COVID Update: The Tarrytown-Sleepy Hollow Pop-Up Campaign

By Barrett Seaman—

Every other day or so, the governor announces the opening of another “pop-up” vaccination site, where a medical team shows up, sets up shop and invites the neighbors in for a shot. Residents of the village or neighborhood can just drop by and get a first dose of the COVID vaccine and an appointment somewhere for the second. No rigamarole, no scouring the internet for a chance appointment somewhere upstate.

Many of these pop-up sites have been here in Westchester, including Peekskill, Yonkers and most recently Port Chester. All of them, so far, were at one time or another designated as a micro-cluster hot spot, which makes sense.

So why not one in Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow? Like Peekskill and Yonkers, up until a few weeks ago, the inner villages of the combined communities were designated as a Yellow Zone. In fact, according to data collected by former Tarrytown Mayor Drew Fixell, Sleepy Hollow alone had the highest cumulative COVID positivity rate of any municipality in the county.

Bothered by what seems an oversight, village officials began asking around to see what they had to do to be considered for one. They learned that decisions about what communities got pop-up sites were being determined in Albany and that there appeared to be no formal process for getting on the short list.

The result is an attention-getting campaign. On Thursday, the two villages launched a Survey Monkey, asking people to state whether or not they’re interested in getting a vaccine or had one, along with basic data like age and ethnicity. “We hope that we can use the data from this survey to advocate for pop-up vaccination sites here in Tarrytown / Sleepy Hollow,” wrote Tarrytown Assistant Village Administrator Josh Ringel in an accompanying email.

The survey is still open and can be accessed at: https://www.tarrytowngov.com/home/news/vaccination-survey-tarrytown-sleepy-hollow

The invitation to take the survey went out just after 1:00 p.m. on Thursday. By 5:00, well over 500 responses had come in—the vast majority of them (84%) from Tarrytown residents.

Feel free to share the survey with friends—especially if they live in Sleepy Hollow, where the need for vaccinations is arguably greater.