Town of North Castle Supervisor Michael J. Schiliro

E-News Update

Dear Neighbors and Friends, COVID continues to challenge us more than ever. The vaccine has arrived which is terrific news, but we are still not out of the woods. Snow is on its way, and several important meetings coming up that you should be aware of as detailed below. As you’ll also see below, perhaps Covid’s various impacts are also affecting levels of decency, which is unfortunate but I hope it will be self-corrected. Happy Chanukah to those celebrating.

COVID: You see the numbers. Over 16 million infected, over 300K have died. Please, please, please stay diligent, and as a good friend said to me last week,   “Don’t Do Dumb Things”! He was so right. The virus is so contagious right now, so the basics are more important than ever.  Stay Diligent!                Model Great Behavior!               Wear a Mask!                      Distance!                      Wash Your Hands! We worry about those individuals whose immune systems will struggle to fight the virus, and worry about those small business owners who are fighting to survive. Let’s not let them down. And when your kids return home from college, follow every precaution and make sure that in welcoming home your kids, you insure they know what protocols must be followed. It’s not an option for the reasons given above. As far as the numbers go, despite our collective Town diligence, our active cases continue to increase, which is a reflection of how highly contagious this virus is.   We currently have 116 active cases and our aggregate total since COVID began is 532, so our numbers have increased significantly. The silver lining, so to speak, continues to be that a large number of cases are within a much smaller number of households (most certainly difficult for those families). (As always, we can report these numbers, but that is all that we can and will report, thus please understand and appreciate that due to confidentiality laws, emails asking us for further info regarding details will not be responded to.)

POLICE REFORM COLLABORATIVE: As previously advised, every municipality in NYS is tasked by the Governor’s Executive Order with conducting a comprehensive review. The first Public Comment meeting held by the Stakeholders is tonight at 7pm. You must register in advance if you would like to speak, and you can send in your comments via email as well. Here is the link for the meeting, and here is the link for my prior email where I supplied the details of this effort. For those of you that question the legitimacy of this process I can assure you this a serious effort by serious people. I encourage everyone to participate, even if you do not have comments, you can still watch.

BUILDING PERMITS: One of the many interesting and positive side effects of COVID has been the large amount of building permit requests, which the Town welcomes. Our Building Department has been working quadruple time to help many of you, as the volume of building permit applications is incredible about 4 times the normal volume. Coupled with our Building Department dealing with all of the challenges that COVID presents, the result is a turnaround time that may be a bit longer than you would normally receive. This is not to discourage you from filing for a permit, just the opposite, but I am requesting your patience. Our Building Inspector Rob Melillo and his team are working diligently to satisfy everyone’s needs, but the department is only staffed for normal activity and not staffed for this peak COVID aberration. I have also been made aware of some less-than-respectful conversations that have occurred by some of our residents to the Building Dept. I know COVID fatigue has infiltrated many parts of our life and it’s understandable, but cross comments levied at this department are not warranted and I ask that you appreciate the ridiculously high-volume level that exists. Please be patient and decent with our employees – they are good people that continue to get the job done during these toughest of times. Thank you in advance.

SNOW, SNOW REMOVAL, AND OVERNIGHT PARKING: Just what we needed to add to this 2020 party, a big old snow storm. Be careful as always, and know that our Highway Department is the best in the business, especially when it comes to snow removal. Remember the Town-wide winter overnight parking restrictions on public roads (No vehicle shall be allowed or permitted to be parked, stored or kept unattended on any Town highway or other highway within the Town of North Castle from 1:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. during the period from November 15 to April 1) and more importantly, remember that you or your contractors CAN NOT push snow from your property onto the street. Your contractors know this, but sometimes they try to take liberties. But they work for you, so make sure that they hear it from you too, as you run the risk of receiving a violation. You may think this is a minor issue, but it’s not. Our Highway staff works very hard on snow removal, which includes treating the roads with salt and sand. When snow from private property is pushed across a road, many times it removes the material that we just put down, making the road less safe. Please pay close attention to this.

BRYNWOOD (Formerly The Summit Club at North Castle): The Town Board will hold a Special Meeting on Wednesday, December 16th for the applicant to present a proposal to the Town Board, Water District #2 residents and those residents surrounding the proposed Well site. The applicant has advised the Town that it has been a challenge to achieve the required gallons per minute in test wells that were drilled in the designated Windmill areas, thus they would like to develop an alternate ground water source on two Town- owned parcels. Although this may be of interest to the entire Town, I specifically mailed a notice of the meeting to all homes in the Windmill Water District (#2) as well as the homes in the vicinity of the applicant’s proposed site. The meeting is not required but is the proper way to proceed. However, I’ve received some negative correspondence from some residents levied at the Town Board. The applicant advised of a challenge and a proposal, and the Town Board advised the applicant that a public meeting, although not required, was needed so the Board and the affected residents, as well as the entire Town, could listen together and ask questions, and hear feedback from each other. I would think that’s what people would expect in this situation. As an FYI, the Town Board also serves as the Water Commissioners for the water districts.

SNOWMAN CONTEST:                                                              Since we’re going to have a storm, we might as well have some fun. The Rec Department announced a Snowman contest!!! Click here for the Winter Rec Brochure and go to page 8 for the details. Have fun!!! And if you really want to have some fun, feel free to make as many snowmen as you want in front of Town Hall. : )   TOWN BUDGET: We closed the Budget Public Hearing on December 9th and the Town Board voted unanimously to approve the 2021 Budget. The proposed tax increase is 0.98%. Click here for a copy of the Tentative Budget, which is now approved. I thank our Director of Finance Abbas Sura and our Town Administrator Kevin Hay for their leadership in this effort, and our department heads for their work in making this a successful effort. And as always, I thank the Town Board for their continued diligence in reviewing our budgets line by line, every year.

Councilwomen Barbara DiGiacinto, Councilmen Barry Reiter, Jose Berra, and Saleem Hussain, Town Administrator Kevin Hay, and I continue to encourage you all to continue your perseverance and diligence throughout this crisis.  Please, please, please stay safe, Be Decent, Mask Up, Stay Patient, and make sure your kids are Masked Up and Modeling Good Behavior. We have no choice. Let’s continue to help each other. Next up, Festivus. : ) Be well, Mike Michael Schiliro - Supervisor Town of North Castle  SOCIAL MEDIA FOR TOWN INFO: As always, follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

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Michael J. Schiliro | Supervisor | 914-273-3000 | Website

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