Good morning.

I am legislator Terry Clemens, and I'm going to call this meeting to order.

This is the Cultural Affairs Task Force, and it is now open at 11.04, 2026.

And I'm going to take an attendance.

I am here.

And I'm excited to welcome the Parks and Recreation Committee.

First Deputy Commissioner Peter Tartaguli.

Good morning, Peter.

Good morning.

How are you today?

Yes.

Just fine.

So we're doing this so that we can make sure that all the other legislators, if they have any questions or want to go on and see what we're doing this summer, we have this recorded and ready to go for them.

So thank you for attending this morning.

Happy to be here.

Okay.

So if you would like to discuss some of the events that we're going to be having this summer, and I notice for me personally, a lot of times I always think, oh, everybody, everything is at Kensico and all the cultural affairs of heritage events are not always at Kensico.

So if you would point that out as we go along.

Sure.

I mean, we have a you know, we have a long history in uh Westchester County Parks of co-sponsoring and being part of Heritage Festival.

Some of them go back to the 1970s, uh, and some of them are more recent.

Um the majority of them are at Kensico, but there are some that are not.

Um, and the wonderful thing about these events is they're free and open to the public.

Um, and they celebrate uh not only just the basic different heritages, it includes um you know items for sale that are specific to that heritage, uh in many cases foods and also entertainment and cultural awareness.

So we're very proud of these events, they're very well attended.

Um they're all outdoors, so obviously, like everything we do.

Um, they are dependent on the weather.

Um, I'll go down the list and and you know, and then we can, you know, we can talk about individual ones or or whatever, but they do start soon, uh May 31st, which is not this weekend.

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend, but the Sunday after that.

The first one is the Polish uh cultural heritage celebration on Sunday, May 31st at Kensiko Dam Plaza.

We go into Saturday, June 6th, the Asian American Cultural Heritage Celebration.

Uh Saturday, June 27th, the Irish Heritage, and that one is at Ridge Road.

So that one is at a different location.

Um I did miss one.

I'm sorry.

Also on, I'm sorry, Sunday, June 7th.

I apologize, I was a little wrong there.

Sunday, June 7th is the Albanian Heritage Festival at Kensiko Dam Plaza.

Saturday, June 27th is the Irish Heritage Festival at Ridge Road Park.

Uh, then we go back to uh Kensko Dam Plaza on Sunday, June 28th for the African American Heritage Festival, and July 12th at Kensiko for Hispanic Heritage Festival.

We continue with the Italian Heritage Festival on Sunday, July 26th at Kentsko, followed by on Sunday, August 2nd, the uh Heritage of India Cultural Festival.

Then as we get deeper into the month of August, we have August 16th, the Jewish Heritage Festival at Kensko Dam Plaza.

And the Muslim Heritage Festival on Sunday, August 23rd at Kensicodan Plaza.

Then in September, we have the Arab American Heritage Festival on September 13th at Ridge Road Park.

We also have a larger event that is not part of this particular uh series, but is also a celebration of heritage of the Ecuadorian Heritage at Croton Point Park on Sunday August the 9th.

So that rounds out uh 12 different events that we host in our parks in any given summer.

And you know, that list obviously some of these are newer uh from over the years.

Um we always you know receive requests sometimes um you know it fits into the some of the ones that we already have, or you know, we'll try to accommodate as best we can some of the smaller groups within Westchester County and you know, rent them small areas and so forth.

But each one of these events is also we co-sponsor them, but there are um you know, they are managed by the cultural groups uh specifically.

So we you know, we have contacts for each one of these groups, and they are the uh responsible for uh procuring the vendors and the food and the entertainment and so on and so forth.

But they're wonderful events.

Um they are attended by all, and it's just a wonderful way of enjoying the summer in our county parks.

So I have a question about that.

This is the 250th anniversary of uh the United States.

So do we have anything uh not necessarily that you're involved with, but you're aware of at any of the other parks.

Yes, we do have um, we are hosting um a very large event, and I just don't have the date, and we certainly could send that to you.

It's the very end of October or the very beginning of November at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, and it is a it is a uh reenactment of the Battle of White Plains, but it's going to be at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation.

And the reason why it's going to be there is we need a very large area to hold this event.

So that is the showcase event that uh we're working with many groups.

Um it is uh co-sponsored by the Office of Tourism, um, as well as uh, you know, we're very highly involved in that.