NORTH SALEM, N.Y. - A dispute over North Salem’s grant funding has become a campaign issue, with Planning Board Chair Cynthia Curtis questioning Supervisor Warren Lucas’ claims about his role in securing grants. Lucas would later offer a rebuttal and defend his record as longtime supervisor in North Salem.
Curtis, a Croton Falls resident, submitted her letter, titled “The Truth About Grants,” to North Salem News on Sept. 28. Lucas submitted his response, “Results Speak for Themselves,” on Oct. 1.
Curtis challenged what she described as Lucas’ campaign claim that he “alone secured millions of dollars in grants for our Town and its special districts.”
“That claim doesn't hold up,” Curtis wrote. “Grants are a team effort, not a one-man show.”
Curtis said many grants obtained during the past 17 years “were the product of work by the Town Board and committees, not the Supervisor acting solo.” She also wrote that Lucas’ confidential secretary “has received special compensation for all the work she has done on the grants for the Town Board and at least one town committee.”
Curtis questioned the supervisor’s authority to apply for grants without Town Board authorization and cited the town’s efforts to obtain sewer funding for Croton Falls as an example.
According to Curtis, the full Town Board, including Lucas, had opposed state efforts to promote transit-oriented development because members believed it would harm Purdys and Croton Falls. She alleged that Lucas subsequently told grant reviewers he was seeking Croton Falls sewer funding “specifically for transit-oriented development.”
“He said the opposite of what he told his own Board, on the record, in an official application,” Curtis wrote.
Curtis also questioned documentation supporting what she described as Lucas’ claimed $42 million in grants.
“On June 30, 2026, a Town resident filed a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request for the grant applications and supporting materials behind Lucas's claimed $42 million figure,” she wrote. “Three months later he still hasn't produced all the documents. The Town Clerk, our official record keeper, doesn't have them either. If the number is real, where is the paperwork?”
“I want to know if there is anything else Warren Lucas has put down as facts and promises and agreed-upon conditions in grant applications that the Town Board never approved,” Curtis wrote. “Taxpayers deserve an answer.”
Lucas disputed Curtis’ characterization of the grant process, writing that projects involving town finances require formal Town Board action.
“Grant documentation, when town finances are committed, requires a Town Board bond resolution for the entire cost of the project,” Lucas wrote. “The votes are usually 5 to 0. Even my opponent usually votes yes. So what is Mrs. Curtis talking about?”
(Lucas’ reference to “my opponent” is to Town Councilwoman Katherine Daniels, who is challenging him for supervisor in November.)
Lucas also addressed the FOIL request, writing that Emily Siegel, the Democratic Committee chair in North Salem, requested grant documents and received “a detailed list from the Town and some documents.”
“Why didn’t she get all the paperwork?” Lucas wrote. “Two reasons: most documents we aren’t required to keep that long, and what we do have is locked up in the PODS behind Delancey Hall. So maybe this is just politics.”
Rather than focusing solely on the paperwork, Lucas pointed to projects he said demonstrate the results of his tenure.
“It is funny that I am being told that I won’t show my grant work,” he wrote. “Take a look at all the things we’ve accomplished around Town during my tenure.”
Lucas cited a new highway garage, Court/office building and police station, as well as specialized catch basins at Peach Lake designed to remove phosphorus.
“These cost you $0,” Lucas wrote.
He also cited a uranium and PFAS removal system at the Sunset Ridge Water District and improvements at the Purdys train station.
“That deal with the DOT, MTA and the Town was negotiated by me and took years to complete,” Lucas wrote. “The Purdys deal alone cost over $6,000,000.”
Other projects Lucas listed included a Croton Falls Water System grant to address radiological contaminants, the Peach Lake Sewer District, new highway trucks, rebuilding the Pabst Water System, EPA technical and grant support for the Salem Acres Water District, funding for a new community center and road salt reduction equipment for the Highway Department.
On the Croton Falls sewer project, Lucas wrote that he had “negotiated complex deals with Somers, Heritage, and Veolia that I was told by our lawyer wouldn’t happen.”
“They’re done,” he wrote. “Not to mention tens of millions of grants for the project.”
Lucas said Veolia, which now owns the Heritage plant, gave final approval Sept. 28. He said the town would then return to residents “with hard numbers to discuss it with them.”
Lucas also shifted focus to his opponent in November, Councilwoman Katherine Daniels.
He wrote that several years ago he asked who wanted to run the Climate Smart Community Leadership Committee and Daniels volunteered. According to Lucas, she later told him that “at least half of the work is already done.”
“I simply said ‘yes, it is,’ as I had been working on it for several years,” Lucas wrote.
Lucas said the projects and grants he cited add up to “over $45 million for projects in our town.”
He also referred to Daniels when discussing the capital planning committee.
“My opponent asked if she could be the head of the capital planning committee, I said ‘sure,’” Lucas wrote. “Over 4 and a half years working on a 5-year plan and still nothing to show for it.”
Lucas defended the amount of time and effort he said he puts into grant applications.
“I relentlessly apply for grants. They are not easy, and I have spent entire vacations sitting at the kitchen table working on them,” he wrote. “I do it for one reason. I love this town. I grew up here. I work to save all of you money.”
Curtis’ letter, meanwhile, ended by asking whether other grant applications may contain commitments or representations that were not approved by the Town Board.
The exchange also touched on the tone of the campaign. Lucas wrote that he did not intend to engage in personal political attacks.
“I will not go down the path of politically ripping people apart,” he wrote. “I have seen what it does to other towns. It is not good government, but I guess it does win elections and it is what most people turn to when they have little else to sell themselves on. Ruin the other guy.”
“I promised myself I would never act that way if I were in charge and I have kept that promise,” Lucas wrote. “It sets the tone. Working together for all of you and our beautiful town is the only thing that is important to me.”
Lucas concluded by describing several projects he said he is currently pursuing, including a $619,406 grant application for the Candlewood Lake Park District, work with Lewisboro Supervisor Tony Goncalves addressing flooding and drainage, a proposed dog park on DEP property and an $830,870 grant application for a new well for the Croton Falls Water District.
“My record speaks for itself,” Lucas wrote.
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