May 18, 2021
MAYOR'S UPDATE
From the desk of Mayor Rika Levin
The Board of Trustees is holding a town hall-style community engagement meeting on May 20th at 7:00 pm via Zoom to hear more from the community about how we should approach the recently passed cannabis legislation. The Village Board will need to decide to opt in or out of this legislation on behalf of our community. To that end, we want to hear from you! Here are three ways:

  1. Email us at bot@villageofossining.org subject line: “cannabis” with your point of view.
  2. Submit your comments or question to us via bot@villageofossining.org in advance of the Town Hall meeting if you have a question you would like answered, and we will do so at the Town Hall.
  3. Join us on May 20 at 7:00 pm.

Town Hall Date: Thursday, May 20, 2021, @ 7:00 pm
Members of the public can view the meeting via computer or mobile app: Webinar ID: 999 9016 4177
Members of the public can listen to the meeting by dialing in via phone: +1 929 205 6099
Yesterday, we began planting our 80 trees at Nelson Park and Nelson Sitting Park. The 16 varieties of native-species trees, along with the supplies to support the planting and the work of a consulting arborist, were completely paid for through a NYS DEC Urban Forestry grant, and supplemented by a match of Village staff time. For the first day of planting, we were joined by Cornell Cooperative Extension Master Gardener/Green Ossining Member Donna Sharrett, the consulting arborist team from SavATree, and George Profous, a DEC Senior Forester for Region 3. This crew began by guiding our Parks Department on both the planting and care of each species. Our staff took on this project with enthusiasm and a desire to learn everything they could from the team of experts. A large part of this grant is community education around the importance of trees to our overall ecosystem - so be on the lookout for more about this via social media. Later this week, we will be filming a bilingual tree planting demonstration with Donna Sharrett and our Parks Foreman, Miguel Mara. We are indeed are proud of our in-house crew.
Please join the Village Board of Trustees on Wednesday, May 19 @ 7:30 pm for a Public Hearing where we will be discussing the potential Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) projects for the 2022-2024 grant cycle.

Along with 29 other municipalities, the Village of Ossining will be submitting requests to the Westchester Urban County Consortium for the distribution of federal funds under the CDBG program; the US Department of Housing and Urban Development provides these funds to enable neighborhood revitalization and improvement.

At present, the Village is contemplating two park and playground equipment upgrade projects (at Nelson Sitting Park and North Malcolm Street) and two projects related to increased ADA accessibility via sidewalk improvements along portions of Spring Street. However, as part of the project development process for the 2022-2024 cycle, we are looking for your feedback on projects to put forth to the Westchester County Department of Planning, which administers this program on behalf of Consortium communities. The Village of Ossining's Public Hearing will be held via Zoom on Wednesday, May 19, at 7:30 pm. If you have a project in mind that you'd like to recommend, please keep in mind the following parameters:

  • Typical projects encompass community development activities designed to revitalize neighborhoods, improve housing, promote economic development, promote fair housing, and support community facilities and services.
  • Permissible projects must meet at least one of the National Objectives, which include a) benefiting low or moderate-income persons, b) eliminating or preventing slums and blight, or c) meeting an urgent need of recent origin (such as remediating damage from a significant emergency, e.g., a flood, earthquake, etc.).
  • Projects under National Objective 1 (Benefit Low or Moderate Income Persons) must include either housing benefits or job creation/retention for persons of low/moderate income, OR serve a specific low/moderate income clientele where the income of each user/participant can be verified, OR are located within a Low/Moderate Income census tract.

We look forward to hearing your ideas on how we structure our submissions to best fit the needs of the Village of Ossining residents.
Zoom Info:
Members of the public can view the meeting via computer or mobile app: Webinar ID: 994 7700 4611
Members of the public can listen to the meeting by dialing in via phone: +1 929 205 6099
Village of Ossining | www.villageofossining.org