The meeting was held at the home of Steve Savard.
Present: Mattie Bialer, Theresa Boin, Kathryn Buckley, Toby McAfee, Martha Mercedes, Steve Savard
Absent: Barbara Brian, Don Cioppa, Lidia Fouto, Mary Jerome, Marge McLoughlin, Joey Parnes, Nancy Sarmast
Invited Guests: Bill Kanner, Stu Hochman, Marie Rama
The meeting was opened and chaired by Toby McAfee and the minutes recorded by Mattie Bialer. (The Board meeting scheduled for February 22, 2010 was cancelled.)
Park Hill resident Stu Hochman attended the meeting to propose a way to improve access to NYC from Park Hill, which he theorized would improve property values. He informed the Board that there was once an entrance to the southbound Saw Mill Parkway at the east end of Wendover Road. He told the board that when he was buying his house (on Rockland Ave. at Edgecliff Terrace) in 1969, Gene Krupa told him that he was using his influence to have it closed to reduce traffic past his house on Wendover at Ritchie Drive.
Mr. Hochman believes that by restoring that access, one could reduce commuting time to Manhattan by ten minutes, thereby increasing property values. He based this belief on the fact that when he was negotiating to buy his house, he informed the seller that because of this future closing, he would back out of the sale if the seller would not accept $20K less than his original offer. We discussed the effect that the increased traffic would have on residents of Wendover and nearby streets, reducing their property values and likely requiring speed humps on this wide street. Board members also believed there was a low likelihood that it would increase property values, since it was based only on his anecdotal experience of 1969, and is contrary to the opinion of an experienced neighborhood realtor (Jane McAfee).
After Mr. Hochman left, we continued the discussion, questioning whether we should pitch the idea at a general meeting or bring the idea to the City. We decided against the proposal. Toby will send a message thanking Mr. Hochman for his presentation and informing him of our decision.
(See notes below about our research subsequent to the meeting.)
Park Hill Clean Up
At the last meeting, we discussed hiring some person or persons to pick up litter on a regular basis from Park Hill streets. Toby suggested the heaviest traveled streets -- Park Hill Avenue from School 13 to Van Cortlandt Park Ave.; Van Cortlandt Park Ave., up the hill to Lakeside Drive (by the club), and Rumsey Rd.
Michael Littman, the new BID director, offered two options:
1. Hire someone. He pays $8/hr and they are the BID's employees, requiring workers comp, disability, FICA, etc., which raises the cost several dollars an hour and adds paperwork. Reliability is an issue and these people must be supervised to be sure they are doing what they are supposed to do.
2. Use County Department of Social Services (DSS). People who get benefits from DSS must put in some number of hours to work off their benefits. This would be no cost to us and no paperwork. Reliability is also an issue here and interviews and supervision would also be required.
We discounted a third possibility, to organize a group of people in PH to do it on a regular basis, and decided to look for an agency that would provide the workers and supervise them as well. Kathryn agreed to contact Jawonio, which employs mentally challenged adults and which currently does Park Hill envelope stuffing.
Marie Rama attended the meeting to generate interest and ideas for mounting an anti-littering campaign in Yonkers. Thoughts include:
- Litter creates a climate for crime.
- Get representatives involved.
- Get prominent residents (past and present) involved in advertising campaign – major publicity -- posters, TV spots -- It’s Our Yonkers. Keep it Clean. Steve will try to get Chuck Lesnick involved in this.
- Involve schools. Have a citywide video and/or poster contest (cash prize).
- Some clean-up work is already going on in Yonkers. Many groups are interested in the same thing. We can do much more collectively.
- The Green Policy Task Force has a budget.
- Focus on neighborhood cleanup rather than one’s own property.
- Marie will coordinate a walk/hike/clean-up. She will draft a flier to be included in the spring mailing.
Newsletter: The Park Hill Reporter will go to the printer this week. We are looking for an editor. John Close and Marie Rama have declined.
Kathryn will coordinate the Tag Sale, which is scheduled for May 15 and 16.
The next Board Meeting will be held at the home of Martha Mercedes on April 19.
NOTE: Within two days after the meeting, several board members examined the area on Wendover where a ramp to the Parkway could be located. All agreed that the current configuration would make a ramp extremely difficult and expensive to construct at this location, reinforcing the board's decision to recommend not pursuing this idea.
Submitted by Mattie Bialer