Jay Heritage Center Hopes New County Leadership Will Herald Improved Relations

Westchester County Government has a new administration in place, but will a change in the county's political leadership help to alleviate longstanding tensions between Westchester Parks, Recreation and Conservation (WPRC) and the Jay Heritage Center?

The Jay Property is a national, state, and regional historic landmark. Its property totals 23 acres, of which the Jay Heritage Center (JHC) owns 1.5 acres. New York State and Westchester County co-own the remaining 21.5 acres. Within that shared interest, the county is responsible for maintaining the grounds on behalf of the state, which claims 90 percent of the land purchased from a private developer in 1993.

Suzanne Clary, President of the JHC, is optimistic that County Executive Rob Astorino, who was sworn into office on Jan. 3, will hail in a new, more productive relationship between JHC and the county.

"A lot of the things that have happened in the past were with an old county administration. There's all sorts of new leadership that we're excited to work with," Clary said.

Clary hopes to work with Astorino's administration to make the county-owned grounds more accessible to the Rye community as well as those visiting from outside the area, especially for educational purposes.

"If the county and the state could help us with that, that is a terrific amount of power to harness," Clary said.

The property, a once sprawling 400 acres along the Long Island Sound, was the childhood home of John Jay. Jay, who served in all three branches of American government, was the only Founding Father to hail from New York and his legacy is deeply rooted in Rye.

While Clary maintains optimism for future work with the county, she notes profound differences in the manner JHC maintains its 1.5 acres of the Jay Property compared to how the county has maintained the park.

Conflicts surrounding the Jay Property resumed last month when county-owned trucks, on their way to fill a dangerous in-ground pool, left deep ruts bordering a stone wall built by John Jay's brother.

Westchester County Parks spokesperson Peter Tartaglia told Patch, "we are well within our rights to do that. We were correcting a safety issue."
 
In an email to Clary, Joseph Stout, commissioner of Westchester County Parks, said that the pool was filled after a lengthy planning process and that the damaged areas would be restored after the project was over.

"We are confident that the fill is safe and if it contains a certain amount of debris, we will investigate and remove any debris if needed," Stout wrote.

Stout also said, "the area you point out is of no significant historical value as you surely know from the Jay Heritage Center recommending this area for complete clearing and grubbing."

"Drawings of the original property suggest that slave quarters were located in that area and Native American artifacts have been found throughout the Jay Property," Clary responded. She believes that archaelogical research on the area should have been done before trucks were authorized to drive through it.

"We do not believe the county has done any archaeology since 1993," she said.

Amongst the JHC's other goals in working with the county are to promote county-funded archaelogical research, address invasive plant species, and support maintenance of buildings on the grounds.

The Jay property is managed by the county's Conservation Division. County funds are appropriated within the Conservation Division for maintenance of both the Marshlands and the Jay Property.

According to Tartaglia, there is no direct budget allocation for the Jay Property.

"All yearly maintenance work provided by us is absorbed through our operating budget. We assume responsibility for the development and maintenance of the 21.5 acres," he said.

In February 2009, the Westchester County Board of Legislators Committee on Budget and Appropriations introduced an Act to their agenda that would allot $600,000 of county bonds "to finance capital project RM102-Marshlands/Jay Property Site Work."

"The problem with capital projects is that it's a five year process before we can actually begin," Tartaglia said.

The Bond Act was included on all Budget and Appropriations meeting agendas up until December 2009 when, according to Westchester County Press Secretary Tara Martin, it died in committee.

The halt of the bond act could make hopes for any potential capital improvement projects for the JHC --and  improved relations with the county--even more tenuous. 

"No plans are in place to resubmit it as of today," Martin said.