The Peekskill Common Council held a work session and regular meeting on Monday, November 10, 2025, beginning at 6:30 p.m. The agenda included a presentation on the Regeneration Farms project, discussions on community hub planning and battery storage moratorium, four public hearings (tax cap override, 2026 budget, payment in lieu of parking text amendment, and a cannabis micro-business application), and nine resolutions. Votes on the tax cap override and budget were postponed to November 24.
The meeting adjourned into executive session.
And a short agenda and then an executive session. The mayor is out of town, so I will be leading the meeting tonight. So I'm going to get started with a presentation. So Matt. Okay. Good evening, Deputy Mayor and Council. Good evening. Hi. First up tonight, I have regeneration farms. And we've got Jason Angel and Amanda Armentaros from Regeneration Farms. And they're gonna do a presentation. And Jason, you want to introduce a little presentation lined up on the computer, but do I? I'm not the most technically. How do I get it to show up on the screen? Here. Thank you. I share screen. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Um I will just quickly give a brief overview. How are you all this evening? Good. Good. Uh we'll give a brief overview of the Peace Gill Regeneration Farm, but then very quickly pass it over to Amanda Armentaros. Uh my name is Jason Angel. I'm co-director of the Ecological Citizens Project. And uh we are here tonight to celebrate five years of partnership with the city of Peakskill on the Peace Gill Regeneration Farm. So uh we we signed the initial license agreement to use that city owned land at Lapore Park five years ago. That current license agreement ends at the end of this year. Uh and so we wanted to give a little bit of an overview of community impact over five years, and then we wanted to pass it over to Amanda Armentaros, who has been uh managing and stewarding that space over the last two years plus. Uh and as we discussed with the city renegotiating a second license agreement, the ecological citizens project has proposed um that that license agreement finds its way to Amanda Armentaros and the new nonprofit organization that she has founded called Bee Farms, uh, which you will talk a little bit more about. But we've always hoped that the license agreement would pass to a community-based organization in Peakskill. So, very just very briefly, this is a picture of the Peaks Gill Regeneration Farm at Lapore Park. Uh it was established in 2020 uh on an underused green section of Lapor Park. It's a public food garden open to all city residents with food provided at no cost to city residents, and educational and cultural programs also provided at no cost. And I'm just gonna give a little summary of impact before I hand it over to Amanda. Um the highlights over the last five years are that um that that space has been supported by over 450,000 raised through state and private grants uh to invest in the no-cost food access programs and cultural events and job training, uh, more of which Amanda will talk about. A thousand plus pounds of free organic vegetables, herbs, and flowers have been distributed uh over those five growing seasons to Peak Skill residents supporting food access, particularly in these times when um food access is a real need. Uh a urban youth apprenticeship jobs program launched by Amanda in 2023, has so far trained seven paid youth apprentices who are paid to learn urban agricultural skills on that farm site. The site has offered over 30 free public events and workshops, engaging over a thousand community members. Uh there has been a new pollinator garden uh established in collaboration with the Peak Skill Conservation Advisory Council and other community organizations, a public food forest has been planted where all of the fruit is available to community members at no cost, and there's been investments in in community infrastructure at the park, including community picnic tables for people to be there, um public signage, raised garden beds to improve accessibility for seniors, public art, and a tool shed. Uh and so um we have really uh valued the partnership with the city of Peakskill. We think it's proven to be a great model, uh, and we valued that partnership over that first license agreement. And as the Ecological Citizens Project, we just say we have so much confidence in Amanda. Uh she's raised in Peakskill and has done such an amazing job creating community collaborations, and we really hope the city considers um Amanda's new organization, B Farms, which is incorporated as a nonprofit uh as the second Lisi. But with that, I'll pass it over to Maine Event, Amanda. Please. Yes. Thank you.