Harrison REVIEW THE
April 22, 2016 | Vol. 4, Number 17 | www.harrisonreview.com
Deteriorating roadways garner townwide attention By aNGELa JordaN Staff Writer
Let there be Lights! The Historic Hudson Valley is gearing up for its third annual LIGHTSCAPES show, an interactive exhibition that combines light, sound, video, art and history at the Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-on-Hudson. For story, see page 6. Photo courtesy hudsonvalley.org
Harrison police chief raises concerns about potential for gun violence By aNGELa JordaN Staff Writer Chief Anthony Marraccini of the Harrison Police Department wants his officers to be prepared for the worst-case scenario, it seems. At the capital budget work session on April 11, Marraccini requested funding from the town board for sniper rifles and other equipment to prepare for a potential active shooter scenario. At the meeting, he told the Town Council that Harrison contains several corporate offices, universities and access to several major highways that could potentially be the target of a planned attack, and that he wants his department to be at the “forefront of anticipated needs.”
He also said that while the state and county police have the resources to handle an active shooter scenario, he believes that being prepared on a local level is also crucial. “Times are changing, and the immediacy in response is necessary to limit any type of casualties in these types of situations,” Marraccini told the Review. The question of how to prepare for an active shooter scenario is one that local law enforcement agencies nationwide have had to address. According to the crowdsourced website Mass Shooting Tracker, there have been 102 domestic mass shootings, defined as four or more people being shot, since the beginning of 2016. Marraccini cited the recent
lockdown of SUNY Purchase’s campus due to the presence of an unidentified armed gunman threatening students at a party with a gun and fleeing into the woods as an example of a situation that could have had the potential to be deadly. Marraccini also commended his current staff and said that the department would be fit to handle these kinds of situations if given the equipment. “I am very fortunate that I currently have police officers who are already talented marksmen,” Marraccini said. This type of equipment has not always been easy to come by for local law enforcement agencies, however. In response to the aftermath of the Ferguson, Missouri and
Baltimore riots in 2014 and 2015 and to concerns that local police agencies have become militarized over time, President Barack Obama placed restrictions on the 1033 Program, which allows local law enforcement agencies to purchase excess military equipment from the U.S. Department of Defense. Marraccini said that while the federal program has been discontinued, there are specialty suppliers on state contracts where local police departments would be able to purchase the equipment from. According to Town Councilman Steve Malfitano, a Republican, although the board has not had any formal discussions VIoLENCE continued on page 9
Recent attention has been drawn to the poor condition of multiple, vital roadways in Harrison by both local and state officials, and the town is currently considering which steps to take to improve them on a tight budget. During the capital budget work session on April 11, Department of Public Works Commissioner Anthony Robinson requested $2.5 million over a five-year period from the Town Council for road repairs in Harrison. “We’re not the only municipality facing [infrastructure] issues, but the past several winters have been severe, and federal funding for this type of road work does not meet our current needs,” Robinson said. According to a report by VHB Pavement Management, a consultant hired by the town to assess roads in Harrison, there is a $20 million backlog of infrastructure work to be done. The analysis included a visual evaluation of the state highways and county, local and private roads throughout Harrison. The consultant was primarily looking for damage such as cracks, distortions and potholes, and then measured the extent of these damages. A presentation by VHB was given to the Town Council as early as Sept. 3 of last year, who reported in their findings that at least 90 miles of various roadways in Harrison require attention, and more than a third of those 90 miles requires “structural improvement and base
rehabilitation.” Furthermore, the $20 million estimate given by the consultant only includes the cost of repaving the roads, and didn’t include the drainage improvements that would likely have to be made as well, which would create additional costs. Not all the roads that need work would be under the control of or financed by the town, however. There is currently $27 billion set aside in the 2016-2017 New York state budget for the state Department of Transportation to improve to roads and bridges, including three new initiatives, BRIDGE NY, PAVE NY and the Extreme Weather Infrastructure Hardening Program, which were created to address the toll that the past few winters have taken on New York’s roadways. According to state Sen. George Latimer, a Rye Democrat, while there isn’t enough state funding to take care of all the roads in New York that need attention, he is sympathetic to the town’s current predicament and believes “the merit [to Harrison’s needs] is there, the question now is whether or not we can get the [Department of Transportation] to agree.” Latimer said that when working within the state’s budget, the roads that should receive priority in regard to rehabilitation is best left up to the Town Council. “The town knows what they need best, and [state Assemblyman] David Buchwald and I are happy to work with them on what they need from the state,” Latimer said. roadways continued on page 8
INSIDE Trotta’s sells second winning lottery ticket Story on page 8.