BEDFORD, N.Y. - Bedford has re-enlisted in a decades-long effort by Westchester and its municipalities to curb drunk driving on the county’s roads.
The county’s Stop-DWI program, part of a statewide crusade begun in 1982, provides for beefed-up enforcement through increased patrols, high-visibility checkpoints and community outreach. Fines paid by convicted drunken drivers fund extra local patrols to detect motorists driving while intoxicated (DWI) and driving while ability impaired (DWAI).
Under a five-year contract approved without comment by the Town Board on June 16, Bedford would be reimbursed up to $8,400 annually for the police department’s overtime patrols.
Patricia McCarthy Tomassi, who heads the county’s Office of Drug Abuse Prevention & Stop-DWI, said in an email the crackdowns must be undertaken in addition to regular police duties.
“All DWI-funded patrols are to be selective-enforcement patrols that are above and beyond ‘routine’ patrols and are to be used for the sole purpose of aggressively seeking out intoxicated/impaired motorists,” she wrote. “Emphasis for reimbursement is being placed on [arrests made for drunk- and drugged-driving offenses].”
Tomassi’s office signs off on Bedford’s proposed extra patrols, which must be conducted in the evening and nighttime, the critical hours for DWI/DWAI incidents.
The state legislature created New York’s statewide Stop-DWI program in November 1981. Westchester enrolled in 1982, along with Bedford and the county’s other municipalities.
The Town Board took up a number of other issues at the June 16 meeting.
NO PASSING ON ROUTE 22
Route 22 near the John Jay Homestead will become a no-passing zone, Supervisor Ellen Calves told the board.
Acting on the town’s request, the state Department of Transportation (DOT) says it will revise roughly a half-mile of pavement markings this year between Beaver Dam Road and Maple Avenue to forbid passing on two-lane Jay Street, as the state road is known locally.
“DOT will be painting a double yellow line along that stretch,” Calves said, noting, “there seems to be a lot of people passing and going fast, and it would be much better to have a no-passing zone.”
Calves said, “The DOT actually listened to [Bedford’s entreaty on] that one.” By contrast, despite what the supervisor called “a very bumpy ride” on a section of Route 172, and repeated calls to remedy the issue, DOT has not acted.
That stretch, she said, “has been patched and repatched” but still is not on the state’s list for repaving. “It really does need to be taken down and graded and repaved,” Calves said.
“We have been really reaching out to them constantly about that,” she said, “and encourage residents to continue to send messages to the DOT and to 1-800 POTHOLE and to our state representatives as well, just to keep banging the drum that people would like to see that area improved.”
SIGN ORDINANCE
Discussion continued on Town Board efforts to recodify Bedford’s regulation of signs, primarily business ones but also including homeowner displays like lawn signs and banners.
“We wanted to update the decades-old code to reflect new and emerging uses and technologies,” Calves said, “concepts that weren't considered in the ‘80s when the sign code was passed to provide simplified language.”
The supervisor called it “kind of confusing for people to follow the current one to support businesses while preserving aesthetics, to clarify what's permitted and what's not permitted, to clarify . . . permanent vs. temporary use, and to clarify the permitting process, make that a little simpler.”
Work is expected to continue over the summer on a draft local law, which could have a public hearing as early as September. The public, Calves said, “may have a lot to say.”
BUILDING MORATORIUM
A public hearing is scheduled for July 14 that would set a six-month freeze on new applications for building on properties of more than 20 acres. The moratorium is meant to give the Town Board an opportunity to consider proposed zoning updates.
APPOINTMENT AMENDED
Frank Veith, who was incorrectly appointed in April to serve on the three-member Board of Assessment Review until Sept. 30, 2030, was reappointed to his correct term, which ends next year on Sept. 30. The board hears grievances challenging tentative assessments on real property.
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