ECC TO AWARD 2017 SILVER BOWL FOR DISTINGUISHED COMMUNITY SERVICE TO JON LEWIS

The Edgemont Community Council award for distinguished community service has been awarded just about every year since 1950 to an Edgemont resident. The ECC’s Silver Bowl Committee recommended that we present this year’s Silver Bowl to Edgemont resident Jon Lewis for his years of work on behalf of Edgemont’s youth basketball program and, more recently, his efforts this past year to help us better understand the financial implications of Edgemont’s possible incorporation as Greenburgh’s seventh village.

Jonathan A. Lewis hails from Reston, VA, where he played high school varsity basketball, and shared the court with Grant Hill, who went on to a distinguished basketball career at Duke and in the NBA. Jon completed sociology and urban planning double majors at Northwestern University, where his proudest accomplishment was his intramural basketball team’s tournament win in the 5’8” and under category.  He received a master’s degree in urban planning from NYU’s Wagner School and subsequently an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business.

Jon has been married for almost 25 years to his wife, Sharyn, and they have lived in Edgemont for 16 years.  They have four children:  Samuel, a sophomore at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME; Zachary, a junior at Soundview Preparatory School in Yorktown Heights, NY; Nathaniel, a sophomore at Edgemont High School; and Abigail a sixth grader at Seely Place Elementary School in Edgemont.

Jon began his career in municipal finance at a municipal rating agency, and for the last dozen or so years has run the public finance group at a large financial institution.

Jon has always been an active member of the Edgemont community’s basketball culture.  He has played in a weekly Sunday morning pickup game at Edgemont High School for fifteen years, rarely missing a week in all that time. He has coached recreational and travel basketball teams for all four of his children in various recreational, travel, intramural and school programs.

About 8 years ago, Jon founded the Edgemont Travel Basketball Program, which has grown to include more than 100 boys and girls ranging from third grade to high school. He helps parents start teams and training groups, connects teams with leagues throughout the county, organizes game schedules and gym times, and serves as an overall “commissioner” to any parent or child participating in the program. Most Saturdays and Sundays, you will find Jon in various gyms around Westchester County coaching, playing, or watching basketball games.

Last May, out of curiosity, he attended a meeting to discuss Edgemont’s incorporation, where he volunteered his professional expertise in municipal finance so that he could see for himself (and then for the rest of us) whether being a village was actually financially feasible.  To do the work right, Jon spent thousands of hours working with town and village officials from throughout the region to identify what services Edgemont receives, how much Edgemont pays the Town to get them and, if Edgemont incorporates and could not buy back services from the Town, whether and to what extent Edgemont could purchase and pay for services itself. Jon then worked with two sets of outside independent consultants to make sure the information to be presented to the Edgemont community was thoroughly thought through and conservative.

Jon’s patient, even-handed and even-tempered approach allowed him to work closely with those who support incorporation as well as those opposed.  Indeed, even though they may disagree, opponents of incorporation have always praised his work and unwavering dedication to getting things right.  Regardless of how each of us may feel about incorporation, Jon’s service has greatly benefited all of Edgemont, plus the larger community around it.  He has earned the respect and gratitude of the entire Edgemont community. Please join us on April 26 at 8 PM to celebrate his distinguished service.