Bubble Tea Shop to Open, Pool Complex Study Continues and More from the Village Board

Dobbs and Bishop Cheese Shop plans to open in Scarsdale Village.Mayor Jane Veron provided updates on a traffic study, renovations to the Scarsdale Pool, retail openings in Scarsdale Village and cell service improvements in her opening comments at the Village Board meeting on September 13, 2022. Here are excerpts from her statement along with other news from that meeting:

Traffic and Safety

Veron said, “Earlier this evening, our Mobility and Placemaking consultants took the community through traffic and safety solutions for several of our highly trafficked streets including Sprague Road, Fox Meadow Road, and Crane Road. The goal is to suggest speed reduction strategies that might also be applied more broadly on residential streets throughout the Village. While each treatment was slightly different, strategies took into consideration parking and pedestrian crossing needs. The consultants encouraged community input, and we thank you for engaging in these discussions. FHI consultants plan to incorporate your feedback, continue outreach, and begin to develop a plan to test many of these applications.”

Pool Complex

About the Pool Complex study she said, “With eager anticipation, we will be bringing back our Pool Complex consultants on Wednesday, September 28, at 6 pm to share survey data and the associated pool concepts. Please note, the meeting will be held on a Wednesday to accommodate Tuesday holiday celebrations.

As you know, our pool has outlived its useful life, and very soon it will no longer operate. We have hobbled along with patches and emergency repairs, but as our existing conditions report has shown, this approach is not sustainable. Eventually we will have no pool unless we do something - and that is why we embarked on the pool complex study - to take the community’s pulse to see how much you value this community asset. And the answer was clear; you want your community pool.

Our consultants have synthesized your feedback and will share potential pool concepts that reflect your survey results. Board and staff have asked the consultants to provide rough cost estimates based on their extensive experience in the field so that we can have a general understanding of economics. Our conversations must be anchored in the community’s willingness to pay. The goal of the meeting is to illustrate for the community possible paths forward. A project of this magnitude will be considered in our Village budget capital program, and we will continue these conversations into budget season. We anticipate further community outreach throughout the fall.”

About a proposal by the Scarsdale Little League to install field lights at Crossway Field, Veron said, we are “evaluating the materials submitted by Little League to determine next steps for the lights discussion.”

Restaurant and Retail Openings

About the Village Center retail spaces Veron reported, “Sim Coe Beer Bar opened its doors in the former Taim space, offering beers on tap, mostly from local breweries, with canned beers to go. They are also selling snacks and some wines and alcoholic/non-alcoholic seltzers.

The One Rare steak house and the Dobbs & Bishop cheese shop are under construction, targeting openings by the end of the year. In early 2023, we will also be welcoming a bubble tea shop on Christie Place and a new French bistro in the Metro Diner space. The stars seemed to align as the owners of Metro Diner sought to concentrate all their energy on Metro Deli in the five corners, and a local businessperson was looking for a wonderful spot to bring Parisian flair.”

About gaps in cell phone service around the Village, she said, we “have been working to address the significant telecom service gap that must be closed. Throughout these past weeks, we have been conducting discussions with telecom carriers to craft a proposal to be reviewed in an upcoming public work session in October.

In anticipation of this meeting, we sought input from the Board of Education and have already received their letter of support. We are grateful to the Board of Education and Interim Superintendent Drew Patrick who have partnered with the Village on a multitude of joint efforts, and we have instituted regular quarterly meetings to review our progress, with our next one slotted for tomorrow.”

Girl Scout House to Reopen

Veron said, “We expect to reopen the Girl Scout House at the end of this month, with a ribbon cutting slated for Wednesday, September 28. Throughout the summer, we have met with the Girl Scout leadership and sorted through a plan to make the necessary repairs and scheduling protocol updates to further our partnership. We look forward to welcoming the Girl Scouts and other community groups back into this space.

New Village Attorney

Veron announced that the Village had hired a new law firm, Keane and Beane. She said, “I want to thank Village Attorney Dan Pozin for his two plus years of service to the Village. His kind demeanor put everyone at ease, and we are grateful to him and his firm for their dedication. Later this evening, we will entertain a resolution to appoint Nick Ward Willis, of Keene & Beane to the role of Village Attorney. Nick has over 25 years of municipal, land use, and environmental law experience. Nick is currently the City Attorney in Beacon in Dutchess County and has served as the Town Attorney in New Castle as well as provided services to other local municipalities such as Rye Brook, Bedford, Sleepy Hollow and others. Keane & Beane is a leading firm in the areas of municipal law and land use and brings over forty years of experience in Westchester and neighboring counties.”

After the meeting we asked Village Manager Rob Cole for an explanation of the shift in law firms and he said, “As a matter of routine, the Village evaluates vendor contracts coming up for renewal. As part of that process, which is used for many types of agreements, we entertain proposals from competing firms, conduct interviews, and render a vendor selection. In the case of legal counsel, that is what transpired and Keane & Beane was the firm selected through that process.”

Public Comments

During Public Comments Mayra Kirkendall Rodriguez called in to invite students in grades K-11 to attend a recruiting event for the scouts at Hitchcock Church on Sunday September 18 at 4 pm, where fun scouting activities will be showcased.

Bob Harrison came to the mic to insist that a major renovation to the pool complex was unnecessary. He said, “My wife Terry and I spent every weekend at the Scarsdale Pool this summer. I don’t know how you can say the pool has outlived its useful life. The pool has had a fabulous season. 5809 children and adults used it. Congratulations to the courteous pool staff. The weather was hot and the pool was cool. The snack bar had an excellent array of snacks and food. Why would Scarsdale want to spend $10-$20 million? The survey response was meager. The enterprise fund has been self-supporting for years. Lets manage our Village funds wisely, not on a Disneydale pool project with a lazy river. We want to see the results of the survey, we have not gotten the information. We want to see the tabulation of the responses. What were they? The pool was self-supporting since 1968. Mayor – I don’t think you have been to the pool this summer. Tell me, were you there? How can you tell what’s going on at the pool site? We are heading into a recession. There are going to be a couple of tough years.”

However, many of Harrison’s claims were refuted by the Board. In response to Harrison’s comments, Mayor Veron said, “We have an existing conditions survey that shows we are living on borrowed time.” Trustee Ahuja reviewed the responses to the survey which in fact numbered 1,373, an exceptional count. Trustee Whitestone answered Harrison’s claim that the pool was self-supporting, saying, “The Pool Enterprise Fund, which was meant to be self-sustaining has been drained.” Trustee Gans pointed out that the pool complex no longer met health and safety codes and Trustee Lewis said, “The physical plant is broken. It is not reasonable to patch it. We want to preserve and enhance the pool. There was quite a statement of interest and support from the public.”

After the trustees responded, Harrison became unhinged and started screaming from his seat in Village Hall, saying, “this was not true.”

Former part-time library employee Robin Stettnisch from Yorktown Heights continued her campaign to reclaim her job. She equated the move to renovate the pool complex with the decision to renovate and expand the library. She said, “I hear a lot of people complaining about all the money that was spent at the library. It was a small number of people, the richest of the rich. A lot of people are unhappy with it. It was a small group of people who made it happen. Is it a small group who is not representative who are making these comments on the pool?”

She called in a second time at the end of the meeting.

Village Manager Rob Cole responded to her claim that the Village is responsible for her position, saying, “Library employees are employed by the Library and it is a separate legal entity from the Village, though that distinction is not readily known by many. The Village endeavors to deliver programs and services in the most cost-effective manner to achieve the lowest possible tax burden for Scarsdale residents. Thus, the Village handles payroll and benefits for the Scarsdale Public Library, explaining the Village information on Library employee checks, for example. Such shared service arrangements benefit our residents through reduced overall tax burden.”

Scarsdale10583 asked Cole if the Village Board is obligated to listen to non-resident comments at their meetings and he said, “Open public comment includes non-residents.”

Trustees comments included a report from Trustee Jonathan Lewis who said he had done a walk-through of Chase Park with the Friends of Scarsdale Parks and discussed the challenges of maintaining Village parks.

He unearthed a 1999 report the inventories 28 “paper streets” in Scarsdale. These are undeveloped pathways between homes that are in varying states. He said, “This is a timely moment to review this report. We have seen a land grab by some neighbors. These are too precious to ignore. Hopeful we can have an open discussion about paper streets in the future.” He also reported that the police and fire department had conducted drills to prepare for an active shooter event this summer. On investments, he suggested that the Village should release quarterly financial reports to show how Village funds are invested.

Trustee Brew invited the public to the Scarsdale League of Women Voter’s membership coffee in the dining tent at 9:30 am on Monday September 19, 2022.

About the library, she reported that during July and August the library held 102 programs and in total reached 4500 attendees, including children, teens and adults.

Trustee Whitestone said that Scarsdale Family Counseling Service is looking for a replacement for Maryellen Saenger who ran programming for seniors in the “Aging in Place” program. Until someone else is hired, Saenger will continue.

He also urged pedestrians to be cautious, citing a pedestrian safety flyer produced by NYS.
He said, “if there are no sidewalks, pedestrians should walk facing traffic. That is a simple rule that I urge residents to follow. Wear light or reflective clothing at dusk or at night.”

The Board then passed a series of resolutions and heard a report from the Village Treasurer. See more here: