch condition because we don't obviously wanna have a major hazard. But in April, I noticed and reported the anomaly on Kaplan's earthen Dam. Over the month, with the help of DPW,
• I found more, confirmations that there's more problems. It was very helpful. They cut the branches on the spillway and cut some of the tall weeds in the emergency spillway, but it still needs to get cleared out for a big rainstorm. Kaplan's Dam is over 80 years old, and it is named after Jacob Merrill Kaplan of, Welch's grape juice fame. He purchased the land for the famous Hessian Hills School, and the students used to be able to see the pond from the beautiful picture glass windows of the innovatively designed building there. It's unfortunate there's also trees on the earthen embankment that separates Kaplan's Pond from the marsh. And, but those at least there's a bridge, so they're not really holding back the marsh water. Kaplan's earthen dam is much more important. And, unfortunately, Kaplan's is being overwhelmed by stormwater runoff during major storms. There's signs of it cresting the dam. The Brook Street drainage problems, Nora, the Brook Street drainage problems could be reduced if Kaplan's Dam was refurbished and restored to even surpass the 2,004, continuous dam crest that was supposed to be at 376 feet above sea level. But by the spillway on either side, it's only three seventy five. So there's an area there that the water's been going over and coming down by the now that they've removed the bushes, you can see where the water damage has been happening on the east side of the spillway, but it also goes down the west side. Well, anyway, May 31 is Dam Safety Awareness Day. Please help protect Croton in New York State. Please comply with the New York State DEC guidelines for dam safety. Please maintain an updated dam emergency action plan with current contacts and instructions. You know, although Kaplan's dam small
You're on Pete Howardham's committee. I received your email. Time has expired. Thank you. Thank
Krisky, 49 Sunset Drive. Along with the wonderful project of repaving Cleveland Drive, I hope that, we're still gonna be building the sidewalk that I think we approved that's gonna go from Gerstein up to is it Lecanto and back of CET?
• Thank you, everybody, for coming to speak tonight. You know, I know there's been a lot of interest in,
• the dog park discussion. And I know that when we went back and forth about this, it it was determined that it is it's the manager's decision about what happens. I can't remember exactly what happened if we had like, I know RAC discussed it, but I can't remember if we discussed it. I don't I don't I guess I guess my question is there has been a lot of interest and a lot of inquiry on this topic. Mhmm. Do we have a
We do we discussed it we had we discussed it at a meeting and we discussed it at a work session. So, I mean, but the ultimately, the code says that it's the manager's decision to set the hours of the parks. Okay. So
Okay. And I do just wanna thank mister Corwin because he has done a tremendous amount of research on several bodies of water within the village over the course of the last couple weeks. And I think that there is space to have a bigger discussion about this. I know DPW is aware of it. So I I appreciate the extensive research that you have done, and I don't know exactly how that moves forward. But I think there is space for us to have some type of discussion, both, you know, at the departmental level, but also, you know, the more conversations we can have in public and updates we can give in public, the better for everyone. So I do you know, Kaplan's Kaplan's is popular for a variety of reasons. So I appreciate everyone's interest in it, whether it's the residents who live right around it, who had concerns, or people who just are aware of the dam situation. Okay.
• Just a couple other things. As we already mentioned, the police flag raising is this weekend. Thank you to PAC for all the work on that and also to BEB where everyone will get to see the the new village police flag that will be unveiled or raised at that time. Similarly, next weekend, we I guess we don't have a we don't have a meeting next No. We do not. Week. Right? So next weekend, is another event, which is a great example of two committees working together. There will be a piece the peace poll dedication, which was a great collaboration between the Arts and Humanities Committee. And, speaking of Eva Thaddeus and her great work, the Garden Club, did a planting around it. So that, I appreciate all of those. It's great that so many of the committees that I'm a liaison to did such great work that we're gonna celebrate this week. So I'm excited for that. Speaking of committees that I am a liaison to, the congratulations to the library on a successful book and bake sale. It's a great community event twice a year, and I hope that they raise tremendous amount of money. I don't know what that was. But there's also a lot of exciting things going on at the library with the renovation proposed renovations. We also have been getting my colleagues and I have been getting a lot of emails regarding the leaf blowers. So I know there's gonna be that's going to the CAC to be discussed, and we'll be having a discussion here. But I do you know, when you get that volume of communications on any topic, I really do think it's important to acknowledge the people who are taking the time to reach out and let them know that,
• although we don't I don't know exactly what the outcome is, there's a lot of thoughtful consideration being given to the topic by us.
• They were present at Earth Day this weekend. Earth Day was great. It used to be a CAC event, and now it is a the village has taken it over, I believe. It's I mean, it's still the CAC is still involved in it, but we But but the village now organizes it. There are lot of village staff on hand there Of course. Who were working at this weekend. The weather was, not completely cooperative, but it was a very nice event. So thank you to everybody who presented there, to the CAC, of course, but also to all our village staff who really made the day. Two other small items, you know, I will congratulate my colleague, trustee Simon on the installation of the bikes at down at Senesqua. I have tremendous concerns about pedestrian bike and pedestrian safety being the parent of a child who was hit riding her bike. Everyone is sick of hearing me say that, but it's why I care so much. I am concerned about the ease with which now electric bike riders will be able to be on the Riverwalk. I I just think that along with the installation of the cement and the bikes, we really need to be doing a lot of outreach, a lot of education, you know, making sure that everybody is aware that the way that that pathway has been navigated is potentially gonna significantly change, with the addition of those bikes. So as much as I wanna celebrate this great organization that we're part of and we really are at the forefront of, the success of this electric bike movement here in Westchester, I'm you know, will continue to be a broken record about how important I think communicating, the safety aspect of that is. And then finally,
• I I must have clicked on something because now I'm getting a lot of like New York State tourism. The dam is such a great place to go. Me too. So I wanna make sure that we are collaborating with our town and county and whoever else partners. Partners. I know we had some parking solution for that, but I think I've tried to block it out of my head exactly how bad it was to go up and down one twenty nine when the parking was out of control, but I think that is coming because it is it looks amazing in all the promotion. So can we be consciously thinking about I'm sure you already are thinking about it, manager, but I really would like to be consciously thinking about how we're gonna manage that because it does significantly impact the quality of life for people trying to get in and out of Croton Yep. On 01/29. And I've I have never in the past seen this type of promotion regarding it, which partly, you know, I wanna be excited about it, but I'm a little I'm a little anxious about it. So I just wanna you know, can we be can we be thinking about that? Maybe we you can let us know what the communication I know that there was some solution put in place, but you know, you don't have to I don't I'm not looking for an update now, but I just would like to be able to let the public know that we're aware of it and whatever our plans are and our communications with those partners are. Thank you. Yep.
Okay. Thank you. On that note, it would be great if the business council could monetize all that traffic and generate revenue at all of our wonderful business establishments in Croton. You know, maybe they could somebody could be there with a nice flyer and introduce our wonderful places that we have here. Let's monetize all that traffic, but also control it to trustee Slipin's point. As liaison to planning board, just wanna repeat, congratulations to Rob Luntz, chair of our planning board for his distinguished citizen planner award.
• From the Westchester Municipal Federation. There'll be a dinner event, on June 3 where the award will be formally presented. And I wanna thank Eva Thaddeus for serving on the planning board so well. Her last meeting will be May 12, as she shifts and and, focuses on the chair position for the Conservation Advisory Committee. I also wanna thank mister Corwin. I toured the pond with him the other day just to get, like, firsthand understanding of of what some of the challenges might be. And just one thing that stood out was, which I know was put in his letter, was that there's a log, blocking the dam. So, you know, I mean, that, you know, that's, that needs to come out, and the emergency spillway needs to be cleared so that everything could be kind of funneling down the way it should. So I know, you you know, you'll read the letters and and take the proper action, but thank you for for being a, you know, a community advocate in in that area. I know you also flagged the, burst pipe that happened, as well. So you were first on the scene there, so thank you.
• Also, I'm looking forward to to police week and the flag raising ceremony, so thank you to those that sit on the pack that work on that and the police. And I wanna thank the village and all the vendors and residents for the May 2 Earth Day. I thought it was fantastic. Lots of great engagement, and great day of learning and community. Lastly, I just want to, this gentleman doesn't know I'm doing this. He's probably not even watching, but I just wanna wish Bob Anderson a happy birthday. He turned 80 on May 4. May the fourth be with you, Bob. I wish you many more healthy, years ahead. If if I were only as in good shape as Bob when I turned 80, I know I would like that. Bob has served as trustee, president of the seniors club. He he's a leader on the leadership team for the Lions Club, and I'm sure there's a whole list of of stuff. But he's always out selling Christmas trees or whatever, get you know, doing GoFundMe's for people in need of our community. So I just wanted to, wish him a happy birthday.
Thank you. So thank you to everyone. Everyone's really said a lot that I was about to say, but I will just do a quick quick shout out to the CAC and Eva Thaddeus. The Earth Day celebration was wonderful. You know, great partnership between the DPW, manager's office, and CAC to make that event really spectacular. I went out the next morning to check it out, to do a little garbage pickup if it was needed, and it was, like, as clean as a whistle. So we definitely really were inspired by the Earth Day message, and I I was really impressed at the state of Visalo after that event. So that was really nice to see. Speaking of leaf blowers, I had a really good conversation with leaf blower advocate Organization. Name is escaping me right now. Quiet Clean Croton. Quiet Thank you. Quiet Clean Croton. And I think we did agree and I think we would all agree that our existing band should be should be explained to people, and really we should be putting forth an effort. June 1 is the day of the ban. So let's be clear with people. I think we can talk a little bit more offline about how we're communicating that. We've talked about doing signs in the past, you know, making sure that it's very clear to people, as well as the landscape companies that we do indeed have a ban. Yep. You know, what we're being asked is a year round ban, but we do have a ban. It's it's during the summertime, so let's enforce that ban. Mhmm. And let's communicate that we have a ban a ban already in place. Point. Very excited to see Friends of Croton Park double mentioned here in the audience tonight. Really proud of that organization
• getting off the ground. So thank you very much. And thank you, mister Corwin, for your pointing out of Kaplan's Pond. My question is, with the Brook Street drainage project that we've, you know, we're going forward with, is any study being done from a drainage perspective from the pond down to Brook Street? That was all that was all included. I mean, the organization
the organization that we hired, D and B engineers, was the one that did the original drainage study back in 2004 that preceded the improvements that were done at the pond. You know, a lot of the a lot of the drainage that is increasing into the the drainage basin on Brook Street is coming from additional catch basins that were installed after 2004. There were catch basins that were installed at the bottom of Lower North Highland, and I believe on, Opos North, basically right outside here. So that captured drainage that hadn't been entering into that section of the watershed previously. So, you know, that was what that was what the study showed. So
Well, I look forward to hearing a report back from DPW on the Yep. Status of the ban. And just to allude to the library, so we had an off night last Thursday night, so I was able to attend the annual meeting of the library, which was very interesting. And I think something that we can really learn from, They had the executive director of the library sort of walk through the budget, which was really helpful and informative, and have a conversation about the goals and about the projects. They also had the chair of each one of their committees report out on the work that they had done in the year and kind of what's go forward, which I thought was a really nice template. You know, I have to be honest, not that many people attended said meeting, but it was very informative. And I think when we think about communicating with the public, it's a really good model to sort of take a minute and really kind of dig into, you know, this is the budget, this is what we're funding, this is what we've passed, and then these are our committees and this is what they're doing.
And, you know, the public can then ask questions. So I thought it was a great format. So appreciate that and was happy to attend. I know this is not typically what happens, but I just I sit through the meeting, I go to all library meetings, I wasn't able to go on Thursday to the annual meeting, but I will provide that feedback when I go on Monday about the because there was a lot of discussion back and forth about whether or not each committee should give feedback. Mhmm. And there was a lot of discussion about what was the benefit of that, would it be too much, you know, exactly what it was. Giving a voice, it was a way to give a voice to the to the committee chairs. So I really appreciate you going and saying and sharing it because they did put a lot of thought into how that was all gonna work at the at the Yeah. The annual meeting. So thank you for sharing that. I appreciate it very much. And there were a of tasty treats.
I just wanna say. So we could also learn from them in terms of what we're offering here.
That's terrific. Well, thank you, trustee Nicholson. Just a few things here on, April 24. I got a chance to cross the river and, head over to Rockland County and, meet with some of the Rockland County folks who are very interested in, what Croton here had done with, Maple Commons. There was a group that included, Nance Schatzkin from the Croton Housing Network and, Ken Regan from, Regan Development, myself, and, and Ross Karp from the, housing and community renewal office of our state, which had an important role to play in in Maple Commons. And and we were able to talk about not only how did Maple Commons come about, but how's it been going since it was occupied by those 33 families in in the '24. So got a lot of good feedback from folks, a lot of interest, and it's always always nice when something that you've worked on is evokes a little bit of interest on on the part of other other communities. On on April 26, we had our sustainability committee meeting. Mayor and I were there, packed agenda, talked about EV chargers at the train station, our food scrap recycling program, which has recently been expanded, preparations for Earth Day, train station solar, which we talked a little bit about, and of course, DPW solar, and that just I think that was just the first half hour. Then we we did some other things after that. On the April 27, we had just a wonderful event at Croton Landing with the Open Space Institute, which is now put on a revised and updated sign where there's sort of a fork and the the the walkway splits in two. It's actually very near our Peace Pole. And it talks a new sign that talks about how the Open Space Institute
• participated in in the creation of Croton Landing, a very interesting story. And I'll I'll leave everyone to look at the signs themselves. But what was nice about the event was, in addition to being there, was there were a whole bunch of kids from our high school that are are working with with the Open Space Institute and and and learning from examples like road and landing. So we were pleased about that. On the April 28, our fire council met, and we were able to brief them at that point on on the adoption of our budget, which I think has, you know, some wonderful things in it for the fire department both on the capital and the operating side. We also mentioned that the governor is expanding the training stipends that are available for five additional courses that our firefighters can take and get anywhere between $250 and $500, for for actually taking that course, which I think is is is certainly, appropriate for for their hard work. And we we talked a little bit about our our ongoing evaluation of the question of occupational preferences for first responders for any future affordable housing. And, of course, we we talked about the Quaker Bridge, which once it gets constructed, they'll be able to get back on it, and they have not been able to to be on that for quite some time. And, of course, I should mention since we talked about Earth Day and and recycling and all of that. There's a wonderful artist of the month at at Croton River Artisans who actually her art, her name is Mindy Colbert, and her art is based on on things she finds in the street. And it's actually very beautiful. But she she says she gets up in the morning, has a cup of coffee, walks around the
• block, finds some things laying there, whether it be stones or pieces of metal or glass, and makes beautiful artwork out of it. So if anyone has a chance to go over to our wonderful Croatan River artisans, take a look at that. And speaking of Earth Day, I just everyone's, you know, said so so many wonderful things. I just wanted to thank the our bicycle and pedestrian committee for doing great work, particularly our chairman, Matt Arnold, and Dana Nicholson, who was was there virtually the entire time and was incredibly incredibly helpful there, so appreciate all that. And our on our sustainability committee, and I hope people had a chance to look at that as well, Cheryl Wong, who runs our food scrap recycling program, this is now the second year that she's done this. She she put together an excellent textile recycling program, and and, I was I was impressed by how much was there and how ambitious her plans were for that. So, thank you to Matt and Dana on the bicycle pedestrian side and to Cheryl on the sustainability side. Thank you, trustee Slippenall. Good comments on our Senasco Park kickoff for project mover and, consistent with what you were discussing. We are we've had two training sessions already. We'll we're trying to schedule another one for this summer based on the the availability of the community room. But we're also trying to get through this project project mover. There's some available funding for additional bike safety signage and bike safety infrastructure. So we'll we'll hopefully have some good news on that, you know, fairly soon. On May 3, this past Sunday, we had our our third Comic Con here in, in Croton on Riverside. And I wanted to thank, mister Brian Deo and, Sonia
• Berante from third universe for their great work. Mayor and I and and trustee Nicholson were there for a bit on Sunday, and it looked like, even a little windy. But, but, looks like folks are having a great time. And the, the costumes were pretty amazing, particularly, mister Deo, who was, Baron Munchausen. And and I have I have pictures to prove it, which we'll we'll we'll pass around. And continue our discussion, which we have very briefly about our rotary DPW event. That is May 20. You can get all the information on either the village website or the rotary website, and, this is this is all based on contributions. And and, we had a rotary meeting yesterday, and the planning for that is going very well. Anyone who contributes $50 or more is welcome welcome to attend this as well, and and we're looking forward to our 30, DPW employees all being there. And I think it's very appropriate that we are doing this not only to thank them for, their their amazing work during the storms of, of 2026, but also because this is, this is National Public Works Week as well. And, speaking of our businesses, I just came from a mixer that the the association of businesses in Croton had the ABC had at at the Grand. And the two of them worked very well together, and it was great to see our ABC. So many people turned out probably, I think, about 25 or 30, which was very, very nice. And and the the spirit there is really excellent, and the program that they have is is is very, ambitious, but I think very appropriate for for Croton. And last but not least, Sunday is Mother's Day. Mhmm. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. And if you can Linda. If you can if you can, call your mom, go see your mom, think about or think about your in my case, think about think about your mom who's always always with me anyway.
Thank you, Len. And thank you to everyone that spoke this evening. And as many people have, I I wanna extend our thanks to Eva Thaddeus and her capacity at CAC and for her, tenure on the planning board. A quick note with regards to the status of Earth Day, it is still, at the direction, is how I would phrase it, of the CAC. Okay. I really see there was, I did kind of an informal, like it would be too much to say it was even an accident interview. But I did speak to the outgoing CAC chair, and one of the flags that I got was, Earth Day is a lot of work, and, you may out of consideration for the next chair, you might wanna re contemplate how you do this. And so, based on his experience and in conversation with the manager, we re kind of re re and the incoming chair, we kind of restructured it so that CAC provides guidance and a vision for the event, and the actual administrative burden or or tasks are handled by village staff. So that's wrangling the vendors, for lack of a better word, which used to be a tremendous challenge for, the CAC team to handle on a volunteer basis. You know, if you're trying to reach people during business hours and you also have responsibilities and then they call you, you call back, etcetera. It can get very complicated if you don't have that availability. So we've, delegated those kind of ministerial tasks to the village staff. And, you know, again, I I think it speaks very well, to Eva's dedication that she's chosen to prioritize the CAC. I would say that that's also reflected in her quick action with regards to ensuring the timely reseating
• of the Gottwald circle strips, and thank you to John Bouchard and the manager for quickly executing on that guidance from our CAC chair. But Eva has stepped down, so I would like to appoint, Syed Hosseini to the planning board. He is currently the alternate, on the planning board, and so he will be I would like to elevate him as a permanent member of the planning board, thereby creating a vacancy on the alternate position that we'll be recruiting for. And, similarly, for other folks continuing their exciting careers in public service, I will be appointing, Jeanette Choon and Rachel Sabrizi as
• village treasurer and deputy village treasurer, respectively. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Motion by trustee Simon, second by trustee Nicholson. All in favor? Aye. Aye. That concludes my remark oh, wait. No. They don't. That does not.
ahead, we have on May 17, the Lorraine Hansberry birthday celebration that will be taking place starting at 2PM at Bethel Chapel and will feature among others KG KJ Denhardt, a very accomplished and renowned musician who was here with for our original Lorraine Hansberry kickoff in 2021. And with that, is there any information that we need to address? No. I don't think so. Okay. Very good. Do I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. Motion by trustee Simon, second by trustee Nicholson. All in favor? Aye. Thank you.