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Written by Joanne Wallenstein

Published: 07 April 2015

Created: 07 April 2015

Last Updated: 04 September 2020

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Scarsdale Mayor Jon Mark and Village Trustees Carl Finger, Matt Callaghan and Bill Stern were sworn into office at a joyous ceremony at Scarsdale Village Hall on Monday April 6th. Surrounded by family, friends, Village administrators and officials, the four officially began their terms of office.

Already well known and respected from a lifetime of residency and four years as Scarsdale Village Trustee, Mark (SHS '65) had many supporters in the audience, including his mother, wife, son, daughter, brother and sister-in-law.

He made a thoughtful speech (shown in its entirety below) that looked back on the history of Scarsdale and drew links to many of the issues that face the Village today. His words were deeply ingrained with the fabric of the community in which he was raised and has called home for decades.

Trustees Carl Finger (SHS '86) and Matt Callaghan are newly elected to the Board of Trustees, while Bill Stern was re-elected for a second two-year term. Carl Finger's mother, Dorothy, who is a former Village Trustee, was also at the ceremony along with former Mayors Miriam Flisser and Carolyn Stevens.

Remarks of Jon Mark, Mayor, at swearing in ceremony:

The shield behind me has a 1701 date on it. That's the date that Scarsdale was said to be settled. If you look around town and see the Village shields in town, you will see the word "settled" under that date. I think that is the date that Caleb Heathcote bought Anne Richbell's estate which stretched from Long Island Sound to what is now the Bronx River Parkway and there is a mural that depicts that transaction on one wall inside the Post Office in the Village. So that is what happened in 1701 and Scarsdale was the Manor of Scarsdale at that time.

Heathcote thought it resembled his town of Scarsdale in Derbyshire, England which was a rocky place -- scarred with rocks -- and had a lot of valleys or dales, so Scarsdale became the name of the Manor.

So we jump ahead, we fast forward, to June of 1915, approximately one hundred years ago. In June of 1915, the Town of Scarsdale was wrestling with a political issue. The issue was that the legislature of the State of New York had it within its power to change the boundaries of towns. And the residents of Scarsdale were concerned that the boundaries would be changed and they would become part of White Plains. They discussed this topic for a couple of months, this is according to Carol O'Connor's history of Scarsdale and also in Harry Hansen's history, both of which were provided to me by Dan Hochvert. The residents put this matter to a vote. What they voted on was whether Scarsdale should incorporate as a Village. A vote was taken in May of 1915, the vote was 142 to 39, reflective of the great turnout we still have today in municipal elections, and the referendum passed. The Village was incorporated and the significance of that was that the boundaries could only be changed by a referendum vote of the residents. They thus took that power away from the state legislature.

The first Village Board, which was made up of the Board of the Town, because the Town had a Board, met on June 26th. It was a five person Board. The population of Scarsdale was under 3,000 and under state law the Village was not eligible to have a mayor. So the Board had a President. The President was Franklin Bethel, for whom Bethel Road presumably was named. Franklin was a Vice President of the New York Telephone Company -- a business man -- and he designed the Village shield. He used the crest of the Caleb Heathcote family and put some other things on there that you can see. I note that one of the other Board members was Rush Wilson and his descendant is with us today as a prominent businessman in town.

That was a fateful decision in 1915 because we, over the last 100 years, have benefited from that decision as Scarsdale has evolved into a residential community that we all know and love. But we have also borne the burdens of that as well. Particularly, and most specifically, in terms of the tax dollars we all have to pay to support the services we wish to receive here.
Pressure is now being put on that decision. Pressure has always existed on that decision because it cost a lot of money to live here. But the New York State legislature through the so called 2% cap, is doing its best to try to pressure the 900 or so municipalities that are in the State of New York into consolidating.

Village Manager Al Gatta has said that can't be the only goal and maybe there is a higher goal to redistribute equity and resources more fairly in some way among residents of the State. Who knows? Maybe that will reveal itself in time or maybe it won't. The point is that the new Board, like the Boards that have recently preceded it, is going to have to wrestle with this existential question: that is, what services do the residents want and expect to receive from the Village, and what are they willing to pay for them – because as we go forward, unless something very dramatic happens, that will continue to be an increasingly difficult decision to make.

There have been some stories recently in the paper about the value of five-year budgeting, as if that was some new concept. It is a very good concept. It's a concept that deserves to be raised and discussed. But in point of fact for those of you who follow our budget process, the Village has always engaged in five-year budgeting. There is an operations budget that addresses the day-to-day operating costs of the Village and there is a capital plan. And if you look on the capital plan, which is posted on the Village web site and is also available in the Library, you will see various projects that are pushed out over five years. Unfortunately, in the last several years, many capital projects have been deferred because of the pressure to allocate dollars to day-to-day operations. So we have always engaged in a five-year budget planning process, and in some cases longer than that, and we will continue to do that.

So here I am the Mayor which is not something I ever thought I would be. I am humbled by the opportunity to serve for the next two years. Obviously, we are not going to resolve all problems in two years, which would be impossible. But we're going to give it our best shot. And I very much look forward to working with our new Trustees Matt Callaghan and Carl Finger, with my old Trustee – not an old Trustee -- Trustee Bill Stern, as well as with Deb Pekarek, David Lee and Marc Samwick. I think we have a great board. I look forward to serving the residents of Scarsdale.

Photo Credit: Michelle Lichtenberg

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Written by Joanne Wallenstein

Published: 15 April 2015

Created: 15 April 2015

Last Updated: 15 April 2015

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At his first official Village Board meeting on Tuesday night April 14th, Scaarsdale's newly elected Mayor Jon Mark was pleased to announce a big appropriation to repair and repave Scarsdale's distressed roadways.

Mark said, "We all drive on the same roads –and this Mayor is very aware of the poor condition of many of the roads in Scarsdale. We will have $1,298,000 in the budget for the year ending in May --which will cover 3.5 miles of roads and should allow the most egregious situations to be addressed. In the meantime three trucks have been out for the past month making repairs and responding to residents. We are addressing this issue in the short term. Winter happens every year – some more severe than others. We will face a similar situation in the years to come. We will address the roads with the resources that we have."

Later at the meeting, the board passed a resolution to accept reimbursements for funds from the Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program (CHIPS) of $526,000 and $206,000. These funds will be added to already appropriated funds to total $1,298,800 for road resurfacing which should go a long way toward repairing potholes and installing new roads and curbing.

The Board also held a Public Hearing on the proposed 2015-16 Village Budget which comes in under the tax cap and will mean a 3.33% tax increase for residents. This increase will be approximately $144 more next year for the owner of a home with an average assessed vale of $1,398,818.

Bob Harrison commended the trustees and the Village manager's office on the budget and said he was disappointed that others were not at the meeting to comment.

Susie Rush, President of the League of Women Voters of Scarsdale read portions of the league's lengthy statement which can be read in its entirety here. The League also commended the Village for a "well-managed, thoughtful process" and for developing a budget that takes "into consideration the current and anticipated needs of the Village."

Speaking about the tax revaluation she said, "The League commends the Village for completing the municipal-wide property value reassessment in 2014 and was encouraged to hear the Village Manager opine that the project greatly reduced inequities among property owners." The League "strongly encourages the Board to continue to keep its residents apprised of the progress of the 2016 Revaluation Update."

She expressed concern about the deferral of capitol projects such as road repair, new equipment purchases, renovation of Village Hall, repairs and security at the Freightway and Christie Place Garages and the removal of an underground oil tank at Village Hall.

In response to pressure from the state to merge and consolidate Village services, the League asked the Village to seek public opinion on village-provided services and ascertain which ones residents would be willing to eliminate or scale-back or pay for on a fee-for service basis.

Though the Scarsdale Forum usually studies and comments on the Village Budget, this year they declined to comment.

The preliminary budget has been filed and will be voted on at the April 28th meeting of the Scarsdale Village Board of Trustees.

Click here to read the full statement from the League of Women Voters of Scarsdale on the Village budget.

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Written by Joanne Wallenstein

Published: 02 April 2015

Created: 02 April 2015

Last Updated: 02 April 2015

Hits: 6102

Stacey Brodsky just completed four years of service as a member of the Scarsdale Board of Trustees and has also moved to Manhattan with her husband David, another active member of the community. In her professional life, Brodsky worked as a lawyer at the U.S. Attorney's office and in private practice and was praised by her colleagues on the Board of Trustees for her intelligence, creative problem-solving, sound logic and ability to articulate her thought processes and get to the heart of complex issues. She also served as the Board liaison the Scarsdale Library and was instrumental in their planning for a major renovation to the library. We asked her a few questions about her service on the board and her thoughts on Scarsdale and here is what she shared:

What did you enjoy about serving on the Board?

One of the things I most enjoyed about serving as a trustee was getting deeply involved in the myriad aspects of what it takes to run a municipality, whether it is infrastructure construction and maintenance such as storm water projects or quality of life issues such as supporting services to seniors to ensure that all generations of Scarsdalians thrive in our village, The other most personally satisfying aspect of board service was the opportunity to work with and really get to know other board and professional staff members who are wonderful and talented people with extraordinary passion for keeping Scarsdale special.

What were some of the issues/resolutions that you worked on?

In many ways the most controversial issues were the most interesting because there are many points of view to consider and to weigh. Trying to address neighborhood concerns about a project like 2-4 Weaver Street or the anxiety that the long delayed reval triggered for many residents in the context of long term village needs can be a very delicate business. And year after year the budget process is a challenge. Residents feel the pressure of real estate taxes but value and do not want to lose the services that they have become accustomed to in Scarsdale, all of which must be paid for.

What are your thoughts on historic preservation and regulating the size or bulk of homes built in Scarsdale?

The conversation about historic preservation has been very blurred over the time I have been a trustee and the board has been working hard to clarify what historic preservation is and is not. In my mind, it is not an anti development tool, nor an anti homeowner tool. Rather, historic preservation is a way of preserving those unique structures that are an integral part of the cultural or aesthetic history of the village. To the extent that, in the past, the historic preservation law in Scarsdale has been invoked as a means of trying to prevent a new house from being constructed out of fear that the new construction will be too large or will somehow change the neighborhood, it is the wrong tool. That is why the board passed an amendment tightening the standards for historic preservation so that it is focused on the criteria for what makes a structure truly historic. At the same time that the board engaged in the revision and tightening of the historic preservation law, the board told the community that it would re-examine the existing zoning and building laws to identify which ones could be strengthened to address concerns about new house construction in terms of size and relationship to the neighborhood. And the board has started this important process by engaging in analyses of whether it should revise laws concerning gravel driveways and floor area ratio as ways of improving the regulation of new construction and additions to existing homes. Those are the tools that I believe are critical to Scarsdale's future and together with historic preservation can protect the aesthetics of the village going forward.

What were some of the toughest or most challenging situations you confronted as Village Trustee?

One of the most challenging situations during my term was Super Storm Sandy. The enormous amount of tree damage and the widespread power outage was exacerbated by the fact that the village's communication systems were knocked out and Con Edison's response was grossly inadequate. Residents were trapped in their homes or on their streets because of fallen trees and our road crews could not clear the trees until Con Ed crews disabled the fallen electrical wires. The first crews showed up five days after the storm. The sheer scope of the storm, which ravaged an enormous geographic area, contributed to the delay in restoration of power in the village, which in some areas meant that people had no electricity or heat for 12 or more days. No one can prevent another storm of that magnitude but we learned many lessons from Sandy and instituted a number of changes to ensure that the village is better equipped for the next natural disaster that may hit.

What did you like best about living here – what will you miss?

My husband David's and my decision to downsize and move to Manhattan is exciting in part because we are certain that we won't have to worry about missing the most wonderful facet of life in Scarsdale -- our Scarsdale friends --because they are simply too important to us and we will stay closely connected with them. We will very much miss the beauty of the community and the wonderful services we have enjoyed. If the spring ever arrives, I'm going to sorely miss having coffee on the back deck in the morning and the daily joy of living in a village in a park.