When Sebastian Sage was in the third grade, he was hit by a car on Taxter Road in the Town of Greenburgh. It took a year and a half for him to recover from his injuries.
“The effects of this event cannot be described in words,” Sage wrote in a letter to Town Supervisor Paul Feiner. “The challenges and hurdles I had to overcome often seemed impossible and was an extremely traumatic event in my life.”
Sage, who is now in high school, made an emotional plea to Feiner and later to the Town Board: Install a sidewalk along Taxter, which is narrow and twisty in some spots.
“I think it’s crucial to have a sidewalk there because of many blind spots and at night it’s impossible to see,” he told the board, adding: “I can’t ride a bike in my area because it’s so dangerous.”
Sage had a blunt message for town officials: “I want to make sure that what happened to me doesn’t happen to other people.”
Following the advocacy by Sage and East Irvington resident Cindy Collins, the Town Board approved issuing $1.1 million in bonds to pay for sidewalks on Taxter and other locations across Greenburgh.
Feiner said the sidewalk on Taxter was being designed for construction in 2025, and preliminarily planned to run from the village/unincorporated town line in East Irvington to Shaw Lane. It could be extended later.
He commended Sage for telling his story before the Town Board.
“What he has done is highlighted the importance of sidewalks,” Feiner said. “People don’t realize it could save lives and avoid injuries, and his testimony at the Town Board meeting will reassure people that money we’re spending is money well spent.”
According to Greenburgh police, there have been nine crashes involving vehicles on Taxter Road between Jan. 1, 2022, and Sept. 24, 2024, none of which involved a pedestrian.
Asked why sidewalks weren’t previously considered earlier for Taxter, Feiner said: “A number of years ago we didn’t realize the community would be that supportive because sidewalks are also placed in front of people’s homes. I think the community now — a lot of young families — believe in the importance of pedestrian safety.”
Collins, who moved to East Irvington in 2017, lives close to the Taxter Road playground.
“When I first moved here, I noticed that the Taxter Road playground got very little use even though there were a lot of families with young children in the area (myself included),” Collins said. “I thought that was such a shame.”
After alerting Feiner about her concerns, she joined the town’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, where she said she was told that “though it was a good idea, sidewalk projects take forever, and I shouldn’t hold my breath.”
Collins later became the secretary of the East Irvington Civic Association and continued to push for sidewalks on Taxter, promoting walkability and safety in her neighborhood. Collins was honored with a proclamation from the town for her activism.
Upgrades at the playground have made it more popular, she noted. “But I still believe that people should be able to safely walk to their neighborhood playground and it can be dicey with cars driving so fast along Taxter Road.”
