Town of Pelham’s 2025 Budget Adopted and New Pelham Library Trustee Catherine Sheehy Sworn In
By Joyce Farrell
At a public hearing at the Town of Pelham Board meeting on December 2, Town Supervisor Daniel McLaughlin briefly highlighted some of the reasons for any increases in the 2025 Budget, which was then adopted. Visit https://townofpelham.com/budgets-and-reports/ to view the adopted budget.
Supervisor McLaughlin then swore in new Library Board of Trustee member Catherine Sheehy. She is an attorney and is active in the Pelham community.
Managing Director of the ALS/BLS 911 system of the Town of Pelham, Mark Baumblatt, discussed Pelham’s EMS responses with Deputy Supervisor Rae Szymanski. During November, Pelham gave mutual aid fourteen times to neighboring municipalities, including its furthest ever in Yonkers. Pelham is now averaging 100 EMS calls per month and takes the residents to the exact hospitals to which they want to be transported.
Councilwoman McLoughlin reported that the Winter recreation programs are still open for registration and will start in January. There is huge interest in the STEM program at Hutchinson Elementary School, and the first YMCA teen night, for grades 6 and up, was held on December 7. The others will be on January 5, February 8, and March 14. They take place at the YMCA in New Rochelle. Visit https://www.pelhamrecreation.com/ for more information on this and all rec programs.
In November, the seniors used the medical van twenty-two times for doctors’ appointments, attended a luncheon provided by the Pelham Civic Association, had another trip to Arthur Avenue, and participated in arts & crafts, cards and bingo, and exercise and yoga.
Councilwoman Kristen Burke mentioned that the judges, she believes specifically Justice Adam Kagan, are covering a high-profile case in Eastchester because the judges there had to recuse themselves from the case. She also spoke about two grants Pelham will be receiving. The first is a $30,000 energy community grant for the EV chargers. She has obtained several quotes for the installation, which she will eventually submit to the Board. The second grant is a $100,000 NYSERDA (NYS Energy Research and Development Authority) for a mobility study to be done in Pelham. On December 17, she met with a NYSERDA representative and an expert who will be involved in conducting the study. NYSERDA will pay them rather than Pelham getting involved in any payments. Lastly, regarding Glover Field, she and Supervisor McLauglin have continued to work with the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council. Mayor Chance Mullen thinks that a transportation study should be conducted before going any further to get feedback from the community and an engineer obtained quickly to make sure that what the community would like to have done can be done. The study could then be used to try to obtain grant money for the safety and improvement project relating to Glover Field.
Finally, Councilwoman Maura Curtin informed the Board that there are new online resources available at the library. They are Mango Languages, which personalizes foreign language learning, Medici.tv, a video streaming services that includes opera, jazz, and dance performances, master classes and documentaries from around the word, and The Shelf, a streaming service for both kids and adults of recorded or live Spanish language multi-media entertainment.. Additionally, the Children’s Room has been updated, and the new town budget will allow the library to open at 10:00 a.m. on Mondays rather than 1:00 p.m.