Message from the Mayor: FNL, Movie-filming, Villages Services, Help to Refugees, Ticks, Art
Posted on: April 5, 2017 - 10:55pm
Fellow Residents –
This is a compilation of a number of items, including an upcoming Friday Night Live (the first of the season!), movie shoots, a giving opportunity, and some things about Village services you may not be aware of but are pretty useful.
Friday Night Live
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Our first Friday Night Live of the season (this Friday, April 7th) is now a multi-year popular classic, “Words-on-Hudson”, a low-key celebration of the writing and poetic talent in this village. The evening is structured around a number of readings, games that celebrate words, and a film. Events throughout the downtown are detailed here . Shake off the winter and come on out.
Movie Filming at the Library
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The Library was the site of a movie shoot this past Monday (“I Think We’re Alone Now”, with Peter Dinklage and Elle Fanning) and will be once again on April 9th, 10th, 11th and 23rd (see here ) HBO’s “Divorce” will also be back later in the month. The Village coffers benefit from these shoots ($4,500 a day plus expenses), and the Library, in the case of “I Think We’re Alone Now”, benefits as well ($5,000 goes into their coffers per day). These financial benefits aren’t totally trivial – they can easily add up to $50,000 or more in a year, and that can cover the cost of a couple of new vehicles or other equipment that we don’t then have to spend taxpayer money on. Crews spend money downtown as well, and there’s also some fun factor to having the shows filmed here. However. It is disruptive and annoying to those who aren’t necessarily star-struck and are seeking to make a train or find parking in front of their home or seeing their business suffer. We will be discussing this as a Board – if the pain is disproportionately falling on part of the community, that doesn’t seem fair, and we will have to sort it out.
Things The Village Does You May Not Know
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- Garbage Drop-Off – On the first Saturday of each month, the Village offers the opportunity for residents to drop off larger items (or items you forgot to leave out for regular pickup) for disposal down at the Village DPW facility, located towards the end of Southside Avenue. We don’t take construction debris --, and recyclable paper, cans and bottles should go in the appropriate dumpsters -- but if you can haul it down there between 9AM and noon, we will help you get it into the sanitation truck and take it off your hands.
- Police Vacation Check – If you fill in this form (here ) before you head off on vacation, the Police Department will make a point of keeping an eye on your house in your absence.
- Youth Employment Service –If you have any sort of job – whether it is babysitting, help needed at a party, lawn clean-up, cleaning out a garage, computer help, tech hope, retail and more – the Village covers the cost of the Youth Employment Service (“YES”), run by Jill Iturbe. Email her at iturbej@hohschools.org or call and leave a message at 914-478-6266. She is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays during school hours. (It works better if you can plan a few days ahead.) She’ll work to get you a placement.
Opportunities to Give
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Hastings charity, Family-to-Family, run by the indefatigable Pam Koner, has set up a new effort called the Refugee Sponsorship Program. This is a way to help refugee families and individuals in the metropolitan region while they await the working papers that allow them to work legally (papers can take 6-12 months to come through). Your tax-deductible sponsorship provides a family we link you to with a week’s worth of groceries each month. Learn more…
Tick Season Looms
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There’s some indication that it will be fiercer than average tick season – not perhaps the happiest news to impart. Lyme, and other tick-borne diseases, are endemic here. (Almost everyone in my family has had Lyme, even including our last dog...) If you or your family garden, play outdoors, or spend time in the woods, you should make guarding against getting ticks and a tick check a part of your routine. There’s plenty advice on the internet on this topic, but this is a good start https://www.cdc.gov/features/stopticks/index.html or https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/
Art Opening
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The Fitness Gallery is hosting an exhibit of art by Laila Shawa, a world-renowned Palestinian artist known as the mother of revolutionary Arabic art. Laila's work will be on exhibit from April 29, 2017 until July 15, 2017 and the opening party is on Saturday, April 29th from 5PM to 8PM. At the Fitness Gallery at 5 Main Street.
As always, any questions, please reach out.
Sincerely,
Mayor Peter Swiderski