Supervisor seeks answers on East Hartsdale sewer break and building-department performance

The Greenburgh town supervisor asked the board on May 12 to press for a firm timetable and clearer county response after repeated traffic delays tied to a sewer break on East Hartsdale/Tarsdale Avenue.

“I want the building department to be the best building department in The United States,” the supervisor said while describing constituent complaints and a recent rush-hour traffic jam that left residents missing trains. The board was told Frank Morabito, who has been gathering additional data on the East Hartsdale repair, will give a full update at next Tuesday’s work session.

The supervisor said he had contacted the county executive and sought confirmation that the county health department had responded to the town. He asked whether the town should increase pressure on the county or accelerate town efforts to get the repair to bid in May or June as previously indicated.

Discussion then broadened to an analysis the supervisor is conducting of multiple building-department inspection reports. He said the first two reports indicated only three inspectors are performing field inspections and expressed concern that permit and inspection delays are hampering new businesses. “We have tons of businesses with signs saying ‘coming soon’… It may take a year for a small cafe to open,” he said.

Several board members pressed the supervisor for clearer metrics and asked him to identify the specific deficiencies he had found in the reports. One member argued that delays cited by business owners often stem from contractors failing to file required paperwork rather than from building-department inaction. That member urged the supervisor to provide the board with written examples when asserting department unresponsiveness.

To address permit navigation, the supervisor proposed recruiting community volunteers or Chamber of Commerce members to help applicants through the process and said he would assign interns to survey new businesses and gather experiential data in coming weeks. Board members suggested that, if pursued, the effort should coordinate with the Chamber and department staff rather than substitute for formal department responsibilities.

The board agreed to place Morabito’s presentation as the first item at next week’s work session and requested the supervisor supply more concrete metrics — for example, permit-processing times and counts of inspections performed — ahead of the discussion.

The matter was not resolved at the work session; board members set a follow-up for next Tuesday.