Does Cleveland Drive really need repaving?

Croton resident Mike Mamone says no. Village officials beg to differ.

Cleveland Drive at intersection with Truesdale shortly before striping/ Village of Croton-on-Hudson

While the agendas of Croton-on-Hudson Board of Trustees meetings vary widely from week to week, there are two events one can count on with clockwork regularity. One, that the mayor will open the meeting with a recital of the Pledge of Allegiance. And two, that Young Avenue resident Mike Mamone will address the Board during both the agenda and non-agenda public speaking slots.

Not even Croton’s Ed Riely can match Mamone’s regularity of appearances before the trustees. Mamone has deep family roots in Croton, and he certainly has the right to speak his mind. He almost invariably begins by criticizing the quality of the sound system in the Georgianna Grant meeting hall, and those complaints may be credited at least in part with some improvements (the quality of the video feed still awaits an upgrade, however, although Village Manager Bryan Healy has said that is coming soon.)

Most of the rest of Mamone’s comments convey his conviction that the Board of Trustees spends money like a bunch of drunken sailors, and he is always handy with alleged examples. One such, which he has now repeated so many times we have lost count (but at least ten times if not more) is his claim that the village is wasting money with its upcoming plan to repave Cleveland Drive and some adjoining streets.

“It doesn’t need it,” Mamone insists, adding that he has personally inspected the street himself.

So we finally got around to asking village officials to respond to the contention that this work is not needed. Here is what Superintendent of Public Works Frank Balbi had to say. We will leave it to readers to decide who is right.

“Resurfacing of roadways is based on many factors including age of the roadway, traffic volume, funding, condition of the asphalt, and the condition of the subsurface layers. Every year, Village staff create the resurfacing list based on a combination of these variables.

Cleveland Drive is a major roadway that has not been paved in a long time. While one could argue that some sections are not in desperate need of resurfacing, other areas are definitely ready for treatment. Also, funding plays a major factor in selecting this roadway for pavement.

The Village is in a unique situation this year where Federal funding is available to us for resurfacing. However, the grant money is restricted to specific classifications of roadways. One of the few roadways that are correctly classified within the Village is Cleveland Drive. Resurfacing Cleveland Drive this year would re-set the clock for maintenance to the roadway, and the financial burden would be shifted to the available grant money, and not Village funds.

Also, this funding is separate from the money used in the regular resurfacing program. That project will be undertaken as usual, in addition to the resurfacing of Cleveland Drive.”

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