The Jefferson and its Impact on Life Safety Services

Outside of The Rivertowns Enterprise newspaper and its sister publication, the Scarsdale Inquirer, there are few outlets covering Greenburgh. Although there are sites like Patch and the Daily Greenburgh, the "news" posted there consists mostly of press releases or links to the light coverage of Greenburgh in The Journal News. 

Into this breach has stepped the website and Facebook pages of the Edgemont Community Council (see Links section).

Here is an interesting section from their story on the proposed sale of the abandoned Franks Nursery on Dobbs Ferry Road that relates to The Jefferson and its impact on the Town's EMT services which will be strained by the addition of an assisted living facility at the Franks site as well as the planned Assisted Living facility at the Sprain Brook Nursery which is just outside the border of the Village of Ardsley but in the Edgemont Section of Greenburgh:

"While Mr. Feiner is correct when he says that restoring the property to the tax rolls will generate tax revenue once the facility opens, it remains to be seen what the net revenue will turn out to be. Assisted living facilities in Greenburgh are not required to have any emergency medical personnel on site. Accordingly, these for profit facilities depend for life support on taxpayer supported services. At the most recent town board work session, Police Chief Chris McNerney warned town officials that continued approval of assisted living facilities will require adding more EMT's, all at taxpayer expense. And Chief McNerney, who lives in Ardsley ought to know. The Atria assisted living facility in Ardsley is generating a large number of EMS calls. And even though the Atria does pay a substantial amount of taxes, because it is a commercial facility, it can file for tax certioraris, and in September 2015, the Town Board approved tax refunds to the Atria totaling nearly $800,000. Finally, the tax revenues from for profit assisted living facilities that don't accept Medicaid could be short-lived. In order to encourage these facilities to accept Medicaid, and thereby avoid having to evict residents who run out of money (to live in these facilities is very expensive costing at least $7,500 per month), states like New York are considering whether, in exchange for accepting Medicard, these facilities should be exempted from having to pay property taxes. Municipalities like Greenburgh may oppose that, but as the baby boomer population continues to age, eliminating the property tax for assisted living facilities may become inevitable."

Given all the new developments in Ardsley and Greenburgh, coupled with the planned assisted living facilities,  the addition of The Jefferson will, if built, further strain our already overtaxed  life safety services.