Voters in Eastchester will go to the polls Nov. 5, or earlier if they choose, to elect a town supervisor, Town Board members and a county legislator.
Eastchester Supervisor Anthony S. Colavita is running for re-election to an eighth two-year term. His opponent is democrat Michael Denning, a retired Eastchester police officer. We applaud Denning for running, and in giving Colavita an opponent. It is important, in our view, for the voters in every Westchester community to have a choice when they go to the polls.
But Colavita deserves re-election for several reasons. First, Colavita and the Eastchester Town Board have made efforts to control spending and keep property tax increases to a minimum. This year’s Eastchester Town Budget has a modest 0.74 percent tax increase.
Colavita has also cut town government in an attempt to control spending, reducing the number of town employees by 25 percent. New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli (a democrat) has acknowledged Eastchester as one of the 10 best fiscally-run towns in the state.
Colavita and the republican Town Board has also put school resource officers in the Eastchester and Tuckahoe schools. Despite some opposition to SROs in other communities, we see SROs as an important part of school safety in today’s dangerous world.
Eastchester, under Colavita’s leadership, was also one of the first communities to pass anti-vaping legislation, outlawing the sale of flavored vaping products in town. What we also like and appreciate in Colavita’s leadership in Eastchester is his desire to continue to improve services to the residents and taxpayers.
At Lake Isle, the town-owned pool, golf course and community center, Colavita is working to build a new facility and a bubble installation over the pool for year-round use.
Experience and qualifications matter, especially when it comes to the complicated projects the town will face (Lord and Taylor, Suez United Water, the dam restoration, etc.). Eastchester deserves qualified leadership, and Colavita and the two Town Board members running with him, Glen Bellito and Joe Dooley, deserve re-election and have our endorsement.
Eastchester Rising also endorses Chris Garitee who is running for county legislator in the 10th district. Please read our endorsement story on Garitee, who is pictured with Colavita above, in our other piece titled, ‘Two Political Extremes Found in Westchester.’
