February 24, 2017 by The Eastchester Review

Eastchester REVIEW THE

February 24, 2017 | Vol. 5, Number 8| www.eastchesterreview.com

Tuckahoe schools seek $660K referendum By COREY STOCKTON Staff Writer

Tuckahoe Dems to run on second ‘hotel’ line By COREY STOCKTON Staff Writer Three Democratic candidates for the Tuckahoe Board of Trustees have garnered enough signatures to also run on an independent line as the Hold Hotel Accountable Party, the Review has learned. Mayoral candidate Anthony Fiore and trustee candidates Nicholas Naber and Kathryn Thompson, all Democrats, submitted a petition to the village to run on the independent line in a village race that is expected to be hotly contested. The Hold Hotel Accountable Party, which was confirmed after securing more than 120 signatures from registered Tuckahoe voters, is honing in on a central

issue in Tuckahoe for nearly a year: a hotel development project on Marbledale Road. “We thought that it was essential that part of our platform was to hold this hotel to a higher environmental standard, which, I think, the Republicans didn’t do,” said Naber, explaining why the Democrats decided to also establish their new line. He added that he and his running mates hope to attract all voters who were concerned about the hotel without letting partisan politics stigmatize the candidates in the eyes of voters. Naber said that while campaigning, he realized that ideology doesn’t necessarily play role in village government. “What I’ve learned with knocking on doors and talking to people in the

community is that party politics usually guide a person’s national views,” he said. “Whereas, on the local level… you just want what’s best for your village.” That party name identifies with what could be the defining issue of the March election, a Marriott hotel development project which requires the cleanup of a contaminated 3.5-acre property on Marbledale Road, which had formerly been a marble quarry that was used as a landfill in the 1960s and ‘70s. The project includes the removal of contaminated soil through a plan approved by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, DEC, which has been scrutinized by more than 1,700 residents of Tuckahoe and surrounding communities, and has

drawn a lawsuit against the various state and village agencies responsible for approving the project. The Hold Hotel Accountable line, which will now appear on the March election day ballot, is one of two independent lines in this year’s race making the 2017 village campaign an DEMS continued on page 5

The Tuckahoe school district will put to referendum the purchase of a private property adjacent to the William E. Cottle Elementary School, paving the way for a capital project which would require a separate referendum later this year. Carl Albano, the schools superintendent, said that the district was looking to buy property to facilitate a larger capital project when it learned that the private home across the street from the elementary school was up for sale in December. The district has scheduled a March 14 public referendum with the hope that voters will approve the purchase of 110 Ridge St. in Eastchester for $660,000 from its undesignated fund balance. The district has made a 10 percent deposit on the property, of which all but $15,000 is refundable. Albano said the district would likely build an administration building on the property, allowing the district to move its current offices out of the conjoined middle and high school building on Siwanoy Boulevard . But the district would have to demolish the existing structure at 110 Ridge St. as it would not comply with state codes for an administration building. A new administrative building would free up space in the middle and high school building for as many as three additional classrooms, which could begin to mitigate overcrowding, which has become a mounting concern throughout the district, especially at Cottle, where the student body is over capacity.

Although moving the district office to 110 Ridge St. would not directly affect the population concerns at Cottle, it would spark the district’s plan to enact a larger planned capital project, which could include building a second story on a wing of that elementary school. That project, if approved by voters in a likely second public referendum later this year, could cost between $20 million and $31 million, which the district would bond for. According to Albano, the outcome of the March referendum would help to set a scope of work for the later bond referendum. “If we are the owners of 110 Ridge St., then [we] will really look to refine the capital projects,” he said, noting that the district has proposed several projects, but would have to prioritize the ones the district would likely vote to fund. Regardless of the outcome of the March 14 referendum, the district would put the larger capital bond to vote at the end of this year. That capital project would also address infrastructural concerns, and would allow the district to update classroom space. The current proposal aims to build Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, STEM, classrooms in the elementary school and an up-to-date library and media center in the middle and high school. But according to Albano, addressing an expanding student population which is beginning to strain the district’s facilities is a main priority of the project. “The big driver is surging enrollment,” Albano told the Review. REFERENDUM continued on page 8