“By far the majority of Ossining residents have no clue about what’s going on with the Village going forward on a roundabout proposal. A roundabout will benefit commuters going to and from the train station. It is car-oriented where pedestrians should be king. Ossining prides itself on trying to meet the needs of all its citizens, and this roundabout proposal goes egregiously in the wrong direction,” echoed Maureen Morgan, a staunch community advocate who has lived in the Village for 30 years.
“Today, as I work in the downtown area, I am a pedestrian. I do not see a roundabout as pedestrian friendly. Let’s just adjust the traffic lights for now. I have not seen any fatalities at that intersection since the inception of the two way on Spring Street. How will heavy truck traffic work? Will those vehicles eventually destroy the roundabout? What about all the Fire Department apparatus that will be running on top of it? We should be calming the traffic, not speeding it up. For these reasons, and probably a lot more that I can think of, I and the Chamber of Commerce are against this roundabout,” said John Girolamo, resident of 37 years, former police officer and current Director of Public Relations for the Chamber.
It should be noted that in a January 2nd email from the Mayor entitled, “The Village is Poised for Exciting Development,” she signed off on a letter that stated, among other things, “Construction of the new intersection is planned for the summer of 2017. Ossining will become the only Hudson River community to have a modern roundabout at the heart of its downtown.”
This referendum, if successful, would in all likelihood be on the ballot for the November election. According to John Girolamo the information given to him by the Village Clerk was that signatures from 5% of the voters who participated in the last Gubernatorial election would be sufficient to put the roundabout project and its costs before voters in the Village of Ossining.
Kaja Gam sees the irony of the roundabout when she talks about former Mayor Bill Hanauer. “He had a plan to see redevelopment of the downtown — for it to be a combination of local commerce, living spaces and even an art center to draw people. Village government is now planning to take a big chunk out of the downtown area,” she said.
As one person asked, “Has the Village done an environmental review on this proposal? They need to.”