Mayor Cindrich and Village Board halt action on proposed booze ban

By MARTIN WILBUR

Mount Kisco officials put on hold a proposed revision to the village code to better regulate the possession and consumption of alcohol in parks and public spaces this week amid continued disagreement over whether to categorize Kirby Plaza as parkland.

As soon as the public hearing to amend Chapter 43 of the code reconvened Monday evening, Mayor J. Michael Cindrich announced he would be moving to close the hearing with no action to be taken in the near future.

The mayor and Trustee Tom Luzio have spent recent meetings intensely debating whether the proposed revision to prohibit closed containers of alcohol should include Kirby Plaza, along with Leonard Park and Flewellyn Park, Fox Park and the village’s conservation areas. Cindrich has argued that the plaza is a park while Luzio has cited how because most commuters must pass through Kirby Plaza, anyone carrying an unopened bottle of wine, for example, would be violating the law.

“We’re going to start a review from anew,” Cindrich said. “I’m going to ask for something that we should have done, and I think I may have recommended it previously. I’m going to ask for an opinion from the attorney general’s office about the issues you raised, and I’m also going to, when it’s my turn to speak on the board reports, I’ll share some information with you.”

Luzio said he had no problem closing the hearing but thought that the village’s new attorneys from Dorf Nelson & Zauderer LLP would be consulted once they are in place and can review the matter. While the board voted to hire the law firm on Oct. 6, the parties have yet to resolve the retainer agreement, which sparked more contentiousness later in the meeting.

Luzio then voted against closing the hearing because Cindrich wouldn’t allow resident John Rhodes to speak on the issue. He said he had no objection to going through the process of designating Kirby Plaza as a park, but the language in the proposed law prohibiting sealed alcoholic containers must be excluded if it’s a public place but not a park.

“It’s my strong belief you can’t designate it as a park in one section of the law without actually creating that as a park under New York state law,” Luzio said. “Therefore, when we analyze the alcohol and beverage law as proposed, outside of Leonard Park and Flewellyn Park, it must be analyzed as a law in a public place.”

During his board report, Cindrich recited a history of Kirby Plaza, arguing that it was dedicated by the village nearly 70 years ago as a park and has been considered as such through the decades. He said parkland can be created explicitly or through an implied dedication.

Cindrich also pointed to a comment made during the 1958 dedication ceremony calling Kirby Plaza “a green and growing place, alive with beauty and meaning.”

In 2000, the village also applied for an $873,000 park grant from New York state to beautify the space, and a short time later the Mount Kisco Beautification Committee also restored the space, he said.

“They spent nearly $40,000 with Rosedale Nurseries to beautify these grounds,” Cindrich contended. “So, I just have to ask the question, If it’s not a park, what is it?”

“I said before, I’ll say it again, let’s make it a park, then there won’t be a question,” Luzio shot back.