Mayor Rika Levin
Contact the Mayor - call (914) 941-3554 or send email to levin@villageofossining.org
January 1, 2024
The Village of Ossining is Building for a Whole Community
Please accept my sincere wishes for a safe, healthy, and meaningful New Year for you and your loved ones. As we look forward to 2024, it is natural to also look back upon the year that has drawn to a close and reflect upon the changes it brought to our lives and our community. It gives me time to recall moments of accomplishments for our community, friends, and family or remember those we have lost with sadness. Now more than ever, we might also reflect upon places in the world amid turmoil and strife.
The arrival of a new year also gives us hope and opportunity. Each new year offers us a clean slate for growth, acceptance, and empathy as a community. With that in mind, I look with joy and optimism to the boundless possibilities that lie ahead for our amazing community of Ossining, a village of almost 30,000 people with a scenic riverfront location, easy access and close proximity to New York City, diverse citizenry, and ever-more vibrant Downtown Waterfront District. All of this provides your mayor and elected officials a solid foundation on which to build. We are doing so in a carefully planned and strategic manner that builds on the strengths of our community sustainably and equitably.
Overview
After years of public engagement, planning, and preparation, the Village will be moving forward with several large-scale development projects thanks to New York State’s $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative Grant and $4 million from the Federal Government improvements to Route 9, as well as several other funding sources which all totaled exceed $30 million and will be facilitating our ability to complete a range of strategically aligned initiatives to ensure necessary infrastructure and address housing needs while fueling economic development, the creation of public gathering spaces, mobility, and greatly enhanced recreational opportunities. Here is a quick spotlight on some initiatives that will be our focus for the upcoming year.
The Heart of our Community
An important project that benefits from DRI and other State funding is the overdue complete renovation of Ossining’s Joseph G. Caputo Community Center to create a state-of-the-art facility for intergenerational recreation, health, safety, and learning.
Already the beating heart of our community, with an Olympic-sized indoor pool, a gymnasium, and program facilities that accommodate a wide range of activities designed for families, adults, and seniors, the renovation plans for the Center will take it to the next level.
Improvements informed with ample community engagement will include pool and locker room renovations (currently underway). Plans for re-designed community center space will allow for enriched programming, advanced technology, enhanced resources for Ossining's Youth Bureau, and an optimized setting for programs and activities to suit the current and future needs of residents of all ages.
Housing
Of course, the lynchpin of any strong community is safe, quality housing options. We have been working with great intention to ensure the housing needs of our community are being met in ways that contribute to the whole community's wellbeing. While Ossining has been working on affordable housing for years and is considered one of the most affordable Villages in Westchester in quality and quantity, this year, we break ground on two all-affordable projects:
- An all-affordable, mixed-income, mixed-use, transit-oriented property that will have 109 units, a public park along the Sing Sing Kill, a storefront and a public community space, and
- A 74-unit, mixed-use, all-senior affordable property that will provide needed, quality accommodations for people wishing to age in place while enhancing our Croton Avenue Business District.
Both of these developments will incorporate state-of-the-art decarbonization elements for environmental sustainability. We will continue to be open-minded to new ideas and developers who want to build in our community with an eye toward the Village's capacity and capability to support such development on behalf of our businesses and residents.
Commitment to Ensuring Essential Infrastructure
The Village of Ossining (Village) owns and operates the Indian Brook Water Treatment Plant (IBWTP or plant), which is located directly adjacent to the southwest portion of the Village-owned Indian Brook Reservoir. This facility provides water to both the inhabitants of the Village of Ossining and the Town of Ossining (35,000 residents plus businesses). For over 60 years, the Village and Town have worked together to ensure the delivery of a reliable source of safe, clean water for Ossining residents and businesses.
In 2016, the Village and Town jointly initiated planning for the construction of a new water treatment plant as it was mutually understood that the existing plant was reaching the end of
its useful life and could not continue operating efficiently at the capacity required to accommodate future growth. Looking towards the future and recognizing the increasing vulnerability of drinking water sources nationwide, coupled with increased requirements from various governmental agencies, the Village and Town share a commitment to the construction of the new Indian Brook Water Treatment Plant (IBWTP).
This $100 million initiative is the single most important and essential intermunicipal infrastructure project and break ground in 2024. The new IBWTP's planning and design efforts brought together a diverse group of community stakeholders with the support of Federal, State, and local officials. Reliable drinking water infrastructure lays a lasting and essential foundation for Ossining's future. Not only will the Project yield significant benefits for the Village and Town of Ossining in terms of the guaranteed provision of quality drinking water, but the Project's positive impact on affordable housing, economic development, placemaking, and local tourism will extend significant benefits to Ossining and the broader region as well, making this investment a particularly valuable one.
We have reserved funds in anticipation of this Project and will continue efforts for State grants to help offset the cost of this Project and ease the burden on our Village and Town water ratepayers.
Downtown Waterfront District Revitalization Efforts
Enabled by DRI funding, Ossining's downtown Waterfront District is embarking on a transformation that will undo the negative consequences of urban renewal and fuel the rebirth of Main Street commerce and local entrepreneurship by taking Village-owned surface parking lots to create mixed-use housing and a public plaza in our Village Center at the intersection of Main and Spring Streets.
The historic Olive Opera House, now home to the successful Hudson Valley Books for Humanity, is also located near this intersection. This building will use DRI funds to undergo renovations that will provide new space for the Sing Sing Prison Museum and other cultural attractions that will benefit the community and attract visitors.
A multi-modal transportation hub that will facilitate parking of vehicles while encouraging e-bikes and alternative transportation will be located in an existing rear parking lot on the north side of Ossining's Main Street to address the displaced parking.
This will be more than a typical parking garage and will incorporate green elements, including ample charging stations and a solar roof. It will also be designed aesthetically and functionally to complement and encourage the use of the adjacent Old Croton Aqueduct Trail, as well as provide easy access to all Main Street has to offer. DRI and ESD funding will help to offset the cost of this necessary Project.
Fostering a Walkable and Bikeable Community
A key element of building community in today’s world involves fostering walkability and safe, accessible "bikeability”. At the heart of the Village's downtown lies a five-point intersection (Main Street, Spring Street, Central Avenue, and Brandreth Street) that is complicated to traverse for automobiles, pedestrians, and bikers due to antiquated signaling and crosswalk patterns. The Village has introduced pedestrian safety and ADA compliance upgrades at this intersection with a SAM grant of $850,000 through the NYS Dormitory Authority (DASNY). This new intersection is being designed to address existing needs and complement and support the development planned for our Downtown Waterfront District.
State funding, which we competed to receive, is enabling Ossining to pilot an inclusive e-bike program, and CDBG funding is supporting ADA-accessible street scaping in the heart of the Village’s downtown -- augmenting and strengthening our commitment to walkability and “bikeability” in a way that benefits all members of the community. We are a pilot program for neighboring municipalities and eventually for like-minded municipalities in the State of New York.
Based on a 2021 study, the Village was awarded $4M from the Federal Highway Administration to design and construct a “road diet” to improve the safety of one mile on the Route 9 corridor in the Village of Ossining. The proposed work will include lane reduction, improvements to crosswalks, and intersection upgrades along Route 9. This Project will not only foster greater walkability and “bikeability," it will help to bridge the divide that separates our Croton Avenue district and our downtown waterfront district (created when urban renewal widened this mile stretch of road that physically and socially bifurcates the Village of Ossining) encouraging cohesive economic development and a greater sense of a whole community.
Along with a comprehensive street-scaping plan for the entire Village, Ossining will be safer for pedestrians of all ages, cyclists, the disabled, and families with strollers to enjoy the beauty of our Village while getting exercise and limiting greenhouse gas emissions.
Whole Village
It is always good practice to remind our residents and businesses, old and new, that Village governments in Westchester are tasked with providing the most essential of public services, such as health and safety, transportation, sanitation, environment, recreation, and utilities. They also ensure the provision of vital community services, such as emergency services, water, wastewater, building maintenance and expansions, housing services, social services, financial stewardship of tax dollars, and general administration services, to our residents, over 200 nonprofits, our businesses, and taxpayers, while maintaining the highest professional standards.
In addition, 2023 brought us new challenges as we recovered from a global pandemic, increased migration of residents from New York City, a change in work culture and commutations shifts, along with personnel changes in our Police department, increased and unpredicted costs of goods across all our departments, and increased legislative shifts in New York State. 2024 promises to bring yet more personnel changes both in our staff and in firms with which the Village contracts for work -- all of which have been included in our 2024 budget.
Collectively, our strategic initiatives, intentionally measured progress, alignments of personnel, and the business of running a Village are at the core of a carefully planned Village-wide strategy -- one that has involved years of planning and ongoing community engagement and one that incorporates essential infrastructure, economic development, housing, public safety, sustainability, recreation, commutation, and businesses -- to build a model community that is strong, vital, sustainable and highly desirable, now and for the future.
May each new year improve our communal lives in a way that is better for all.