Winter Storm Prep; Tenants & Landlords Forum; Online Building Department Forms
Are you ready for snow shovels? Last week Manager D'Attore, Engineer Fraioli and I attended ConEd's Annual Municipal Information Exchange. The 2018 March Riley/Quinn storms caused prolonged outages in communities across the region, including Ossining. ConEd responded by making significant efforts to lessen future storm impacts, and improve communication and response when outages do occur.
The presentations included insights from experts on all areas of storm mitigation efforts. The winter forecast is for normal to below normal temperatures, and normal to above normal precipitation. Since the Riley/Quinn storms, 906 “danger” trees have been removed in Westchester. Of the 1,400 miles of roadways in Westchester, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens & Staten Island where ConEd trims trees, most of their work is in Westchester.
Remember all the miscommunication about outages? The smart meters that have been installed throughout the county notify ConEd when power is out and back on. It is still important to CALL/REPORT when your power is out. The system is better, but not perfect. ConEd is still working on integration of smart meters and outage maps.
Another measure to minimize outages is the hundreds of “breakaway” services that have been installed. If a tree brings down a line, breakaway service will snap the line so that fewer customers are impacted.
When we experience outages with big storms, Ossining swiftly requests a ConEd Muni Liaison to be present in
Ossining Police Department
headquarters. ConEd has expanded the training and information access for their Liaisons. That’s good news. In the wake of a storm having clear lines of communication is essential.
Last week's work session began with an in-depth discussion about the village's building department forms going online. Building permit applications and payments taking place online will be much more convenient for local residents and contractors. It will save people from having to make a trip to the Operations Center, and improve communications between departments. It also improves access to basic property information for realtors and others.
Click here to view the whole agenda and access to the meeting video
.
Community Connections
No Open Office Hours with the Mayor
tomorrow because of Election Day. Early voting ended yesterday. Tomorrow head to your regular polling place between 6AM and 9PM.
Have a burning question or idea, at any hour of the day or night?... Email me (mayor@villageofossining.org), Village Manager Karen D'Attore (kdattore@villageofossining.org) or the Board of Trustees (bot@villageofossining.org).
Special Location for Wednesday
This Wednesday's meeting will be held at the Community Center. The Village Board will convene at 6:30pm to call for an executive session regarding matters of collective bargaining. The public hearings and televised portion of the meeting are scheduled to begin at 7:30pm.
The reason for the special location is because Village Manager Karen D'Attore will present her proposed 2020 Budget. Here is the anticipated calendar of budget related meetings:
Village Board budget work session 11/7 from 9am-5pm (Village Hall);
Village Board budget work session 11/12 from 6-9pm (Village Hall);
Village Board budget work session 11/14 from 6-9pm (Village Hall);
Village Board budget work session 11/19 from 6-9pm, if necessary (Village Hall);
Public Hearing on the proposed budget 11/20 legislative session (Courthouse); and
Village Board votes to adopt final version of the 2020 Budget 12/6 (Courthouse).
Click here to view this week's agenda
. Following the public hearings and special budget presentation there are a number of invitations for community members to offer comments. If you would like to spread the word about an upcoming event, please take up to two minutes during Organizational Announcements. Folks who would like to comment on the resolutions included on this week's agenda may do so for up to four minutes at the start of the Village Board Resolutions portion of the meeting. The meeting closes with an invitation for community members to comment for up to three minutes during Visitor Recognition about any topic of relevance to the common good of the Village. The meeting will be held at the Joseph G. Caputo Community Center.
With Regards,
