A village
with a past
Piermont has
a fascinating past. Before morphing into the charming arty river
village we know today, it was, in reverse order, a mill town,
World War II port of debarkation, summer resort for city swells,
major railroad terminus and Dutch colonial shipping center.
Piermont through
a past Mayor's eyes
by Dennis W. Hardy, then Mayor of Piermont
-Nyack Villager 3/99
From Sunday visitors we often hear, "Oh, Piermont's such
a quaint little town, it must be a great place to live."
They're partly right: it is a great place to live. But it's a
village, not a town and it is a great place to be Mayor of. Like
many Hudson River communities, Piermont has survived by adapting
to changing economic situations by capitalizing on its scenic
beauty, by encour- aging the involvement of all it's citizens
both home owners and business entrepreneurs, and by being blessed
with volunteers who fight fires, run an ambulance corps and underwater
rescue team.
We have long been a full-service community, with Police and
Highway Depart- ments, Justice Court, public library, year round
recreation program as well as the aforementioned Fire Department.
Churches of many denominations grace our village, architectural
styles run the gamut from pre-Revolution colonial to absolute
contemporary.
There is flat land along the water, some hills that are easy
to climb and some that are more mountainous. We have a marsh,
a bird sanctuary, parks and hiking paths. Piermonters love parades,
picnics and fishing on the pier. Our ball field is home to PAL
and T-shirt teams. Bicycling is so popular that the Village Board
recently took a leaf from neighboring Grand View's book and adopted
a single file rule.
Most of the time my Village Board members and I agree that
serving the public is an exciting and rewarding challenge. Recently
in order to control developers' enthusiasm and avoid being overwhelmed
by growth, we capped the number of both residential and commercial
units on the pier. We passed a law setting foot space, lot size
ratio and adopted very tight blasting restrictions to help control
building elsewhere in the village.
We constantly explore co-operative ventures among municipalities
seeking to offer responsible government at an affordable level.
Neighboring Grand View came to us for ambulance service and to
South Nyack for police coverage. We watch what other local Municipalities
do to increase their effectiveness and efficiency and if their
methods appear to have relevance, we think about and talk about
their applicability to Piermont. And while we listen carefully
and examine other suggestions, we also find that utilizing our
own creativity works well.
