Letter to the Editor: Infrastructure, Capital Projects a Hallmark of Cortlandt Improvements

July 27, 2021 Examiner Media

A big part of being a town supervisor is planning to repair, improve and construct new infrastructure throughout the community. Water storage tanks, traffic signals, replacement of water lines, drainage projects and road improvements, including paving a number of roads each year, are some of those projects. (The Town of Cortlandt averages $2 million in infrastructure projects each year.)

We seek grants to assist us with traffic calming measures, new sidewalks, improved traffic signals, roundabouts, sewers and more.

The town, during my administration, passed a local law to annually adopt a Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). A staff committee and I put together this five-year plan each year and list of needed projects, each more than $50,000 for the Town Board to consider. That’s millions of dollars each year, and some of these projects are phased in over a couple of years.

It’s a very good way to plan for necessary infrastructure and capital projects to address the needs of a community. This CIP has included large vehicles such as snowplows, playgrounds, ball fields, water tanks, paving, expansion of our senior community center, a new bathhouse and snack bar this year at our town pool and many more.

The plan also helps me as supervisor and our comptroller to budget for these expenses each year. A percentage of the costs of these projects come either from our town’s fund balance or bonding and are also offset from state or federal grants.

Sharing services with other municipalities is another way to help pay for these major projects, especially for unfunded mandates. For example, when we received a mandate from the federal Environmental Protection Agency to filter our town’s water in the 1990s, we formed the Northern Westchester Joint Waterworks with two other towns and a smaller water district to share in the costs of building a new filtration plant. This waterworks continues to this day. (I serve on the executive board.) The Town of Cortlandt saved $8 million by sharing this cost with our partners.

One of my first major projects I worked on was to lobby the MTA to build a new, larger Metro-North train station in Cortlandt and they did. It serves many of our commuters and those wanting to take an occasional trip into the city.

I’m very proud of all of these major improvements and of the new funding plans we developed to benefit our community.

Supervisor Linda Puglisi
Cortlandt Supervisor