Tarrytown Board: Commuter Ire

Lost Parking Spaces Draw Commuter Ire

In early August, 155 parking spaces in the Metro-North commuter parking were taken out of service to allow for the construction of four new tennis courts and a basketball court. Shortly thereafter, the complaints started coming in. In response to "six or seven" complaints, , about the lost parking spaces, village administrator Michael Blau read a written statement at the beginning of the trustee's meeting. 

Blau explained that the construction is part of the Pierson Park improvement project which will ultimately result in a total of 188 lost parking spaces. However, the spaces will be replaced by 167 new spaces between Losee Park and the Tarrytown Boat Club. While Blau had previously reported the creation of more spaces than we used to have, it does now seem to add up to a slight loss in spaces overall.

Blau admitted that commuters were given only short notice that the spaces were being taken out of service. Flyers were placed on cars on a Friday and signs announcing the change were erected on the following Monday, the same day construction began. 

People also complained that the new spaces are much farther from the south bridge leading to the train platform. In fact they are correct. The new parking lot is twice the distance (288 feet) from the south bridge than the previous lot (136 feet). 

Blau ended his report by saying that since 2007, the village has created 51 additional parking spaces for commuter parking.

Solar Savings

Moving on to another issue, Blau said the solar panels that were installed last year on Village Hall and the Senior Center were saving the village $18,312 annually in electricity costs, as . The panels were paid for by federal stimulus grant totaling $215,868 and another $125,000 from the village. While the expected payback period for the panels was originally 12.7 years, that estimate has now been lowered to 5.3 years. (Even lower than the estimate given to Patch a few weeks ago).

Loh Park Flood Mitigation

In other business, a consulting engineer presented options for mitigating flooding in the Loh Park neighborhood, specifically the area close to the intersection of South Grove and Leroy Streets. Basically all the plans call for replacing existing 15 inch pipes with 48 inch pipes to accommodate greater amounts of rainfall and groundwater runoff. One option involves the purchase of a now vacant home in the area to create a "collection pond" to slow and control the flow of water. The report was presented to the Board for informational purposes and to obtain the Board's approval to move forward with the plans in greater detail.

Other Business

The Board approved an agreement with the town of Greenburgh to provide fire protection to the Glenville district. The village is paid approximately $100,000 for this service, according to Blau.

They accepted the requested easements allowing emergency access to the (across from Lyndhurst) construction site.

They scheduled a public hearing on Sept. 4 regarding a change to the village code which will allow limited sidewalk entertainment.

Public Comments

Eleanor Miscioscia urged the Board to take issues regarding children's safety more seriously, requesting that the police youth officer issue to tickets to children riding skateboards or bikes without helmets.  "We are just waiting for a disaster to happen," said Miscioscia. 

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