WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

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WPCNR SOUTHEND TIMES. June 14, 2007: Louis Cappelli, always looking to enhance the Cappelli experience for his clients and guests and condominum buyers confirmed today to WPCNR in a written statement that he is seeking golf club partners within a 10-mile radius of  the White Plains “Ritz” to offer golf and amenities to guests and condominiumists residing at the Ritz Carlton Westchester, scheduled to open this fall.

Fore! Ahhhh the Amenities! To be at the Ritz. The Super Developer Seeks a Golf Club for His Guests.

The statement, Mr. Cappelli’s spokesperson, Geof Thompson said was in response to “rumors” that Mr. Cappelli was going to purchase a country club in financial difficulty in the heart of the posh White Plains southend.  Mr. Thompson issued the following statement on behalf of Cappelli Enterprises, which stops short of  naming an opportunity of interest, and said that any purchase or arrangement would rule out new residential development.

When asked if Mr. Cappelli was in talks with the club mentioned in the rumor, Mr. Thompson said “we are not going to address that question.” The statement to wit is as follows:

LC Main, LLC, as owner of the Ritz-Carlton, Westchester is actively talking to a number of different golf clubs within a ten-mile radius of the hotel and is actively seeking various other opportunities that have the potential to enhance and expand the services and amenities available to buyers of the condominium residences.

Golf courses and golf privileges are commonly offered to home buyers in new residential projects across the United States. Westchester County has long offered some of the best and most exclusive golfing opportunities found anywhere in the nation, and an ability to access these courses is a strong attraction.

Various possibilities for offering golf as an amenity to Ritz-Carlton, Westchester buyers are being explored.

Should a golf course venture be entered into, it would be for the sole purpose of being repositioned as a world class golf and tennis club, not for conversion as a residential development.

LC Main, LLC recognizes and respects that golf courses serve as open space amenities for the neighborhoods and communities in which they are located.

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WPCNR NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS. June 14, 2007: At Tuesday evening’s Council of Neighborhood Associations, the heads of the White Plains Professional Firefighters Union, Joe Courier and and Kevin Heffernan addressed 30 CNA members, Councilman Benjamin Boykin and Councilman Dennis Power and Democrat Party “kingpin” and Dennis Power Campaign Manager Paul Schwarz on firefighter issues. Though WPCNR arrived as Mr. Courier and Mr. Heffernan were wrapping up their “give and take” with the CNA, the major issue appeared to be that White Plains did not have sufficient fire bureau staffing to handle major high rise fires, and to staff available “rigs.” WPCNR asked the Department of Public Safety whether in a major fire “engulfed” high rise how the Department would handle it.

The White Plains Skyline June, 2007.

Kevin Heffernan, left, and Joe Courier, of the White Plains Professional Firefighters discussing manpower issues with the Council of Neighborhood Associations Tuesday evening.

The new Big Three: Dr. Frank Straub, Commissioner of Public Safety flanked by First Deputy Commissioner Dr. Charles Jennings, left, and Deputy Commissioner Daniel Jackson, right.  April, 2006 Photo by WPCNR News.

Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety, Dr. Charles Jennings released a statement to WPCNR acknowledging that White Plains is not staffed for a major “engulfed high rise floor,” however, he said, mutual aid from neighboring fire departments would be called upon in case of such an event. He said most fire departments in the county face the same problem. Daniel Jackson, Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety said there are no plans for increasing the 169-member Fire Bureau in 2008-2009.

From: First Deputy Commissioner Charles Jennings, Ph.D.

John,

The White Plains Fire Bureau does not maintain an on-duty force sufficient to fight a major high-rise fire.  As your scenario suggests, these events are very rare. We have a force sufficient to mount an aggressive and appropriate initial attack, and our on-duty personnel would be supplemented with a both mutual aid from surrounding Departments within the County and a recall of our own off-duty firefighters. The needs to fight such a fire are well beyond the staffing of all but the largest urban Departments. 

We train with our regular mutual aid partners, and have established fireground radio communications with these partners in the last few years precisely to improve our posture with regard to such events. Additionally, the County is in final stages of implementing a County-wide mutual aid radio system that will allow us to communicate with any fire or EMS unit within the County.

With regard to the likelihood of such fires, we have an aggressive code enforcement and construction inspection program supported by the Building Department and our fire prevention inspectors. This program assures that fire protection features of new high-rise construction including sprinklers (over 96 percent effective at controlling or extinguishing fires in office buildings),  smoke removal systems (to keep hallways and common areas free of smoke during a fire) and fire alarms with public address capability. We also enforce fire and exit drills in office occupancies.

In short, we have confidence in our ability to prevent, mitigate, and respond to fires in the high-rise buildings in our City. We continue to train and plan for major events, and work to enhance our capability to respond in the event of major fire in an unsprinklered building or in the event of failure of any of the built-in systems.

We have indicated in the past that the City needs to carefully consider the limited addition of on-duty positions as a consequence of ongoing development and increased workload on existing fire companies in the city. Limited additional staffing would be sought because of the greater likelihood simultaneous or overlapping alarms — not because we think that we can ever have enough people on duty for very rare major events.

Thank You.

Charles R. Jennings, Ph.D.

WPCNR in light of Mr. Jennings final comments, asked Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety Daniel Jackson if the Department was going to request a staffing increase up from the 169 current firefighter ranks in budget year 2008-2009, and Commissioner Jackson said the Department  was not considering an increase.

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. June 13, 2007: Jerry Gorski, President of the White Plains Teachers Association, announced to WPCNR today that the union has reached agreement on a one-year contract with the district. Gorski, negotiating his last contract for the teachers, said the contract has yet to be presented to the membership, but that the teacher negotiating team is in agreement with the settlement. He said he expects to present it for a vote June 20.

Jerry Gorski, President of the Teachers Union, left, being congratulated and presented with a plaque by Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors recognizing Mr. Gorski’s  retirement Monday evening

Gorski said he could only reveal the contract is for one year. Previously teachers had negotiated three year contracts with the district.

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WPCNR’S THE DEVELOPER NEWS. By John F. Bailey. June 12, 2007: Louis Cappelli, rebuffed in his effort to receive exclusive development rights to the White Plains transit center area for his grandiose Station Square Project one week ago, is reaching out to neighborhood association leaders in White Plains in an attempt to see how he should go about resuscitating the project, according to one neighborhood association leader who spent a substantial and frank discussion with the Super Developer at Mr. Cappelli’s headquarters in Valhalla this week. He has, according to a WPCNR “head count” spoken to three such leaders this week.

As described to WPCNR, the developer told our source, (speaking to WPCNR on condition of anonymity),  that he wanted to get a sense of how to proceed with developing the area. Our source said that far from the Station Square project being “dead,” Mr. Cappelli seemed eager to learn how he might proceed to secure city support for aspects of the plan, or all of the Station Square plan from the individual neighborhood associations, our source said. The source said that Mr. Cappelli admited that he was wrong in how he approached the Station Square project without going to the neighborhoods first.

According to the source we spoke to, Mr. Cappelli indicated to that source that he was going to speak to all neighborhood association heads to repitch the project.

WPCNR has reached out to Mr. Cappelli’s spokesperson to get a sense of the extent of Mr. Cappelli’s new grassroots overtures.

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. June 11, 2007: White Plains middle schoolers have turned their math skill trend around, according to an ebullient Superintendent of Schools, Timothy Connors Monday evening when he announced that the 2007 New York State Math Exams taken in March by White Plains students were a great success with 70% passing rates in grades 7 and 8 Math.

The progress is significant, however the fall off in same class performance from 4th grade to 8th grade is still significant — remains as high as 9% based on State Education Department statistics.

The Results:

Percent Passing the New York State Math Exams

(Chart from White Plains City School District)

GRADE             2006                       2007           Increase

3                              77%                        83%             6%

4                              75%                        75%              0%

5                              61%                        73%            12%

6                              53%                        66%            13%

7                              59%                        70%            11%

8                              58%                        71%            13%

How have the classes done since 4^th grade?

 Though the following will be criticized on the grounds that  each class every year  “is not the same class,” and “the tests were different,” it is instructive, using State Education Department Report Cards for White Plains, to look at how the same class has done on the math test each year.

We should remember the state math test is different every year for every grade, and we do not have 100% turnover of every class by 8^th grade. When you look at the achievement this year the math problem  still emerges dramatically  in 5^th and 6^th grade, and the students have to play catch up ball for two years. White Plains made great strides in getting middle schoolers to pass at a significantly higher rate this year and this is to be commended. But let’s take a closer look:

WPCNR used the State Report Card of 2004-2005 to see what this year’s classes actually have done year to year on the state math test.

This year’s eighth graders were in 4^th grade in 2003. At that time, 80% of that 4^th class passed the state math test. Though it is not entirely the same class, the pattern of falling math scores from 3^rd to 8^th grade highlighted my State Education Department Chancellor Richard Mills last fall  turned around at least in White Plains this year with 71% of those fourth graders passing the math this year now that they are in eighth grade. Not as much of a falloff as expected, thanks to their academic acumen this year. They are now only 9% worse than they were in 4^th grade.

This year’s seventh graders were in 4^th grade in 2004 and at that time 77% passed the State Mathematics test at the 4^th grade level. Testing their math scores three years later, 70% passed. Not bad! You could, with a stretch say they are holding their own.

Something happens in 5^th and 6^th grade.

The sixth graders were in 4^th grade two years ago in 2005. At that time 82% of them passed the math achievement. In 2007, two years later, 66% of them have passed, so though the sixth graders improved year to year, the same class dropped 16% in scores from 4^th grade to sixth grade. You have to ask yourself what is going on there?

Now how about the fifth graders of 2007, one year out of 4^th grade math? That class was the 4^th grade in 2005-2006. In fourth grade, 75% of them passed, according to the State Education Department figures. In March 2007, 61% of them passed the Math Achievement, a drop of 14% in one year. What happened?

Is the math instruction given grades 1 through 4 not enough for demands of 5^th and 6^th grade?  Though the remedial work the district has done has made a real breakthrough in grades 6, 7 and 8 in one year the drop off from 4^th grade and why there is such a pattern has to be of concern and continues to be.

Percentage of Class Passing Mathematics Exam In 4^th Grade vs. 2007 Results

(Chart Prepared by WPCNR Research based on 2006 SED Report Card)

2007 Class     4^th Grade Year      4^th Grade Pass %      2007 Pass Pct.       Difference

Grade 8           2003                            80%                          71%                        -9%

Grade 7           2004                            77%                          70%                        -7%

Grade 6          2005                             82%                          66%                        -16%

Grade 5          2006                             75%                          61%                        -14%