By NEAL RENTZ
A Lewisboro Town Board member is asking his colleagues to restart the process of creating sidewalks and bike paths for two hamlets.
At the Oct. 15 meeting, Councilman Daniel Welsh said the town should hire a traffic engineer to work with residents of the Vista and Goldens Bridge hamlets to potentially create sidewalks and bike paths.
Last year, Lewisboro voters defeated a $2.1 million referendum which would have provided funding for the construction of sidewalks and bike paths.
“I’d like to get organized to go out to traffic engineering firms to solicit proposals to scope out projects for Vista and Goldens Bridge,” Welsh told his colleagues at the meeting.
Prior to the vote on the referendum last year, some residents asked the town board for more specific information on the projects.
“That’s kind of where we got hung up on during our last discussions of the bond,” Welsh said. “People wanted to see a concrete scope. But if we don’t take action to craft that scope,” the board may not go forward with the projects, Welsh commented.
The town board should create a short list of potential traffic engineering firms and prepare a proposal that would be bid on, Welsh said. Once hired, the firm should work with local residents, Welsh said.
“The Vista and Goldens Bridge folks have been thinking about and working on these things for a long time,” he said.
The consultant and residents could work together to create projects that would be “bid ready,” Welsh said.
Supervisor Tony Gonçalves said work on the projects might be eligible for grants from the New York State Department of Transportation.
Councilman Welsh controversy
Also at the meeting, Welsh was criticized by some residents for postings on his Facebook page and his declining to respond to an invitation to attend the interfaith memorial ceremony in the town park to honor Israelis who were killed in the Hamas-led attack Oct. 7, 2023. About 200 local residents attended the commemoration.
Resident Cathy Deutsch, one of the organizers of the Oct. 7 memorial ceremony, thanked the town board for supporting the event.
Deutsch said extra security was needed Oct. 7, because “residents were coming up to us or reaching us privately saying they had fearful feelings about gathering outdoors in a public arena due to the posts on Dan’s (Facebook) page,” particularly postings from a woman who does not live in town. “She has called us Nazis, murderers and genocidal maniacs and has said we should all be dead,” Deutch said.
Some attendees came up to her following the memorial and said they were glad that Welsh did not attend because they did not know how they would have reacted toward him, Deutsch said.
Another resident, Kevin Uretsky, also thanked the town board members who attended the Oct. 7 ceremony, but noted that Welsh did not attend.
“If you don’t want to come, fine, that’s your choice,” Uretsky said. However, Uretsky added, “You did not respond to the invitation that was sent to you. You, in principle, totally disregarded an entire segment of the town’s population.”
Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel, comments made about the conflict on Welsh’s Facebook page have been sharply criticized by residents during public comment periods of town board meetings.
“Therefore, you are disavowing members of this town,” Uretsky told Welsh at the meeting. “You say that people have attacked you and you’re treated unfairly.” But that is the price of running for office, Uretsky said.
Uretsky said Welsh had two choices — resign or do not represent himself as councilman on his Facebook page.
The town board should adopt a social media policy, “as soon as possible,” Uretsky said.
“It was an honor to attend the memorial on the 7th,” Deputy Supervisor Mary Shah said during the polling of the board section of the meeting. “It’s always good to build a sense of community.”
Shah added she wanted to encourage residents, including her town board colleagues, “to think before they speak or think before they post. There’s a big difference between intent and impact. Sometimes you can’t know how it’s going to impact the people who read it and there’s a lot of people who have been hurt.”
“It was an honor and a privilege to be there for Oct. 7,” Councilman Richard Sklarin said, “It was the best of what our community has to offer. It was unifying. It was positive. It was inclusive and it was very meaningful.”
Welsh did not comment on the criticisms of him during the meeting.
Messages left for Welsh by The Recorder were not returned.