MAYOR'S UPDATE
From the desk of Mayor Rika Levin

In 2022, New York State enacted a statewide exemption for volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers.
This new law allows municipalities to provide a property tax exemption of up to 10% to volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers used exclusively for residential purposes. In order to be eligible for this partial exemption, volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers must live in the Village of Ossining and meet a minimum service requirement.

At this week's Legislative Meeting, the Village will have a Public Hearing for a proposed local law amending Chapter 241 (Taxation) of the Village of Ossining Code.

Please join us either via Zoom (info can be found on the agenda) or in person to share your comments on this amendment. If you cannot attend, you can submit your comments to the Village Board at [email protected].

An update on our environmental commitments: last Wednesday, the Board was updated on the progress and needs of land-use issues presented by the Chairs of the Board of Architectural Review Planning Board, Environmental Advisory Council, Historic Preservation Commission, and Zoning Board of Appeals. We are grateful for their time and work. You can see the presentation here: https://youtu.be/eJICPIOYzGw.  

One of my favorite moments was hearing about all the progress and new projects the Environmental Advisory Council is making. The Village is deeply committed to environmental sustainability and will continue to support valuable efforts such as Car Free Day and Earth Day. We are working diligently to ensure our infrastructure and capital projects maximize their sustainability impact.

On that front, our solar roof on the rear garage at the John-Paul Rodrigues Ossining Operations Center will be completed by the summer, and plans for the solar canopy at the train station are well underway. We will be going out to bid for our new water treatment plant, which in addition to ensuring quality drinking water for decades to come, will incorporate a green roof and a myriad of decarbonization elements, as will all of our capital projects associated with the DRI. We will be updating our Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan with newly acquired grant funding -- and, of course, working on alternative transportation and micro-mobility initiatives through Project Mover. We are also deeply indebted to the work being done by Green Ossining. Learn more about Green Ossining here: https://www.greenossining.org/.

Good news! The Village of Ossining has partnered with GridRewards and Sustainable Westchester to lower our carbon footprint and save energy, all while giving our community the option to earn cash as a reward for saving the plant.

GridRewards transforms your relationship with your power company into a two-way street. You take simple actions to reduce usage, with the average household earning over $100/year in cash.

Click here to learn more and sign up: https://sustainablewestchester.org/gridrewards/

Some items of note for this week’s Legislative Meeting, which will take place on Wednesday, March 1, 2023, at 16 Croton at 7:30PM.

We will begin with a public hearing on TWO proposed local laws, one pertaining to the proposed changes to the escrow policy in Village Code Chapter 91 (Building Construction) and one related to an amendment to Village Code Chapter 241 (Taxation) re: tax exemptions for volunteer firefighters and volunteer ambulance workers. We will also have a resolution for the Board to adopt Local Law #2 of 2023, which considers amendments to Chapter 250 (Vehicles and Traffic) of the Village code.