Roundtable Brings Officials and Residents Face to Face
Residents of all ages met for a roundtable discussion with Southeast officials this past Sunday at the Studio Around the Corner. Led by Councilwoman Lynne Eckardt, the discussion allowed residents to talk about issues without the pressure of speaking before the board during meetings.
“I think the main point of this is that, I don’t think government is very accessible to its people, I think it’s a really difficult thing to talk at town board meetings—there are cameras, there’s a microphone,” Eckardt said to the fifteen or so people that attended. “I’m hoping that we can get some new ideas out there and get everyone talking.”
Southeast Town Supervisor Tony Hay and Councilwoman Elizabeth Hudak were also in attendance, and helped field questions and concerns from residents. Hay also plans to construct committees comprised of residents to address certain matters within the town—until then, Eckardt will host another roundtable discussion in February.
“For all those who don’t know, we’re putting together committees to address the top five issues in the town,” Eckardt said. “There are a lot of issues, and we’re not going to duplicate Tony’s committees are up-and-running but we can continue these if that’s what the people want. Our main goal is to get the government to help the residents of Southeast and make [their] lives easier.”
The first issue that was addressed by residents was the need for enhanced communication during emergency situations, a problem that was raised first by Hurricane Irene and then by the October snowstorm that left some residents powerless for days. One resident called for the need for an implemented “emergency preparedness” plan that will notify the town.
“One thing that people cannot fear is to provide us with their email addresses and phone numbers, it’s not going to be used for political purposes, it’s only going to be used for times of emergency purposes,” Hay said. “It’s private information to be used for this for a ‘reverse 9-1-1.’”
For those who don’t access to phone or Internet during a storm, Eckardt suggested that neighborhoods collaborate a system of communication, most likely on a street-by-street basis.
“It’s a simple as one street, if you want to concentrate on one street and have everyone take this initiative to be connected on their own and get connected to their neighbors, that’d be a huge help,” Eckardt said.
Another issue that was brought up by Neil Di Carlo was the problem of transparency by the former administration. After several attempts to obtain a copy of last year’s budget, Di Carlo found it more than difficult to get any information in a timely matter.
Hay assured residents that almost any information brought forth by the town during its meeting would be posted to the website in as soon as it could become available to the public.
“Forget about the old administration did,” Hay said. “Everything that you want to know will just about be on that website.”
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.