Eastchester REVIEW THE
January 13, 2017 | Vol. 5, Number 2 | www.eastchesterreview.com
Anticipating hotel, Bronxville hires environmental firm By COREY STOCKTON Staff Writer
A ban on gun shows held at county facilities was pushed forward by Westchester County lawmakers this week following a razor-thin 9-8 partisan vote, but County Executive Rob Astorino, a Republican, may have the final say, as a veto looms large. For story, see page 6. Photo/Aaron Kershaw
Bronxville has hired an environmental consultant to conduct additional monitoring of the air and groundwater conditions in the village in anticipation of the remediation of a toxic site less than a mile north in Tuckahoe. “It is within our purview to investigate whether there is any unsafe level of contaminants either in or coming into our village,” said Bronxville Mayor Mary Marvin, a Republican. Marvin said Bronxville is keeping close tabs on a project in Tuckahoe, which includes remediating a former industrial dumping ground under guidelines set by the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation, DEC, and turning that property into a 5-story Marriott hotel and restaurant. Tuckahoe area residents have organized to ask for additional testing on the site since the remediation plan was proposed in April 2016. Marvin said the village chose the firm, Ecosystem Strategies, represented the Greenville and because it was already familiar Hartsdale fire districts. with the Marbledale Road projWinter said that scrutinizing ect. In August, after the DEC the firm for its headquarters’ released its plan of action to relocation and its travel expensmediate the site, the Eastchester es was short-sighted, claiming school district hired that same that the firm’s familiarity with firm to conduct additional site municipal law, and labor and monitoring and testing on the employment law had saved the grounds of the Waverly School, district money in the past. He an early childhood center less lauded Coughlin & Gerhart for than a quarter of a mile from the its work in a recent contract neproposed hotel site on Marblegotiation with the Eastchester dale Road. Professional Firefighters Local Members of the Marbledale 916 union, which put an end Road Environmental Coalition, to the arbitration of a grieva group of petitioners demandance that could have cost the ing more testing on the site, have HOTEL continued on page 8 district more than $7 million over five years. During the meeting, his first Follow us on Twitter @eastchesterview as a commissioner, Rabin also
Town fire district reappoints Binghamton-based law firm By COREY STOCKTON Staff Writer In a divided vote, the Eastchester Fire District Board of Fire Commissioners decided 3-2 to reappoint the Binghamton-based law firm Coughlin & Gerhart as the district’s attorneys. During the district’s reorganization meeting on Jan. 3, Anthony Lore, a fire district commissioner, questioned why the fire district was paying for a law firm located more than 150 miles from the town of Eastchester, and suggested, instead, looking to hire a firm located within Westchester County. Lore and newly elected Commissioner Stuart Rabin
voted against reappointing the law firm, but were outvoted by the remaining three commissioners on the board, including Dennis Winter, the board chairman. The firm charges $200 per hour for travel time, according to members of the board. Rabin said, while he wasn’t directly against re-appointing the law firm, he would have supported reviewing alternative local firms. “There’s always an opportunity for the board to take a second look and see if there are local firms that we can hire,” Rabin told the Review. The newly elected commissioner added that most municipalities have an attorney on the dais during public meetings to answer questions pertaining to
legal matters. According to a Google Maps estimate, the one-way travel time from the firm’s Binghamton address to the fire district headquarters in Eastchester could take three hours or more. The firm’s normal hourly rate is $255 per hour. The fire district’s budget for legal fees in 2017 is $270,000, the same as in 2016, and $60,000 less than in 2015.According to Jamie Hedstrom, the fire district’s treasurer, the district only spent about $225,000 from that fund in 2016. The Eastchester Fire District is not the only municipality in Westchester that employs Coughlin & Gerhart. The firm also represents Mount Vernon and New Rochelle, and has
raised concerns that toxins could be emanating from the site in soil vapors or groundwater. In May, Marvin wrote a letter to the DEC echoing the demand for more testing of the site, including additional testing of the off-site groundwater. In the DEC’s plan of action, the agency speculates that groundwater could not flow off-site because it flows into a layer of bedrock. That plan also recommends monitoring the flow of on-site groundwater during work on the site to see if the water flow changes course. In October, as part of its FEMA-funded flood mitigation project, the Bronxville school district tested groundwater on its campus. The test found high levels of heavy metals such as lead and iron, as well as high levels of some pesticides. Dan Carlin, the district’s assistant superintendent for business, said that the school district does not use that water for drinking or irrigation, adding that the area where the samples were taken would be turned into a parking lot. However, after reviewing its school district’s tests, the village of Bronxville decided to hire Ecosystem Strategies to review potential contaminants in the village’s soil and groundwater, according to Jim Palmer, Bronxville’s village manager. “Our feeling is, if there’s some concern in the community, let’s have someone independent come in and look at the data,” Palmer told the Review. Marvin said the village will be attentive to how the project in Tuckahoe could be affecting
FIRM continued on page 9
Like us on facebook.com/eastchesterreview