Politics & Government

Briarcliff Looks to Improve Todd Intersection

The village will be applying for a grant to add more sidewalks near Todd Elementary School.

Following up on some 2010 improvements to Pleasantville Road near the Briarcliff Middle and High School campuses and Todd Elementary School, the Village of Briarcliff Manor is looking to make the busy road a safer place during school hours.

A village proposal calls for "improving the sidewalks on the north side of Pleasantville Road, improving the sidewalk on Ingham Road," as well as bringing in a traffic-control device with pedestrian signals at the elementary school intersection.

At last week's Board of Trustees meeting, the board decided to go forward with applying for a grant from the federal "Safe Routes to School Program," which, according to the village, is a reimbursement program,

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"to encourage and enable children, including those with disabilities, to walk and bicycle to school; to make walking and bicycling safe and more appealing, and to facilitate the planning, development and implementation of projects which will improve safety and reduce vehicular traffic within a two-mile vicinity of K-8 Grade schools..."

The grant application is part of an Inter-Municipal Agreement (IMA) between the village and the school district, Village Manager Philip Zegarelli told Patch. The district approved the agreement at its August 21 meeting, the village reported.

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"We believe our numbers are good," Zegarelli said. "If there is a bit of a silver lining, it's that in this downswing of the current economy, when you go out to bid, bidding is usually quite robust."

The village has set a spending cap of $490,000 for the project through the grant program, which does not require an up-front match by the village.

Two years ago, Zegarelli said, the village took steps to install sidewalks near the high school/middle school campus, which borders the Town of Mount Pleasant.

In addition, "We did some sidewalks that were outside of the village in the Town of Mount Pleasant on a joint venture basis," he explained.

Zegarelli stated the town reimbursed the village for the work outside of its jurisdiction.

The federal grant is available for projects that can be completed in the next five years.

Based on recent bids the village has received for projects such as the new water system, Zegarelli said Briarcliff Manor will be looking for bids "significantly below" the $490,000 cap if the the grant is approved over the next few months.

"I believe we have a very strong application," Zegarelli said. "It meets a lot of the targeted areas."


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