I attended the 1st Village Board meeting on Monday, January 5th, for the New Year…and part of my New Year’s resolution to stay involved and engaged for our neighborhood.
Beth and I hope you received our Holiday best wishes and update.
On Monday, I shared with the Mayor and Board of Trustees and Village Departments my Happy New Year Wish List.
In summary, here is what I am asking the Village to understand, embrace and make a difference about:
1. Understand and expand our vision and plan for how Suffern will thrive, just not survive, this recession. The goal is twofold: increase the ability for our Downtown to grow right and map into a bigger plan for optimized development. Fill the stores that are ‘for rent’, make our downtown more appealing and attractive by working with the Chamber of Commerce to market/attract both Villagers and Rockland/Bergen/Orange County-ites. The second goal is to really understand Orange Avenue’s vision and how it will ‘go green’ AND take the Planning Board’s recommendations to make this more attractive. This is good for District 11 if the Board/Dagan LaCorte take this feedback and direction that the community and planning board set into motion before the Holidays.
2. Embrace ideas and needs to make our Village THRIVE, not just survive, the recession. Good companies and great ideas INVEST when times are tough on innovation and excellent vision. The Suffern Chamber of Commerce, through several members, are enthusiastically proposing that Suffern have a 1st annual Music/Arts/Food Festival in Sept, 2009. Aurie Licata, President of the Chamber, has asked me to Chair this event with Co-Chair Jeremy Wall, founding member of Spyro Gyra and local 10901 resident! The benefits to our Village are many…and the benefits to our neighborhood will be equally great.
3. Focus on holding expenses flat, NOT raising taxes, and optimizing costs of Village services. It is critical to make our budget work better and I am even suggested that CPA’s, tax experts, and other Village residents that are good at managing money give their advice/direction asap. Do you remember the movie, “Dave”, where the stand-in President look alike brings in his friend the accountant and they reinvent the Federal budget? This is what I envision for Suffern.
4. Finally, focus on creating an innovative government that embraces technology and automated services to reduce costs and get more people involved. SocialChord (www.socialchord.com) is a new platform that is coming to Suffern’s Village to make us more interconnected. It is critcal to embrace this technology and improve the way we talk about issues, make policy, report on what’s happening and connect our residents.
Happy New Year to you and your family!
Tara (and Beth)
