Mamaroneck REVIEW THE
August 24, 2018 | Vol. 6, Number 35 | www.mamaroneckreview.com
Village to send out RFP for sewer work By JAMES PERO Staff Writer
Laying the foundation ArtsWestchester will unveil an exhibit focusing on the role bricks played in the history of the Hudson River Valley. For more, see page 6. Photo courtesy bannermancastle.org
Pine Brook Park donations total $40K A citizen-led effort to improve the village of Larchmont’s Pine Brook Park has raised $40,000 that will go toward various park renovations. According to the Pine Brook Park Association, the neighborhood group responsible for raising the money, renovations will include widened existing
pathways throughout the park, repaved basketball courts, new benches, trees and other foliage, in addition to brand new pathways. Work on the overall project began last month and will continue into October, according to the group. In Larchmont, fundraising ef-
forts for park repairs has risen as a model outside of Pine Brook Park—which is located on Pine Brook Avenue—as other recreational areas like Turtle Park on Palmer Avenue have also been successful in raising private funds for upgrades. Fundraising efforts for Turtle Park totaled more than $85,000
in June with further efforts continuing through a host of events that include picnics, photography shoots for residents’ kids and T-shirts. A representative for the Turtle Park project could not be reached as of press time. The organization is seeking $250,000 PARK continued on page 9
In a continued effort to mitigate sub-par sewer lines in the village of Mamaroneck, a request for proposals to analyze and remediate problems will go out for bid in September. According to Assistant Village Manager Daniel Sarnoff, the village will solicit a contractor to study portions of its sewer infrastructure that were not previously evaluated. The village plans to send out a request for proposals, RFP, in the next two weeks. While swaths of the village’s sewer lines have already been surveyed, including Heathcoate Hill, areas of Rye Neck, Shore Acres and the West Basin, Sarnoff said that this next study would cover the remaining areas. As a part of a settlement with the environmental group Save the Sound, Mamaroneck is required to remediate a large portion of its sewers systems, many of which, over the decades, have continued to leech waste into tributaries that enter the Long Island Sound. Among the worst areas for fecal contamination in the village of Mamaroneck is Beaver Swamp Brook, which is often cited as one of the top locations in all of Westchester County for such contamination. Aiding the village in their efforts to bring sewer lines back up to par will be state grants and special financing offered through the
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, DEC. Sarnoff said that the village is currently going through an application process that would see the state fund 25 percent of future remediation projects with the rest paid for by Mamaroneck in a series of financed payments with varying interest. According to Sarnoff, a yet-to-be determined amount of the DEC loans would be zero interest, while other interest rates would be determined given the village’s AA1 bond rating with credit rating agency Moody’s. Continued remediation work will mark the next step in an ongoing process to repair miles of village-owned sewers that has taken place over the last decade. Like the village and town of Mamaroneck, municipalities across the county—including the neighboring city of Rye and town/village of Harrison—have also been swept up in Save the Sound’s litigation and have since agreed to court-ordered timelines to carry out repairs. Save the Sound continues to monitor bacteria and water quality in testing sites across the county and is set to release its biannual report card this year. The last water quality report card, which analyzed waterways in Connecticut and New York, gave the Long Island Sound the worst grade with a C-. CONTACT: james@hometwn.com