Mayor Steves Honors Geraldine Greene and Michael McGill at Village Board Meeting

Mayor Steves noted the retirement of two community leaders at the meeting of the Scarsdale Village Board on Tuesday June 10th by reading proclamations in their honor. Geraldine Greene, Executive Director of Scarsdale & Edgemont Family Counseling Service, who will be the recipient of the Golden Door Award at the 2014 Gourmet Galaxy next week was commended for 35 years of community service. Steves said she made "immeasurable contributions to the quality of life in Scarsdale," and named June 19, the day of the Gourmet Galaxy, Geraldine Green Day in the Village of Scarsdale.

He then read a proclamation for retiring Schools Superintendent Dr. Michael McGill who has served as superintendent in Scarsdale for 16 years and also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Windward School. An educational "visionary" on the "cutting edge" Steves said McGill "truly cared about what students are learning and enriched the lives of many residents and their children." He thanked McGill for his "leadership, generosity and grace" and named June 12, the night of the superintendent's retirement dinner as Michael McGill Day in the Village of Scarsdale.

Revaluation:

In the public comments portion of the meeting, resident and statistician Michael Levine of Walworth Avenue told the trustees that there is a small part of the Tyler Technology valuation model that impacts low value properties, and over-values them. He said that the model does not decrease assessments for homes in fair or poor condition, leaving the residents to be assessed about $75 more per square foot than if they had been rated as in normal condition. He provided the trustees with a list of 15 such properties, for which the average impact was an 18% increase over what their value would have been if rated normal. Levine estimated the average tax impact for this sample as almost $3,000. He noted that there are 70-80 fair and properties and asked the Village to be proactive to correct the assessment and not require these homeowner to file individual grievances.

Trustee Stern offered to discuss this with Levine following the meeting and both the Mayor and Stern thanked Levine for his work saying "you have been consistently constructive and we appreciate it."

Bill Ortner of Butler Road also commented on the reval saying, "It is clear that the Tyler Model has valued many homes incorrectly." He noted that Fox Meadow had been divided into three areas, coded 201, 202 and 203 to assess land value and found that the coding doesn't follow a consistent geographic pattern and that adjacent properties with similar characteristics can receive different values. He cited Brewster and Overlook Roads that received the same valuations despite the fact that Brewster is a main thoroughfare and Overlook is a very quiet street. He said he submitted a FOIL request for information about how these designations were made but has not received any information. He asked the Board to "convene an ad hoc committee of residents to fix the problems and issue updated assessments." If it is too late for that he asked the Board to direct the Board of Assessment Review to consider these errors when hearing any grievances. He ended by saying, "The reval should have removed inequities, not change who suffers them."

Fire Truck:

Trustee Thomas Martin announced that the Village of Scarsdale will buy a new fire engine to replace one of the Village engines that suffered a catastrophic mechanical failure on April 30, 2014. The salvage value of the 22 year-old engine is only $3,000 and the Village determined that it would not be cost effective to repair it. So, given that the Village requires the fire truck to safeguard the public, they will purchase the new pump engine for $390,000.

In other Village news, the Village signed an agreement to share DNA material between the Scarsdale Police Department and the NYS Department of Criminal Justice and the NYS Police Department to enable all to identify suspects using DNA data.

The Mayor said that the Trustees had taken a bus tour of the Village to see some of the capitol improvement projects that are currently in the works including Village Board Bus Tour of Capitol Projects including the fire house at Village Hall, the bridge projects at Popham and Crane Road, the two water pumping stations - Reeves Newsome and Ardsley Road, the South Fox Meadow drainage project and 2-4 Weaver Street where a new condominium building is planned.

Also note that the fireworks will go off on Thursday night July 3 at the Scarsdale Pool.