Tuckahoe Village Departments

TUCKAHOE TALK
With Mayor John Fitzpatrick

Consolidation Conversation

November, 2009

Charitable organizations from our town, such as the Community Fund, may be well acquainted with the likes of Mark and Charles Rollins and the Rollins Agency. However, that probably isn’t the case for many Tuckahoe residents. Besides being benefactors, I assure you they are at the center of a conversation that we must have as a village. They are one of the largest privately held insurance and risk management firms in the tri-state area. They have been in business since 1910 and headquartered in Tuckahoe since 1993. That headquarters has been 65 Main Street - Village Hall. In fact, they lease the entire third floor of Village Hall (12,000 square feet). After many long renegotiation sessions, they have decided to relocate to White Plains. The reasoning for their departure on the precipice of the firm’s centennial anniversary is purely economics.

This departure is quite important to our community on many levels. The rent realized from this space accounts for approximately 3% of revenue towards our annual budget. This fact has obviously helped our community in the past, but the recent economic downturn has led to an abundance of commercial property and has highlighted the danger of our government being a landlord. The constrictions government faces as opposed to those of private held properties, also presents obstacles that lead to us being a less than desirable landlord. Projects as simple as a paint job often require a lengthy bid process.

Over the last two years we have seen several Village Hall tenants depart, and the commercial realtors have been only been sporadic in finding us replacements. This is due not only to the amount of space available elsewhere, but because several businesses have downsized and others simply closed up shop. So what are we preparing to do at Village Hall given the fact that we have become mostly devoid of tenants? The first thing I should point out is that our exiting third floor tenant is responsible for the rent until December 31, 2010. Even though this is a little over a year, our recent experience with being unable to fill other space has the current Village Board on high alert.

This is a perfect time to consider consolidation of our facilities. For instance, the Tuckahoe Public Library and the Community Center could be moved to Village Hall. The building on Columbus Avenue which houses these two services is as sorry a structure now as the day it was built. I would love to be able to say that it was planned poorly. However, I won’t give anyone credit for planning at all regarding this building. The placement of a basketball court over the library could never have been considered smart, and the installation of carpet to soften the noise essentially nullifies its use as a basketball court. Without even going into how it looks, I will say that its leaky roofs and faulty bathrooms cannot go on being patched indefinitely.

The library could be housed either on our soon-to-be-vacant third floor - since an elevator is available - or our partially vacant ground floor. Regarding the Community Center, obviously basketball would be eliminated with such a move, but community rooms (for meetings) similar to those which now exist could easily be accommodated. Currently, the town contributes just $35,000 to the operation of the Community Center, but more than half of the daily bookings are for town sponsored programs. Eliminating this building would reduce village operational costs by a hundred thousand dollars in fuel, electricity and insurance and that number doesn’t even include any necessary maintenance funds. This elimination may also facilitate no longer requiring a full time Recreation Director and associated part timers. This would save nearly another hundred thousand dollars in wages and benefits - not to mention pension costs.

I am sure there was opposition to selling Tuckahoe’s original Village Hall for $225,000 in the early 1980’s when size constraints forced the village to abandon that structure. Many of you probably know that the building now serves as current home to the Generoso Pope Foundation. Also, the purchase of our current Village Hall from the Assumption School for the meager sum of just $405,000 has proven acceptable, since until now the exorbitant heating costs and upkeep to the old building have been offset by rent revenue.

Even though the 80’s saw a need to increase village space, the climate of the world now is to make things smaller, especially government. Governor Spitzer, during his short reign, addressed this issue by publishing a report on consolidation meant to spark public bodies into action. All public entities encompassed within and including the County of Westchester owe the public a serious and genuine investigation into this matter. Since Tuckahoe Village Hall may soon be, for all practical purposes, a vacant business center, I suggest we consider consolidating and downsizing our facilities. Yes, we do give up the possibility of rental revenue, but in turn we would seek to sell off the property at the Community Center. Ballpark estimates set the value of that real estate parcel at around $1.5 million. In addition, the property would eventually find its way on to the tax rolls. To some this may sound radical, while others may point out that this is a poor time to sell real estate. Nevertheless, a conversation of this nature is surely deserved because many of my fellow villagers demand that consolidation occur, and I share that sentiment. The public continually indicates it wants real dialogue on this topic, but until government shows up ready to reduce, it isn’t much of a conversation. I realize this entire topic deserves a much more in-depth look at this proposal as well as other aspects of village government. You can certainly expect another article from me soon. For now, I thought this was a big enough bite to get some feedback from you.