Northern Westchester Hospital outlines new initiatives for Lewisboro board

SOUTH SALEM, N.Y. - Northern Westchester Hospital in neighboring Mount Kisco is pursuing a designation as a trauma center, noted its President Derek Anderson in a presentation on March 10 to the Lewisboro Town Board. 

That will be good news for residents of Lewisboro and surrounding towns, for whom the nearest trauma centers are at Danbury Hospital and Westchester Medical Center. 

With Anderson as its guest headliner, the board met for slightly less than an hour before adjourning to executive session. Though the Board’s meeting was relatively short in duration, it was long on business, with a dozen resolutions approved covering town and committee appointments, grant disbursements, and other upcoming affairs. 

Northern Westchester’s number one goal over the next decade and beyond is to “make sure that we're building good-quality healthcare close to home,” Anderson noted. The trauma-center designation is a key element of that.

“If you look at the map of Westchester County and Putnam County, there is only one trauma center serving 1.2 million people,” Anderson pointed out. 

That reference was to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, which is 24 miles from Lewisboro. The nearest trauma center is actually Danbury Hospital, 15 miles away in Connecticut. 

Using either hospital can add significantly to travel time and make outcomes more uncertain, he said. And as a prelude to approval as a trauma center, Northern Westchester Hospital recently became a teaching hospital. 

“We started with internal medicine this year,” Anderson said. “Next year, we're starting surgery and OBGYN. You'll [also] see some other programs – cardiology, hematology, palliative care. These are critical talents we think about [for] having enough physicians in the community.”

Improving access to mental-health services is another key focus for the hospital, which has been working with 18 school districts in its region to develop programs focused on teen mental health. Having Four Winds Hospital right in Cross River is a good thing, Anderson said, but most mental-health needs don’t require inpatient care. To that end, he showed the Board an artist’s rendition of a new urgent-care center in Mount Kisco tailored to community mental health.

A presentation on THRIVE dovetailed with Anderson’s comments on mental health. THRIVE is the three-town substance-abuse prevention and mental health alliance that serves Bedford, Lewisboro, and Pound Ridge. Dr. Armond Collins, a psychiatrist who resides in Lewisboro and is a THRIVE Board member, introduced THRIVE’s new Community Coordinator, Isabella Pectol.

THRIVE has a strong focus on staying abreast of dangerous trends and educating the public about them. As part of that, Pectol and THRIVE Chair Sally Corbett-Turco recently attended a workshop on teen alcohol use at the Scarsdale Public Library. One of the presenters spoke about “alcopops,” which are alcoholic beverages flavored to taste like soda, punch, or lemonade. 

“These large cans actually contain four to six servings of alcohol,” Pectol said. “Because an alcopop comes in one can, most teens think it's one serving of alcohol.”

THRIVE is now working on obtaining a Drug Free Communities Grant from the federal Centers for Disease Control. “The DFC Grant is a federal initiative aimed at strengthening community partnerships to prevent and reduce substance use among youth,” Pectol said. 

One outcome of such grant funding is the development of an online educational series focused on substance abuse. THRIVE also has had a robust series of talks at schools in Lewisboro and the other two towns. “Other support we receive from the three towns enables us to do programming regarding adults,” said Pectol.

Among the motions passed by the Town Board was a move to keep the public hearing open on the various zoning amendments, which were proposed last year as part of the town’s review of its Comprehensive Plan. While the board invited comments from the public on these amendments, the only person who spoke addressed an issue relative to road paving. 

Ann Leathers of Goldens Bridge spoke about a project to pave three entryways on Pond, Main, and Lake Streets there and to prevent runoff into the hamlet’s lake. The hamlet has traditionally had numerous dirt and gravel roads.

“I understand that there is money available for paving and drainage work in this year's highway budget, but the project needs an additional $33,000 for the engineering plan to move forward,” Leathers said. “We have waited for several years for this paving project while the dust and drainage into our wetlands and lake is getting worse.” 

The Town Board approved the following resolutions:

• Approving and authorizing the town supervisor to sign a contract for camp pool use by Northeast Special Recreation for 2025.
• Approving and authorizing the town supervisor to sign the vendor contract at the Town Pool concession for Lily’s Deli and Market.
• Approving the request to use Onatru Farm Park for the Chuck Oswald Annual Softball Tournament on Saturday, July 26, with no fees waived.
• Approving the use of Lewisboro Town Park for the Bring it For Brooke fundraiser on Friday, May 2, with fees waived.
• Authorizing the town to go out to bid for the bathroom renovations at Onatru Farm.
• Approving the listing for auction of two Lewisboro Police vehicles and two town-owned generators.
• Appointing Jonathan Monti to the Housing Committee for a term expiring December 31, 2026.
• Authorizing Town Supervisor Gonçalves and Attorney Gregory Folchetti to sign the CREST grant disbursement agreement for the purchase of a new excavator for the Highway Department.
• Authorizing the purchase of a new Kobuta excavator with CREST funds, which total $120,000.
• Authorizing Gonçalves and Folchetti to sign a grant disbursement agreement for CREST funds for solar panels, which will go on the barn roof at Onatru Farm. CREST stands for the state’s Community Resiliency, Economic Sustainability, and Technology program.
• Authorizing Gonçalves to sign a countywide shared services agreement for…
• Authorizing a public hearing date of March 24, 2025, for a public hearing on the increase of the town’s term for building permits, from one year to three. 

“When applying for a building permit instead of a one-year term on the permit, applicants will have three years,” said Gonçalves. “This is a change in our code which requires a public hearing.