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| May 05, 2024 |
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General News: Mayor Gross Looks Back on First Year
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| Gross at his first trustee meeting in April 2007. |
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| A lot of people came out to debate a new parking lot in June. |
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| The mayor as explorer Henry Hudson in the 4th of July parade. |
April 04, 2008
One year after he entered office as mayor of Cornwall-on-Hudson, ending the 26-year administration of former mayor Ed Moulton, Joe Gross says his biggest accomplishment is getting more public discussion about the future of the village. A call for openness in government was a key part of his 2007 bid for office.
During the past year, Gross his enacted a management style at public meetings where he actively solicits input from the public on issues in front of the board. He likes to see residents taking part in the community life, whether on the Village Square Improvement Association or the Riverfront Revitalization Committee. He says that when he meets people, he often asks them directly to get involved.
He met Joe DiSalvo down by the Hudson, where he often comes to enjoy the view. Gross asked DiSalvo if he would help plan the future of the riverfront and this Monday the mayor plans to appoint DiSalvo to the Riverfront Revitalization Committee.
When it comes to village business, Gross believes in careful, deliberate action, a practice that has raised some critics' ire. Former Department of Public Works superintendent Bob Gilmore has criticized the mayor’s slow decision-making. During his run for election last month, trustee Peter Miller said the mayor’s indecision had paralyzed the village. It took more than six months of discussion for the village to set a group use policy for Donahue Memorial Park.
Mayor Gross told News from Cornwall and Cornwall-on-Hudson that he has been the lone voice of dissent on some issues, like the proposals to upgrade the municipal parking lot and to use a FEMA grant to build a new seawall. Both of those projects were subsequently squashed. Gross expects that dynamic will change with the election of two new trustees, Barbara Gosda and Rick Gioia.
“We have two new trustees who are strong-willed people and independent thinkers and we have to integrate their ideas with those of the other two trustees and myself,” Gross said.
The mayor said he is counting on Gioia to help introduce the change in recycling pick-ups that start next month, from a weekly to a bi-weekly schedule. Gross believes that the new schedule will conserve manpower and machinery for the village. “If anything, we are trying to set the tone for better resource management,” he noted.
Perhaps Gross’s biggest move is still in the offing, the planned replacement of village attorney Howard Protter, who has advised the village for more than 25 years. Gross says he doesn’t plan to reappointment Protter’s law firm at the re-organization meeting next week. (Read full story here.)
Gross is happy with the progress being made to make the village safer for pedestrians, pointing to the new crosswalks and better enforcement of speeding laws. A train accident at the riverfront last June made him focus more on safety issues at the waterfront and throughout the village. He supports efforts to improve intersections for both walkers and vehicles by the Village Square Improvement Association –a group chaired by newly-elected trustee Gosda.
The responsibility of leadership has had its impact on the 54-year-old mayor, who says he gets a lot less sleep than he used to, often waking after a few hours to make notes about a problem he is trying to solve. Gross knows he is running business differently from the previous adminstration but believes he has a mandate to shake things up at village hall. “People wanted change,” he explained, “and I was the agent of change.”
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