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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From the Westchester County Department of Communications.  December 7, 2018:

County Executive George Latimer said: “For over 10 years, the prospective repair and re-opening of Memorial Field in Mount Vernon has laid fallow for a number of different reasons. While I have only been on this job for almost 12 months, I know Memorial Field well – it was where I had my High School graduation. Earlier this year, we held a meeting with City officials, after which we made the decision to make the offer through an inter-municipal agreement that the County will take the lead on the completion of this project – and solely for its completion – not its management. The Mount Vernon City Council approved the agreement, on Monday night the County Board of Legislators approved the amended agreement and I am signing it here today.”

Now that the amended IMA has been signed, the County has hired the design firm Woodard & Curran, the same firm who had completed the design plans roughly 10 years ago, to revisit the original design of Memorial Field. The first step will be to have a surveyor go and survey the property since so much time has passed since it was originally done – this is slated to happen December 17. Once the survey is done, Woodard & Curran can work on the preliminary design and then finalize the design. While the design will not start from scratch, the amended IMA requires we use the original plans. Final design is expected by the end of the summer – at which point the project will go out to bid.

ther, while this is happening, on a parallel path, the City of Mount Vernon needs to have a site remediation plan approved by the State Department of Environmental Conservation (“DEC”) to remove the construction debris that was dumped there. The City’s approved plan will outline the work that needs to be done for construction to happen. This issue is solely Mount Vernon’s responsibility.

Now that these plans are in place and signed, without any unforeseen issues – construction will begin in 2019 and Mount Vernon residents will soon have a new – and still historic – Memorial Field to enjoy for generations to come.

Latimer concluded: “We want to show people that reasonable people can work together, that we can work together across party lines, that we can work together across different levels of government in order to actually get things done and solve a problem.”