Lewisboro kicks off budget season

SOUTH SALEM, N.Y. - The Lewisboro Town Board kicked off the annual “budget season” with presentations and discussions of three municipal departments: the Lewisboro Police, Parks and Recreation, and the town’s Facilities Maintenance Department.

“These are the department head budget requests, which will go into the tentative budget and there will be further reviews,” said Town Supervisor Tony Gonçalves.

In his budget presentation, Police Chief David Alfano announced plans to hire a part-time detective who would work two days per week, or approximately 16 hours. The chief announced plans to share services at certain times with Westchester County – a move that could trim $100,000 from the overall budget because the town would otherwise have to purchase certain programs and services.

All totaled, Alfano’s budget request amounted to an increase of $110,000 over 2025. He attributed the bulk of that increase to salary expenses, which are governed by Police Benevolent Association (PBA) contracts. Besides the recent hiring two new officers, some current offices have received “step” increases mandating a bump in pay.

Budgets for training and for the court officer will remain level, as would allocations for office space, fuel, uniforms, vehicle maintenance, body cams, and other equipment. Alfano’s budget would add approximately $25,000 for computer services, but he hopes moving from server- to cloud-based programs will reduce the need for hardware support.

Lewisboro Police received a $16,000 donation in 2025 from a resident to go toward protective equipment for officers. This offset what might have been a budget overage, Alfano said.

Among other cost-saving measures Alfano pointed to a recent agreement with the Metropolitan Transit Association that lets Lewisboro Police, EMS, fire, and highway personnel use seven channels on the MTA’s radio-transmission network at no cost. The department had earlier contemplated spending $1.5-2 million on a new radio network.

While Alfano’s budget request also included the purchase of three additional police vehicles in 2026, he called attention to a more immediate need. A Chevy Tahoe currently in use has racked up more than 100,000 miles and, as Alfano described, is “limping along on seven cylinders.” At his request, the Town Board voted unanimously to allocate $14,033.50 from the town’s fund balance to purchase a 2025 Ford Interceptor Utility Hybrid from Schultz Ford of Nanuet.

“The vehicle cost is $44,673.50, and the buildout will not exceed $23,000,” said Alfano. The $14,033.50 funds transfer will augment departmental funds including $26,600 from the sale of three vehicles at auction, $17,040 in RTC grant money from Westchester County, and $10,000 remaining from a county tech grant. The latter will go expressly toward outfitting the new vehicle, Alfano said.

Parks & Rec, Facilities Overviews

In her overview of the Parks and Recreation budget, Supervisor Nicole Caviola noted that the budget for the department would remain level/increase over 2025, for a total of 1,278,589. Within the budget, several changes were noteworthy.

Caviola pointed out that under the “vehicles and maintenance” category, the department exceeded its 2025 budget by almost double. Accordingly, the budget in this category would increase from $9,000 to $18,000. “That is not just our vehicles – this is all parks related,” said Caviola. “So, parks, trucks, mowers, gators, tractors, all that.”

Caviola also requested an increase in the day camp budget for 2026 – from $400,000 to $429,000 – part of which owed to  minimum wage increasing to $17. “In the event that our numbers increase, we’ll [also] need more staff,” she stated.

Caviola also expects participation to increase in the aquatics program and requested an increase in this line to $57,500. One anticipated decrease is in food services, in large part because Parks and Rec will no longer provide food for its mini-camps.

An uptick in use of the town pool is expected in 2026 – especially with the new pool bathhouse scheduled for completion. “[For] lifeguards our actual came out to $179,138,” for 2025, she noted. “So, we are requesting $210,000, slightly up from the $192,000 for this year.”

Another significant increase would be to the senior-nutrition program, for the simple fact that the program is feeding more people via meals on wheels. For this line item Caviola has requested an additional $11,000. With those and a host of smaller line increases, the budget request represented a total increase of $160,000 over 2025.

“Parks and Rec doesn't have a marketing budget per se, right?” asked Councilman Rich Sklarin. “If we spent $25,000, picking an arbitrary number and [that] resulted in getting $250,000 more in revenue targeting facilities or programs that are underutilized, that could you know have an economic benefit.” Sklarin also said it would acquaint newer residents with the town’s recreational offerings.

Deputy Town Supervisor Mary Shah noted, “From what I understand, the parks and rec department does send out a brochure and has a website. They put signs up for all of their events and they have email blasts that go out.”

Caviola noted that the brochure is produced by an outside firm and mailed throughout Lewisboro. There is also an email blast that goes to people who sign up for it beforehand, plus plenty of event posters. Sklarin responded that this point was that perhaps the town should allocate more funds to enable Parks and Rec to explore other forms of communication, a point with which Gonçalves agreed.

Lewisboro’s Facilities Maintenance department was last up for budget scrutiny. Department Manager Joel Smith requested increases in a host of categories – the most noteworthy for electricity (set to increase by $18,000) and heating fuel (to go up $12,000). Smith attributed the increases to increased costs as well as the debut of the town’s new office building on Route 35.

Smith noted that the Route 35 building contains a host of energy-efficiency upgrades, which will help keep costs under control. Nonetheless, “we now have more oil-burner maintenance contracts since my oil burner guy retired,” Smith said. “We have to we have to contract that out more,” at a higher cost.

Smith’s budget request would also fund the installation of fiber-optic communication lines in the Route 35 building – which would put the building on the same Lightpath service contract that covers other town facilities. The switch would improve equipment reliability and transmission quality as well. The Route 35 building is also equipped with a modern elevator – a great feature, Smith said, but one that doubled this line item on his budget request.

Other line items set to go up are office cleaning, sanitation, alarm service, and building maintenance. The one big decrease noted in Smith’s budget request would be for gasoline, which would be down $10,000 owing mainly to lower fuel prices.

Resolutions Pass

Besides the police-vehicle purchase, the Town Board unanimously passed three proposed resolutions:

• The Board okayed a resolution setting a public hearing for a proposed amendment (set for October 28) to Chapter 199 Article IV of the town code. The amended portion concerns a 10 percent tax exemption extended to active volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers. This amendment would enable these emergency personnel to live in Lewisboro while volunteering anywhere in Westchester County.

• The Board approved a resolution approving a proposal from International Fireworks for two-year contract for these events. The resolution also waived the standard procurement policy requirement.

• Finally, the Board approved a one-year renewal of the cabaret license for LeChateau.