Village of Hastings-on-Hudson Mayor Peter Swiderski
A lovely time of the year, with fall color breaking out, acorns in great size and abundance, and much going on:
CAR BOOTS: The Board has finished reviewing and is putting up for public comment at the next Board Meeting on October 21st (7:30PM, Municipal Building) a law that would allow the police to place immobilizing “boots” on cars that have accumulated more than $500 worth of parking tickets and not paid them for over 18 months. If you’re booted, you would need to pay your outstanding fine and a fee of $150 to have the boot removed. The Board acted on this because there are tens of thousands of dollars owed the Village, including by current residents, and that doesn’t seem right at all. The law is here .
FIRE ALARM: The Fire Department answers on the order of 500 non-ambulance calls a year, and half of those are false alarms. And of those, many are repeat alarms from homes or commercial establishments that have faulty systems. That’s just crazy. We’re proposing a law (HERE) that imposes fines on the third false alarm of a given year (and up), and this law is up for public discussion at the next Board meeting as well on October 21st. The fines start at $125 for the third alarm and climbs to $500 for the fifth alarm onwards (and yes, there are places that yield that many more false alarms a year).
VILLAGE ADVOCATE: The Village sought a Village Advocate who will promote the downtown and seek to work to plan activities, draw businesses, and figure out what else can be down to enliven the downtown. We went through an exhaustive process, starting with nearly 40 resumes, and winnowed it down to 5 interviews. We have selected local resident Barbara Prisament, who displayed the enthusiasm, ideas and understanding of the issues that the role demands. We’ll be saying more in the next days and weeks about her role and plans and you can read a press release issued today on that topic for more information. (Click here to read the press realease)
BAG LAW AND LAW SUITS: The Village passed a plastic bag and styrofoam ban earlier this summer, set to go into effect the start of the next year. The Conservation Commission and Arts Commission ran a competition for designs for a reusable bag the Village will make available and are in the process of choosing a winner. Those Village-branded bags would be available broadly in January. Unfortunately, the Food Industry Alliance has commenced an action against the Village to overturn the adoption of the plastic bag ordinance. We intend to contest the action and vigorously defend our new law. (Click here to view the law)
SIDEWALK WORK: Con Ed’s contractor is now working downtown on fixing the sidewalks as the final step of the replacement of the gas mains and connections. They are starting with Main Street and then will move to Warburton and Spring. They’re moving fast and doing good work (so far) and we believe they should be done within three weeks.
HALLOWEEN CELEBRATIONS: The Village has a weekend of festivities keyed around Halloween – Friday Night Dead October 24th: Returning because of popular demand, up at Chemka Ghoul (Pool), we have a Haunted House and other activities. The Haunted House is open from 6pm – 7:30pm, just a little scary for our little friends and then reopens at 8:00pm – 9:00pm, much scarier for older kids/adults.
Window painting October 26th, Sunday: Our annual Window Painting contest (more details to follow), a Halloween Parade for out little ghosts and vampires, and trick or treating in town. (Goto http://Hastingsrecreation.org for all the forms and rules)
OTHER NEWS: For a dense suburb, we sport a range of wildlife. Recent sitings of a bobcat in Ardsley follow on a siting earlier in the year of a bear. But mostly, locally, we have deer, fox and coyote (or, more accurately, coywolves since the Northeastern breed boasts a fair amount of wolf DNA making them larger than the ones out West). Our coyotes are generally reclusive and have never bothered residents and we like to keep it that way. In the unlikely event if you encounter one (or more) coyote, make noise, raise your arms and throw something at them if a stick or rock is available. DON’T run. You’re not prey and don’t act like it. Don’t leave cats out after dark or smaller dogs out on a tether at night, and don’t feed your animals outside, ever.
There’s sculpture on the Library’s front lawn, a Flea Market coming up, the flea market, farmer’s market, live music at least four nights a week and merchants always ready for your business. See you around town.
The Hon. Peter Swiderski is mayor of the Village of Hastngs-on-Hudson. Direct email to:
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