Mayor William R. Hanauer (Current Term Expires December 2010)

Message from Mayor Bill Hanauer

Your Village Government at Work

On July 6, 2010, the Village offered a proposal to provide Police Services to the unincorporated portion of the Town of Ossining and we are currently developing a proposal to integrate the Town Highway Department into the Village Department of Public Works. These proposals are based on the recommendations included in the final reports of recently-completed studies we performed with Briarcliff Manor and the unincorporated portion of the Town of Ossining. We are also updating the many long-standing inter-municipal agreements we have held with the Town. We always provide the highest level of services at the least cost.

Since 1813, your Village Government has been the nearest embodiment of our residents’ and merchants’ collective interests. We, the Mayor and Trustees, are elected to make complex and often difficult decisions on your behalf.  As you know, we schedule time at every legislative session and many work sessions for public comment on each item on the agenda. When we consider acting on these and other priorities, we must also use our best judgment to ensure that our decisions are moral, ethical, and good for all of the people of Ossining – now, and in the future.

2009 was a very productive year, despite the austerity of the budget; the 2010 budget is even more restrictive. Among our many successes in 2009 were the passage of the first comprehensive plan since 1959 and of the first wide-ranging zoning amendments since 1992; this was after 4 years of public meetings and hard work by a volunteer citizen committee, as well as staff, and consultants.

We began to implement the plan and new zoning by appointing a Downtown Development Council, which has held focus groups and recommended a series of short- and long-term goals, including the hiring of a Downtown Manager to lead our economic revitalization and the adaptive reuse and historic preservation efforts in our Business District – a move I have advocated since I was elected Trustee in 2005.

The Trustees and I are currently weighing proposals to develop the former DPW (Department of Public Works) property, bounded by Water Street, lower Main Street, Central Avenue, and Secor Road; the We Can Do it Space (the parking lot at 147-155 Main Street) and the magnificent long-vacant bank building at the top of the Crescent.

In 2009, we also passed the Affordable Housing Law and have already brought to Ossining new units of housing for employees, firefighters, newly hired police officers, and others in the restored 1878 Ossining Trust Building and the soon- to-be completed Orchid Condos across the street from the Courthouse.

Developers, who had been waiting for the passage of these new measures, have now begun their processes with the Planning and Zoning Boards. To assist them and future developers, we have developed a Significant Sites and Structures Handbook in-house to aid in Historic Preservation and new residential and commercial designs, and are developing Architectural Guidelines for the entire Village.

In 2009, we appointed a new Public Arts Committee.  The Committee and I are working closely with the Downtown Development Committee, the newly-reactivated Ossining Arts Council, and other members of Ossining’s arts community to enhance the look of our major arteries and the Waterfront.  It will be a long-term project, but we will be looking for private and State and Federal governmental funding.

When first elected Mayor in 2006, I pledged to return live theatrical performances for all ages to Ossining. I am proud to announce that on July 17^th and 24^th, there will be four performances of “Alice in Wonderland” on the waterfront in Engel Park, produced by Ossining Residents Carol and Ray Arrucci

The Mayor of Sassinoro, Italy, visited the Village last year to renew the bonds of our sister-village status.  I repaid his visit with a one of my own (at my personal expense) during last summer’s vacation.  I look forward to his projected return in the fall and that of the Mayor of our Portuguese sister village, Alijó, and the Volunteer Fire Department Philharmonic Band of São Mamede de Ribatua in the Summer of 2011.

As well as being elected Treasurer of the Westchester Municipal Officials Association, I represent the Village on the Executive Board of the new Northern Westchester Energy Action Consortium, working on sustainable sources of energy and better ways to dispose of organic waste, as well as developing means to help homeowners fund the “green” renovation of their homes.  We have audited the energy use in our public buildings and have already applied for Federal and State grants to retrofit them. In 2009, we formed a joint “Green Committee” with the Town, as well, to recommend changes in our energy use practices in municipal and private buildings.

We continue to upgrade the Water Filtration Plant, our water mains, sewers, streetscapes, and parks, and we will soon begin the process of the repainting of the Torbank Water Tank (the third in our inventory), executing engineering designs and creating bid documents this year and painting next year.

The 2010 Census was completed this spring. The population of Ossining and that of the entirety of New York State were significantly undercounted in the 2000 Census, causing the State to lose Congressional representation and funding. A similar undercount in 2010, New York State would have meant the loss of even more seats and loss to Ossining of even more Federal and State funding for the next decade.

Thanks to the Complete Count Committee of residents, merchants, educational, political, and religious leaders that I appointed in March, the Village reported the largest percentage of our residents ever, ensuring a more prosperous future and a greater voice in the governance of the nation.

Despite all of the economic difficulties of the times brought about by the increased costs of unfunded mandates, the decrease in State and County aid, in investment income, and in revenues derived from fees and taxes, the State of the Village remains sound in mid-2010.  Still realizing that we must maintain and continue to improve our aging infrastructure, we will not have to cut any essential services as have so many of our neighbors; and we will not endanger any lives or property.

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