By Mary Marvin, Mayor of Bronxville

May 12, 2021: Chief Christopher Satriale came to the Village as a 19-year-old patrolman and has been with the Village for 33 years, becoming Chief in 2007. He is currently known for his COVID calls - some days on which we know he is happier than others!

Chris became Chief almost simultaneously, with Bob Underhill and I becoming Mayor and Deputy Mayor, and we have traveled this road together. Chris was born in Lawrence Hospital and graduated from Eastchester High School with friend Steve Palm, the iconic owner of Underhill’s Crossing. Against his father’s wishes, he decided to take the police exam and scored 100 on the test. Our very smart forbearers saw a star in Chris and sent him from his interview directly to a medical exam and offered him a job on the spot, thus outracing the competition. The rest is history!

The Chief lives in Pleasantville with his wife Nicole, whose family owned the venerable Chester Heights Bakery, and their three sons. All three sons were immersed in athletics with an emphasis on baseball, with the Chief and Nicole traveling to parts unknown dutifully every weekend. The family are incredibly loyal fans of the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Mets despite the Villages’ proclivities towards the Yankees and the Giants.

The Satriale’s also took in two rescue dogs, only one of whom actually likes the Chief. Though he is the first police officer I’ve ever met with unfounded energy who has never succumbed to coffee, he does indulge in chocolate of any kind. If he’s not in Bronxville, you can find him on the Northway stealing a few days in his beloved Lake George.

The perpetually smiling face you see driving our sanitation truck is Mario Sgobbo, an employee who has almost never missed a day in his 32 years of employment. He calls that “no big deal,” but the rest of us find it amazing.

Known for his humor and positive attitude, Mario was born in Switzerland and came here at age 7, and made Westchester County home thanks to an early family connection. He is married with two sons, one of whom works for the Village of Tuckahoe. In his free time, he enjoys restoring old cars in partnership with his sons and heading upstate to his fishing club. A man of great humility, he shared with me his great sense of gratitude for all that the Village has provided to his life. The highlight of his time in Bronxville was enjoyment of our very epic hundredth anniversary Memorial Day Parade.

Longevity of loyalty to the Village is not just confined to the Village Hall complex, as two of our most valued library staffers have been with us for decades.

Pat Root, who has been with the Village full and part-time for the last 31 years, is a lover of Shakespeare and is a lifelong learner delighting in taking adult school classes.

While living in the Philadelphia area, she obtained her library Masters from Drexel University and followed that with a Masters degree in political science from Villanova University. She started her library career in the law libraries at the University of Pennsylvania, my alma mater. I often wonder if our paths had ever crossed?! After moving to New York City, Pat discovered that working in public libraries was really more fun and fulfilling. She came to the Bronxville Library, was interviewed by Jane Selwar, and began an exciting career ending in the position of Head of Reference. Pat is looking forward to a family reunion at a wedding in July with all three of her children, eight grandchildren, and one great granddaughter.

The friendly face you see upon first walking through the library doors is Marianne Wingertzahn. Her warm and welcoming smile has greeted library patrons for the past 30 years.

Marianne was born and raised in Bronxville, as was her mother and her mother’s four siblings. She attended both Saint Joseph’s School and the Bronxville School and started working at our library as a Bronxville High School senior and never left us. She remembers the most challenging but rewarding part of her tenure was the renovation from 1999-2001, when most of the entire library collection had to be manually boxed up and then curated to open a small annex on Kraft Avenue. Marianne was very proud that the library never stopped operating.

Phil Seacord has been with the Village for 29 years, working for both the sanitation and the highway crews. A lifelong resident of New Rochelle, he has been married to Louisa for 14 years, and they have two boys, Joseph and Vincent.

He likes the fact, as most of us do at Village Hall, that every day is always just a little different. Phil spends his free time centered around his boys’ sports activities with an emphasis on basketball. Like many of his fellow staffers of long-standing, he reminisced about how primitive our equipment was even in the ’90s, with most work done manually, including spreading salt by hand. He remembers some particularly bad winters in the 90s, including one that caused a sand truck to flip over as it was coming down Tanglewylde – no injuries, though! Phil really enjoys his conversations with the residents and answering their questions as he relishes the interaction with “such good people.”

Phil Aufiero is the tall, smiling gentleman on the back of the garbage truck with Russell and driven by Luigi in the northwest quadrant of the Village. With us for 28 years, Phil started in meter collection and then joined our DPW.

He grew up in Mount Vernon and has called southern Westchester his home with his wife for all of his adult life. In his spare time, he enjoys golf, fishing, and target shooting. His favorite part of the job is the interaction with residents and watching generations grow up and come back home. He particularly loves seeing some of the summer help who worked alongside him as teenagers now back and living in the Village. Phil is known for an impeccable attendance record and dedicated service. He, too, mentioned the primitive equipment in the early years of his employment and remembers when the Village had no snow blowers and one lawnmower for all of the municipal property.

The Village is truly blessed to have the caliber of people working on our behalf. Their dedication and loyalty is unmatched, and their presence adds to the unique fabric of our Village.

Photo at top by A. Warner; other photos courtesy Bronxville Village Hall

Editor's note: As a public service, MyhometownBronxville publishes articles from local institutions, officeholders, and individuals. MyhometownBronxville does not fact-check statements therein, and any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the thinking of its staff.