Happy Friday! Hope you got to enjoy the lovely weather today!
This afternoon, I participated in a press conference with Senator Elijah Reichlin-Melnick, Assemblywoman Sandy Galef, Briarcliff Mayor Steve Vescio, Briarcliff Manor Trustees Rhea Mallett and Ned Midgley, Ossining Village Trustees Omar Lopez and Dana White, Suzie Ross of Green Ossining, and representatives from County Legislator Catherine Borgia’s office, Riverkeeper, Scenic Hudson, Clearwater Sloop, Sierra Club, Federated Conservationists of Westchester and Save the Pocantico Lake. We gathered to call for increased funding in the state budget for climate resiliency. Here in Ossining, we are acutely aware of the risks flooding and sea level rise pose for our community. We were a Climate-adaptive Design host community in fall 2019 (you can learn more about that program online!) and we were recently awarded $125,000 in grant funding to further the student level designs developed in 2019 to more advanced engineering. We all love our Hudson River waterfronts, but we need to do the work necessary to keep our shorelines sustained for generations to come.
While Senator Reichlin-Melnick was in town, he left us with a really special gift - a giant check for $150,000 for improvements at Ryder and Cedar Lane Parks! With this money, we are going to install a new playground at Ryder Park and restore the Ice House at Cedar Lane Park. Thank you to Senator Reichlin-Melnick for supporting these much needed park improvement projects, we are very grateful for the funding. We posed with our giant check in front of playground equipment at Louis Engel Park, similar to the equipment we are proposing to install at Ryder Park with this grant funding.
Speaking of Louis Engel Park, the Town has been doing some DEC-grant funded tree maintenance work there. Trees were reviewed by the Town's Tree Warden and DEC Forester to determine their state of health before work started. Our Parks Department will be back to grind stumps in the coming weeks; they were left high so that they wouldn't be a safety hazard in the interim. We are gearing up for community tree plantings very soon to keep our community forest healthy and thriving! Also happening at Engel: clean up of the waterfront, final fixes on the kayak racks, and the docks are now in. More work still to be done but a lot was done this week.
Lastly, we are approaching the end of our Comprehensive Plan drafting process. For those who are new to the Update, click here to read more about our Comprehensive Plan, called “Sustainable Ossining.” Our Comprehensive Plan will guide all land use planning and decision-making processes for the next decade; if you want to have a say, now is the time! We will be extending the public hearing to the April 12 meeting. This meeting will be hybrid - Zoom and in person with Zoom info posted to our website the Friday before. The public hearings are always at the top of our agenda - right at 7:30pm - so if you would like to speak, please be sure to come on time. If that timing is challenging for you, you can always provide written comment as part of the public record in between meetings (or in addition to meetings, if you have more to contribute) by emailing the Town Clerk at . We anticipate having a revised draft of the comp plan by the end of March, in advance of our April 12 meeting. Stay tuned!
This coming Sunday, March 27, Star of Bethlehem Baptist Church is hosting a blood drive, from 9 AM - 3 PM. During the pandemic, the number of people who would normally donate blood drastically decreased. If you can, please help restore blood supplies to pre-pandemic levels! To sign up, call 1-800-933-2566 or visit www.nybc.org.donate. We post information about events like this in the Nonprofits & Charity section of the Update.
Finally, last call for vendors who want to be part of the upcoming Earth Day celebration on Saturday, April 23. Though the big day seems far away, the deadline to submit a vendor application is TONIGHT, March 25. Learn more at www.greenossining.org/earth-day-festival!
We will see you soon - stay safe and be well!
--Dana
If your business, non-profit, or community group has an event that you would like to submit to be a part of the Supervisor's Update, please email a flier and brief description to . We are happy to pass along events that provide a benefit to the community and support our local economy. Thank you for helping us to highlight all the best Ossining has to offer!
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