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COMMISSIONER DUQUESNE: Good evening, Supervisor
Feiner, members of the Town Board, for the record, Garrett
Duquesne, Commissioner of the Department of Community
Development and Conservation.
As Councilman Sheehan noted, there will be a
Public Hearing for the Town of Greenburgh's intent to file
Community Development Block Grant applications for the 2019
through 2021 Community Development Block Grant Funding
cycle.
What I would like to do is just give a very brief
overview of the projects that we intend to submit. And
after that, I will actually send a narrative to Supervisor
Feiner. I think it would be very helpful to send out an
E-blast so that residents are made more aware of the Public
Hearing and have some information on the intent with the
grants.
Before I describe the projects, I just would like
to recap that the Town Board took the action last month to
rejoin the Westchester County Consortium, which now the
Town of Greenburgh will have the support of Westchester
County in filing the Community Development Block Grants,
which was similar to the setup that occurred for numerous
years. And there was a short break where the Town of
Greenburgh worked directly with New York State as directed
as other Westchester municipalities did.
However, again, at this time, the Town is
reentered the consortium and we will be supported by
Westchester County.
So the four projects are, one project actually
may sound familiar to some as the Town of Greenburgh filed
the Community Development Block Grant application for a
sidewalk on Old Tarrytown Road, portions of Old Tarrytown
Road, portions of Manhattan Avenue and portions of
Knollwood Road.
At the Public Hearing, I'll have the nice maps so
we can see the gaps that we hope to fill in with the
sidewalks. And this is a sidewalk project that is not a
sidewalk repair.
It's actually placing sidewalks where no
sidewalks presently exist. It's an awesome project. We
are very hopeful that this project gets funded.
In terms of project costs, this is a $550,000
projected cost. And actually there is $300,000 committed;
$50,000 of which are from the Town of Greenburgh and
$250,000 of which are committed through another State
agency, through the help of Assemblyman Abinnanti.
So the request in that regard will be for
$250,000 for Community Development Block Grant for that
sidewalk.
The other three projects are for the Greenburgh
Parks and Recreation Kiddyland Playground replacement at
Washington Avenue Park. The third application will be for
a bus for the seniors and youths at the Theordore D. Young
Community Center.
The last application will be for the replacement
of the upstairs lockers and upgrade of the upstairs locker
room at the Theordore D. Young Community Center. I believe
Winsome will speak next and say a few words, with a little
more detail about those projects. And our Community
Development Block Grant representative Lloyd Cort was good
enough to join us and may say a word as well.
Lastly, the Town of Greenburgh at this Public
Hearing will also be hosting discussion about the
Greenburgh Health Center's Community Development Block
Grant Application for a multi-passenger and handicapped
accessible van for the transport of health center patients.
Now, this is a separate application as a non
profit entity. However, the forum for Public Hearing is
wholly appropriate to be had here in the Town of Greenburgh
as they are a non profit functioning in the Town of
Greenburgh. So that will be a fifth project. But it will
not be included in the four that I described prior that are
Town of Greenburgh specific projects.
So having said that, I look forward to the Public
Hearing next meeting. And Winsome Gordon, would you like
to say a few words?
MS. WINSOME GORDON: Yes.
COMMISSIONER DUQUESNE: Great. Thank you.
MS. WINSOME GORDON: Good night, Supervisor
Feiner, members of the Town Board, residents of Greenburgh,
our on-line viewers, thank you for joining in.
Tonight, I come to you as the Grant's coordinator
for the Town of Greenburgh. My name is Winsome Gordon and
I'll be working with the Community Development Block
Grants.
For the past couple of months we've been reaching
out to the community. We've been having different meetings
and we met with our representative, Lloyd Cort, to discuss
various projects. Our projects will meet the needs of the
low to moderate income members in the area. We're focusing
on our youths and our seniors.
As Garrett mentioned before, we have four
projects for the Town of Greenburgh. The sidewalks, the
second project that we have is a passenger bus, a
20-passenger bus, for the youths and the seniors at the
Theordore D. Young Community Center. As we all know, the
Theordore D. Young Community Center provides services to
youths and seniors and adults, and predominantly in the low
to moderate income area.
They have many programs, swimming, summer camp,
after-school problems, senior programs, like the nutrition
program, exercise, yoga, game boards and many social
events. They even have aquatics program for the seniors.
With this in mind, transportation plays a
critical part in servicing our seniors and our youths. The
bus that we're planning for will augment and enable more
outreach that will foster greater utilization of the
community center resources and services for both our youths
and our seniors.
Our next project is Greenburgh Parks and
Recreation Kiddyland Playground replacement at Washington
Avenue Park. The project is very important. There is a
great need for this. That park has been there since 1997
and there has been no upkeep.
The benches are falling apart. The park is in
dire need of replacement. That park services the kids from
the Greenburgh Housing Authority and the members and the
residents who live in the projects on Manhattan Avenue.
We took a look at the park today and we noticed
that the grills, the tables, the garbage cans, the whole
playground is in dire need of replacement. And it serves a
vital need. It's there for the residents of Greenburgh.
So we're hoping to get some funding to fix up this
playground. I'm going to go over the dollar amounts in a
minute.
The next project is a locker room replacement at
the Community Center. From when the center was built, the
lockers was never replaced. There is a need to upgrade
these. These lockers are used by our youths, our seniors,
our adults. And many of the residents who use these
lockers are people with disabilities. So we're going to
make these locker rooms handicapped accessible to all.
Now, back to the bus. The bus costs about
$76,000. We're only applying for $38,000, half of the
amount. The other funds will be put forth by the Town.
The playground, we're looking for $90,000 for the
playground, but we're only applying for $45,000. Gerard
Byrne has assured me that he will be reaching out to the
Board to receive funding of $45,000 from his developer's
funds.
With the locker room, the locker rooms only going
to cost $16,000. We're applying for $8,000. These
projects are very, very important to the Town of
Greenburgh. And they'll improve the livelihood of the
residents.
The Nature Center had mentioned that they are
thinking about doing something, but they haven't gotten
around to us as yet. There is a little time left so if
they are able to come through before the Public Hearing, we
will be able to put something in from the Nature Center.
The Greenburgh Health Center has reached out to
Garrett and they have spoken to me. And they'll be
applying for their van, which is much needed to transport
their seniors and their elderly patients.
At this time, I would like to reach out to Lloyd
Cort, Chairman and Representative for Community Development
Advisory Committee.
SUPERVISOR FEINER: Do we have, you mentioned
that we're contributing, is that a requirement or could it
be for everything?
MS. WINSOME GORDON: Yes. The County requires
that we invest in the project. It shows commitment. And
more than likely we will receive funding, but you do have
some time to come up with the funds.
SUPERVISOR FEINER: Is there an amount, do we
have to do like 50/50 or --
COMMISSIONER DUQUESNE: Just to be clear it's a
50 percent match.
MS. WINSOME GORDON: It's 50 percent match.
SUPERVISOR FEINER: We have to do it?
MS. WINSOME GORDON: Yes, 50 percent match. But
also, think of it, if you were to buy the bus outright, you
would have to spend $76,000. You're only spending $38,000.
So it's investing in the community, investing in
the center. And it's also saving us money because we don't
have to spend $76,000. We only have to spend $38,000.
And last year, we were able to secure, free of
cost to the Town, a handicapped accessible bus for the
Community Center. So we went down there, we took a look at
the center's needs and we saw that they really need to have
another bus. Because of a lot of the seniors are not able
to be serviced by this one bus, and our youths. So there
is a need.
And I spoke to Gerard and he expressed to me that
the Town, some of the buses have out lived their use for
life. So there is a definite need to replenish the fleet.
We don't do it now --
SUPERVISOR FEINER: How old are the buses, do you
know?
MS. WINSOME GORDON: Did Andre leave? Yes, he
did. But the buses are old. But Gerard is an expert.
Mr. Tenor, he's the one who does all the auditing for the
Town. And he has expressed to me that the buses are in the
shop constantly. And the money the Town is spending on
replacing -- on repairing these buses, you're better off
spending $38,000 and get a new bus.
So I put it in your hands, Supervisor Feiner and
the Board. There is a definite need. There's an outcry
from the community and the Community Center that there is a
need for this bus.
Lloyd and myself went down there today and people
were telling us that there is a great need to have this
bus.
COUNCILWOMAN JUETTNER: Not only that, but it's
also for our residents --
MS. WINSOME GORDON: Yes.
COUNCILWOMAN JUETTNER: -- that when the buses
don't function properly, they break down and they get
stuck, replaces for long periods of time. It's especially
hard on the seniors.
MS. WINSOME GORDON: That's so true. Thank you
so much. And now I'm going to turn it over to Lloyd Cort.
MR. LLOYD CORT: My name is Lloyd Cort and I'm a
representative of the CDBG. If I may reiterate what was
said. It's basically the terms of being, is expressing
the need and the urgency for what was said before.
The sidewalks that needs improvement on Old
Tarrytown Road and Manhattan Avenue, the health and safety
of the residents of Manhattan Avenue and Old Tarrytown Road
who traverse these areas and sidewalks, which is basically
in a case of disrepair and in most cases absence of many
parts of the sidewalk.
Indeed, this is a busy connector for 287
Expressway and that alone expresses the need for that
sidewalk to be looked at or funded.
A 20-passenger bus for the seniors and youths at
the Theordore D. Young Center, the present bus is
delapidated. It's in probably, I will say from my
perspective, to full disrepair. And, in fact, the costs
for the past three years of repairing that bus is -- could
have purchased a new bus in its stead.
The Greenburgh Park and Recreation Kiddyland
Playground replacement on Washington Avenue, once again,
another safety hazard and this time it's involved children.
The structures, the wood structures, is all rotten and no
cushion for kids that is playing around there. So indeed,
this will be very costly to the Town if accidents occur.
The replacements of there is the locker rooms at
TDYCC. This was mentioned before. These locker room
lockers were placed in the inception of the building, when
the building was first being installed, built.
So there again, it shows the urgency for that and
also the uses by persons that normally use this, these
lockers, there are no safety. There is no safety in terms
of locks on them and other things could be involved.
The Greenburgh Health Center, the multi-passenger
handicapped accessible van for transportation of health
center patients. The importance of healthcare, not only in
the Greenburgh, but nationwide. These seniors more often
are without transportation and in most cases are on a fixed
income.
Again, as I said, I express the urgency of these
projects and I'm just reiterating what was said earlier and
which marks the importance of these projects. Thank you
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