A big part of being a Town Supervisor is planning to repair, improve and construct new infrastructures throughout the Community.

            For example: water storage tanks, traffic signals, replacement of waterlines, drainage projects, road improvements including paving a number of roads each year (the Town of Cortlandt averages $2 million dollars each year).

            Also, we seek grants to assist us with traffic calming measures, new sidewalks, improved traffic signal areas, roundabouts, sewers, etc.

            The Town during my administration passed a local law to annually adopt a C.I.P., a Capital Improvement Plan. A staff committee and I put together this five year plan each year and list of needed projects each over $50,000 for the Town Board to consider and to vote on. It totals millions of dollars each year and some of these projects are phased over a couple of years.

            It is a very good way to plan for necessary infrastructure and capital projects to address the needs of a community. This C.I.P. can range from large vehicles such as snowplows (250K) to playgrounds, ball fields, water tanks, paving, expansion of our Senior Community Center, a new bathhouse/snack bar (done this year at our town pool) and many more.

            This C.I.P. also helps me as Supervisor and our Comptroller to budget for these expenses each year. A percentage of the costs of these large projects come either from our town’s fund balance or bonding and are also offset from grants at the State or Federal level.

            Sharing services with other municipalities is another way to help pay for these major projects especially for unfunded mandates. For example, when we received a mandate from the EPA/Federal Government to filter our town’s water in the 1990’s we formed a Northern Westchester Joint Waterworks with two other towns and a smaller water district to share in the costs of building a new filtration plant. This waterworks continues to this day. I serve on the executive board. The Town of Cortlandt saved $8 million by sharing in this cost with our partners.

            One of my first major projects I worked on also in the 1990’s was to lobby Metro North/MTA to build a new larger train station in Cortlandt and they did (The Cortlandt Train Station). It’s in the central part of our town and services many of our commuters and those wanting to take an occasional trip into the City.

            So, I’m very proud of all of these major improvements and of the new funding plans we developed to benefit our community.

Supervisor Linda Puglisi