Rules for Matthiessen Park
At last Wednesday’s Board of Trustee work session, Recreation Superintendent Joe Archino and the Recreation and Parks Advisory Committee presented an outline of the rules that are being proposed for Matthiessen Park. We will be discussing those rules and soliciting feedback from the community at our next meeting scheduled for Monday, April 19, 2021 at 7:00 p.m.
By way of background, the Board held a public meeting back in December 2019 to hear feedback from the community on the possibility of removing the residents-only restriction for Matthiessen Park. In the ensuing months, my colleagues and I undertook extensive research to determine what the impact might be on the park if such a restriction were removed. Our research clearly highlighted the key to having a successful park is to have proper rules in place and to consistently enforce those rules. Based on this, in November 2020, the Board asked the Recreation and Parks Advisory Committee (“RPAC”) to advise us as to the proper rules that should be implemented. We also asked for a recommendation on the staffing and equipment that would be necessary to properly implement the rules.
In early March, after months of work by the members of RPAC, the Board was presented with a proposed budget that accounted for the staffing and other equipment needs that were recommended by RPAC. The recommendation included about $63,000 of recurring costs and about $33,000 of one-time equipment purchases. Those amounts have been included in the 2021/22 budget, which was adopted earlier in April.
Now that we have the information we need to make an informed decision, we are looking forward to hearing from the public on whether the residents-only restriction should be removed for Matthiessen Park. Please consider attending Monday night’s meeting (on Zoom - details below) or feel free to write to me ahead of time. My email address is below.
Your voices are crucial, and my colleagues and I look forward to hearing them.
Be well,
Brian C. Smith, Mayor
Village of Irvington, NY
bsmith@irvingtonny.gov
You are invited to a Zoom webinar.
When: Apr 19, 2021 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Topic: Village Board Meeting 4/19/2021
Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89860894040