Sleepy Hollow Talks Water Tank With State Park

SLEEPY HOLLOW, N.Y. – Plans for the village to improve its water reservoir tank have hit a snag finding a suitable location.

The cheapest solution the village has would be to move its tank FEET from its existing location in the Rockefeller Park Preserve, Mayor Ken Wray said. But the state park system has reservations.

“We had proposed to New York State and the park system to swap the land,” Wray told an audience at Kendal-on-Hudson during Tuesday's Board of Trustees meeting. “We said 'Look, let us build a brand-new reservoir down the hill a little bit.'”

The new tank would be set into an embankment, making it “all but invisible to everyone,” Wray said, but the plan was rebuffed by park officials.

“We continue to hope that they will consider that as an alternative,” he said. “We'd much rather do that.”

The village is looking to increase its water storage capacity from about 800,000 gallons to 2.4 million gallons so that it would have a 24-hour supply of water should it get cut off for any reason. Several options have been proposed, but trustees have yet to come to a decision on the matter and a public hearing will continue next Tuesday.

Sleepy Hollow resident Jack Gasko told Wray he was disappointed in the park's response.

“I have a little trouble with a New York State park telling a village of over 9,000 people that bridle paths and the horsey set is more important than our safety and well-being in the village,” Gasko said.

Wray noted that, although the Rockefeller Park Preserve is unwilling to let them move the tank, they legally own the land the current tank sits on. Wray said that the easement agreement specifies length and width though “it doesn't say anything about how high we can go or how low we can go.”

Two options being considered are blasting the rock beneath the tank to expand it or constructing a tank within the existing tank that would expand several tens of feet high into the air.

Wray said the village would be considering the visual impact to the park when making its decision.

“We love the park and we would like to do something where there isn't this gigantic new man-man thing” sitting in the park, he said.

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