Village BOT Appoints Residents to Boards and Councils and Limits Vendor Access to Village Property

The new Village Board under the direction of Mayor Bob Steves handled a busy agenda at the May 14 meeting – and appears poised to tackle some of the larger issues facing the Village, including historical preservation, flood remediation, and development. The Board has scheduled upcoming meetings on a range of unresolved issues and Steves seems determined to reach decisions on some prickly problems that have circulated around Village Hall for months, or even years.

On Tuesday night Steves opened the meeting by recognizing the Scarsdale Coalition on Family Violence and their efforts to provide education and support to the community to identify healthy and unhealthy relationships. He encouraged parents and children to attend a community event on May 22, "Love Shouldn't Hurt" at the Scarsdale Woman's Club and named May 22, "Talking with your Kids about Healthy Relationships Day." Lauren Pomerantz from Scarsdale and Edgemont Family Counseling and a Scarsdale High School student also attended the meeting to encourage participation in the event.

Assistant Village Manager John Goodwin provided an annual report on the Village's storm water activities for the period March 2012-March 2013, discussing public education and outreach efforts, the leaf-mulching program, Sustainability Day and inspection of Village run-off. More information is available on the Village website.

A public hearing was held on revised Village Code regarding peddlers and vendors on Village property. The new code will limit access of these vendors.

Under the new code no peddler's vehicles can stand within 500 feet of a school during the school day or during summer camp, trucks cannot park within 100 feet of an intersection and trucks cannot remain in any one place for more than 10 minutes out of any consecutive 60 minutes and after 10 minutes must move at least 500 feet from their current location.

This new code will restrict the ability of ice cream and other food trucks from selling food at school fields. The revisions were passed unanimously by Village Trustees.

During the public comments section of the meeting Carl Whiteback, attorney for Avital Rozycki and Gregory Soldatenko spoke on behalf of his clients who wish to build a house on a vacant lot off Faragutt Road that they purchased in 1999. Since the lot has no street frontage the Scarsdale Zoning Board of Appeals has turned down their application twice. According to Whitebeck the lot meets Village specifications in every other way and he appealed to the trustees to remap this portion of Heathcote to make the "paper street" that abuts the lot into a Village street so that a house could be built on the lot.

Former Village Trustee Bob Harrison attended the meeting in tennis attire to make a pitch for Scarsdale kids to sign up for the re-established Spring Youth Tennis League. So far, 40 kids have enrolled. Players can register via the Recreation Department and the fee is $15.

The Board of Trustees agreed to waive the rental fee of $5,112 for a Philippine family living in a Village-owned house at 2 Drake Road. The Westchester County Department of Social Services is looking for new accommodations for the family and is hoping to move them elsewhere in the coming year.

The Board of Trustees referred an application to build a 115-unit assisted living facility at 25 Saxon Woods Road to the Land Use Committee.

The Board agreed to subdivide a property at 53 Penn Boulevard and assessed owners Jennifer and Michael Barlow a subdivision fee of 4% of the lot value or $54,000.

The following appointments were made to Village Boards and Councils:

• Duncan Wilson of 21 Ridgecrest West will serve on the Conservation Advisory Council
• Charles R. Greeble, 40 Tompkins Road, Advisory Council on Human Relations
• Stephen Nichols, 14 Heathcote Road, Advisory Council on Parks and Recreation
• Ron Lobato, 274 Boulevard, Advisory Council on Technology
• Lucas J Meyer, 21 Autenreith Road, Associate Village Historian

The Board of Trustees agreed to remit $1,991.86 in taxes to Steven Greenberg, owner of 271 Fox Meadow Road, to correct an assessment error for the years 2006, 2007 and 2008.