Eastchester Town Board Passes Capital Projects

The Eastchester Town Board said yes to what several of its members called a bare-bones list of capital projects at a meeting on Tuesday night.

The board voted unanimously to authorize issuing a series of bonds that would fund projects ranging from street resurfacing and sidewalk and curb replacement to the purchase of a new front-end loader to painting double yellow lines on some streets.

The total cost of the bonds to be issued is approximately $938,000, said Councilman Michael Cahalin. "We have cut this down. We started at two and a half million," he said, before the start of the meeting. "Further cuts would really hurt town services."

Several members of the board noted the difficulty of cutting down on the number of projects to be funded. "It is not easy to say no," said Councilman Frederick Salanitro. There are many more projects that need to be done and deciding which were to be cut was done painstakingly, he added. "We've been very frugal. These are bare necessities we cannot do without."

"This is not the wish list," said Cahalin. "This is the must-haves." 

The bonds to be issued include $150,000 for sidewalk and curb replacement; $300,000 for street resurfacing; $195,000 for the purchase of a sanitation truck; $130,000 for a front end loader (after $50,000 trade in on the old one); $29,000 for the purchase of a Ford Escape; $18,000 for replacement of the central fuel system; approximately $42,000 for purchase of air conditioning units, a bunker machine, and utility work carts for the town-owned Lake Isle Country Club; $25,000 for water quality improvements at the highway department yard (after expected grants of $169,550); and $50,000 for painting double yellow stripes on streets.

The central fuel system is the town's gas pump that is used to fuel official vehicles. The system needs repairs so that it can keep track of the amount of gas used by each department.

Fred Moses, a resident of Eastchester, during a period for comments at the beginning of the meeting, said the spending was out of line.

"We should be having a taxpayer's revolt," he said. He accused the board of rubber stamping the bond resolutions, a charge that Supervisor Anthony S. Colavita said was unfair. Colavita and Cahalin stressed that the projects were necessary and that all items to be purchased were necessary.

"I think we would be negligent if we didn't keep our equipment functioning," said Councilwoman Vicki Ford. "I am proud to be doing this. It is an investment for the future." After the meeting ended, she pointed out that the amount to be spent is less than one-third of the amounts requested by town departments.

Colavita noted several times during the meeting that Eastchester's bond rating has just been upgraded to Aa1. One reason the rating was upgraded was because the town is not carrying a large amount of debt, he said.

One item that did not come up was a system to scan town documents into a computerized system. Cahalin said that he was looking into the costs of such a system, but could not get a quote. Such a scanning system would allow for reduced space for record keeping, the time needed to find documents, and reduce the risk of misplacing or losing documents.