mountkisconews.com

There is a primary on Tuesday, September 14 for many federal and state elected positions.  Lawn signs are a good way for candidates to let voters know that there is an election and that they are candidates.  Why, however, do political candidates think that it is acceptable to place signs on public property without permission.  This is taxpayers’ property and I would like the candidates to stay off my lawn (for clarification purposes, for public property, I am excluding signs placed in the right of way with the abutting property owners consent).

For example: (1) Democratic NYS Assembly candidate Mark Jaffe thinks it is acceptable to place a sign on the right of way in front of the Mount Kisco Justice Court; (2) Republican U.S. Congressional candidate Nan Hayworth thinks it is proper to place a sign in the right of way in front of Mount Kisco’s Leonard Park; (3) Republican U.S. Congressional candidate seems to be going after the dead person vote by placing a sign in front of Mount Kisco’s Oakwood Cemetery.  Where does Mr. DiCarlo think he is, Chicago?

As Labor Day has passed and school has restarted, the Mount Kisco Memorial Pool will be closed to the public until next summer (other than the upcoming dog swim on September 19).  Thank you for the Mount Kisco Memorial Pool lifeguards and their supervisors for keeping everyone safe, including Superintendent of Recreation Charlie Pieragostini and Pool Director Carolyn Johnson (pictured on the left in the first picture below).  The Mount Kisco Memorial Pool is one of the jewels of Mount Kisco.

With the Mount Kisco Fire Depatment planning and fundraising for a 9/11 Memorial for Mount Kisco, it is informative to look at memorials built by neighboring towns.

The Town of North Castle has constructed a memorial at Gedney Park on Route 133. The memorial is not in a downtown area but in Gedney Park, with no signs to indicate its location. Gedney Park was the second choice for the memorial’s location. The first choice was the Duck Pond, near Route 120 and entrances to the Saw Mill River Parkway.

The memorial does not have one focal point but resembles more of a remembrance garden built along a brick path. There is a plaque on a rock to remember the three Town of New Castle residents that lost their life in the attack on the World Trade Center. Next along the trail, there is also a manmade waterfall into a small pond. Finally, there is a water fountain built alongside pieces of steel from the World Trade Center.

A memorial in Mount Kisco built downtown would be different than the approach taken by the Town of New Castle, where the memorial was delayed and contested by lawsuits and petitions. This information is provided just to show another community’s reponse.

While school will start on Tuesday, Fox Lane’s athletic teams have been practicing for nearly two weeks preparing for their seasons. Football, Cross Country, Girls and Boys Soccer and Girls Field Hockey, Swimming, Tennis and Volleyball are all fall sports preparing for the season.

Game schedules can be located using this website.  The following are the sports schedules for the next two weeks:

Go Foxes.

If you are in Mount Kisco for Labor Day, consider the following activities to stay busy:

The Mount Kisco Memorial Pool will be open through Labor Day. The hours of operation will be from noon to 7:00 p.m.  Hopefully Hurricane Earl won’t ruin the last pool days.

Complete your back-to-school shopping in local stores.  Bedford Central Schools open on Tuesday, September 7.  Mount Kisco Elementary School and Fox Lane Middle School will have full days. Kindergarten, however, will have early dismissal.  Fox Lane High School 9th Graders will report to school at 7:45 and end the day with a BBQ from 10:50 to 11:25.  Fox Lane upper class students (10th through 12th) will have school from 11:30 to 2:22.

On Monday, September 6, St. Francis AME Zion Church will have their annual fundraising barbecue.  You can either pick up a meal from inside the church hall or stop by and eat in. 

Also, on Monday, September 6, the John Jay Homestead State Historic Site and the Max Pavey Chess Club will hold their annual John Jay Homestead Chess Tournament.  Registration is free of charge, and will take place between 9:00 and 9:30 a.m. in the Main Barn.

Brookside Village is a community of 116 condominiums in Mount Kisco with an entrance and exit off of North Bedford Road (Route 117).  With the development of 333 North Bedford Road and to help the residents of Brookside Village, a traffic light was installed to help the residents enter and exit their street, known as Park Drive.

As reported earlier, the light has residents waiting as long as 90 seconds for a green light, even during periods of light traffic on Sunday evenings.  After a request by Deputy Mayor Peter DiChiara, James Palmer, the Mount Kisco Village Manager contacted the New York State Department of Transportation to have the timing of the light changed.  The North Bedford Road corridor is used by businesses and residents.  The Village of Mount Kisco should look after the residents’ concerns as well as those of the businesses.

While the traffic light needs to be adjusted, one resident on mountkisconews.com posted that, “the most dangerous aspect of the light is the numerous cars going through the northbound red on 117.”  While the police department is short staffed, there are still enough officers to work on a special detail to enforce this and other traffic laws.

As anyone driving on North Bedford Road (Route 117) can see, there is a Sherwin-Williams paint store and a Floor Liquidators outlet moving in to Mount Kisco. Mount Kisco welcomes new merchants that will contribute to the community, if they are going to be a positive influence on the community (and there is a debate on whether these national chains are).

Driving by Sherwin-Williams recently, it is hard to not notice the unending expanse of blacktop in their parking lot. This brings up two questions: where is the runoff going to flow and where is the green space. One nice feature of North Bedford Road is the green barrier from St. Mark’s Episcopal Church to the end of the Mount Kisco border at CVS (even in front of Dunkin Donuts). Looking at the plans and reviewing the Mount Kisco Planning Board minutes, there was a discussion regarding plantings. Along North Bedford Road, however, they are to be planted in a small strip planted in the right-of-way and not on the Sherwin-Williams’s property.

Mount Kisco residents will have to see how this turns out. With this new addition and the Planning Board’s recently-approved office building on Barker near Valley View Terrace, traffic will be busier along the North Bedford Road corridor.

Today, from 10:00 to 4:00, the St. Francis AME Zion Church will host a Street and Health Fair.  This annual event will include blood pressure and glucose testing and have vendors selling various items.  There will also be hot dog and hamburger sales from inside the church.  The church is at the corner of Kisco Avenue and Hillside Avenue.  As a result of the fair, Hillside Avenue will be closed from 10:00 to 4:00.

Next week, on Labor Day, September 6, the St. Francis AME Zion Church will have its annual Labor Day BBQ fundraiser.  You can either pick up a meal from inside the church or stop by and eat in.  The food is delicious and supports good neigbors.

A recent entry in a Mount Kisco Police Department blotter noted that a 19-year-old Mount Kisco resident was arrested on South Moger Avenue and charged with criminal possession of a weapon (a gravity knife), criminal possession of marijuana and unlawful possesssion of marijuana.

What was not apparent from the blotter entry was that this arrest was the result of a special summer patrol that was approved by the Village Board and instituted by Police Chief Steven Anderson.  While some board members of the Village Board advocated for a greater number of patrols, the Village Board did approve a limited budget for a patol with the acronym STARZ.

On July 30, an officer assigned to STARZ was on a foot patrol walking through an alleyway from South Moger Avenue towards the Shoppers Park parking lot.  While on foot patrol, the officer smelled marijuana and saw several males in a group behind Cosi.  One of the males began to walk and then run away from the officer.  The officer was able to run to his police car and make the arrest.

Without being on foot an a special patrol, this arrest might not have been made by the Mount Kisco Police Department.  More important than any single arrest, the presence of police officers walking downtown during the evenings in the summer serves as a deterrent.  By giving the police department the support to be effective and deter mischievous activity, Mount Kisco residents can enjoy a better quality of life.

A location that has been an automobile repair shop, the home of Calico Corners and Pet Connection is getting a facelift and will be a much better gateway after its renovation.  There will be two stores at the new location and the two tenants are rumored to be Dunkin Donuts and A S Fine Foods & Deli of Millwood.

Dunkin Donuts needs no explanation.  This will be the second outlet of this chain store in Mount Kisco.  Other than doughnuts and coffee, I am unaware of any contribution this chain makes to the Village of Mount Kisco.

The second store rumored to move in, A S Fine Foods & Deli of Millwood, is an Italian products store that sells sliced meats and prepared foods.  As the name describes, the original A S Fine Foods store is in Millwood.

Hopefully, the construction project will move quickly and we will have two additional businesses contributing to the community.