Assemblyman Otis, Chiefs Broderick, Pomponio, Appear at Mamaroneck Town Council Meeting

By Stephen E. Lipken

NYS Assemblyman Steve Otis appeared at the Mamaroneck Town Council meeting on Wednesday, January 18th, along with Town of Mamaroneck Volunteer Fire Department  Chief Thomas Broderick and John Pomponio, Chief, Larchmont/Mamaroneck Volunteer Ambulance Corps (VAC), concerning the I-95 Turnaround.

“We just want to express our thanks to Steve and NYS Senator Shelley Mayer, to kind of give you an idea of what happened, the existing turnaround had a short breakdown lane and you only had 1,000 feet to cross all three lanes, and that is what we had to do with 20,000-pound fire trucks,” Broderick said.  “They moved it by at least double, giving us a much safer approach, a gradual shift going over the different lanes.”

“When they removed the Toll Plaza there was much less space to merge safely.  Instead of cars going 20-30 mph coming out of the Plaza, they were going 60-70 mph,” Pomponio noted.

“If you overshot the exit, you had to go to the New Rochelle exit; that could be a matter of life and death,” Otis observed. “The advocacy of the Chiefs gave us the ammunition to go to the Thruway Authority.”

The Work Session began with an Information Technology (IT) iPad Training Session by IT Director Shyam Pandya, covering highlighting, pasting and copying on the Council members’ laptops.  

Next, Supervisor Jaine Elkind Eney presented a press release by Governor Kathy Hochul, announcing a statewide strategy to address New York’s housing crisis and build 800,000 new homes.  The New York Housing Compact will require all cities, towns and villages to achieve new home creation targets on a three-year cycle and make available a $250 million Infrastructure Fund and $20 million Planning Fund to support new housing production statewide.

In a new focus on Transit-Oriented Development, the Compact will require that localities with MTA rail stations undertake a local rezoning or higher density multifamily development within a half mile of the station unless they have already met the density level.

Empty factory buildings were also suggested, but Eney stressed that the Town has none.