Wesley Hills Receives Grants

This holiday weekend I wanted to share with our residents some our of recent Village wins.  We have been doing well this year in obtaining outside funding towards major projects as described below.

- Thanks to State Senator Elijah Reichlin-Melnick, the Village will receive $55,000 towards a renovation project in Village Hall that will reconfigure our lobby and office space to allow for better interaction with the public.  This project will provide the Village Clerk and Building Clerk sightlines to the lobby, add additional counter space allowing more than one person to interact with our staff simultaneously, and provide more working space for our Building Inspector, Code Enforcement Officer and Fire Inspector.

- The Village will receive an award of $22,332 from New York State Archives under their Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund.  This money will supplement the Village's already underway project to electronically scan all of our building, planning and zoning files.  By turning our paper records into electronic files that are stored and backed up in the cloud, the Village reduces the possiblity of the loss of these files to a disaster (i.e. a fire at Village Hall).  In addition these files will eventually become more easily accessible to the public through our website, without the necessity to file a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request, make a visit to Village Hall to physically view the records, and pay fees for having copies made.

- The Village has been awarded a Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) grant from the Federal Highway Administration of $1,797,112 to construct ADA-compliant sidewalks on Willow Tree Road from Route 306 to the roundabout at the intersection of Wilder and Forshay.  While detailed plans have yet to be developed, the application the Village submitted called for the sidewalks to be installed on the north side of the road connecting to the existing sidewalks on Route 306, Forshay Road and East Willow Tree Road.  TAP grants are intended to promote environmentally friendly modes of travel and make it easier and safer to walk, bike or hike.  This sidewalk will allow people to safely walk on Willow Tree Road which along much of its length has areas with no shoulders and has a dangerous (for pedestrians) curve.  It will provide an alternative to driving for many residents visiting the Village's shopping area.  

The Village would like to recognize the efforts the following people who helped us to win these grants:

• Grant Writer - Sylvia Welch
• Village Engineers - Eve Mancuso and Matt Trainer
• State & local politicians who provided letters in support
  • State Senator Elijah Reichlin-Melnick
  • State Assemblymen Kenneth Zebrowski and Karl Brabenec
  • County Executive Ed Day
• and, last but not least Village Clerk, Camille Guido-Downey 

Best regards,

Marshall Katz