The Saw Mill Watershed Advisory Board (SWAB) is a Westchester County Board of Legislators body headed by County Legislator MaryJane Shimskey, an avid environmentalist and leading representative of the Saw Mill River in Westchester County government. The SWAB was established pursuant to a county law authorizing the formation of Advisory Boards for the County’s river basins to identify stormwater management projects that can be funded by the County and municipalities. The SWAB meets quarterly, bringing together leaders from the 12 watershed municipalities, Westchester County officials and Saw Mill River Coalition staff.
SWAB meetings are open to the public and meeting minutes are published on the Westchester County Board of Legislators Website.
“The most important aspect of the SWAB is that the governmental agencies are all working within their own domains, and too often one is unaware of what the other is doing,” said Shimsky. “As a result, there has been little effort at working together to tackle the flooding problems in the region. What the SWAB is hoping to achieve, then, is real inter-municipal cooperation with all of the pertinent governmental agencies to mitigate flooding.”