This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Town of Ossining Supervisor's Update

507 North State Road – Exciting NEWS!!!


The Town of Ossining is proud to announce that our “Police Building” – 507 North State Road, has been sold.

We have been working on this process for the past 5-6 months with a principal from an IT company who will be moving 30-35 employees to OUR community. They have requested to be a PILOT plan (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) and they fit the bill 100%.

In anticipation of this process, we had the building appraised - please find a copy of the appraisal here: 
http://www.townofossining.com/j25/publications/town-board-archive/doc_download/558-self-contained-appraisal-report

The Town has met with the schools, whose share comprises the majority of taxes on the property, and we have agreed on a 7 year PILOT to bring this important asset to the Town of Ossining.

Please review the YouTube link below so that you can better understand the reasons and the process for embarking on a PILOT: http://youtu.be/OEnmQPkLNDI

Important information about the sale:
Purchase price:   $1,475,000
Contract deposit: $147,500 (10%)
Contract execution: Within 14 days of adopted resolution

Closing date: Within 90 days of executed contracts, or 30 days of public referendum approving the sale if such referendum is required by petition.

Due diligence: 30 days from executed contracts, limited to purchaser confirming intended use to be allowable pursuant to applicable zoning codes.

Brokers: Purchaser to indemnify seller from any claims by brokers representing purchaser or utilized by purchaser.

Building condition: As is, Seller makes no representation as to allowed uses.

Contingencies:
Approved SBA (Small Business Administration) financing, commitment to be issued within 45 days.
Permissive Referendum pursuant to section 64(2) of New York State Town Law, provided validly procured and submitted petitions are submitted in accordance with applicable sections of New York State law.
Approval by all required governmental bodies of PILOT with total combined real property taxes being paid as follows with all taxing authorities sharing in the reductions in tax revenue during the PILOT in proportion to their tax burden on the property:
Year 1:  $18,000
Year 2:  $33,000
Year 3:  $38,000
Year 4:  $46,000
Year 5:  $48,000
Year 6:  $54,000
Year 7:  $60,000
Additional terms:
Purchaser to provide Ossining School District with block of 20 hours technical service time use toward design consultation, infrastructure, integration or network support. Additionally, purchaser will provide internship opportunities for Ossining District students providing on-site learning experiences.
Purchaser will also allocated agreed portion of the attic space of the premises as secured off-site storage for town of Ossining documents and allow access to town employees during regular business hours to retrieve stored documents, as needed with fee for use of space to be determined through further negotiations and subject to subsequent resolution by town board.

Additional technical information systems services to be provided to town, scope and cost to be determined and subject to further resolution of Town Board.

That the Town Attorney is instructed to prepare a contract incorporating the terms described herein, that the Town Supervisor is authorized to execute the contract on behalf of the Town and upon fulfillment of the contract obligations by the contract vendee, The Town Supervisor is authorized to execute all required conveyance documents, as reviewed and approved by the Town attorney.
That the conveyance of the property pursuant to this Resolution and the contract entered into pursuant to and in accordance with this Resolution shall be subject to a Permissive Referendum in accordance with New York State Town Law section 64 (2).

Town Hall Meeting July 16, 2013

On July 16th, 2013, we will have a Town Hall Meeting at the Ossining Public Library at 7:30PM. Part of the discussion that evening will be the state of the Town of Ossining – both the entire Town and the Unincorporated Area of the Town. We will review items such as the School Resource Officer and the plan for the future of this position, the sale of 507 North State Road, our numerous infrastructure issues and how we are dealing with them, concepts and ideas for improving Louis Engel Park, and our action plans for future storms. As always, this is a meeting for our residents, and as such, you may discuss with the board any and all issues about which you’d like to hear from the Board. We look forward to seeing you there.

Update on Louis Engel Park/ Harbor Square

As many of you are aware, we have asked the Village of Ossining to rescind their Negative Declaration as part of the SEQRA process at the Harbor Square property until we have an opportunity to discuss the environmental concerns brought up by the Town and see if any remediation efforts are necessary and/or possible. The main concern of the Town stems from the height of the property and subsequent water displacement- the current plan proposes raising the height of the property to be 12 feet above “sea level” and then building a 79 foot building on top of it.

In January of 2013, we began a dialog on this topic with the Village of Ossining as we were all recovering from Superstorm Sandy. The Ossining Boat and Canoe Club building, a structure on designated parkland adjacent to the Harbor Square property, had sustained water damage in the storm; the building was visited by FEMA as well as our insurance companies, and our engineers confirmed that it was safe for people to use. This is a Town owned building on designated parkland, so the ultimate responsibility for its structural integrity and safety from flood damage lies with the Town.
Especially in the wake of this storm and the new plans for the Harbor Square property, the Town Board became concerned that the building up of the Harbor Square lot would displace additional water during a storm surge from the Hudson River. We are fairly confident that these storms will become the “new normal”, and we feel we ought to be preparing as such; taking into consideration our responsibility to secure our property and the safety of our residents, and we began to do our due diligence in researching what, if any, effects this plan and climate change may have on our waterfront.

We will continue to work with the Village of Ossining and the developer of the Harbor Square site in hopes that we can all better understand the potential outcomes, and we look forward to a meeting with the DEC and the Village to review all documents and reports. The Town of Ossining is absolutely pro-development, as we realize the need to expand our tax base, but the Town Board feels that having all of the pertinent information to preserve our environmental resources must continue to be a priority in all of our policies, discussions and decisions.

Concert Series Summer 2013

We are also looking forward to the summer concert series on Friday nights, beginning on July 5th, featuring Ossining’s own KJ Denhart, just two days after the fabulous annual Ossining fireworks celebration. We realize the stage at Louis Engel Park is in bad shape from the storm surges of Sandy and Irene, so we are in the process of having designs drawn up to build a new one. It will have to be a little higher in order to allow the passage of flood water pass underneath, and it will also have a roof to permit performances in (almost) any weather! This will be a community build project so watch for more news on it in the VERY near future.

Be safe this summer and enjoy the beautiful weather - I hope to see you soon at many events right here in Ossining over the coming months.

Sue

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Ossining-Croton-On-Hudson