No. Castle Eyes State Trailway Grant to Connect Downtown With Town Pool
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North Castle officials will be pursuing a state grant that they hope will provide significant money to build a trail linking a park near downtown Armonk with the town pool on Greenway Road.
An application will be submitted before the end of the month to put the town in contention for a Hudson River Valley Greenway Trail Grant for a project that is called the Wampus Brook Park Greenway Trail Project.
Director of Planning Adam Kaufman said he was recently alerted to the potential availability of the 50-50 matching grant. In 2007, a similar trail had been proposed for the town but was never pursued because of cost, he said. Now the town is dusting off that proposal and seeking a cost estimate from the town’s consulting engineers at Kellard Sessions.
“So we want to get updated price information from Kellard and then we’ll evaluate whether or not we want to go ahead with the project,” said Kaufman, who was reluctant to guess what the price tag might be.
“So it’s half off. Whether that’s economical in the end we don’t know yet, but we have to get the letter, the resolution adopted by the board, and that won’t obligate us to accepting the grant, but it will get us moving.”
The trail would follow municipal land extending from near the small bridge at Wampus Brook Park to near the pool and possibly on to the Sands Mill Estate, a housing development, Kaufman said. He estimated the trail could be a mile to a mile and a quarter.
Last week, Town Board members were generally enthusiastic about how the project could benefit Armonk residents who now must walk along the highly-traveled Route 128 or use a car to get to downtown from that area of town. The engineers’ cost estimate is expected to come back within about a week.
“I think this is a really cool idea,” said Councilman Matt Milim. “Obviously, we have to see the costs, but really, like finding a way to get half of this potentially paid for with a grant and applying for it is a home run, and I think that this could be such a great project for the town.”
While Councilwoman Barbara DiGiacinto agreed the project would be a benefit for North Castle, she urged the board to develop a capital projects plan. The town is pursuing major renovations to its municipal pool, installing artificial turf at its town fields and exploring the feasibility of buying the Boies Schiller building for it to serve as a larger and more modern Town Hall, she said.
“This is all a lot of money and I just think it’s important we have some idea of all this because ultimately it impacts all our taxes,” DiGiacinto said.
But Supervisor Joseph Rende said that with the town committed to a couple other recreation-related projects, it makes sense for the board to explore even if they don’t know the cost or whether the town would obtain the grant.
“Here we are getting ready to invest all this money into improving the pool, and now we have an opportunity to create a greenway between the pool and the park, which would also enable the children to go from the pool to the park to being able to come downtown, which they do (anyway),” Rende said. “We would be taking them off (walking) on a major thoroughfare, Route 128, and having them on a greenway. It’s a no-brainer.”
DiGiacinto suggested the board reach out to his Budget and Finance Committee.
“We have people that could help us, give us some direction,” she said.
But Milim said the decision on this project should rest with the Town Board, and that’s determining whether the work would financially doable.
Rende said the town could also pursue additional grants from other sources to help further defray the cost.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
