Noam just finished a town hall tour of the county, during which he had the chance to share his plan of action for Westchester and to hear lots of good ideas from county residents about how to make Westchester an even better place to live, work, and raise a family. Noam wants to highlight just three of the ideas presented to him over the past couple weeks. We’re starting with Sprain Ridge Pool today, with other ideas to follow.
If you weren’t able to make it to one of Noam’s “Getting to Know Noam” meetings, you can watch an abbreviated version of his presentation here, and you can still submit your own ideas to the campaign.
Many thanks to everyone who participated.
Idea Number One: Open Sprain Ridge Pool!
Last month’s big heat wave may be over, but it’s still summer, it’s still hot, and lots of families count on having a good public pool nearby. For thousands of children and families, the County’s Sprain Ridge Pool in Yonkers used to be a perfect spot to cool off, but it’s been closed for several seasons now, and Rob Astorino shows no interest in reopening it. Sprain Ridge came up at both of my town hall meetings in Yonkers, and we’ve received many comments online as well.
Shuttering Sprain Ridge also happens to be a bad business decision. Following renovations at Yonkers’ Tibbetts Brook Park in 2009, attendance rose and revenue increased. Same things at Wilson’s Woods Park in Mount Vernon which was renovated in 2005. Both parks have maintained their increased levels of attendance, and they are on pace to recover and profit from their initial costs of renovation.
Unfortunately, these kinds of wrong-headed, ideological decisions are typical of this administration, which has delayed hundreds of millions of dollars in already-approved capital projects, undervalues human services, and rarely applies a sensible cost-benefit analysis to its choices.
So I am proud to join with local residents, the Yonkers City Council, and members of the Westchester County Legislature who have called for renovations at the Pool to move forward. Thanks to all who suggested this idea.