It's Getting Dark Again

No, this isn’t about Daylight Saving Time - although you will need to set your clocks back an hour tonight when you go to bed. Rather, it is about Mr Feiner making more maneuvers under the cover of darkness. In an almost daily email campaign from Mr Feiner, he writes about the Edgemont Community’s desire for sidewalks. He fears Edgemont. He knows all too well not to ignore or disrespect them. This is because he understands they’re poised to secede from the Town by incorporating, becoming a Village and get out from under Mr Feiner’s bad decisions, costly and horrible management of the Town. So when they tell him to jump, he asks how high and for how long? He’s what he sent out:

“The Greenburgh Town Board discussed a letter that I received from Bill Darger President  of the Edgemont Association to construct sidewalks on Seely Place at our Town Board  work session meeting on October 28th.  Our Tuesday morning work sessions are archived on the town website: www.greenburghny.com.

We decided to  hold a work session discussion on Tuesday December 2nd at 9:30 AM. The next possible steps: retaining the services of a firm to review options and to design a sidewalk that complies with ADA standards and has the least negative impact for residents of Seely Place.

The Police Chief has expressed his support for sidewalks at Seely and at other locations in Edgemont (Fort Hill Road and Ardsley Road).  

You are invited to join us at this meeting. Let’s work together to improve safety of our children.”

Numerous residents and civic associations from various neighborhoods throughout the Town have requested sidewalks from the Town to make their neighborhoods, residents, and oh yes there it is in the last sentence, the children, safer. They’ve all been ignored by the Town. Let’s briefly recap a few of those requests:

1) North Elmsford Civic Associations (there are two different ones involved) requested sidewalks near Payne Street, both north and south as well as beyond Sam’s Club so people walking north of Sam's Club would be on a relatively protected space, as opposed to walking in the street. After two people were struck by automobiles walking on 9A, still nothing has been done.

2) Fulton Park Civic Association asked for sidewalks on Old Kensico Road as well as Hillside Avenue beyond Town Hall. This time we can’t say Mr Feiner did nothing about sidewalks on Old Kensico Road. Oh don’t worry, the Old Kensico Speedway is still without sidewalks, but Mr Feiner did take the opportunity to send a letter and email to the Fulton Park residents saying the Civic Association’s Vice-President requested installing sidewalks and that it be paid for (installation) and maintained by the residents where the sidewalks would be. Not only was this reprehensible behavior on Mr Feiner's part, it was totally inaccurate. Mr Feiner suggested sidewalks at a Town Board meeting and asked if the civic association representatives would be able to poll the residents to see if they wanted them. The vice-president said due to the assumed legal issues surrounding a project like this, he would defer to the Town to discuss this with residents. More deflection by Mr Feiner.

3) Requests for sidewalks have come from the Dobbs Ferry Road area during countless Town Board meetings. Sidewalks would benefit people that often walk along Dobbs Ferry Road at all hours of the day and night and in all kinds of weather, creating an extremely dangerous situation. Their request fell on deaf ears.

4) The Broadview Civic Association has continually petitioned the Town Board to mandate the installation oif sidewalks from the "new" Greenburgh Community Health Center on Knollwood Road per the construction agreements made with the Town by the developer of the failing condominiums just south of the health center. Again, they are being ignored by the Town.

As you can see, Edgemont is not the only community in need of sidewalks. In fact, if Mr Feiner and his Town Board were doing the right thing during his 22-years in office, he would have been insisting on infrastructure investments which would promote walking and a safer way for people to get around in our Town. But because Mr Feiner is a terrible manager, he’s neglected what is important to residents - infrastructure, lowering taxes and improving services, not eliminating them. It would also be an attractive marketing point for realtors trying to sell homes and/or rent space to businesses as it would promote more foot traffic. Instead, we have Mr Feiner cancelling $1.2M yearly leases (WestHelp), being found guilty of discrimination and fined $6.5M (Fortress Bible Church) and going after our fire department taxes which have nothing to do with him and he doesn’t even pay. It’s time for Mr Feiner to leave as this needs to end. Only then will we have A Better Greenburgh.