Peekskill Council delays property-transfer policy, approves pontoon pilot after resident concerns about jet skis and lot sales

Peekskill's Common Council on May 26 paused action on a proposed citywide policy for disposing of surplus property and asked staff to return with clearer, measurable standards after council members and residents raised concerns about transparency and fairness.

City Manager Matt told the council staff had drafted a policy outlining four sale methods — auction, request for bids, listing with a licensed broker, or negotiated sale with appraisal — and had framed the steps for declaring property surplus and establishing fair market value. He said the policy would be published to improve transparency. "This is also to put out as a published document for the public to see for transparency," Matt said.

Council members pressed for specific, measurable affordability criteria and for language allowing limited internal evaluation prior to a surplus declaration. "I'd like to see us really define what that measurable criteria is and remove some of the subjective language," Councilman Fassett said, asking for thresholds such as unit counts to define affordability. Several council members argued outright that a blanket ban on any pre-marketing or negotiation could hamstring the city's ability to evaluate market interest for unique parcels.

Council members agreed to revise the draft, correct formatting and return it to the committee of the whole; the mayor directed staff to pull Resolutions J5, J6 and J7 until the policy is finalized so that no properties would be addressed in the meantime.

At the same meeting the council voted to authorize the city manager to negotiate a one-year pontoon-boat concession with Saugerties Marina LLC to operate at Fleischmann Pier, a pilot the staff described as offering weekday resident discounts and free community cruises. Matt described a typical pontoon option as —$200 for a one-hour rental— (the written proposal varied between a one-hour and 90-minute option) with a $15 fee paid to the city per trip, and said operators would offer multiple watercraft options, including kayaks and stand-up paddleboards.

Not all attendees supported large-scale jet-ski operations. A resident at 308 Ringgold Street told the council jet skis are "extremely noisy" and expressed concern about impacts on riverfront visitors and aquatic ecosystems. "A 10% discount on a Wednesday is not going to really help the kids that are gonna be standing on the shore looking at people jet skiing who would never be able to do that," Mayor McKenzie said while relaying public concern, and council members asked staff to bring back more detailed pricing, insurance and access proposals before finalizing any agreements.

Several public commenters also urged the council to reconsider sale processes for small lots and to treat affordable housing as an explicit public benefit in disposal decisions. Tanya Dwyer, who identified herself as living at 1 Park Place, urged the council to prioritize households in need and warned that auction or all-cash requirements could exclude potential affordable-housing buyers.

The council directed staff to revise the surplus-property policy with clearer affordability metrics, minimal public-notice specifications and allowance for preliminary internal evaluations, then return the draft to committee for further review. The pontoon concession authorization will proceed to negotiation, with staff asked to report back with detailed terms including insurance, pricing for non-jet-ski craft, resident discounts and operational locations.