Support the Davis RiverWalk Center

Contact your legislator right away to let them know that the Kathryn Davis RiverWalk Center is a major economic-stimulus opportunity that deserves their full support.

Use the list or map below to identify your lawmaker. If you wish to contact them by mail, download this sample letter (MS Word, 28K) and personalize it as you see fit. If you wish to submit your comments electronically, copy the letter text in the form below, then click on your lawmaker's name and paste the letter in their comment form on the Board of Legislators' Web site.

Westchester County Legislature

Click on your district to submit a letter to your County Legislator. See this page if you're unsure of your district.

District 1 - George Oros

Sample Letter

Personalize the text of this letter as you wish, then copy-and-paste it into your legislator's comment form.

Dear [Lawmaker Name]:

As a resident of your district, I’m urging you to support the expenditure of county funds to restore the Kingsland Point bathhouse and transform it into the Kathryn Davis RiverWalk Center.

This project is shovel-ready and would immediately lead to 50 construction jobs and additional economic benefits to Sleepy Hollow and the entire county. A county investment would be leveraged by generous private gifts of $4.1 million made by philanthropists through the not-for-profit Scenic Hudson. Scenic Hudson is collaborating with Friends of Westchester Parks in the design and implementation of the project. An additional $2.5 million in county funds is needed to make the project viable based on recent bids.

As an exciting amenity along the Westchester RiverWalk, this unique facility would dramatically impact the lives of residents in Sleepy Hollow and the county.

One of the RiverWalk’s primary goals is to provide access to the majestic Hudson River and links with recreational, cultural and historic resources along the county’s 53-mile shoreline. Rehabilitating the bathhouse as an exciting center for river-related activities offers a superb opportunity to achieve this. As the planned home of a community sailing club and kayak outfitter, it will promote eco-tourism and direct enjoyment of the river. Because it is reachable by train, car and foot, the center is in an optimal location for maximum use as a county-wide facility.

The Kathryn Davis RiverWalk Center promises myriad lasting benefits. It will contribute to Westchester’s $1.7-billion tourism economy and help revitalize downtown Sleepy Hollow, whose waterfront and tax base have suffered a tremendous downturn from stalled plans to redevelop the site of the former GM plant. And it will provide a superb setting for environmental-education programs. Local school officials envision hundreds of students, from grammar school through high school, engaging in hands-on activities at the park’s shallow cove followed by discussion in the center’s classrooms. The Beczak Environmental Education Center in Yonkers also has expressed interest in conducting classes at the facility.

Perhaps most important, the restored building will provide a waterfront gathering place, lacking for decades, for Sleepy Hollow residents and the thousands of expected annual RiverWalk visitors. The center also will provide an educational facility that will enhance student and visitor tours of the historic Sleepy Hollow Lighthouse, Philipsburg Manor and Rockefeller State Park Preserve. Eventually it will tie into links along the RiverWalk at Ichabod’s Landing in Sleepy Hollow to the south and a park currently under construction and renovation on the Tarrytown waterfront.

Westchester County is blessed to have a magnificent facility that can be saved from complete deterioration through collaboration with private partners. I urge you to move forward with a county share in funding this critical project.

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