Dear Mayor Falloon and Village Board of Trustees:
First of all I want to thank Mayor Ralph Falloon, and Board Trustees — Mike Bowman, and Cathryn Fadde for their generous donation towards purchase of the video system for the board meetings. Thank you for wanting to provide us with public access to the meetings.
I also want to say that I remain very supportive of the B4A zoning change. From attending Village Board meetings and the Planning Board meetings I have come to believe that the EAF Study & Conclusions have made it very clear that the Butterfield Site is very appropriate for the Butterfield Project.
So I am asking you all to approve this zoning change & move the Butterfield Proposal back to the Planning Board as soon as possible. I live directly across the street from the Butterfield Site and have been waiting patiently, far too long, with others, to see this project be underway. We want to see this thing happen in our lifetime, long before we are in our graves! A proper Senior/Community Center is desperately needed for our area, a center similar to the Senior Center in Mahopac & Pleasant Valley. A place where we can offer computer classes and a variety of cultural activities, like art classes, gardening workshops and plan for a community garden, exercise, lectures, ballroom dancing, etc.
Right now we are confined to a very small stuffy, dark basement room at Chestnut Ridge Apartments and a very small space at the American Legion building. This is not at all adequate to accommodate and serve the 500-plus seniors. Many of you here who are not seniors will eventually become one of us!
We have a very capable developer who can provide the facility the seniors so desperately need, which will greatly serve the community. We don’t have the financial support to rebuild at the American Legion, nor can we ask the taxpayers to pay for it. No one needs another tax!
The Philipstown Recreation Center is not adequate for most of us because of the cost of the classes and location.
I also want to say that I hope that you don’t base your decision on this one public hearing meeting here tonight, but the many meetings that have been held the past five-plus years. A large number of seniors are not able to be here, but remain supportive of the project. It is time to make a decision, if not for us, certainly do it for yourselves, for you will someday soon be wearing the title of senior.
Please do base your decision on common sensibility and the proven adequacy of the proposed Butterfield Project, and the needs of the citizens of the community whom you represent!
Shirley Norton
Village of Cold Spring
