{"id":211098,"date":"2026-04-27T12:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T12:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/211098\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T12:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T12:21:08","slug":"manor-residents-voice-concerns-about-winsteads-vote-against-budget-and-meeting-with-bronx-park-commissioner-pelham-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/211098\/","title":{"rendered":"Manor residents voice concerns about Winstead\u2019s vote against budget and meeting with Bronx Park Commissioner \u2013 Pelham Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Manor<\/a> <\/p>\n

After Trustee Deborah Winstead voted \u201cno\u201d on the Pelham Manor Budget, three residents questioned her decision during the public comment session at the April 13 Village of Pelham Manor Board of Trustees meeting.<\/p>\n

Cindy Courtien, a resident of Pelham Manor, wanted Trustee Winstead to elaborate on her reasoning behind voting \u201cno\u201d on the Manor Budget. \u201cWould you be able to tell us why? or at least me?\u201d asked Courtein. \u201cEspecially since I did a little bit of research and Village of Pelham Manor tax levy growth is just under 3% every year. Did you know that? And it\u2019s the lowest levy increase we have across all the entities \u00a0in town. The town of Pelham has broken the cap three years in a row and the Village has busted two of the last six years. Did you know that? It\u2019s the smallest growth of any taxes we pay and really it\u2019s a model of fiscal prudence. Congratulations to the board and Lindsay and everyone else. All the while we do this while delivering premium services and no debt which is wonderful. I run a business and that\u2019s what we want, right? So can you tell us why you voted no?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, there were several reasons,\u201d said Winstead. \u201cI think the most important one to me was a matter of transparency and how we consistently under budget the sales tax revenue. I\u2019m not saying we need to spend that money but I do think we should show the residents here a little bit more closely that we can tell overtime that that revenue is coming in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manor resident Steve Shekane voiced concerns about Winstead\u2019s ability to work collaboratively. He referred to a Facebook post made by New York State Senator Nathalia Fernandez about a meeting she had with Trustee Winstead and the Bronx Park Commissioner.<\/p>\n

\u201cSenator Fernandez posted \u2018Teamwork makes the dreamwork. Yesterday, I met with new Pelham Manor Trustee member Debbie Winstead and The Bronx Park Commissioner to discuss the issue of flooding along The Bronx and Pelham border. It takes a joint-effort to remedy such an issue and support all our communities,’\u201d said Shekane. \u201cI didn\u2019t see any official communication from the Village about this visit and there hasn\u2019t been any updates to the community about it. I have a number of questions. How did this meeting come about? Were the Mayor, other Trustees, and Village Manager aware of this meeting and were they invited? What was discussed during this visit and what was the outcome or next steps?\u201d<\/p>\n

Winstead responded and said, \u201cI set up that meeting, well I asked the Senator to set up that meeting, and the discussion was trying to push them along to do the work that they need to do on their side of the property, on the New York City side. They did a study. We have been waiting for them to re-build that bridge, dredge it out, and nothing has been happening. It was an effort to make contact with them and talk with the hydrologist and see what we could do to push it along. The DEC (Department of Environmental Conservation) wasn\u2019t there and what they decided is they wanted the DEC to look at the big pipes that go underneath 95. I guess where the water flows out from 95 through those pipes and into that golf course river basin there. They wanted to check and make sure those were clean before they moved on anything. The next step is to have a meeting with the DEC which was scheduled for today but which got cancelled so we\u2019re gonna try again to push them along and see if they do what they need to do on their side. I will say that they\u2019re worried about mosquitoes in that part of the park and what that\u2019s gonna do to the golfers and I think that someone needs to really impress upon them that we\u2019re talking about people\u2019s homes here and they need to do what they need to do on their side.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would echo that Trustee Winstead that I would hope our State Senator would say who cares about the golf course our people\u2019s homes are at risk,\u201d said Sheknae. \u201cI think all the people on Monroe could tell everyone on this board. Yes, please keep pressing on with the DEC and whatever other meetings come about but our State Senator needs to be at the forefront of this. I hope she was vocal about saying houses over golf courses.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Village Manager, Lindsay M. Luft, said, \u201cI do just want to provide a clarification. I don\u2019t know if it is the same meeting with the DEC regarding our grant application or rather a war \u2013 but we do have a meeting with the DEC on Wednesday to discuss our stormwater project. The throughway authority is not going to be present at that meeting but they are the ones who own the culverts under 95 and they do a pretty good job at maintaining them. They have been at meetings with the parks numerous times and the parks has made it unfortunately rather clear that they don\u2019t intend on judging \u00a0and the don\u2019t believe in judging for the lack of better words so it is absolutely frustrating. I would like to see the DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) involved on the city side, I think we all would, and I just wanted to add those comments. I was not at the meeting that was mentioned specifically regarding the Facebook meeting but I\u2019ve meet with them separately over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steve Shekane asked again if anyone else on the Pelham Manor Board of Trustees was informed about the meeting and Luft responded that she was not informed. He then asked Winstead why she did not inform the other board members of the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I have relationships with them and I\u2019m trying to push it and get them to do something \u00a0for our people on Grant and Monroe,\u201d said Winstead. \u201cThat\u2019s why.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Jennifer Lapey jumped in and said, \u201cI really have to respond to something there. We have relationships too and we have a grant with the DEC for half of that Monroe project. And I think we just have to remember we\u2019re all collaborators on a governing board. All meetings are important. Keeping lines of communication with outside agencies and outside municipalities are important but we have something called a Village Manager in this municipality. And that\u2019s an insight executive. My understanding is with respect to the Monroe project some of this outside communication that has involved you potentially could have compromised the project. Correct?\u201d<\/p>\n

Winstead told Lapey that the project developed last week. After asked by Lapey, Winstead said that she resuscitated the project herself.<\/p>\n

Shekane inferred, \u201cSo, there was separate other one off communications without the Village Manger that potentially caused a problem?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was some confusions caused,\u201d said Winstead. \u201cIt started through an email thread with the DEC. I forwarded it to the Senator\u2019s office. Their contact the Chief of Staff which I typically directly interface with. He called me. We spoke. We clarified what\u2019s going on. Got the train back on the tracks so to speak. I think we are cleared and ready to go for Wednesday to discuss the next steps for the Monroe Street project. I think we all want to see that project break ground asap. I think that is everyone\u2019s goal. We\u2019re in the design phase, absolutely. To keep it on track to go out to bid we need to keep the timeframe. I think the DEC very much agrees with that. So that\u2019s what we\u2019ll be confirming on Wednesday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayor Lapey said, \u201cI guess as the Chief Elected I would ask that any trustees who set up meetings that particularly pertain to projects that we have underway, like the Monroe Street project, that the Manager at a minimum is apprised.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019m much more concerned that this visit was scheduled and took place without the Village manager or any other members of the board,\u201d said Shekane. \u201cTrustee Winstead, you are in office only three months when you had this meeting. \u00a0I\u2019m concerned that any communication that you had with representatives from the city or the state senator were incomplete and potentially uninformed given you did not have detail about years of discussion between the professional over here and the representatives on the other side. You are one member of a team and do not have the ability to make decision or act single-handily so this gives me great pause on your ability to work collaboratively in the interest of this community. You said you didn\u2019t inform anyone and that really is concerning to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another Pelham Manor resident, Sylvia Rowe, voiced concerns about Trustee Winstead\u2019s plan to plant 250 trees.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that based upon the study that was done at Greenwood Cemetery which is about the same size as we are and square milage and they have been replacing trees at a rate 5-6 times that we have and they\u2019re still losing their canopy,\u201d said Winstead. \u201cAnd if we\u2019re replacing one-to-one, it\u2019s not enough to keep the number of trees that we have here. So I do think that the first thing that should come is the funding and then we could figure out maybe there\u2019s a tree giveaway maybe people would want to plant them on their properties. There is room to plant them in the Manor. There\u2019s room to plant more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Trustee Deborah Winstead voted \u201cno\u201d on the Pelham Manor Budget, three residents questioned her decision during the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-211098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}