SOMERS, N.Y. — Somers is taking steps to improve pedestrian safety and accessibility -- as well as the public’s health and welfare -- in its downtown.
At its last meeting in January, the Town Board voted to give the town the go-ahead to apply for a $1,522,248 grant from the Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP).
The money would be used to build much-needed sidewalks in the Business/Historic District in the Somers Hamlet.
The minimum required “match” of 20 percent from the town was not to exceed $380,562, according to the resolution.
“This is something we’ve talked about for years. It’s very close to my heart. Let’s hope, this time, we go through with it,” said Councilman Richard Clinchy.
If all goes well, the town plans to build 850 feet of sidewalk along the north side of Route 202. It would connect the existing sidewalk located west of Heritage 202 Shopping Center with the Town Hall complex at the corner of Routes 202 and 100.
The existing walkway would also be fixed. According to the town’s engineers, it’d been damaged by “encroachment by larger vehicles.”
Supervisor Robert Scorrano pointed out that town is hoping to get the TAP grant in “conjunction” with another important project – the building of a new water main and the creation of a water district that would service Town Hall and surrounding commercial businesses.
(The town had been ordered by health officials to find a solution to PFAS contamination in The Elephant Hotel’s water source. Employees at and visitors to the historical building have been drinking bottled water for years due to the supply’s high salt content.)
“I think it’s important. Why would we try to do a project piecemeal? Let’s try to get it in in one shot,” Scorrano said, adding that that way the town would only be doing construction along the busy roadway once.
Last fall, the town applied for a $1.9 million Complete Streets Municipal Planning Grant, which is administered by the Westchester County Planning Department for transportation safety improvements.
Those grants required towns to match 50 percent of the amount awarded.
As of last week, the town hadn’t heard about its Complete Streets grant status.
As part of the grant process, the town was required to write an Environmental Assessment Form (EAF) under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). That document concluded that the sidewalk project would not have any significant adverse environmental impacts.
The Town Board then adopted a “negative declaration.”
In 2013, Somers approved a Complete Streets Program Policy modeled after the Southern Westchester Energy Action Consortium’s version. In 2016, it updated its Comprehensive Plan to specifically refer to furthering policies that created “safe and efficient circulation for pedestrians, bicycles, and vehicles” and provided sidewalks “wherever feasible.”
The town, it asserted, “has an identifiable need to complete sidewalk improvements along Route 202.”
In a Sept. 11, 2025, memo, engineering consultants Woodard & Curran said sidewalks also “strengthen connections between schools, municipal facilities, businesses, and community gathering spaces.”
They also support broader community goals “by encouraging non-motorized transportation, reducing vehicle congestion in the town center, and creating a more welcoming and accessible public realm,” W&C’s Steve Robbins wrote.
A year ago this month, the town unveiled a new pedestrian crossing at the intersection of Heritage Hills Drive and the entrance to DeCicco & Sons on Route 202.
Named for Thelma Barlow, a beloved retired school crossing guard, it provides a safe link between the Heritage 202 Center and the Towne Centre at Somers.
Several years ago, tests mandated by aggressive new state health regulations detected perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) above maximum allowable contaminant levels in wells supplying the Town House complex.
Known as “forever chemicals,” they embed themselves in the environment and bioaccumulate, or build up over time, in the bodies of living creatures.
Clinchy said Thursday that he was surprised to learn that PFAS have been detected in Antarctica, a vast, icy, and mostly uninhabitable landmass and Earth’s southernmost continent.
“That’s just crazy,” he said.
Noting that scientists have found PFAS in rainwater, Robbins explained: “That’s how it’s traveling.”
“This is an important issue because they’re (the chemicals) everywhere, forever,” Clinchy said.
Somers was subsequently issued a violation by the county Health Department and told it needed to hustle up a remediation plan.
Among the options weighed were installing an on-site filtration system, finding an alternate water source, and/or forming a water district that included adjacent properties and hooked into the system at Heritage Hills, a development with five wells and its own treatment facilities.
The on-site filtration idea dried up due to lack of space on Town House property.
The town put out feelers to see if folks in the business district were interested in forming a water district. Reaction from property owners was said to be positive.
New York’s Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for PFOA and PFOS is 10 parts per trillion (ppt). The levels found in the historic landmark’s wells in 2021 were 11.5 ppt for PFOA and 39.4 ppt for PFOS.
Around since the 1960s, PFOS and PFOA have been used in consumer and industrial products like stain-resistant clothing and furniture, nonstick pans, food packaging, and firefighting foam.
Chronic exposure can lead to cancer.
Woodard & Curran had noted that if the Town House’s water had PFOS and PFOA in it, then it’s likely that other wells that access the same aquifer might also contain them.
The state doesn’t require homeowners to test their wells for PFOS, PFOA, or 1,4-Dioxane, which is a synthetic chemical and likely carcinogen that municipalities must also test for.
The good news is that levels of 1,4-Dioxane in the Town House water were undetectable. (The state’s Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for that substance is 1 part per billion.)
Both projects are “viable” and necessary, Scorrano said Thursday.
“We have to bring water here for our PFAS issues. If we can get that grant at the same time and have all that funding ready to go, I think it’s a smart move on our part,” he added.
According to Robbins, the water project’s gotten several grants from state and federal sources.
“So, we’re moving forward as quickly as the permitting process will allow to establish that and provide safe, drinkable water for the town’s residents,” he said.
Clinchy pointed out that Sen. Peter Harckham (D-40th District) had secured “several hundred thousand dollars” in funding for the sidewalk project.
There were some “community benefits” from a couple of local developers that could be thrown into the sidewalk funding pot as well.
“So, we do have some money in the bank for it. Hopefully, we get this (the TAP grant) and we can use it on top of the other money we have,” Scorrano said.
Clinchy asked if there was anything the town could do to “maximize” its chances of snagging the sidewalk grant.
Scorrano told him that the town’s had preliminary conversations with the powers that be.
“They can’t say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ that we’re going to be approved but they did like the idea that we had another project involved with this and that it would make it a more walkable community for our residents while finding some water resources here for our water district,” he added.
The Town Board referred a request for a stop sign at the intersection of Wittmann Drive and Cobbling Road Drive to the local Police Department, the Bureau of Fire Prevention, the Highway Department, and the Engineering Department.
The request was made by Vito Andriano, local builder and resident of Dr. Tony’s Road, which is located in the same subdivision off Route 35.
In a letter to the town, he noted that “common sense” would tell people to stop at the T-intersection but most are just “coasting though it.”
Pointing out that the spot “might” be turned into a “bus stop,” Andriano urged the town to be “proactive in preventing a dangerous situation.”
(The bus stop reference couldn’t be confirmed by press time.)
A public hearing on the stop sign was set for Thursday, Feb. 12.
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