Village Trustees Agree on Revisions to "Noise" Code and Review Plans for Fire Station #1

The late night and early morning clamor from deliveries, back-up beepers, steel doors and trash pickup have been irking residents of the Christie Place apartments who shared their pain with Scarsdale Village Trustees and managers. Though current Village Code prevents "the making of deliveries of supplies or merchandise or collection of garbage or refuse of any store or other place of business between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m., except in cases of emergencies," this rule could not be practically enforced.

For one, the Scarsdale Post Office, which is directly across the street from Christie Place receives deliveries at 2:30 am, 4:30 am and 6:30 am – and according to the Postmaster these overnight deliveries are necessary to ensure the timely delivery of mail in Scarsdale.

In addition, Christie Place is home to the Village's only food market that is by necessity a hubbub of activity. The two trash compactors in the DeCicco's parking lot need to be emptied once a week in the off-hours, as the store's parking lot has to be empty to accommodate large carting trucks. DeCiccos receives food deliveries in the early morning hours so that fresh merchandise is available to shoppers.

A concerned group of residents from Christie Place met with Village Managers, the Chamber of Commerce, the police and downtown business owners on several occasions to see what could be done to ameliorate if not prevent the noise. Over the past few months they met, gathered information, discussed and ultimately reached a solution that for now appears satisfactory to all.

Trustee David Lee, who heads the Law Committee of the Village Board of Trustees convened a meeting on October 22 to share information and propose a revision to the code.

Deputy Village Manager relayed his conversation with the Scarsdale Postmaster who said that the overnight deliveries were necessary but agreed to ask employees to refrain from banging open and close the steel delivery doors in back of the post office during night-time hours. The doors will also be greased regularly to decrease the noise when opening and closing.

Frank DeCicco, owner of DeCicco's was also present and agreed to prevent any deliveries before 6:30 am on weekdays and 8 am on weekends. He also said that smaller delivery trucks are now entering the store through the Spencer Place entrance to cut down on noise on Christie Place.

With that, Trustee Lee proposed that the code be changed to alter the hours for delivery and to make a distinction between weekdays and weekends. He recommended that there be no deliveries between 11:30 pm and 6 am on weekdays and 11:00 pm and 8 am on weekends. These new regulations would be enforced by the police.

Residents were pleased with the proposal and applauded the village for listening and working with them to come up with a solution.

Mr. Conroy of Christie Place said, "On behalf of the people of Christie Place I applaud the efforts of Village Hall and Mr. DeCicco to solve the problems." Another Christie Place resident said, "Some of the noise has already abated. I am delighted that you listened to us and allowed everyone to express their views. It's a great compromise."

The proposal was passed unanimously by the Board of Trustees. A Public Hearing on the code revision will be scheduled for the November 26 meeting of the Board of Trustees.

Following the agreement on new noise code, the Board turned to a discussion of renovations to Fire Station #1, the firehouse at Village Hall. The 1923 structure is badly in need of repair and updating to shore up the foundation and accommodate large fire apparatus.

The Board heard a presentation from Louis Grigg of Grigg and Davis Engineers on proposed changes to the 8,000 square foot building to resolve structural and safety issues.

Plans call for a new apron or driveway into the garage that will be rebuilt and graded downward to accommodate larger fire trucks. There will be larger garage doors and bays and the ceiling of the garage will be raised to give the trucks more clearance.

New facilities are needed to accommodate female firefighters. A second story addition will be added at the rear of the building to include a dormitory for female firefighters, an elevator and a stairway for public entry. The new addition will include a kitchen and an exercise room to help the firefighters stay in shape. The male firefighters dormitory will be renovated and the building will be brought up to code in terms of handicapped accessibility.

According to the Ms. Grigg the new facility will improve the village's emergency response capabilities while preserving Village period architecture on the exterior of the building.

The cost for labor and materails is estimated at $2.6mm with an additional $396,000 for professional fees, bringing the total for the renovation to $3,375,000.  The project timeline calls for bids to be received by June, 2014 and construction to start in August 2014 for completion by August 2015.

Watering Restrictions Lifted: At the October 22 meeting of the Scarsdale Board of Trustees, Mayor Bob Steves announced that based on the reduction in water demand due to the change of season, the lawn watering restrictions adopted by resolution of the Village Board on July 23, 2013 have been lifted as of October 23, 2013,