Town Supervisor Theresa Mohan

Pelham’s newly configured Town Council, led by supervisor Theresa Mohan, wasted no time getting down to business at its first official meeting of the year Monday, approving the hiring and re-hiring of dozens of staffers and officials and pressing ahead on two projects related to Town Hall: the construction of an elevator and the proposed acquisition of a vacant lot next to the Post Office where a new headquarters for the town’s Emergency Medical Services unit could be based. The town’s new EMS unit is currently housed in makeshift space at Town Hall.

Councilwoman Maura Curtin, who was elevated to Deputy Town Supervisor by Mohan, raised the issue of a new EMS headquarters during a presentation by Mark Baumblatt, managing director of Pelham’s EMS services.

“Mark and I have been talking about the county property near the post office…to build an emergency operations center,” said Curtin. “He recognizes that the solution that we have in place now is is good, but it’s temporary and it doesn’t do everything we need as far as housing our vehicles every season.”

“It works,” said Baumblatt of the Town Hall space, which became available when the Village of Pelham Police moved to the new Municipal Center, “but we’re making it work.”

Curtin then explained how the town could get this done. “New York State just announced millions of dollars in grants that we can apply for to help us pay for this center,” she said. “So it would be an emergency operation center.  It would house our ambulance and our fly car and also have room for our medics. And then also have an operation center where, in the case of a true disaster-slash-emergency…the whole town could use it, both villages and the town… We’re working on the grant for that and and then the property acquisition with the county, which we’re going to have to work with the Legislature on.”

In the proposal put forward to the council, Curtin recommended that Mohan be authorized to buy the property beside the post office for as much as $50,000, adding, “but we hope to get it for a dollar.”  That panel approved the resolution.

Councilwoman Kristen Burke then provided an update on a study of pedestrian safety on the stretch of road from the high school and library to Glover Field. The good news, she said, was that the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council finished its study on ways to improve safety in the area. “It’s fantastic,” she said. “It lays out sort of everything we talked about in the community planning, the danger, the jurisdictional issues, it incorporates the community feedback, it has expert analysis.”

She said the report sets out the three options for making the strip of road safer for pedestrians, from the simplest to the more complicated option of reconfiguring the road with roundabouts.

“I think we’re going to all be sort of aiming for the first level at this point, which is, you know, just sort of updating the pedestrian infrastructure, moving students to the other side of the street,” she said.

While the release of the study is good news, Burke warned that any improvements were a long way off . “The next step unfortunately is another formal study is going to need to be done. So we’re still …  in the infant stages of this, but this report is going to help move everything forward.  The jurisdictional issues will be a little complicated.  We have both villages involved and Mount Vernon, and potentially the state with the the Hutch off-ramp–any changes that’ll affect that intersection.”

The council also received an update on plans for a new elevator at Town Hall from Danielle DeVito, a Pelham Manor resident who serves on the Architectural Review Board of the Village of Pelham.

“We looked at multiple locations within the footprint of the building, which we preferred from an aesthetic perspective,” she said.  But due to the tight structure of the building, she said, it would make more sense to add an elevator to the exterior of Town Hall, where there would be fewer impediments.  The elevator would still be accessed from inside the building, she pointed out.

When the time came for the board to consider adopting the Town of Pelham’s code of ethics, Mohan suggested establishing a separate panel, which would include a member of the council, along with several members of the community, to oversee issues that arise under the code. The members of the council approved. A public hearing has been scheduled for February 9.

During the meeting, Mohan paused from the business at hand to mention the passing of the mother of Pelham Manor Mayor Jennifer Monachino Lapey on January 9.  “Annette Cowan Monachino was a long-time Pelham resident who served the community in many roles, including as a library teacher at Siwanoy and Colonial schools,” said Mohan. “The board and I extend our sincere sympathies to the Lapeys and their family.”