by Dave Zornow
Nyack, Dec 30 — Nyack starts the new year with a new administration and new faces on the Village Board. There are also new appointees as deputy mayor and new chairpersons of the village planning and zoning boards.
At the January 4th reorganization meeting for the board, new trustee Doug Foster will be appointed Deputy Mayor. Peter Klose will head up the Planning Board and Catherine Friesen will chair the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA). Eileen Kuster-Collins will continue as chairperson of Nyack’s Architectural Review Board.
With the Village Board having approved a new zoning code, Nyack is entering a challenging period of change and fluctuation in the land use arena. ‘€œNyack needs to move forward to encourage careful development of Main Street and the waterfront,’€ says Klose. ‘€œWe need to open the Nyack Gateway to responsible progress for our families and our businesses.’€ With large scale projects on the horizon, Klose says the Planning Board will be faced with difficult and technical applications. ‘€œThe future is exciting if we have an imagination and the determination to make our community better.’€
Klose is a Nyack attorney who previously served as a member of the planning board. He received a bachelor’s degree from Cornell and a law degree from the New England School of Law and worked at several large litigation firms before opening his law office in 2003. A 2010 graduate of Leadership Rockland, he is also director of the River Rowing Association and a director of the Nyack Chamber of Commerce.
He replaces Chris Blair who served as Planning Board Chairman for more than ten years. Mayor-elect Richard Kavesh says Blair’s legacy will be felt for decades to come as a result of the hundreds of site plans reviewed and approved by the Planning Board. ‘€œVillage government will miss his wisdom, his common sense and his work ethic and innate sense of fairness,’€ says Kavesh.
New Zoning Board of Appeals Chairperson Catherine Frisen is a former federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and an associate at MacCartney, MacCartney, Kerrigan & MacCartney in Nyack. ‘€œCathy Friesen is scrupulously fair and hard-working and a brings proven record of expertise and leadership on land-use issues as a member of the Planning Board,’€ says Kavesh. Frisen says she will miss the people and energy of the Planning Board. ‘€œI am looking forward to working with the ZBA, especially given the new zoning code, ‘€ she says. Friesen is a graduate of Columbia Law School.
Doug Foster becomes Deputy Mayor succeeding Trustee Louise Parker who has held that position for the last six years. ‘€œI feel that it’s important for either the Mayor or the Deputy Mayor to work in Nyack,’€ says Kavesh. Foster is president of Foster Solutions, Inc., a Nyack-based software company which specializes in web development, database marketing and GIS/urban planning analysis. ‘€œAs a former city planner in Ithaca, Doug brings decades of experience in planning and economic development, which are vital at this time of difficult economic choices with so many important projects under discussion,’€ says Kavesh. Foster is also a co-founder of NyackNewsAndViews.com.
Kavesh says he plans to rotate among the Deputy Mayor position among various members of the Board.
New Village Board Members Jen White and Steve Knowlton will join Kavesh and Foster at a swearing-in ceremony open to the public on Thursday 12/31 at 1:30p at Village Hall. Outgoing Mayor John Shields will host the proceedings, violinist Anna Silarski will provide a musical prelude, and Nyack’s Dr. Richard Deats, former Executive Secretary of Upper Nyack’s Fellowship of Reconciliation, will speak at the beginning of the ceremonies.
