Also, village tree group receives $49,000 grant
By Michael Turton
“It’s time lock your doors!” Larry Burke, Cold Spring’s officer-in-charge, warned as he concluded his monthly report at the Nov. 13 meeting of the Village Board.
Burke had just described an incident that occurred on Nov. 2 in which five hooded individuals rifled through several unlocked vehicles, first near Chestnut Ridge and then in the area of Paulding, Parsonage, Parrott and Bank streets.
Although the thieves took only a few personal items and coins, Burke said, “a break-in is a break-in.” The perpetrators were caught on security cameras, he said, noting that similar break-ins occurred recently in Lake Peekskill and Continental Village.
The department responded to 68 calls for service in October, he told the board, and made one arrest for possession of marijuana. Officers also issued 97 parking tickets and 24 tickets for traffic violations.
In other business …
The Tree Advisory Board received a grant of $49,162 from the Urban Forestry program of the state Department of Environmental Conservation for tree maintenance.
Trustees approved a request by Hussein “Jimmy” Abdelhady, owner of 124 Main St., which includes the Silver Spoon Restaurant and Cold Spring Bed and Breakfast, to purchase a raised concrete slab owned by the village between his building and the sidewalk, which he uses as a patio. Abdelhady has applied to convert the restaurant into seven additional bed-and-breakfast rooms.
The board is expected to soon ratify a new, three-year agreement with the Cold Spring Police Benevolent Association that includes a 2 percent increase in wages in each of an officer’s first two years and a 3 percent increase in the third year. Action on the matter was delayed to give trustees time to review the proposal.
Mayor Dave Merandy and Greg Phillips, the superintendent of water and wastewater, met with property owners adjacent to the village reservoirs near Lake Surprise Road. The village needs easements from a number of private properties to bring in heavy equipment to repair the dams.
Ruthanne Cullinan Barr, chair of the Recreation Commission, reported that the commission would like to reduce its membership from seven to five members. She also said that holiday decorations have been purchased for the bandstand, which will be the site of the annual Turkey Trot on Nov. 22. Santa Claus will visit at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 8.
The Cold Spring Building Department had a busy month in October, collecting more than $6,000 in fees and issuing 11 permits.
Merandy praised Deb McLeod and Grace Kennedy, neither of whom lives in the village, for their efforts to rehabilitate two tree pits near the gas station at 182 Main.
