Bedford Board Expands Leaf Blower Limits

BEDFORD, N.Y. - Given an expansion of permitted time, Bedford homeowners and landscapers will be able to fire up gasoline-powered leaf blowers for six weeks, not two, this fall.

Scrapping the planned two-week limit for those noisy machines, the Town Board voted last week to allow their use in a fall “cleanup season,” defined as the time between Oct. 26 and Dec. 7.

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The board’s action, in the form of an amendment to the Bedford noise ordinance, follows public hearings that began in June. They featured the competing claims of those who rely on the machines to accomplish a heavy autumn-cleanup lift and others who applauded the two-week limit or urged an outright ban.

In the end, the needs of the town’s own employees and the challenges they must meet in maintaining Bedford’s three parks, helped inform the board’s decision.

Supervisor Ellen Calves said, “I’m happy to say our parks are a hundred percent maintained with electric equipment except . . . during fall cleanup season.”  Then, she noted, “the quantity of debris in the storm drains and around the parks becomes overwhelming and they need to use more-powerful equipment.”

During cleanup season, gas-powered blowers can chase leaves on nonholiday weekdays from 8 a. m. to 5 p.m., Saturdays 10 a. m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m.

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In part, a slower-than-expected advance in battery technology is being blamed for the town’s retreat on a full or nearly full reliance on all-electric gear for leaf cleanup.

Two years ago, anticipating more-muscular but far quieter battery-powered blowers by 2024, the Town Board adopted aggressive limits on the number of months/weeks gas leaf blowers may be used. This fall’s scheduled two-week window drew pushback from users of gas blowers, including parks-maintenance personnel.

Looking to avoid another overly optimistic projection, Calves is now asking her parks superintendent, Chris Soi, to annually assess advances in electric blowers. Based on what he sees as improved battery technology as well as use of alternative landscaping practices. Soi will recommend dates for a given year’s cleanup.

Open Space Fund

A controversial plan to beef up funding for land acquisitions by levying a tax on pricey property transfers has been shelved, at least for now.

Saying such a transfer tax, proposed in March by an open-space task force, “needs more focus,” Supervisor Ellen Calves told the Town Board’s July 16 meeting, “We have not decided to move this forward.”

In public hearings last month, supporters of the plan—homeowners, environmental groups and others—and the proposal’s opponents—primarily real estate professionals—voiced sharply different opinions.

Supporters said the additional money would help preserve the town’s character while the real estate community warned the new tax would make it much tougher to sell Bedford to potential homebuyers.

The graduated tax, ranging from a half percent up to 2 percent on any properties selling above the median price, $778,000, was projected to pump an extra $1.77 million a year into Bedford’s open-space-acquisition kitty. The fund already gets roughly $450,000 annually from a 2 percent share of the town’s property-tax levy.

But simply adding a new tax now for preservation purposes, Calves suggested, was premature. “There are a lot of historic, environmental and beautiful things in our town that really aren’t protected,” she said. “Once we as a community identify what those things are, figuring out what the mechanism is to protect them is the next step.”

Suit Settled

Bedford police Sgt. Richard O’Connell sued the town three years ago, charging he had been discriminated against and denied promotion because he was serving in the Coast Guard Reserve.

Last week, the Town Board ratified an out-of-court deal that puts O’Connell on administrative leave—but still on the payroll—till he qualifies for his 20-year pension. That could take till March 2030, at $5,000 a year in salary.

Under the settlement agreement, approved without comment by the Town Board, O’Connell will draw his annual $5,000 in biweekly installments while his lawyer, Thomas Jarrard of Spokane, Wash., will receive a lump-sum $125,000.

New Office Hours

In an experiment starting in September, Bedford’s building and planning departments will close to the public earlier than usual.

Scrapping the current 4:30 closing time, the new “public hours” will be 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. each weekday but Wednesday, when hours will run from 8:30 to noon. The staffs in both offices will continue to work, away from the public, till 4:30.

The change, Supervisor Ellen Calves said in a memo, “will enable the staff to have a few hours a week to focus without interruption on review, processing, make and return calls, hold meetings, train on and manage the (coming soon) online permitting system or undertake more complex projects.”

“It’s definitely a trial,” she told the Town Board’s July 16 meeting, “and if it’s not working, we don’t have to keep doing it.”
Flex Time

In a separate action, the board approved a Calves recommendation aimed at giving town employees an early start on their summer weekends. Starting tomorrow (July 26) and continuing through Aug. 30, town offices will close to the public at 1 p.m. on Fridays.

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