Town Board

April 4, 2017

Absent: Supervisor Grace

1. Report from Traffic Safety Committee

Highway Superintendent Dave Paganelli reported that the committee is recommending the following initiatives

a. Veterans Road: Two raised concrete crosswalks to be constructed in order to slow traffic. One will be at the Yorktown Nursery School; the other at the southern end of the field.  The committee is also suggesting that a second set of steps leading to the field be construted and that town trucks greater than 5 tons be directed to use alternate routes.

Later in the meeting, Councilman Bernard reported that the town will meet with BOCES to discuss the rerouting of buses that currently use Veterans Road.

b. Amazon Road: The existing 4-way stop sign at Amazon, Uncas, Mogul land Sylvan should be changed to a 5-way stop sign.  A public hearing on this change will be held May 2^nd.

c. Bank Road: A no parking zone will be created the south side of the road.

d. Crow Hill Road and Lake Road. The existing law regulating weight limit needs to be corrected. The public hearing  on the amended law will be May 2^nd.

2. Double Utililty Pole Local Law/Public Hearing

(See Town Board, 3-21-2017.)  Councilman Bernard reported that representative of Con Ed, NYSEG, Verizon and Cablevision met to town staff to go over the issue. They were anxious for the town NOT to pass the law and wanted time to remove the double poles. Mr. McDermott said that proposing the law has had the desired effect of motivating the companies to address the issue. He added that the town wanted compliance, not punishment.  At the request of the utility companies, the hearing was adjourned but representatives of the utility companies will attend the April 25^th work session to report on their progress.

3. Courtesy of the Floor

Proposed replacement of Murphy’s Restaurant. Paul Moskowitz was critical of the proposed plan saying that it would reinforce the old stereotype of the Heights hamlet. He hoped that since two of the involved property owners were elected officials, that they would propose something better for Yorktown. Tony Grasso said that it was not up to the town to tell a property owner what to do with his property as long as the property owner’s plan could be developed “as of right.”

Hallocks Mill Sewers: Susan Siegel, the person writing this summary, again asked the town to provide the legal basis for charging 4,000 sewered taxpayers for $18 million worth of sewer improvements that would not benefit them.  There was no response from the board or the town attorney. Councilman Bernard said that the issue would be discussed at the May 2^nd board meeting.

Traffic enforcement. Dan Strauss stated that more enforcement, i.e., tickets, were needed instead of “education.” 

485b Tax Abatement program: Larry Killan asked the board what type of analysis had been done prior to adopting the abatement law to determine the potential effectiveness of the law. He added that data needed to be collected to assess both the short and long term impacts of the law. In response, Councilman Bernard said that a second committee might be formed that could track the data.

Road paving: Although not in response to any specific comment, Councilman Bernard said the board will be considering transferring some money from the fund balance for additional paving.

NOTE:  The April 11^th meeting has been cancelled.