Journey to the Center of the Earth: Rye City Council – Meeting Minutes from February 13, 2008

Venerable City Clerk Sue Morison penned her last city council minutes during the February 13, 2008 meeting. There was so much material on the 13th, Morrison way have a workers comp claim for carpel tunnel after her 12 page manifesto.

Let’s get to it:

First, a little Jules Verne for all you literature fans. Mayor Otis reported attending a public hearing on the proposed Rye-Syosset tunnel and discussed one possible strategy for opposition to the tunnel project:

"…everyone owns the land below their homes all the way to the center of the earth so the Mayor suggested Rye could, if necessary, enact a law requiring a permit to excavate under our homes. He asked the Corporation Counsel to further investigate this possibility."

If you were planning to sell your air rights to Donald Trump, now you can sell your "center of the earth rights" to tunnel developer Vincent Polimeni. Given the natural curvature of the earth, we think Rye and Syosset homeowners could have competing claims once we hit 1,000 miles below the earth’s surface. Start digging and plant your flag now!

Back to reality, here are the highlights from the 18 items in the last Morison minutes:

• Council spent 52 minutes in executive session discussing the Osborn  and "other" pending litigation.
• Councilwoman Parker was congratulated on the birth of her son Aiden Walker.
• Sue Morison was thanked for her seven years of service as City Clerk. (MyRye.com note: we’ll miss your minutes!)
• During "open mic" (AKA "Residents may be heard who have matters to discuss that do not appear on the agenda’), a "flood" of Indian Village residents – Bernie Althoff, Greg MacKenzie and Holly Kennedy – inquired about the status of various flood mitigation projects. More on this issue will be covered in a follow-up story.
• A public hearing on noise abatement, fines and leaf blowers continued.
• Trailways and Traffic Safety Committee. We’ll write-up a follow-up story on this one too, but Doug French presented the group’s recommendations and ominously stated Rye needs safer routes to school just weeks before a tragic accident.
• Brian Dempsey, chair of the Traffic & Transit Committee and a traffic consultant, presented a study prepared by his firm TRC Engineers recommending the Central Avenue bridge be re-built.
• City Planner Christian Miller discussed revisions to a storm water code and said his committee (the Water Runoff Working Group composed of Serge Nivelle, Jim Nash, Carolyn Cunningham, Hugh Greechan, Larry Lehman, Lewis Nash and Richard Filippi) was recommending a number of things to reduce runoff including reducing the size of property requiring a permit from 300 tom 100 square feet and to encourage property owners to maximize on-site storm water runoff retention.
• Our men and women in blue got new duds. Council approved a bid for new police uniforms.

Want more? Read the complete Rye City Council February 13, 2008 minutes.