Bronxville Insider: Mayor Mary Marvin Weekly Column.

 Mayor’s Column: September 26, 2022.

In last week’s column, I spoke to summer improvements in two major areas: traffic safety/walkability and underground infrastructure. This week’s column is a continuation delineating all other projects undertaken, completed or in the final stages of completion during the summer months.

Road Paving 

Road  resurfacing will continue on Hawthorne Road, Willow Road, Locust Lane, Greenfield Avenue, Red  Oak Road and portions of Valley Road, Prescott Avenue, Avon Road and Pondfield Road.

Street Lighting 

We continue our initiative to gradually replace residential street lighting with more energy efficient LED bulbs. We are currently in the process of choosing which streets shall be in this next phase.

Charging Stations  

Electric vehicle charging stations will be installed in the Garden Avenue parking lot during the fall months. We expect to be adding two charging stations in this location to complement those in the Parkway Road Lot and Kensington Garage.

Metro North

Metro North began some underpass work just last week. It is being done during the overnight hours and the process will be slow but it already appears that beams have been sealed from rust, etc. Metro North will then repaint them to match our beams and we continue to work with the MTA to collaborate on clearly needed aesthetic improvements as well as the structural ones being addressed.

The MTA did complete installation of cameras along all our platforms, which we have historically requested, and are so pleased the project reached fruition. 
In concert, the Village camera system, which is now five years old, will be upgraded this fall, essentially implementing a point-to-point system to allow for continuity and a more stable, reliable system.

Tree Preservation 

The Trustees will be scheduling a public hearing at our October Board Meeting which will then be held 30 days later at our November 14th Board Meeting to discuss a draft tree preservation ordinance for the village.

We are in the process of clarifying and simplifying language in the proposed ordinance for ease of comprehension and enforcement.

At the same time, in the belief of leading by example, the Village is working on identifying locations on municipal property where trees need to be planted that were lost to recent weather events.

Open Spaces

At Sagamore Park we will be replacing playground equipment and at Bacon Woods Park, which connects Sagamore Road to Kensington Road (and thanks to the homeowners of the Hillcrest Cooperative), we have added an irrigation system so that the open grassy space will be able to thrive. 

We will also be doing extensive tree pruning in both the open space area as well as in the wooded area of the park. In addition, we continue to evaluate an upgrade to the existing stairs that will allow commuters and shoppers to quickly traverse from Sagamore Road to Kensington Road, not only to make them more attractive but also a safer passage.

Green Initiatives

Just within the past week, New York State awarded Bronxville a Bronze Certification from the Climate Smart Communities Program which is an initiative the Trustees adopted to provide a framework for tackling climate change and sustainability on the local level.

Our Climate Smart Task Force was spearheaded from Village Hall by Trustee Helen Knapp and Assistant Village Administrator Stephen Shallo. They teamed up with the Village Green Committee championed by the efforts of Chair Ellen Edwards, Carole Upshur and Maria Terjanian who did so much of the analytical work to get us this coveted certification. Twenty action steps were needed to reach this level. After 18 months of work and documentation, the initiatives that helped us reach this level included undertaking a greenhouse gas inventory at all municipal operations as well as one for the entire Village of Bronxville, documenting  the installation of electric vehicles charging stations, the addition of LED traffic signals, our new food scrap recycling program and our “Take  Back” recycling day.

Recreation

The paddle hut was repainted this summer, the court screening replaced and the main platform leveled. Paddle facilities will also be reopened for league play this year.