Town is preparing to move offices, court

The town has been renting space in the former Lewisboro Elementary School.

By NEAL RENTZ

The Lewisboro Town Board took a series of actions Monday to deal with the impending transfer of some town offices, police headquarters and town court from the former Lewisboro Elementary School campus.

The town has been renting space in the former school for several years, but the Katonah-Lewisboro School District informed the town that it no longer wants to continue the rental agreement. 

The Town Board voted unanimously Aug. 11 to spend a fixed fee of $14,500 on a contract with KG+D Architects to provide design studies for up to four potential sites for a new courthouse and police headquarters.  

So far, one location for the courthouse and police headquarters is being explored.

Supervisor Tony Gonçalves later told The Recorder the first plan the town is exploring was originally contemplated by town officials several years ago.

“It was part of the central campus design from 20 years ago but this time, and to minimize cost, we would be looking at building an annex to the existing  town house for court and possibly a community center,” he said. 

The annex would be two levels and the existing town house offices could move to the Cross River building recently purchased by the town, he said.

KG+D is not going to do full engineering architectural plans, Gonçalves told his Town Board colleagues at the meeting.

A potential move of the police headquarters to the town house located at 11 Main St., South Salem, could support the state-required parking for the police vehicles and the court, Gonçalves said.

During the meeting, Gonçalves said Police Chief David Alfano recently attended a presentation in Pound Ridge, which is working with the architect on a project similar to what Lewisboro is pursuing. KG+D was recommended by Alfano and Building Inspector Kevin Kelly, who also attended the Pound Ridge presentation by the company, Gonçalves said.

Councilwoman Andrea Rendo said that before hiring a firm to do a conceptual design, the Town Board should first know where it wants the police headquarters and courthouse to be located. Rendo did vote to hire the architectural firm.

In a related matter, the Town Board voted 4-0 to authorize the supervisor to execute the closing and conveyance documents to complete the purchase of the building located at 892 Route 35, which will house town government offices.

The town purchased the building for $2.2 million. 

Rendo has recused herself from voting on matters related to the town’s purchase of the office building because she was a former tenant of the person who sold the building to the town. 

The board did not agree to the proposal from Councilman Richard Sklarin to set up an escrow account because the town will have tenants paying the town rent until the Sept. 30 deadline for the tenants to leave. The escrow would “make sure we’re financially protected” if one or more of the current tenants refused to leave the building, forcing the town to take legal action, he said. 

Ridgefield Avenue study

Also at the meeting, the board voted 4-1 to hire AKRF engineering  to do a traffic calming study for Ridgefield Avenue at a cost of no more than $11,000. 

People living on Ridgefield Avenue have said there is excessive speeding and trucks on the street, resulting in dangerous conditions.

“Basically, they’re going to do an existing conditions assessment,” Gonçalves said. 

The company’s work will include a walking tour of the area, creation of conceptional designs and cost estimates for traffic calming, which could include speed tables and speed humps, he said.

Following the completion of the study, the town could use similar approaches to calm traffic in other parts of town, Gonçalves said. More than 20 households signed a petition asking the Town Board to take action to make the road safer, he said.

Sklarin was the lone board member to vote against the contract. 

“I don’t believe it’s a good use of money,” he said. 

Sklarin proposed spending up to $2,500 to install speed humps in a six-month trial. The plan would be contingent on the approvals of the police chief and highway superintendent, Sklarin added. Doing so would be less expensive than conducting a study and the work could be done immediately, he said.

Gonçalves said he had spoken over the years with the town’s highway superintendents and police chiefs about speeding on Ridgefield Avenue. If the speed humps are not successful, they would need to be ripped out, which would tear up the road, he said.

“So, we don’t want to make mistakes,” he said.

The board did not agree to Sklarin’s proposal for speed humps. 

During a public comment period of this week’s meeting, several people living on Ridgefield Avenue called on the board to make the road safer. 

Gail Hiller-Lee said that three years ago, residents offered to pay for speed humps that could be removed in a snowstorm and sent emails to board members on the subject. 

“No one answered from the entire board,” she said. 

The board also did not respond to emails from residents offering to pay for a part-time police officer who would patrol the street, she said.

There should be four speed humps placed in various locations on the road, as well as related signs, Hiller-Lee said. 

Hiller-Lee said she was concerned that nothing would be done to make the road safer. 

Richard Holub of Bay Lane said Ridgefield Avenue is mainly made up of hills and curves.

“They’re all blind,” he said. “I’m routinely passed on that road.” 

Ridgefield Avenue should not be a through street and there should be cameras on each end and on other portions of the road, Holub said. 

Gonçalves said the town had reviewed the proposal from Ridgefield Avenue residents to purchase speed humps. 

“We had some concerns on the liability,” he said. If it is determined that the town would not have liability if residents paid for the speed humps, he would be willing to try it, Gonçalves said, adding temporary humps would require mountings and there would need to be drilling in the road to install the removable humps.