The Village of Plandome initiated and approved a new beautification commission at a meeting on Monday, Oct. 20. The Board of Trustees approved Jeff Sprotte, a longtime Plandome resident, as chairman to spearhead the commission. Sprotte has been beautifying the community on his own for years, including planting flowers, beginning when he was working on his property about 10 years ago.
“I really anticipate the next couple of years to make the village even more beautiful than it is,” he said.
Sprotte said he is surprised by how excited people are to volunteer.
“It’s so nice to have volunteers, as opposed to paying people to do all of this,” he said. “And people want to get involved, and that’s the best thing that I have for you, is the amount of people willing to volunteer and show up.”
an upcoming air
He is figuring out how to organize and scale projects to make sense for the village, and credits the town board and community volunteers for making the commission possible.
“We’re not raising taxes to do any of this stuff. So it’s more about– ‘How can we do this?’” he said. “That’s also part of the volunteering, because we’re not paying gardeners and landscapers to do all this work, and that’s a big help. We are going to be the labor.”
Deputy mayor Damien Quinn echoed the importance of teamwork in bringing beautification projects to life.
“Many hands make light work,” Quinn said. “Mayor Kurkjian’s leadership brought together a bunch of people that were willing to contribute their time and their point of view to making these traffic stops in different corners of the village, sometimes overlooked by the average resident. Once spring comes around and they see how beautiful the traffic stops look, and these former places that were kind of rundown start to spring up and look beautiful, I think they’ll appreciate it. I hope they do anyway.”
Because of the upcoming winter months, the commission won’t be planting for at least a few months. But come spring, the town board may announce initiatives. Sprotte said there will be additional information in the upcoming weeks. To get involved, contact the village hall.
In other news, trustee Damien Quinn was appointed to serve as deputy mayor on the board. He is replacing former Deputy Mayor Don Richardson, who recently moved out of Plandome, as village clerk/treasurer Barbara Peebles said. Quinn has served as a trustee for two years.
“We have good leadership in Mayor Kurkjian, and so I kind of follow his lead and and support the decisions of the village trustees and what we tend to do is listen to the residents,” Quinn said. “The residents really direct this. It’s very traditional local government in that sense.”
The vacant trustee position was given to Rich Dunphy, a longtime resident of the Village of Plandome. The board sought out Dunphy, as they saw qualities they believe will be good additions to the board and the Plandome community.
“We search out village residents who can make a great contribution, and Rich Dunphy qualifies on a great level,” Quinn said.
Quinn considers Dunphy to be a friend.
“He’s a class guy beginning to end. I’ve known him a very, very long time – 20 plus years,” Quinn said. “We spent a lot of time together socially prior to this, because we’re village residents, and it’s a pretty small part of the world.”
