Tuckahoe Village Departments

TUCKAHOE TALK
With Mayor John Fitzpatrick

Paving the Way

June 15, 2010

I wonder if you heard this one, it is one of my current favorites: "The mayor hasn't paved Rose Avenue because there are no voters there."

Please don't let my embraced penchant for sarcasm be confused here; but I've heard about this kind of chatter in the world of government. Sometimes it is directly done to disrupt momentum, while other times it is a genuine mistake, a sort of real life game of telephone gone wrong. My intentions or proposals, whether actual or alleged, are occasional topics of conversation from civic associations meetings to the sidelines of a soccer game. Generally, when I hear something along these lines, I simply smile or laugh. However, since I enjoyed this one so much I thought I would take the opportunity to speak on Tuckahoe's street paving policy.

All streets in Tuckahoe have a classification regarding condition. This isn't a secret list and has been posted on the village website for the last couple of years. To find out the classification of your particular street, go to www.tuckahoe.com and under the Department of Public Works simply click the paving priority list. Each street or portion thereof, in the case of main arteries, receives a number from 1 to 5, with 5 being the worst.

Regarding Rose Avenue, it is clearly a 5 and has been for quite some time. During last year's paving cycle several residents, both in Tuckahoe and outside, requested I either pave the street or give a good reason for not doing so. After careful analysis, I chose curtain number two - the good reason. Nevertheless, I could tell by their indignant voices they didn't accept the reasoning. Here is a brief synopsis of that reasoning.

As a village, Tuckahoe cannot afford to pave every street in need each year. We set aside approximately $70,000 annually for repaving streets projects, since cracked blacktop and potholes contribute to noisier streets and unsafe conditions. We look to the list and find the 5's and make our decision. The section of Rose Avenue that falls within Tuckahoe is off Route 22 between the Concordia ball field, tennis courts and soccer field. While Rose Avenue is a 5, the fact that no one lives on the section of the block in question, lowered its immediate consideration. Because the Village Board believes homeowners deserve the quietest streets possible, heavy residential blocks of Oak Avenue and Lawrence Avenue, also designated as 5, were chosen to improve the many residents' quality of life. Obviously, any consideration as to whether residents were living on a block, somehow morphed into the amusing "no voters" comment.

The Village Board is well aware that Rose Avenue is conduit to a section of Tuckahoe Village, Bronxville Manor and the Tuckahoe schools. Those residents of the town and village familiar with this corridor of our community are also familiar with another problem associated with Rose Avenue (aside from pot holes) that requires addressing. Specifically, people continually double parking, unsafely dropping off passengers and idling their vehicles at the Concordia tennis area and fields. Regardless of the fact that we don't possess the manpower to station a police officer on Rose Avenue each day during games, our police will be periodically scrutinizing the area and issuing summonses to vehicles in the no standing zone and for other non law abiding behavior.

Finally, this paving season we will be repaving Rose Avenue, as well as portions of Sagamore Road and Yonkers Avenue. Working in concert with Concordia President Viji George, the parking spaces located along the soccer field of Rose Avenue will also be repaved to ensure a job that is long lasting. The Yonkers Avenue section slated for paving will follow completion of the work to stabilize the collapsing street from the Bronx River. Anticipated to begin in September, Yonkers Avenue repaving is part of a contractual commitment with the Army Corps of Engineers. Our decision to move forward with these streets means others with a class 5 distinction will have to wait. Residents should remember that streets can go from 3 to 5 quickly based on harshness of winter or spring thaw, and should refer to the continually updated and always public list on our village web site.