Multiple motions pass muster in Bedford

By JEFF MORRIS 

The Bedford Town Board passed an assortment of motions on Tuesday, Aug. 11. These are some of the highlights.

Water district contract

The board approved a request from Public Works Commissioner Kevin Winn to award a contract for water supply improvements to The Farms and Old Post Road water districts. The low bidder was American Veteran Construction at $1,499,617, and Winn said the town had negotiated the price down to $1,361,020.

Winn said they had earlier obtained easements from two property owners needed to implement the project, and had installed three wells, tested them, and had them approved through the Westchester County Health Department. The new contract is for installation of the necessary water mains, and an electrical system to power the wells and bring the water into the system from the wells, as well as a small treatment building. 

According to Winn, the contractor will be able to start the work in the next few months; he wanted to get the contract awarded while finalizing approval from the county health department, which still needs to issue a permit to build the facility. Winn said he is looking to have the project completed by the first quarter of next year, at which point they will no longer have to utilize the existing Farms water supply, which has PFAS contamination. 

New THRIVE coordinator

Sally Corbett-Turco, board chair for THRIVE — the Bedford, Lewisboro, Pound Ridge Drug Abuse Prevention and Mental Health Alliance — introduced Jessica Neufeld as the new coalition coordinator, to be employed by the town of Bedford as an independent contractor. The board approved the appointment for a six-month period, after which it can be renewed.

Corbett-Turco said Neufeld is a Bedford resident with over 10 years experience in public health, project management, research and grants. She has worked for Westchester Medical Center as a clinical research and graduate medical program coordinator; was program manager for the Social Intervention Group at Columbia University School of Social Work for their Healing Communities Study; was with New York City Health and Hospitals as a public health advisor; served CUNY School of Public Health as implementation specialist in their Center for Innovation in Mental Health; and was special projects coordinator for behavioral health for the Institute for Family Health, New York. She holds an MPH from Emory University in policy and management and a graduate certificate in gender leadership and public policy from UMass Boston. “So she's obviously well qualified,” said Corbett-Turco.

Maple Avenue cell tower

Two items came before the board having to do with the Maple Avenue cell tower, which had originally come before it in November 2024 and was granted site plan approval by the planning board in March 2025.

The tower, to be built by Homeland Towers on land owned by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection adjacent to the Cross River dam, is intended to fill  a coverage gap along Routes 35 and 22.

Supervisor Ellen Calves said the site is basically on Route 35 near the reservoir. “We’ve been working on this for quite some time,” she noted. “DEP has not done a lot of these types of easement agreements before,” she said; it was a slow process to get them to work on an easement agreement on just a small portion of their parcel, in order to enable Homeland Towers to enter into a lease agreement with the town to then build a facility on that property.

The board approved the lease agreement with Homeland Towers as well as an easement agreement with NYC DEP. Town Attorney Eric Gordon noted the lease agreement with Homeland Towers will be subject to a public referendum, while the easement will not.

Hiring real estate attorney

In an effort to facilitate negotiations regarding the Bedford Hills train station, the board approved engaging real estate attorney Robert Miller.

Calves said Miller has worked with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority before, and will be giving advice on how to move forward with any negotiations with respect to the train station, “getting a tenant in the train station, modifying our lease or potentially even trying to gain ownership of that property.” She said the town is not at the point of doing that yet, but “we are trying to engage the MTA in some of those conversations so that we can make some improvements to the building and get a tenant in there. And there’s several paths forward.”

Battery storage moratorium

The board set a public hearing for Tuesday, Sept. 8, at 6:05 p.m., on the local outstanding moratorium on battery energy storage systems over 81 kilowatt hours. The town keeps extending this moratorium, said Calves, as “our working group is still working on a draft model ordinance or draft ordinance.” She said they had a good meeting with a consultant who used to be an FDNY and hazardous materials expert in New York City. 

Calves said the working group will be meeting again with other stakeholders in September, and the Business Council of Westchester has asked to meet with the group about their interest in battery energy storage. She said this hopefully will be the last extension of the moratorium, so that the working group can present something to the town board —“a draft law to be considered for adoption that would regulate or zone these fairly restrictively, but in a way that avoids being sued by a battery energy storage company, which just happened in Yorktown.” She compared the situation to that governing cell towers, which gives the utility certain rights the town must work with in attempting to impose reasonable restrictions.

Bedford Hills mural

The board was asked to approve a license agreement with the property owner at 1 Adams Street, Bedford Hills, to enable the installation of an art mural on their property, and did so.

Calves said the mural will be funded through some remaining American Rescue Plan Act funds and Downtown Improvement Grant funding, as an effort to beautify and enliven downtown Bedford Hills to attract businesses and visitors. She said a lot of communities have done this, and it’s a concept they’re going to try on the wall that faces the train station.

The board also appointed a Bedford Hills Mural Selection Committee: Anthony Becker, Ellen Cohen, Rosemary Lee, Dave Liburdi, Terrie Paladino, Lisa Spano, Fran Tucker, and Jennifer Wege. Calves said the committee will develop a rubric for how to think about the mural.

She also said they had publicized a request for information for artists to submit a letter of interest, their experience, what their costs would be and where they’re from, and had received 47 submissions, from all over the world.

They would pay an artist a stipend of about $5,000 to do the work, said Calves, and they have roughly $2,500 to put towards supplies.

“We're not going to hire someone from Portugal, and fly them over to do the mural,” she said, “so we can probably put their application aside pretty quickly.” She said the committee’s goal will be to narrow the field down to three, which “is not an easy task with 47 applicants.”

They will then have detailed interviews with the three finalists about their proposals, see sketches, and finally select one. And the property owner will have a say in what goes on their wall.