Tuckahoe Village Departments

TUCKAHOE TALK
With Mayor John Fitzpatrick

The State of Realization, Not Completion

January 23, 2009

The President of the United States and the Governor of New York use January to issue a State of the Union or State of the State Address. Many politicians also use this time to layout a direction for the coming year. Still others outline the many accomplishments of their particular administration for the previous year. The latter strategy is probably a good public relations move, but it also has that “blowing one’s own horn” feeling. Regardless, many have come to simply expect this kind of tactic from their elected officials. Since the present Tuckahoe Village board has a long list of accomplishments over the last year, blowing the horn is tempting. Nevertheless, I thought I would go in a different direction; deciding instead to outline those issues and subjects that our Village Board had identified as requiring a fix, but which we have been unable to accomplish as of this date.

1.The Yonkers Avenue Debacle. First and foremost, the legal owner of this river wall that is slowly collapsing into the Bronx River and undermining Yonkers Avenue remains in question. Recently, Legislator Vito Pinto and I prodded Westchester County into removing the dead trees along the bank that could only have led to the further demise of this thoroughfare. The Army Corps of Engineers have been here twice in the last year and are now formulating a remedy and cost projections. In hopes of bringing this matter to conclusion, Congresswoman Lowey’s office has found several grant programs that would cover two-thirds of the eventual cost. However, this still puts the ultimate river wall owner on the hook for a substantial amount of money.

2. The Garbage Law. After close to six months of public hearings on the validity and particulars of this plan, it remains not passed. This law will allow each residential unit within the Village two 30-gallon pails per pick-up. Meanwhile, the commercial establishments of Tuckahoe continue to account for half the tonnage we dump at the transfer station and receive more pickups then residents. Excess of the standard will either result in a charge or no pick-up. Many worry about the effect on small businesses, but oddly some businesses are already forced to use private carting. My reasons for addressing this issue are many-fold, but fairness to all parties is paramount.

3. Speed Bumps on Oakland Ave. The simple fact is every block in the village feels that cars are moving too fast. The exception of course is Main Street, which everyone feels is too slow. However, the data regarding Oakland Ave validates the concerns voiced by many residents. My administration, as well as those of the past, promised the residents of this street to move ahead with the speed humps/bumps. However, the return of the recent surveys of block residents saw only 43% who thought this was a good idea. We have now lowered the speed limit even further, but my gut feeling is that those who are speeding don’t care how low we make the limit - - they are still going to speed.

4. The New DPW Facility. We have now removed all the formerly unsafe and unsightly structures. However, the new buildings have yet to be constructed. Deputy Mayor Ecklond and I have met extensively with the engineers and architects. The Village Board has already held one public meeting regarding this matter and two adjacent homeowners offered valuable insight that is being incorporated into the plan. Moving forward, the overall plan is to build three separate smaller structures over several years so that financing will be less painful.

5. A Coherent Tree and Sidewalk Strategy. The fact that roots from trees push up sidewalks is a problem long faced by every municipality, and Tuckahoe is no exception. I am against cutting down trees unless they pose a threat to the public. If we cut down every tree that displaced some sidewalk, Tuckahoe would look like Manhattan rather quickly. Our intention was to install a rubber sidewalk prototype in one area and evaluate its effectiveness. Both the cost and other more pressing projects have pushed this test off for a future date.

I, like many readers, am critical of government that can’t get it done. What is further maddening is that often government accomplishments seem to come at a pace reminiscent of the continents dividing. It is my belief that more often than not this can be attributed to politicians being so afraid of making the wrong decision, that they make none at all. In all fairness, however, the proper method of enacting changes requires an extremely thorough and transparent public interaction process.

Despite our Tuckahoe Village Board members being generally united to fix each of the above-mentioned situations, they remain unresolved for a mixed bag of reasons; not the least of which could be the handling of day-to-day occurrences that can sometimes push off future planned progress. I, however, remain cognizant of the necessity to balance doing business, while still creating and maintaining “community” in the ever evolving world.

None of this should detract from the many meaningful changes implemented over the past year. Instead, I have highlighted these issues to acknowledge and illustrate that work is never done. This hundred year-old village is like my hundred year-old house, a “work in progress”.