Trustees Keep Meeting's Minutes to a Minimum

Waiting for Tarrytown Mayor Drew Fixell to take his seat Monday, Deputy Mayor Thomas Basher jokingly suggested he could start the meeting and lead his fellow trustees through the night's abbreviated agenda in 15 minutes. Then Fixell arrived—and did it in 12.

Delaying action on two items and moving briskly through the rest, the board went from an 8 p.m. Pledge of Allegiance to 8:12 adjournment. As always in recent weeks, the lingering hangover brought on by Hurricane Sandy drew much of the board’s attention, especially discussion of a recently opened storm-recovery office.

But the board also sold village-owned land and hired a cleaning crew to keep buildings tidy.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, best known as FEMA, has set up shop in the County Center’s Little Theater, off Tarrytown Road in White Plains, Village Administrator Michael Blau said. The agency, which provides on-site support and funding for disaster recovery efforts, will be joined in the Little Theater by representatives from the county, Con Edison and the federal Small Business Administration.

“According to the information we’ve been provided,” Blau said, “the center is not crowded.” Its normal hours will be 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week, he said, although hours may be shortened this week to accommodate the Thanksgiving holiday. Bring all the pertinent information needed to establish a claim, Blau warned residents.

Correcting an entry on the village’s website, he said Con Edison will not compensate customers whose food spoiled due to hurricane-related power outages. The utility invoked “natural disaster” exceptions as its defense against liability claims.

Blau quoted both Cablevision and Verizon FIOS as saying they will provide credits  to customers who lost any service during Sandy’s pummeling. Residents can call either cable operator to report a disruption; Cablevision customers may also file online claims.  

Saluting Tarrytown’s homegrown relief efforts, Trustee Basher thanked the Tarrytown Community Center, which served 750 people during Sandy’s rampage, “and all the other nonprofits” who helped the storm’s victims, saying, “A lot of good organizations out there go above and beyond the call of duty.”

In other action Monday, the board sold, again, more than a third of an acre of property at 75 Neperan Road, this time to Antonio and Maria Dinis for $262,000. Earlier sales, in 2004 and 2008, ultimately fell through.

The board also hired the Oriental Pacific Maintenance Co. (Mahwah, N.J.), low bidder at $34,000, to clean village buildings.  

But the board delayed, pending further work, setting a date for a public hearing on plans to waive building department fees when property owners repair damage to structures wrought by Sandy or, with village board approval, future storms.

It also put off the installation of meters in the West Elizabeth Street parking lot, currently restricted to business permits during the day and resident permits at night.  

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