Letter to the Editor: Ossining Mayoral Election

To the Editor:

I am all for change, but I don’t support change for its own sake. The current mayor of Ossining has deep knowledge of the Village of Ossining and extensive experience overseeing its growth. Under Mayor Hanauer, our downtown has become vibrant with new development where once were boarded up buildings. He’s overseen judicious consolidation of services between town and village, where consolidation makes sense and saves money. He’s increased our nature preserve and kept taxes down.

Victoria Gearity is a lovely person, but, just finishing her first term as Trustee, she has nowhere near Mayor Hanauer’s depth of understanding of the complex issues facing the Village. Can we be sure that she will continue enabling downtown’s growth, as Mayor Hanauer is doing, or will part of her “change” be allowing Ossining to slip back to its era of vacant buildings and empty lots? Can we take the risk?

In short, Mayor Hanauer has done a fine job of leading the Village for the last eight years. Why would we want to change to a relative neophyte?

Sincerely,

Irene L. Herz