The Trustees and I have agreed that due to the economic climate, we will not borrow funds this year to implement a full scale capital improvement program. Rather, we will make modest improvements with monies on hand. Traditionally, the Village borrowed in the million dollar range for such capital purchases as police cars, garbage trucks, all varieties of Public Works equipment, computers, road paving and curbing and parking meter supplies. The idea employed in our annual capital improvement program is to finance equipment, repairs and improvements over the life of their usefulness as opposed to paying for these kinds of items in an annual budget. This year we have cobbled funds together through State grants, State highway funds and closeouts of old projects on our books that were deemed not critical to the functioning of the Village to put together a modest program. Many of the police and public works vehicles and administrative electronic equipment will simply have to last another year. We were able to secure the funding for a much needed police car by requesting grant money that was allocated from the State through the efforts of our State Senator Jeffrey Klein. In addition, we received our yearly Consolidated Highway Improvement Program or CHIPS funds from the State in the amount of $99,988.14, a 1.05% increase from last year. This money must and will be used for road resurfacing this summer. As a result of a thorough review of all our accounts and close-outs of projects that were no longer timely nor deemed critical, we will have in the neighborhood of $250,000 for road resurfacing and curbing. In years of better financial condition, we had accelerated the paving program to over $400,000 per year.
We hope to get back to this level of funding in the next fiscal year. We are seeing some signs of economic recovery from indicators at Village Hall. For example, the number of building permit applications received through June 30th is up from 65 in the same period in 2009 to 84 or a 29% increase. The estimated value of this construction is $12 million vs. $5.3 million last year. In addition, sales tax revenue in Westchester County is up 2% from last year’s level.
With our more modest road resurfacing program, we plan on spending the lion’s share of the money on roads in or near the business district which have the most traffic and resulting deterioration. We are also aware that some of our residential streets such as Masterton Road and sections of Homesdale Road are badly in need of repair.
Once again, we have made a joint purchasing arrangement, or Inter-municipal Agreement, with Tuckahoe and Eastchester for the raw materials and paving service. The purchasing agreement is in the form of unit pricing so we will pave as much as we can with the available funds. All of our resurfacing work will be completed by Labor Day.
As an interesting aside, in an effort to be more eco-friendly and reduce the amount of petroleum in the road surfacing mix, most suppliers are using a mixture of recycled and fresh “blacktop”. The materials you see being removed from our streets during the road “milling” process are some of the materials recycled back into the mix. Though much more environmentally friendly, it results in a mix or surface that lasts 10 years in contrast to the traditional mix that had a life of 12 years or more.
In addition to roadwork, other improvements are underway, including additional lighting near the tennis courts, replacement of park gates and new signs at all our park entrances alerting visitors that the facility closes at dusk. Some of our parks have long been locations for late night congregating, and the closure signs will allow our police the added enforcement tool of an automatic trespassing violation. We are also in the process of removing the vines on many Village trees that appear attractive, but actually choke their growth.
I ask all residents to be our eyes and ears on conditions throughout the Village. For example, call us if you think a Village tree is unhealthy or needs trimming, a street light is out, a street or traffic sign has faded or is obstructed by foliage, an unusual car is in the neighborhood, a street that should be on the master list for repaving, or hedges that block a traffic sight line. Your attention to detail will help us react more quickly to public works and safety issues.
Mary C. Marvin is the Mayor of the Village of Bronxville.
