We need a new Yorktown Town Board

Dear Editor,

If you look at the Yorktown town website, yorktownny.gov, you’d see countless pictures of trees and greenery and pages touting our Revolutionary War history and our expansive parks and green spaces.

On the “Welcome to Yorktown” page, it says that Yorktown is, and I quote, “forty square miles of rolling hills, farmland, residential areas and light industry.” This is now - a joke. We were these things. We are supposed to be these things. Yes, we still have some buildings from the 1700s. We have a few forested areas left. And thankfully we do still have a few farms (which are magnificent), but mostly we are increasingly more expensive with frustrating, bumper to bumper traffic, ever more urban, with more polluted air, an overdone sometimes failing infrastructure, a soon-to-be impassable Underhill Road and a Town Board that gives unnecessary tax breaks to builders and developers (over the wishes of its citizens).

Our schools and police and fire will soon be stretched thin and the promise of what our town was supposed to be is almost a figment in the rear-view mirror as more strip mall and way-too-costly housing developments loom over any still-standing trees and green spaces. We’ve pretty much had the same leadership in Yorktown for the last 10 years. Maybe it’s time we make some changes. This Nov. 4, you can choose a better direction for our town, one that is more thoughtful and innovative and focuses on the needs of the people of Yorktown. All are experts in their own fields, parents of Yorktown kids, volunteers in our community and wish only to be your public servants; please vote for Jann Mirchandani for Yorktown Supervisor and Ilan Gilbert and Michael Hickins for Yorktown Town Council.

-Jennie Sunshine, Yorktown