Village looks for a proposal
The Village Board has authorized its engineering firm to put out a ‘Request for Proposal’ for a parking garage structure for, presumably, the Main St. area of Highland Falls.
The action was taken at Monday evening’s Village Board meeting, and no one is quite sure what will come of it.
“It’s exploratory,” Mayor Joe D’Onofrio explained. “We will see what proposals we get, and how it could benefit the village.”
Trustee Melanie Guerrero explained that the board is not looking to own and operate a garage, but for “a company who wants to come in here and build and operate a parking garage”
“I don’t think village government should be in the business of running a parking garage,” she said. She also indicated that she doesn’t want the village even spending money to go out looking for proposals.
Deputy Mayor Jim DiSalvo defended the idea, saying “parking has always been a primary issue in this village; if we want to attract commerce, we have to have parking for them.”
The topic drew some comments from the audience.
Highland Falls’ Mike Joyce asked where a parking structure might be built, saying he thinks the area where the municipal lot across from Sacred Heart Church is would be preferable to the municipal lot behind Town Hall. He appeared to support a parking building “because we’re penned in here, we can’t grow out, so we have to grow up”. He also said that he’s been to other “historical” communities where “really tasteful” parking lots have been built.
Highland Falls Olga Anderson wondered why the village was talking about a parking garage — “a new comprehensive plan is coming out,” she said, “shouldn’t we take a look at that first?”
Joe DeWitt, also of Highland Falls (and a town councilman) asked if the village had studied the feasibility, funding and potential ROI (return on investment) of a parking garage; D’Onofrio indicated that would be included in any proposals collected by the RFP.
Finally, Highland Falls’ Kat Dagaev, told the board there are other things they should be doing first.
“It seems to me a waste of time, energy and money for something that shouldn’t even be on the Top 100 list of things that needs to be done in Highland Falls,” she said.
