New Castle GOP Slate Touts Business Friendly Approach
New Castle’s Republican candidates in the upcoming election pledged last week to make key changes in policy that would attract businesses to town and expand the commercial tax base to ease the burden on homeowners.
Supervisor candidate Robert Kirkwood and Richard Diefenbach, running for a seat on the town council, were joined last Thursday morning in Chappaqua by county legislator hopeful Terrence Murphy to propose a series of strategies that would make New Castle more business friendly.
“The bottom line is this town is being squeezed on taxes,” said Kirkwood, who is opposing Democrat and planning board chairwoman Susan Carpenter in November. “Our tax base is puny in terms of a commercial tax base. We need to expand that. We need to get some relief to our residential taxpayers.”
Kirkwood said overbearing regulations, such as the requirement that new commercial construction must include residential units on the second floor, and the failure to have sewer connections in Millwood have been stifling business growth.
Since the town has been lagging in attracting new businesses, New Castle has been missing an opportunity to participate in the growth of the bio-tech and information technology industries that other municipalities are benefitting from, Diefenbach said.
“We have intellectual capital here in Chappaqua,” he said. “We need to harness it, we need to work with it and we need to make this town thrive and bring the charm back to Chappaqua.”
The two candidates said they would like to better utilize the town’s industrial zones on Hunts Lane in Chappaqua and in the vicinity of Millwood Lumber as part of their plan to spur growth.
Murphy, who is opposing veteran Democratic County Legislator Michael Kaplowitz in District 4, said in his two years on the Yorktown Town Board the municipality has attracted more than $100 million in new businesses. By attracting more commercial development, private developers would have an incentive to help New Castle solve some of its infrastructure problems, such as making traffic improvements a condition for approval, he said.
“Ninety percent of America runs on small business,” Murphy said. “They are our engine, small business, and we need to keep small business owners in business with less regulations.”
He said he would fight to unlock about $180 million sitting in the county’s capital improvement fund that could be used to help Millwood get hooked up to sewers to help the hamlet realize its growth potential or to fund other projects.
Other initiatives Kirkwood and Diefenbach mentioned is to establish a vibrant chamber of commerce and capitalize on the town’s history by introducing kiosks, which would provide maps of the hamlets and historic landmarks, and making downtown more pedestrian friendly.
Although Kirkwood and Diefenbach must overcome the lopsided Democratic registration in town, they expressed confidence that party labels won’t matter in a local election.
“There are no shortage of ideas. If they’re Democrats’ ideas and they’re good ideas we’re going to implement them,” Diefenbach said. “If they’re Conservative ideas and they’re good ideas we’re going to implement them. I don’t think party really matters to this town. It’s who’s going to get in there and get it done.
Diefenbach will be facing incumbent Democratic Councilwoman Elise Kesler Mottel and Jason Chapin on the Democratic side and independent Rob Greenstein.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/