Bronxville's Improving Infrastructure

By Bronxville Mayor Mary Marvin

If columns were titled, this one would be so named, “Mayor, What’s Going On?”

The level of activity in the Village – construction, paving, striping, and beautification is currently at an unprecedented level. The stars seemed to have all aligned creating a great deal of simultaneous activity. Ideally, we would have orderly staggered the projects to minimize congestion but most of the work is determined by the schedule of the providers.

Con Edison is the most representative example. As you may recall, this summer we waited a considerably long time to have the gas line installed on Kraft Avenue so the proposed diner could begin remodeling. When ConEd returned to repair a gas line on Tanglewylde near Midland and repave the work they had done on Ridge Road, we had no choice but to make the necessary accommodations. As point of fact, Con Edison no longer has an in house construction division so projects to return streets back to pre-excavation conditions are bundled and then subbed out to independent contractors. Hence, the often long term presence and proliferation of metal road plates throughout Westchester.

Continuing on the Con Edison front, many of you kindly report lamp post outages only to become frustrated when the light stays dark. If it is a bulb issue, we do replace immediately. Our night police patrols actually have a formalized procedure for reporting the outages to our Public Works Department. If the outage continues, it is a Con Edison issue often relating to conduit connections that have been reported.

After quite literally requesting new fiber optic cabling in our downtown for years now, Cablevision has sought to undertake the project. The needed trenching extends all along Kraft Avenue and Park Place from Cedar Street to the People’s Bank. The new service will make second floor offices more attractive to rent to professionals, and as an added benefit, if anyone is an Optimum/Cablevision customer, the Wi-Fi signal will extend to the train platforms.

The ConEd and Cablevision projects are two of the biggest in scope but something is happening in virtually every quadrant of the Village.

This is just a sampling:

• New trees are being planted in the pits in the business district and grates are being repaired or removed to provide easier passage
• Bids were received last week for the purchase of new street lights and are currently being evaluated and
• We are now requesting bids for their installation
• Leaf season is in full swing for our DPW staff. We asked that you keep the leaves out of the roadways as they further narrow our streets as well as clog the storm drains
• Our outside contractor is currently televising and cleaning the sewer pipes in the business district. Much of the work will be done at night to minimize disruption. We are finding tree root obstructions, crumbling pipes, dozens of water bottles and even hard to imagine, a bowling ball!!

We will be investing in sewer grates that block the ability to toss refuse into our water system because the labor intensive work to remove the volume of debris is time consuming and expensive.

• The front walk at Village Hall is in a redesign stage as the synthetic materials used several decades ago did not stand up to the test of time and weather.
• After months of searching for proper bricks to resurface the yellow brick road after almost one hundred of use, compatible bricks have now been delivered and are being installed as I write.
• Our historical decorative street signs, which have been damaged by weather and accidents over the years, are also being recast. Since so many are missing, we will be replacing them in stages.

The Village owes a great debt of thanks to the Bronxville Historical Conservancy for their generous funding of both the yellow bricks and the template to fabricate the replacement street signs.

• Striping of crosswalks and lane lines is in progress throughout the Village with the largest expanse covering the length of Kensington Road
• Also on Kensington Road, the tattered construction fence will be replaced with a more attractive alternative.

The Village has made a commitment to rejuvenate the paddle tennis program and has hired Jessica Watts, a seasoned professional to oversee the operation. She comes to the Village with over a decade of sports management experience having served most recently as Director of Recreational Programs for the City of Park City, Utah.

New programs are already in place for players of all ages and skill sets.

By going to the Village’s Paddle Tennis page under the Recreation Department heading, one can purchase a permit, sign up for a court, receive information about upcoming events or email Jessica at jwatts@vobny.com with individual inquiries.

We are so hoping to see our students and new residents embrace the program.

We at Village Hall genuinely appreciate your patience as we make progress on these many fronts throughout the Village.