Snow, Sidewalks and Sewage on Agenda for New Town Board Members' First Meeting

Greg Bernard and Tom Diana join Yorktown Town Council members Vishnu Patel and Susan Siegel and Town Supervisor Michael Grace at the board’s March 17 meeting.

They won the special election March 10, filling the vacancies created when Nick Bianco and Terrence Murphy resigned and giving the town’s Republicans a 3-2 majority on the governing body.

Click here for the complete agenda.

Three items for the board’s consideration stem from the harsh winter:

• For salt and sand: transfer $125,000 from the General Fund
• For snow removal overtime: transfer $157,000 from the General Fund
• For road repair: Extend the bid for Asphalt Concrete and Liquid Bituminous Materials for one year, per the terms of the bid, to Peckham Materials of White Plains

One agenda item stems from the fight Westchester County has been having over affordable housing with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The suit began because Westchester, after applying for federal Community Development Block Grants, had failed to comply with certain mandates to encourage fair housing, and its certifications of compliance were false.

HUD and the county reached a settlement in 2009.

But Westchester officials soon complained HUD was trying to change the terms of the deal by requiring more units and demanding county officials prepare a report on “exclusionary” zoning at the local level and HUD began withholding millions of dollars in Community Development Block Grants.

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Three projects that Yorktown previously submitted to the county under that block grant program—which had been recommended for funding—were not implemented because of the federal funding freeze.Recently, however, the freeze was lifted.

Now Yorktown officials want to resubmit those requests:

1) Veterans Road sidewalks and streetscape amenities (between Commerce Street and Downing Avenue); Total Cost $340,764 – CHIIP request $170,382; Town match $170,382

2) Commerce Street sidewalks and streetscape amenities (between Firehouse and Kear Street); Total Cost $252,000 – CHIIP request $126,000; Town match $126,000

3) Downing Drive sidewalks and streetscape amenities (between Veterans Road and Commerce Street); Total Cost $377,000 – CHIIP request $188,500; Town match $188,500

There are also two public hearings on the agenda, both about sewer districts.

The first one is about the creation of Hunterbrook Sewer District Extension No. 20, and the second is about moving 15 parcels of land from the existing Hunterbrook Sewer District into Westchester County’s Peekskill Sanitary Sewer District.

The meeting, at Yorktown Town Hall on Underhill Avenue, starts at 6:45 p.m.