Mayor’s Message: Appointment of New Village Manager (plus what we have in store for her!)

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Dear Everyone,
 
Sorry for the long hiatus in communication – it has been an extremely busy time for all of us but I think we are finally settled (to those of you who wondered if I was abducted by space aliens my response is “if only ….”). 
 
The fantastic news is that our new Village Manager Mary Beth Murphy started work yesterday and her first Village Board Meeting will be tonight. Mary Beth has been tasked with helping us achieve our agenda for the year, which is summarized below.
 
Appointment of New Village Manager
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Effective July 22, 2019, the Board of Trustees appointed Mary Beth Murphy as the new Village Manager of Hastings-on-Hudson. Mary Beth will be the first woman Village Manager ever for our Village.  She replaced Francis Frobel, who is retiring from his current position after 14 years of service.  Our new Manager was selected after an exhaustive search in which we reviewed resumes from over 30 candidates and interviewed 9 highly qualified and experienced professionals. Mary Beth is a graduate of Fordham University School of Law and Syracuse University, and comes to our Village with a distinguished career in public service. She has been the Executive Director of the Westchester County Tax Commission since 2014. Prior to that from 1998 to 2013, she was the Supervisor of Somers, New York - a town that is a little larger than our village with approximately 20,000 residents, 100 full-time employees and a 33 square mile footprint. Mary Beth was responsible for the Town’s business activities, operations and constituent services with oversight of all departments.
 
Mary Beth brings extensive management experience and a solid appreciation of our local needs. We were looking for a manager with the ability to navigate the thorny issues we expect to face in rezoning and developing the Waterfront. At the same time we wanted someone who can run an efficient and effective municipality, and ensure that the bread and butter concerns of our citizens are addressed. We are convinced Mary Beth has these skills, and we are thrilled to have her on board.  We look forward to working with her and wish Manager Frobel the best in his retirement.
 
For those of you who want to know more about Mary Beth, there was a very lovely article about her in The Enterprise last Friday (July 19th 2019) and you can always pop by her office to have a chat.  She welcomes your visits and looks forward to getting to know you.
 
Workplan for 2019 to 2020
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Here in Hastings-on-Hudson, we as a Board divide work in a way that is unusual for most communities – each Trustee owns an interest area where he or she spearheads initiatives and is responsible for overseeing the needed action in that area. We have found that this is an effective way to achieve our overall agenda, which is closely tied to our Comprehensive Plan.  We have achieved many of the goals in the plan and so one of the projects for later this year is to begin the process of updating the Comprehensive Plan so it better reflects where we are today and where we want to go over the next 5 to 10 years.
 
Each year, the Board of Trustees sets out what we intend to achieve both in terms of ongoing activities and new initiatives, and we identify the major milestones. Our plans for the year include the improvements to the Downtown, the rezoning of the Waterfront, the remediation of Quarry Park and the preservation of Hillside Woods, as well as a range of traffic safety projects and sustainability efforts. We are also responsible for the oversight of ongoing Village business such as budgets, personnel, policies, infrastructure and other initiatives that may arise during the course of the year. The Village Manager and Village staff support us in all of these initiatives and any achievements are in a very real sense theirs also.  
 
* Downtown
The Comprehensive Plan stressed the importance of increasing the vibrancy of our Downtown and this year we hope to make a number of key improvements. Our Downtown Advocate, Barbara Prisament, has been continuing with her important work of identifying new businesses for the Downtown and over the next few months almost all the storefronts will be filled.  The new establishments will include The Good Witch that will replace the Station Café (which many of us are missing desperately as we scurry to work in the morning with not quite enough caffeine coursing through our veins). Barbara will also be planning and delivering a number of events - some new and some old favorites such as the Village Crawl and Octoberfest.
 
Earlier this year we appointed a Downtown Working Group (DWG), made up of citizens and business owners in the Village, which was tasked with identifying actions that will result in visible improvements to the downtown. This work will be funded by $200,000 from the Betterment Fund, which is fed by monies that come to the Village from filming fees. The DWG has been engaged in identifying, selecting and hiring a consulting firm that will help with that prioritization effort. While a broad range of firms from around the tri-state area responded to our Request for Proposals (RFP), the firm selected to do this work is a local favorite, Peter Gisolfi Associates. Gisolfi will identify a range of actions that can increase the vibrancy of the Downtown and we will be able to select those we want to implement from the list they provide.
 
By coincidence, as we were selecting our consultant, the County made Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding available, and Hastings qualified for the first time in many years. The focus of the CDBG grant is to fund improvements that benefit low and moderate-income people. We tasked the DWG with identifying a project that might qualify and they identified improvements to the VFW plaza so that it can better serve as a “commons” for our Village. And so we have applied for a grant of $200,000 from the County to leverage the original pot of money. In addition, we have applied for a grant to improve sidewalks in the downtown. We will hear back if we are successful on these two applications in January 2020.  
 
Our pot of money for filming continues to grow (at last count it was about $380,000) and while we have not pledged any more than $200,000 to downtown improvements at this time, there is room for us to pledge more if attractive projects are proposed by our Downtown consultant.  Bottom line, irrespective of whether we win the grants we will be making a minimum of $200,000 worth of improvements to the Downtown.
 
Trustee Lopez is the Board point person on the Downtown. Thanks to Trustee Lopez, Barb Prisament our Downtown Advocate, and the Downtown Working Group for shepherding this process through.  
 
* Large Tracts (the Waterfront and Parks)
Our Comprehensive Plan treats the waterfront and parks in the same chapter under the heading “large tracts” and we anticipate that during this coming year there will be lots of activity under this topic area.
 
On the Waterfront it has been a bit of a rollercoaster … Last year we appointed a citizen-led Waterfront Rezoning Committee (WRC), which was tasked with developing a rezoning plan for our stunning waterfront. The WRC drafted an RFP to identify a planning firm to help us with the rezoning efforts. Typically, funding for these types of rezoning efforts is provided by the developer as it is the primary beneficiary of the development, and the funds received are placed in an escrow account and the developer remains at arms length during the process. However, progress was stalled for a while as the original potential developer chosen by BP/Atlantic Richfield dropped out, with the result that the funding evaporated. We were all despondent and everything was put on hold for a few months. But then Argent Ventures, one of the new owners of the two southern tracts of land, stepped up and agreed to put money in an escrow account to re-launch the process (we received that money a few weeks ago). Argent is currently in negotiations with Broadway Stages (the other southern tract owner) to co-fund the escrow account. In the meantime, BP/Atlantic Richfield has identified a new potential developer, National Resources (remember everyone they are not “The Developer” until an agreement is actually signed). We are cautiously optimistic that the roller coaster ride is now over and the WRC will be able to move forward with launching the RFP and beginning the rezoning efforts soon. Trustee Fleisig is the Board point person on the Waterfront. Thanks to Trustee Fleisig, and the Waterfront Rezoning Committee for their tenacity on this. 
 
On parks, the big projects that are underway are the remediation of Quarry Park and preservation of Hillside Woods and there are some smaller projects that may be initiated this year too. Quarry Park has been transformed over the past few months – if you haven’t been to see it you should take a walk along the aqueduct and check out the progress. The rubbish has been removed (you cannot imagine what was there …), the weed trees on either cliff-side have been cut down (though some seem rather insistent on staying …) and the terrain is being reshaped including creating a hill to view the Palisades and an amphitheater area.  We expect that the project will be finished by the fall, and if we are lucky the new plantings can go in then or at the latest in the spring.  By next year, it could even be the perfect venue for our very own Shakespeare in the Park … I have been the Board point person on Quarry Park, but special thanks goes to the Quarry Park Committee for the many, many years spent advocating for this Park to be rehabilitated – it will be enjoyed by residents for many years to come.
 
The preservation of Hillside Woods is a much more long-term endeavor and is happening in stages. The Village bought the Woods in the early 1990s but we did not invest in the preservation of this remarkable asset and it is now in decline due mainly to invasive vines and over-browsing by deer. We won a grant to inventory the woods and develop a long-term management plan, and the final report included three core recommendations: to remove the vines, create a deer exclosure and begin replantings. A “Friends of Hillside Woods” group made up of representatives from the Parks and Recreation Commission, the Conservation Commission, the Vine Squad and various interested citizens is mobilizing to move this agenda forward. Trustee Lemons is the Board point person on Hillside Woods. Several of our parks have a “Friends of …” group – if you want to join one let us know and we can connect you to the right people.
 
The Parks and Recreation Commission has identified other parks and amenities that need attention over the next year including MacEachron Waterfront Park, Kinnally Cove and Rowley’s Trail and there is still interest in creating an official dog park and new interest in creating a skate park.  More on these projects soon…
 
* Circulation
Repaving streets, managing the traffic, creating safe routes to school, encouraging walkability and promoting biking are all key actions outlined in the Comprehensive Plan and Trustee Lopez has been the one to take this on for us. Already this year there has been quite a lot of repaving - those of you along Warburton, Crossbar, Jordan and Cliff can hopefully see the difference. We are hoping one or two more streets can be paved at the end of the summer but it has been an ongoing challenge to work out with Con Edison which streets they are going to tear up (we want to ensure our repaving efforts are not a waste of money ….). 
 
Greenburg is responsible for painting lines on our streets and that process has begun – we’ve been told that the crosswalks will be painted before school starts.  Kids are walking to the pool and camp and we are asking all of you to make sure sidewalks near your homes are clear of bushes and debris so the kids can easily use them. If you live along a street that does not have a sidewalk please make it as easy as possible for people to use the Village-owned land on the edge of your property near the road (remove bushes, plants, etc.).  Some of you have a sidewalk that needs to be “day lit” because it is under earth, leaves or otherwise covered.  Let me know if you need help doing this and I will muster volunteers - each of these small efforts to promote walkability will make a huge difference!
 
The big ongoing project is working out a solution for what we are calling the “Southern Corridor.” On July 30th, our traffic engineers will be presenting us with a proposal for their time to monitor traffic calming measures in the James/High area.  The idea is to have a longer term test to work out what measures make the most sense. I know this has been a source of frustration (even anger) for some of you but we are committed to finding a viable solution during the coming year.
 
There are two other projects managed by the state and/or county that will affect our Village over the next year – the renovation of the Ravensdale Bridge and the 9A project.  Trustees Lopez and Fleisig are monitoring these projects and will keep us all informed of progress (or the lack thereof …). And dare I say it, we may even get some traction on the MTA owned (but currently unusable) Zinsser Bridge to the southern end of the Waterfront …
 
* Environmental Sustainability/Sustainable Infrastructure
A few years ago we passed a resolution pledging our commitment to the Paris Agreement on climate change, and last year we were designated as a Clean Energy Community by NYSERDA. That designation was recognition of practical steps we have taken as a Village to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. We believe there is much more we can do, and our goal is to take further steps to achieve bronze and then silver Climate Smart Community designation. Already this year we’ve installed an electric charging station in the Stein-Schneider parking lot. Moving forward we want to develop a green fleet policy, invest in electric and hybrid municipal vehicles and begin building an energy-efficient fleet. We are planning clean energy upgrades to our municipal buildings to increase energy efficiency, reduce operating costs and reduce Village GHG emissions. We will be promoting residential energy efficiency improvements, both in housing and transport. We will adopt a green purchasing policy for the Village, and we will be promoting our food scraps program.
 
Trustee Lemons is the Board point person on this initiative, and he will be working on this with the Conservation Committee, the Energy Working Group, our recently appointed Climate Smart Community Coordinator Joe Cerretani and our soon-to-be-formed Climate Smart Community Taskforce.
 
* Quality of Life
This section of the Comprehensive Plan deals with a number of issues that just don’t fit anywhere else but which are critical to the fabric of Village life. The Comprehensive Plan notes that we should be promoting affordable housing, recognizing and promoting volunteerism, promoting the arts, exploring inter-municipal co-operation and easing the property tax burden on residents. Several of these areas are addressed through the work of our many Boards and Commissions. Trustee Leaf is the Board point person for ensuring all the positions are filled and for helping to set up new working groups and task forces.  We will be creating a Climate Smart Community Taskforce and a Comprehensive Plan Update Committee sometime this year so please email volunteer@hastingsgov.org if you want to get involved.
 
* Budget, Planning, Zoning
Budgeting, planning and zoning are cross-cutting themes that require ongoing attention.  As I mentioned earlier, we plan to begin the process of updating the Comprehensive Plan this year and we are also looking to update some antiquated sections of the Village Code and to modernize some of our zoning laws. We have wanted to update the language on senior living for several years, and in terms of zoning we want to revisit the way accessory apartments are treated and to prevent the construction of “MacMansions.” Trustee Leaf is the Board point person for the code/zoning updates and will work on these issues with our Village Attorney Linda Whitehead and the relevant Boards (Zoning, Senior Citizen Advisory and Affordable Housing, etc.).
 
The budget underpins everything and passing the budget is a long grueling process that involves meeting with all the Heads of Departments to discuss wants and needs. We are happy to say that we stayed under the State imposed 2% cap again this year so hopefully property owners will be receiving their rebate checks again soon.  In April, we voted to approve a budget of $17,381,271 with a tax rate of 6.03 per thousand, down from 6.13, last year (note that our tax rate is lower than any of our neighbors). We have just received news that our allocation from the recently passed County-levied Property Taxpayer Protection Act, will bring in an unexpected $190,000 between now and December and a likely $420,000 in additional revenue next year. In the next few months we will be revisiting our Capital Plan to work out what requires immediate investment and this timing may benefit us as the bond market appears to be slightly more attractive now than a few months ago. I am the main point person on these issues with support from all the Trustees and the Village Manager, Treasurer and finance staff.
 
So you can see our new Village Manager has an incredible amount on her plate – she will eventually get to everything but do be patient as she gets up to speed and learns the ropes. We encourage you to do your part in welcoming Mary Beth to Hastings – come out and meet her at a Board Meeting, or visit her office in Village Hall, or say Hi if you run into her around the Village. Our Village is a remarkable place and we really want Mary Beth to fall madly in love with it!
 
Sincerely,
 
Nicola Armacost
Mayor