Message from the Mayor: New Year’s Plans

Peter Swiderski
Dear Residents;
 
The transition to the New Year provides us a chance to look back at 2017 accomplishments as well as forward to what we will be focusing on as a Board and Village Government in 2018.
 
I would like to focus on the future and so will only touch on a few of the highlights of this year. Inevitably, that shortchanges the work of many, whether on the various Boards, in the Village government, or volunteers in the community.  It is a little tiresome to say that “it takes a village”, but the day-to-day life of the village works because people don’t watch from the sidelines but engage and *do*, freely and willingly, and they do much.  Covering all those efforts would take pages – and so here we will cover only a few of the major initiatives and then move onto our plans for the next year.
 
This Year
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  • The Waterfront
    We reached several milestones this year. The last of the buildings on the waterfront finally came down, leaving behind a plot ready for remediation. The Village decided, via a survey, to either retain or replace the water tower, and not demolish it.  Finally, a Board-appointed volunteer group completed draft plans for the waterfront park, reviewed those plans with the DEC, and will work with the BP to ensure their engineering design for the waterfront incorporates the plans.
  • Infrastructure
    In the most significant one-year upgrade to the Village’s streets in decades, miles of streets were repaved, thousands of feet of curbing put in and we addressed a missing chunk of sidewalk on Lefurgy that had put our school children walking to Hillisde at risk. The Hillside Pool tennis courts were rebuilt and the Quarry Trail extension down to Southside Avenue was completed. The Village Manager, DPW Superintendent and Parks and Rec committee were key on all these projects.
  • Finances
    We continued to maintain the lowest tax increases in the river towns, well under the recommended 2% cap. This has provided us with the financial stability and resources to tackle the aforementioned infrastructure projects and plan for more such efforts in the future.
  • Other Work
    We set up an Energy Working Group to look at energy-related sustainability projects, contracted with the Pace Land Use Center to help us on the rezoning, simplified the solar permitting process, fought the barge anchorage proposals, examined options for the future of Hillside Woods, purchased a new ambulance, and increased the veteran’s property tax exemption. We participated in planning for the 9A corridor, continued to push on the deer immunization project, installed traffic control stanchions throughout the village, and reviewed budgets.
 
Next Year
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  • We will continue the ambitious infrastructure upgrade program underway, with an equally aggressive road repaving and installation of new curbs like we saw this year.  We also expect to see the upgrade to Uniontown Park and ballfield complete and hope to see work on the new Quarry Park start.
  • Trustee Marc Leaf will lead an effort to upgrade downtown infrastructure. Using some $220,000 that has accumulated in a special fund for this from fees charged for the movie and TV shoots around town over the last few years, we will hire a landscape architect to plan the best way to cost-effectively refresh the downtown with these monies and then execute on the recommendations.
  • Trustee Lopez will continue working with the Transportation Working Group and our transportation consultant to implement recommendations on the first set of projects to improve walkability and negative traffic impacts. She will also continue working with the Downtown Advocate on marketing efforts.
  • Trustee Armacost remains focused on budget and finance issues, and will be putting together a group to monitor and understand how we can react and adapt to the new tax reform laws that will have a real impact on this and so many other communities.
  • Trustee Leaf will continue with the sustainability agenda, working with a energy task force focusing on ways to green our energy use.
  • We will kick off the rezoning effort on the Waterfront, bringing together a group of residents who will plan and rezone the waterfront as we prepare for its remediation. We will also work with the Shoreline Infrastructure group to finalize plans for the waterfront edge, and also complete the replace/renovate discussion regarding the future of the water tower.
 
The course of the year typically brings many other initiatives as well – and so our agenda will inevitably expand as we react to the usual raft of incoming proposals, projects, developer’s plans and everything else that constitutes our day-to-day responsibilities. We may have a new concert series on the waterfront, for example, as well as other ideas percolating away. However, we have succeeded in years past by agreeing on at least a limited set of projects we set out to do, and when we land up delivering on most of them, consider that a success.
 
As with every year, we have Trustee elections March 20th.  The community elects two Trustees for a term of two years. The two seats are currently occupied by incumbent Trustee Niki Armacost and Trustee Georgia Lopez, who was appointed to fill an open seat when Trustee Walter Stugis stepped down earlier this year.  They will both be seeking re-election.  If you are a Republican, reach out to the Hastings Republican Committee at hastingsgop10706@gmail.com. If you are of another party or independent, reach out to the Village Clerk villageclerk@hastingsgov.org to learn how to get yourself on the ballot with an independent line.
 
This seems as good a time as any to also announce that this is my fifth term as mayor and I do not intend to run again when my term expires in March 2019.  That will mark ten years as mayor, with another six as trustee.  While there are no term limits, 16 years seems a more than adequate time up on the dais. It has been a pleasure, a journey, an honor and with much of what I originally set out to do accomplished, a good time to step aside for others to run and to serve.  Contrary to perception and expectation, there is no heir apparent. If you are interested in running and want to understand what the position entails, drop me an email and we can meet and talk.  You can also speak to the respective party chairs by emailing hastingsdems10706@gmail.com and hastingsgop10706@gmail.com. This will leave more than a year for the electoral field to coalesce and leave time for the community to choose a candidate that will best help write the next chapter in the evolving story of this village.
 
We wish you peace, prosperity and, most importantly, good health in the New Year – without that, everything else is secondary.  Get out and enjoy the Village, if you can – the restaurants remain open and welcoming as cozy refuge from the cold and tedium of winter, and our merchants all enjoy your company and support.
 
All the best in the New Year,
 
Peter Swiderski