Mayor: Irvington Seeks Volunteers For 2 Committees

IRVINGTON, N.Y. ? Brian Smith is the mayor of Irvington. He writes a semi-regular village column and allows The Tarrytown Daily Voice to republish it here.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. Personally, I am in denial that it is already August. The summer is simply going too fast. There are two items I would like to update you on, then you can get back to a good book at Matthiessen Park.  Two Important CommitteesAt a recent meeting, the Board of Trustees established the framework for establishing two very important committees. To help guide the future rezoning of Irvington’s waterfront, we established the Waterfront Zoning Committee. The purpose of the committee is to review the zoning in the current Industrial District, review prior efforts to rezone the Industrial District, recommend a planning consultant to assist with the review, create public awareness, build consensus and offer one or more recommendations to the Board of Trustees regarding new zoning for Irvington’s waterfront.The second committee relates to promoting affordable housing in the Village. In this case, the Board didn’t establish specific goals for the committee. Instead, it is our intention to compile names of individuals who are interested in serving on such a committee. Then, with the help of experts from the Pace Law School and the Housing Action Council, an educational forum will be held in the fall to more precisely establish the goals of the to-be-established committee.If you are interested in serving on either of these committees, please contact Village Administrator Larry Schopfer at 914-591-4358 or lschopfer@irvingtonny.gov.Joint Paving ProjectFor the past few years, my predecessors and I have been working cooperatively with the Mayors of the other Villages in the Town of Greenburgh (Ardsley, Dobbs Ferry, Elmsford, Hastings-on-Hudson, and Tarrytown) and, more recently, the Village of Sleepy Hollow. Our cooperating is aimed at running our Villages more efficiently and cost-effectively in order to, ultimately, save taxpayer money.The largest and most successful cooperative effort is the combination of our paving projects in to one large bid. That effort, which has saved the taxpayers of our local Villages well over $500,000, earned us an award from the New York Conference of Mayors in the category of Public Management and Administration. This year, the Irvington School District became the first of the local schools to join in with the cooperative bidding. The resulting bid for the seven villages and one school district came in at a unit price that was 3% lower than last year, at a time when the price of oil-based asphalt has been rising.As always, please contact me with any question or comments about things going on in the Village.Brian C. Smith, Mayorbsmith@irvingtonny.gov

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