For the past few years, the Village of Pelham has bagged the meters in the downtown area over the Christmas holidays, allowing shoppers to park on Fifth Avenue without worrying how many quarters they have in their pocket. At its December 9 meeting, the Village Board of Trustees decided to scrap the program.

After speaking with business owners and village residents, Mayor Chance Mullen said that he did not find support of bagging the meters on Fifth Avenue. Deputy Mayor Mike Carpenter echoed Mullen’s statement about not finding local support for continuing to bag the meters. They said that bagging of the meters leads many drivers to occupy parking spots all day, hindering the ability of local businesses to bring in more customers during the holiday season. Carpenter and several other trustees on the board brought up their inability to find a parking spot during the holiday season when meters are bagged, having to park blocks away from their intended destinations.

When the proposal to scrap the free holiday parking program came up at the previous board meeting, there was discussion about whether the weeks of additional revenue should be invested in local businesses and downtown redevelopment. Trustee Krystal Howell said that the money should go “to all residents regardless” of the time of year.

Trustee Don Otondi emphasized a need to communicate the parking issue to the public, saying that “if we fail in communicating, it gets a life of its own, and we need to work on that.” Trustee Russell Solomon said that communication needs to happen “not just on Facebook, but also through the Examiner, physical mail, the village website, and email.”

After the first Village Board meeting since the November 4 election, Allison Anderson was sworn in as a new trustee by Judge Adam Kagan. Mayor Mullen took his fourth oath as mayor and fifth on the village board, and trustees Carpenter and Otondi were sworn in for another term.

According to Mullen, the goals for this term include improving “the health of our communities” through the flood mitigation plan, “redevelopment of the downtown” and other operational improvements.

During the regular session of the meeting, Solomon reported that state-funded EMS programs are closing across New York State. According to Solomon, while EMS has been recently named an essential service, it is important that citizens reach out to the offices of State Senator Nathalia Fernandez and Assemblywoman Amy Paulin to emphasize the importance of passing a bill on Governor Hochul’s desk right now to expand flexible funding for EMS across the state.

During the public comment period, Director of Communications for State Senator Nathalia Fernandez David Montilla gave some legislative updates to the Village Board. Montilla said that Fernandez was able to pass three pieces of legislation recently, one to end fees for stillbirth pregnancy death certificates, one to change substance use related language to be less stigmatized, for example from “addicts” to “persons with substance use disorders.” The third piece of legislation extended access to life-saving medication from 24 hours worth of medication to 72 hours. According to Montilla, this will help with treatment for people in rural areas. Montilla also said that HEAP (Home Energy Assistance Program) is open again for this season of applications.

After hearing no public comments during the public hearing regarding the repeal of Sustainable Westchester since its closing, the program has been officially repealed from Village Code. This program was added to Village Code in 2015. According to the Sustainable Westchester website, “continuing the program under the current regulatory framework [of the New York government] is not feasible.” The program ended on November 30.