Village to Host Workshop to Help with Home Improvements

Are you adding a deck? Shoring up some stairs? Putting in a pool?

Then you'll have some paperwork to do before you or your contractor hammers in the first nail. It needn't be too complicated, said Christina Papes, assistant village manager for the village of Ossining.

"For people new to the process, it can be daunting," she told Patch. "But we are friendly and we are here to help residents through the process."

It's not so complicated that homeowners need to hire an expediter—as an increasing number of Americans are doing, according to the Wall Street Journal—but a number of local officials will be on hand to present the basics of working with the planning department this Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. at the Joseph G. Caputo Community Center.

Scheduled to appear are Mayor Hanauer, village trustee Manuel Quesada, village manager Richard Leins, director of code enforcement Alberto Ciraco, Valerie Monastra, director of planning, and Fernando Gonzalez, the village assesor.

Papes said that it's in the best interests of local residents to follow the process completely from the beginning because it can be more difficult to un-do mistakes after construction or renovations have started.

"We are here to help make sure work gets done safely, rather than serve as a punitive board," she said. In some cases, if proper procedures aren't followed, people can get hurt, she added, relating the story of a village building inspector who fell through a deck he had gone to inspect at a local residence.

A town building inspector can stop work on a project if the necessary permits haven't been obtained, she said.

For more information on the workshop, see the attached flyer.