Editor's Note: The following release was submitted by Cortlandt Supervisor Linda Puglisi. If you would like to post your news to Patch, click here.
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Our Town Hall was a former Lakeland School District Elementary School which was put up for sale by the district in 1989.
The Town of Cortlandt government after a successful public referendum vote in 1991, purchased the school for Town Hall office purposes. The cost was 1.1
million dollars and was paid in full without bonding.
Early in 1992, a $500,000, 5-year note was voted on by the then Town Board to complete necessary improvements before the majority of Town offices could
move into our new town hall. This note is now completely paid and therefore
no debt is left on our town hall.
Additional renovations over the years have either been paid for by state grants
or from annual budget funds. Once again no debt.
The Cortlandt Town Hall is located off Oregon Road on Heady Street and sits
on six acres. The main building is 30,000 sq. ft. and has offices for the
Supervisor, Town Clerk, Receiver of Taxes, Human Resources, Assessor,
Engineering, Planning, Comptroller, Code Enforcement, Recreation; as well as,
the Town Court and County Police offices. The smaller building is for
Purchasing, Central Supplies andthe Department of Technology.
About half of the Town employees (100) Work at this location and the others
work out of central operations buildings/garages and the Community Center,
Youth Center, Nor-West and the Town Attorney offices.
After a one-year renovation period of this former school to make it suitable for
town government offices, the move took three days in early December of 1992.
Previously many of these town offices were either spread throughout the
community or shared space in the Village of Croton~onHudson municipal
building. The Town Court and the Recreation departments are two examples
that were located in other areas of town and moved to the Town Hall. The
purpose was to have a central government located in one facility to be more
efficient and cost effective to better serve the residents of Cortlandt.
Vincent Nyberg who was the Town’s longtime Code Enforcement Director also
was a licensed architect and engineer (P.E.). Therefore, he was the perfect
choice to be appointed the project manager of our New Town Hall renovations
project. Vinny did a wonderful job with input from the Supervisor and Town
Board, all of the departments and a citizen committee which helped to select
color schemes, furnishings, etc.
I had the honor of being on the original negotiating team, as a town council member, with the Lakeland School District and the Town administration. The
negotiations began in 1989 and resulted in the Cortlandt community having a
beautiful Town Hall to be proud of, to have a central government office
building and to add to Cortlandt’s identity.
The Town Hall is also historic. The first wing was a WPA project in the 1930's.
The original brickwork was preserved. The Second wing was constructed in
1957 and the third in 1974.
Our Town Hall dedication ceremony took place on a Sunday afternoon on Dec. 5, 1992. There had been a snowwstorm the day before but we went
forward with the ceremony the next day and had a packed house of about 300
people. It was a very festive and special day for Cortlandt.
I have been privileged to serve as the Town Supervisor who had my first offices
in the Croton Municipal Building and being the first Supervisor in our new
Town Hall having been sworn in as Town Supervisor on Jan. 1, 1992. I always knew that this former elementary school recycled into a town hall would
serve our community well and it has done just that for twenty years.
In closing, one of the best parts of my position as Supervisor is to greet young
students and scout groups touring our Town Hall and to talk to them about the
importance of local government in our lives. I always say to them, I hope you will consider public service in your future and perhaps become a Town Supervisor in our lovely Town Hall. Thank you!
