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 WHITE PLAINS WEEK NEWS. January 12, 2007: The Dean of Journalism in White Plains, Jim Benerofe returns to the White Plains Week News Team Monday evening at 7 PM on Cable Channel 76. WPPA-TV. Benerofe reunites with John Bailey, The CitizeNetReporter, and Peter Katz, “The Anchor for All Seasons,” to discuss the city hall cast of acting commissioners, the Schools Strategic Plan, Assessments, and the school budget. The show will be cablecast Monday at 7 PM on “The Spirit of 76”.

 

Former National Network Correspondent, Peter Katz, welcomes “The Old News Ranger,” Jim Benerofe back on White Plains Week Monday night for his take on the business and development scene in town.

Photo, White Plains Week

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WPCNR BUMPER TO BUMPER  By John F. Bailey. January 11, 2007, UPDATED 12:16 PM EST: Nicholas Choubah, Regional Structures Supervisor for the Department of Transportation promised the North Broadway Civic Association tonight a role in planning how the devastated Cross Westchester Expressway- Central Westchester Parkway-Grant Avenue, Ebersole Rink corridor will be reforested after construction of the  entrance and exit at Exits 7  Westbound and Exit 8 Eastbound is completed.

It was also disclosed to WPCNR by Mark Triano of the DOT  that the work once completed had no built-in adaptibility to any possible Tappan Zee Bridge, Cross Westchester Expressway expansion to include light rail, it would all have to be done again to fit Tappan Zee expansion plans for the Cross Westchester corridor.

“Deforestation” of Exit 7-8 Northside of I-287. WPCNR believes this is adjacent the Ebersole Ice Rink. DOT promises landscaping will begin 2009. North Broadway Civic Association was promised a role in contributing to the relandscaping with a preliminary plan tentatively promised for their review within two months. 

Photo by Don Hughes for WPCNR

Adam Bradley, Assemblyman of the 89th District, brought Nicholas Chouba, center and Mark Triano of the New York State Department of Transportation to address the devastation of the North Broadway corridor above the DOT I-287 Construction. Photo, WPCNR News

State Assemblyman Adam Bradley facilitated the meeting between residents shocked at the naked earth surrounding both banks adjacent I-287, where there used to be trees, forest and cliffs and the DOT. A DOT official agreed that within two months he’d ask a DOT landscape design team for a preliminary plan, which the North Broadway Citizens Association would be given the opportunity to  review.

At first Choubah and Mark Triano of the DOT said residents would not see a plan for landscaping the area surrounding the Cross Westchester Expressway West and Eastbound in the vicinity of Ebersole Rink until September of 2009. Choubah said about $500,000 to $800,000 would be earmarked for replanting the slopes now bare of trees which were “deforested” by construction of the aerial-visible Tennessee Valley gas pipeline and the new entrance and exit ramp construction undertaken by the DOT. Assemblyman Bradley said that it was not a matter of money, but rather what the final project would look like that would determine the landscaping plan. He insisted the residents be given input in how their neighborhood would be restored.

Gutted Cliff at Entrance to I-287 Eastbound off North Broadway.

 Dec. 24 Photo  by Don Hughes for WPCNR 

Choubah said the DOT procedure in the past is to complete the project then commission an outside landscape contractor to relandscape the bare slopes. When Terry Conroy stood up and asked incredulously that the DOT honestly had no idea how they would relandscape the area when they have construction-designed every other aspect of the project, Mr. Choubah changed his tune and agreed to go back to the DOT and ask permission to have the DOT design department develop a preliminary plan.

Adam Bradley mediated between the two sides, and asked residents to call his office and report their concerns as the relandscaping plan developed.

Residents described the construction as a “deforestation.”  Part of this, Choubah blamed on the Tennessee Valley Authority relocation of their gas pipeline which, in order to be visible from the air, he said, had to clear the area surrounding the new pipeline route. Joseph Nicoletti, White Plains Commissioner of Public Works, commented that the Tennessee Valley Authority, the pipeline company, had told him they planned to replant the area around the pipeline right of way with shrubbery.

Choubah committed to a preliminary landscape plan within “a couple of months,” provided he got permission.

 

View of North Broadway Neighborhood looking South at the Entrance to I-287 Eastbound.

Dec. 24 Photo by Don Hughes for WPCNR

Citizens, numbering about 40, (including six Common Councilmembers, Mr. Bradley, and County Legislator Bill Ryan), said that a number of mature trees had been cut down, and replacing them with saplings and small shrubs would not compensate. Choubah said it has been the DOT experience that large trees did not plant well in relandscaping projects of the past.

What came out of the meeting was a commitment by Choubah to neighborhood involvement and approval of reforestation efforts, but that the area would remain in its defoiliated state for at least two and a half years, the relandscaping not expected to begin until fall of 2009.

Mark Triano, Mr. Choubah’s construction manager for the project told WPCNR after the meeting that the Exit sequence when completed would eliminate the weaving pattern of westbound traffic exiting across entering traffic at the entrance to I-287 at the city’ s eastern gateway.

The offending Entrance/Exit Combination began construction last September with this ghastly traffic pattern first pointed out by WPCNR. Photo,  WPCNR News Archive

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WPCNR QUILL & EYE SHADE. By John F. Bailey. January 11, 2007: The 2007-2008 Tentative Assessment Roll examined by WPCNR shows the city tax roll declining $1.7 Million from last year. If the present Assessment Roll holds it makes the fifth straight year of decline despite five years of White Plains “Renaissance.”  The Assessment Roll may decline or advance depending on any challenges coming up on January 22 when the Board of Assessment Review meets to hear property owners’ complaints.

The total City Taxable Property is tentatively assessed at $294,419,383, declining $1,735,181 from last year when the total city assessed property was $296,154,564. The decline is a combination of city settlements reducing assessments on tax certioraris and the state set equalization rate. School Taxable Property is figured at $281,952,580. City Taxable Property, $281,952,580.

According to Jacqueline Mackin of the City School District Business Office, the School Taxable property Past year was $298,126,000. Mackin said the tax rate is determined by the total of the City Taxable Property Assessment Roll, and the school district taxes different segments of the roll than the city does. Mackin said the School District never gets the total assessment figure until March.

The City Tentative Total Assessment Roll at this point continues its decline from $318,804,180 in 2002-03, a five year total decline in assessments of $24.3 Million.

Since 1991 total assessed value in the city was $433,240,91& As of today, prior to the city settling assessment challenges in the next two weeks, there has been a decline of $138.9 Million in assessed value, while full valuation of property has risen from $3.7 Billion in 1991 to $8.5 Billion in 2006.

According to a Legal Notice, The City Board of Assessment Review will meet January 22 from 3 to 5 PM and 7 to 9 PM to “hear complaints in relation to assessments of real property in the Assessor’s Office.” The Tentative Tax Roll is available for review as well as individual property assessments on the public computer until that date in the Assessor’s Office.

It is too early to lock in the assessed value until the Board & Assessment Review reviews expected challenges.

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. January 10, 2007: Dr. Stephen Barone, the school district strategic planning consultant, challenged an intrigued audience of 31 White Plains parents, a half-dozen district personnel, including a teachers union representative,  to be willing to change their system to prepare an effective long term Strategic Plan.

 

Dr. Stephen Barone, Transformation Systems, Ltd. Telling it Like It Is Monday Evening at the Board of Education. Photos, WPCNR News

 

A core group of parents and residents listened raptly to Dr. Barone’s one hour presentation will be seen on WPPS-TV, Channel 77, possibly beginning this evening. Dr. Barone appears about one hour into the meeting.

 

Speaking bluntly, Barone  said “The people within the system are the last to see the crisis,” noting the decline of well known institutions such as General Motors, the Soviet Union, Smith Corona, Polaroid and the telephone industry, “because the people within the system are fighting to keep the system the way it is.”  He challenged the district to involve their critics in the Strategic Plan Core Team, and be willing to listen and accept their ideas.

 

 

Teresa Niss, the arts coordinator for the district, Superintendent of Schools Connors said was the person to contact for any citizens wishing to be on the Strategic Core Team and supplemental planning and implementation committees. Ms. Niss may be e-mailed at  teresaniss@wpcsd.k12.ny.us  to express your interest in participation,  or Michele Schoenfeld may be contacted at 422-2071, or the Superintendent’s office may be emailed at timconnors@wpcsd.k12.ny.us. .

 

Timetable

 

Barone said the strategic plan process would last through November of 2007. He reported the first opportunity for the community to get into the process will be on Tuesday, January 24 at 7 P.M. at the World Café Session at White Plains High School.

 

 He said Planning and Action groups would be formed to implement the Strategic Plan once the Strategic Plan Core Team develops the plan. The Planning and Action Groups, Superintendent of Schools Connors said would consist of school administrative personnel since they involved action on the part of district employees.

 

 Barone described what was in store for Mr. and Mrs. and Ms. White Plains at the World Café Session January 24. He described the format as participants sitting at tables for a timed interval then moving to the next table to a new mix of people and exchanging ideas on issues facing the district to generate ideas, opinions, directions.  Barone’s “facilators” would record the interplay of ideas and present them to the Strategic Core Group in February who would extrapolate “directions.”

 

Another device for input of the citizens will be a survey which citizens may take online beginning January 15, according to Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors, on the City School District website, www.wpcsd.k12.ny.us.

 

Complacency Defeats Effective Strategic Planning

 

Barone has worked as a teacher, a principal and a Deputy Superintendent of Schools. His firm which he founded in 1988, Transformation Systems, Ltd., has facilitated strategic planning for  schools in Italy, Spain, France, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and school districts around the country, he told the audience. He emphasized that because conditions in the district work now, is no guarantee they will stand the test of the future.  He cautioned that “implementing strategic plans, is more important than having a plan,” and that “organizations that are complacent are in trouble,” noting that the basic education model in the country has not changed in 125 years.

 

Barone explained that the process of strategic planning “makes it possible to think outside the system.” Using his own personal weight and habits as a metaphor, Barone said his overweight was a product of his habits, and unless he is willing to change his habits of eating and exercise, he was not going to lose weight. He applied the same metaphor indirectly to the White Plains City School District, noting, “sometimes a system perpetuates a habit.”

 

Mindset: Nothing is Off Limits.

 

He encouraged citizens to get involved in the World Café night and the survey, and pleaded with administrators involved to go into the strategic planning process with the attitude that “nothing is off limits…including how we negotiate contracts,” as an example.

 

When two citizens brought up the notion that older teaching methods in grammar and math should not be thrown out, Barone disagreed, telling them that “you would not pass a Junior class math test today.” (This reporter would have to agree.)

 

The past is not the future. Leaders find the future.

 

“To honor the past, just because it was the past, is wrong,” Barone said, noting setting a goal is not the object of strategic planning, but in implementing steps to reach that goal, otherwise, he said “old habits (of the district) reclaim us, unless we develop new habits to replace them.”

 

Barone said most organizations go about business as usual unless they are confronted with “a sense of urgency” to change. He singled out General Motors as a company that suddenly has a sense of urgency, cautioning the district, “People inside the system are the last to see the crisis. To be a leader (meaning the School Board, the administration, the community) you have to be going someplace. You have to know what you’re doing to go some place. Leaders find a way to…a target so high that we won’t achieve it unless we change. That’s what leaders do. Leaders are looking long term.”

 

Some cautions about what Strategic Planning Can and Cannot do.

 

Liking the present district to a blue box, Barone said, “all current systems are designed to keep the blue box (as it is).”

 

Barone said the district had to throw out preconceived notions: “Let’s have a new lifestyle…you have to rethink and recycle our community. It is something done over time, otherwise you zig zag back and forth…you find common goals and reach common ground.”

 

Process

 

The “leader into the future” said the next step after a strategic plan is arrived at would be to establish a “framework for decision-making,” “align resources” for the achievement of the strategic plan, while discarding courses of action that would not fit in with that strategic plan. (“You have to be able to say no.”)

 

Barone pointed out how organizations change: the key is in the implementation of the Strategic Plan with Strategies, a way to measure the effect of those strategies (long a bone of contention between the White Plains Board of Education and the District Administration), and the Action to put the Strategic Plan into Effect. Barone said it was important to adjust the implementations in view of the results.

 

Barone said he was looking for citizens for the committees and the Strategic Plan Core Team, who “had a high degree of credibility, respected by people” and who were not “big mouths,” and “people of good will, ” without perceived positions, and persons “who feel they still have a lot to learn, and know the difference between a conversation and a debate.”

 

Citizens were urged to all show up at the World Cafe Meeting January 24 to begin the process.

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. January 8, 2007: The Superintendent of Schools released to WPNCR, last month, the makeup  of the “User Group Committees” to obtain school personnel input on the conversion and construction of the two district athletic stadiums, Loucks Field and Parker Stadium.

Loucks Field Renovation Committee Formed on the Loucks Makeover: two sets of metal bleachers seating 3,250 (not 2,500) with press box, lights,. locker rooms, artificial turf system and 10-lane track on the straightaway. Cost: $ 6 Million (Approximate)Photo, WPCNR News.

 

Parker Stadium Construction: New set of metal bleachers, seating 1,300 with press box, plus installation of synthetic turf and running track. Cost: $3.4 Million. (Approx.) Photo, WPCNR News.

The User Group Committee on the Fields consists of  (from the school administration): Superintendent Connors, a school board member, Triton Construction (the Managing Contractor) Fred Seiler, Assistant Superintendent for Business, Mike Lynch, Facilities & Operations, Ivan Toper, Principal, White Plains High School, Russ Davidson (architect, Nick Panaro, WPHS Athletic Director, Jody Cole, Health & Physical Education, Tom Eaton, House Administrator, Fred Singleton, Track Coach, Michael Stevens, Head Football Coach, and from the community: Charlie Norris (parent), Chuck Stogel (WPHS Athletic Fund), one male WPHS student and one Female WPHS Student to be selected by the Principal.

 

The Post Road School construction User Group Committee is made up of: Mr. Seiler, Mike Lynch, Russ Davidson, Triton Construction and Superintendent Connors, and a member of the Board of Education. Representing the Post Road School are: Laura Havis, Principal, Jodie Nestie, Assistant Principal, Susan Fiorella, Office Manager, Jean Nicastro, Kindergarten Teacher, Lori Mollo, 1st Grade Teacher, Kristine McMath, 2nd Grade Teacher, Mary Marquis 3rd Grade Teacher, Anthony Russo, 4th Grade Teacher, Franklin Cromer, 5th Grade Teacher, Wendy Gussack, Special Area. Parents include Rose Lovitch and Joretta Crabbe. Rounding out the Post Road group is Lorraine Seico, CSEA Representative.

 

 

 

Issues to Consider

 

Issues WPCNR has identified as being critical to the athletic field construction, include,

1. Selection of the length of artifical turf “grass blade,” compatible with all four sports: soccer, lacrosse, field hockey and football;

2. How the field will be permanently marked, whether lines will be interchangeable or permanent (so it does not become a dog’s breakfast of line markings);

3. Location of field event facilities at the high school (whether or not javelin, shot put, hammer throw can be staged on aritificial turf because of potential damage to the field from impact);

4. Cosmetic renovation of the field house adjacent Loucks Field, currently not included in the  $6 Million cost.

5. Completion dates.

 

 

A FieldTurf installation in Libertyville Illinois, showing how soccer and lacrosse markings (in orange) are integrated into the “blade” turf. Photo Capture from Libertyville High School site.

 

Where Will Football Be Played As Field Construction Continues Through Fall.

 

Russell Davidson, of Kaeyer Garment & Davidson, the architects has set back the dates when Loucks and Parker will be completed until before Thanksgiving, raising the issue of where the White Plains High School and Junior Varsity and the various “feeder” football teams will play football prior to Thanksgiving. Nick Panaro, WPHS Athletic Director, told WPCNR last month that Archbishop Stepinac was being considered.  Throughout the process during which the $69.6 Million school construction project was being promoted and explained to the community, the football fields had always been promised to be done over the summer of 2007 to be completed in time for football season.

 

The majestic ancient sweep of Parker Stadium Sunday afternoon. The concrete and stone structure is said to be unsafe, the bleachers in need of replacing, and deteriorated stairs and locker rooms. The old structure is said to be impossible to make disabled accessible. It will be replaced by a metal bleacher structure with a press box. Artificial turf would be installed on the grass field with a rubber surface walking track — but is not expected to be completed until just before Thanksgiving — leaving the WPHS Tigers to search for a place to play home football games.  Photo, WPCNR News

 

 

At Post Road School, issues that might be considered are:

1. Size and locations of classrooms. (Pretty much set).

2. Recreation Issues when outside recreation ares are to be taken out of commission for construction of the school.

3. Auditorium facilities — lighting, audio, production facilities, size.

4. Library/media center amenities and equipment.

5. Drainage design, so current leaking problems do not recur.

6. Parking during construction (2008-2009)

 

 

The User Group Committees Function.

 

The “UGC’s” are described as “providing input to the design of each project and will review interim sketches. Their role is advisory to the Superintendent and Board Finance Committee. The UGC’s for the other projects: District-Wide Roofing, District-wide Infrastructure, Mamaroneck Avenue Additions & Alteraons and White Plains High School Alterations will be formed when those projects begin.