Village DGEIS Downtown Restoration
Initiatives Discussed at Board Meeting

By Stephen E. Lipken

Village of Pelham Mayor Chance Mullen called to order the April 26th Board of Trustees meeting, the dominant topic being a Public Hearing on the Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DGEIS) “Village of Pelham Downtown Restoration Initiatives” and Proposed Text Amendments to Business District Floating Zone (BDFZ). 

Repairs are needed to the Fire House; parking deck is failing structurally in Parking Lot 2; inadequate jail cells, not compliant with PD Standards in Police Station; no Village Hall ADA-compliant entrance, inefficient HVAC system, bathrooms not building code; total amount needed for all restoration initiatives: $17.4 million dollars.

Although there is a 99-space parking lot behind Rockwell’s, people would not be willing to walk down Sparks Avenue and objections were expressed to the second entrance to parking lot on 3rd Street and Sixth Avenue, too close to homes.

Mullen emphasized that no decisions are being made; written comments to info@pelhamgov.com will be accepted until May 7th. 

Janet Morley, Vice President, Capital Markets Advisors LLC appeared at the Work Session, explaining that her firm serves as a fiduciary to municipalities through Standard & Poor Global Bond Rating, advising them on their debt structure. “S&P recently reached out to us, following concerns about declines in the Village’s Fund Balance over the past few years and alerted us that they would be reviewing the Village’s outstanding long term debt rating,” Morley stated.

Village’s AA+/Stable Rating affirmation reflects their anticipated fiscal 2022 surplus, with steps management has taken to eliminate Fund Balance appropriations and match recurring expenditures with recurring revenues.  A limited debt burden also supports the rating, although pensions and other postemployment benefit (OPEB) costs are somewhat elevated, higher than medians for their peers. 

Village Budget was adopted, with general Property Tax Levy of $12,694,145. The 2022 Village Tax Rate is set at $7.49424266 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation for Homestead Properties, $10.4586545 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation for Non-Homestead.