WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER 3,374,995 VISITS IN ONE YEAR—65,000 VISITS A WEEK BY 985,281 VISITORS

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From Westchester County Department of Communications. (EDITED) February 2, 2005: A new $11.9 million communications system will vastly improve the way emergency personnel talk to each other during major incidents in Westchester County and better protect the public, while doubling as a radio dispatch system for county buses. The system will begin to be activated in the spring, and is planned to be functional by the end of 2005, Westchester County reports.

“Having more controlled and widespread communication will make it infinitely easier to handle any kind of major emergency event,” said County Executive Andy Spano. “If the different agencies such as police, fire and ambulance are better able to connect with each other at any given moment, it would mean a much more coordinated and effective response. We need to be a leader in implementing this type of technology.”

 

Line to the Bee Line.

 

Not only will the system be used for dispatch and coordination during major mutual aid incidents, but it will also handle routine communications on a daily basis for the county’s Bee-Line bus system. The buses play a big role in assisting in evacuations. Currently the buses operate with no radios and very limited alternative communications.

 

Multi-Way Communication.

 

 Westchester County recently signed a contract with Motorola to design, construct and implement a voice and wireless data communications system. The comprehensive system will allow the county’s Emergency Communications Center (ECC-60 control) to dispatch local fire departments and EMS agencies, as well as giving those departments the ability to talk to each other as they head to the scene of an incident.

 Spano noted that the potential uses for the system are almost unlimited. Emergency responders coming upon scenes involving a medical condition or crime situation would be able to communicate quickly with police departments and other responders. In the case of a widespread evacuation involving bus transportation, officials will be able to communicate with the drivers doing the pickups. In the case of a bus accident or emergency on the vehicle, a bus driver could call for assistance.

 

Communication Interactivity

 

“We rely on first responders to provide emergency services in thousands of communities throughout the United States,” said Ken Denslow, Motorola corporate vice president and general manager.  “The new communications network will enhance the ability of these responders to serve and protect the public during major emergencies by connecting local units to county dispatch and to other working units at the scene of a major emergency.  Interoperability among first responders is essential for public safety.  We are proud to be part of Westchester County‘s innovative vision to provide interoperability for all those agencies who handle emergencies.”

 

The Timetable.

 

Installation of the system components will be started this spring, with activation anticipated for the end of the year. County Chief Information Officer Norman Jacknis noted that the process will take time as the set-up is complicated and users will have to learn new technology. Radio equipment and systems must also be installed at existing radio tower sites and connections made to the county’s fiber-optic network.

The county will also provide and install radios in more than 600 front line emergency fire and EMS vehicles, all of the Bee-Line fleet, as well as local police department headquarters and hospital emergency rooms around the county.

 

The system is being developed because of the present inability to share radio channels. In a major emergency or in the case of two simultaneous situations, responders would no longer have to share a single radio channel – listening to everyone else’s conversations, filtering out what they need to know, and trying to get a word in edgewise. With the system being developed, agencies would be able to set up as many as a dozen separate conversations at once and pull whatever agencies were needed into the discussion.

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. February 1, 2005, UPDATED with Clarification, February 2, 2005, 6:30 P.M. E.S.T., UPDATED with further Clarification February 3, 2005, 1:45 P.M. E.S.T.:  Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors described the 9.72% increase in the City School Budget for 2005-06,  as “preliminary,” saying the formulation of the City School Budget is one of “scaffolding” which he said formulation of a preliminary budget is one part of the process.

 

WHITE PLAINS BOARD OF EDUCATION DOING THE NUMBERS MONDAY EVENING. Photo by WPCNR News.

 

He said the Board wanted to “be clear upfront with the city Annual Budget Committee” about what budget priorities are, which include maintaining class sizes, conforming to the New York State Education curriculum, supporting technological progress, involving parents through outreach public relations, and planning for capital improvements over the next five years.

 

Connors said of the baseline budget of $157,797,830, that “I don’t see it going higher.”

The Board heard explanations of the increases that were contributing, in part to the presently projected $13,988,646 increase. Terry Schruers, the Assistant Superintendent for Business, noted that new positions created $4,920,696 in salaries (3.4% of the increase), Health Insurance, $1,159,075 (.8% of the increase) and Teachers Retirements, an additional $2,397,566, (1.67% of the increase), accounting for $8.5 Million of the $14 Million.

 

Aside from the fixed increases in contracts, health costs, Schruers noted there was $706,000 in debt, $605,000 budgeted increase for Utilities, $240,000 in structural contrtacts, $228,258 in outside agency contracts, and $470,293 in Transportation increases, in addition to  $80,000 for a buildings survey, and $80,000 to replace a grant for afterschool programs, $1,044,623 for BOCES services (.7% of the increase), and assorted increases for Social Security .

 

The 2005/06 Preliminary Budget Expenditures

                                      Additions        % of Budget Increase

Salaries                            $4,920,696         3.4%

Health Insurance           $1,159,075            .8%

Teachers Retirement    $2,397,566         1.6%

Employee Retirement   $105,000               .07%

Social Security               $289,000                .2%

Worker Compensation $45,000                .03%

Unemployment Ins.       $12,000                  .008%

Debt                                   $706,000                .49%

BOCES                              $1,044,623            .72%

Utilities                               $   605,000            .42%

Plant

Contractural                     $  240,000             .17%

Building Struc. Survey  $   80,000               .06%

Outside Agencies

/Contracts                          $228,258               .16%

Transportation                  $470,293             .33%

Tuitions                               $109,000               .08%

Afterschool Programs     $  80,000               .06%

Legal                                    $  30,000               .02%

Summer Handicapped

Contrib.                                $ 75,000                .05%

 

TOTAL                         $12,596,511            8.759%

 

Scheurs and Connors went over the new requests that were included in the Preliminary Budget, noting they were asking the staff heads throughout the district to justify their requests.

 

Of the $4,920,696 in new salaried positions that the Board may cut as the budget moves forward there were 5 new high school teaching positions, 5 new middle school teachers (3 for Eastview Middle School, if that school is expanded to 160 students; and he equivalent of 2 teachers at Highlands), coaching personnel for four new sports teams, (Field Hockey Freshman or Modified Team, Girls Field Hockey Coach, Girls Basketball Coach, and a Modified football coach for 7^th grade), an athletic trainer, three support staff, 3 teachers for Post Road School, 2 for the Newcomer Center, 2.5 personnel for Church Street School, 4 literacy coaches to cover all elementaries,

 

Middle School Students Out of Rochambeau.

 

The District is also considering a joint Middle School Alternative Program to be started in cooperation with the New Rochelle School District, where at least 8 Middle School students now enrolled at the Community School (Rochambeau) would be served by a staff hired by White Plains and New Rochelle, in New Rochelle saving the expense of paying BOCES to teach the children. Connors said the advantage would be to move the Middle School students away from the high school students who make up the majority of students at the Community School at Rochambeau.

 

Dr. Joseph Casbarro, Assistant Superintendent for Pupil Services, explained the cost of adding the teachers and to set up such a school was estimated at $185,754 to the City School District. He advised that the district was strictly in exploratory talks with New Rochelle at this time, and how the school would work was undetermined at this time.

 

School System Considering Verizon Phone Upgrade

 

Mr. Schruers, Assistant Superintendent for Business reported that the school district is working in cooperation with the City of White Plains technical personnel to upgrade the communications wiring in the school district to convert the wiring to Voice I.P. technology. Schruers said it was expected that Verizon would donate some of the costs of the conversion.

 

Asked what it would cost for the district to install Schruers put the figure at less than $500,000, but more than $200,000, and hesitated when asked if it was $400,000. An advantage to the Voice I.P. system, Schruers said was to install “Voice Mail” in the school phone system. Asked if Voice Mail would lead to a preponderance of unreturned phone calls, Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors said voicemail would be a “bookmark,” and not a substitute for responding.

 

School Aid and Revenues.

 

Schruers mentioned that the school district might lose $500,000 in state aid based on information the district had at this time. Connors said that any possible school tax increase necessitated by the preliminary budget was being held in abeyance pending revenue information expected to be delivered by City Assessor, Eyde McCarthy. Ms. McCarthy will appear at Education House February 28 to brief the board on the expected revenue from Payments In Lieu of Taxes, which Connors said was expected to be up in 2005-06, and the prospects of city certiorari settlements.

 

Last month, the school district learned it would lose $632,000 in revenues from a successful certiorari filed by Nordstrom’s. Last year, the district set aside a borrowing contingency they can draw on to offset unexpected certiorari losses.

 

After the meeting, the Board called an executive session to hear from their attorney handling certioraris (reduced assessments). That meeting was not open to the public.

 

Grants Being Gone Over with Fine Tooth Comb.

Program Pileup Needs to be looked at.

 

Superintendent Connors said that the grant monies the district are being looked at to supplement programs where the use is appropriate. He noted that the White Plains Summer School program is funded by grants.

 

Donna McLaughlin, President of the Board of Education, was troubled by what she described as installing new programs and keeping programs that do not work. Her last words of the evening were “We need to get rid of the old way. We can’t afford to do both. You can’t  let it (layers of programs) pileup.”

 

Public Relations Firm will Handle Spring Publicity.

Planning Firm Selection Too.

 

Early in the meeting, Superintendent of Schools, Timothy Connors said that the public relations discussion planned for the evening would be moved up to the next meeting. WPCNR erred in writing the firm has not been hired. The firm, Syntax/Education, according to Michelle Schoenfeld, who contacted CNR to report the error, has been hired (on November 8):

 

Ms. Schoenfeld, in a statement writes: “It was pointed out to me that your website states that the district has not yet contracted for public relations.  The Board did so at the November 8^th meeting, with Syntax Communications, which has been working for us since. The subject cancelled from Monday night’s meeting was an update on their progress.It will be rescheduled at a future date.

It was announced at a Board meeting  in December that  the firm is not going to do the extensive $50,000 full program considered at that time. WPCNR misinterpreted that to mean that the firm had not been hired yet. The firm will be handling the spring Board of Education budget communication process.

Ms. Schoenfeld further clarified the public relations situation with this letter to WPCNR Thursday afternoon:

The contract, approved on 11/8/04, is for $21,112, to extend from December 2004 to June 30, 2005.  That is a straight free for services and does not include the costs of printing or postage.  At the moment they are working on a newsletter and have also  been surveying members of the Board and community, to develop a plan for further work.

 

A  public relations budget of about $50,000 is being considered for Syntax in the 2005-06 budget. (BOCES would reimburse the school district for 43% of that cost, lowering the actual cost to  $28,500.)

 

The selection of a planning firm to prepare a five year capital plan for the School District is also in process, covering upgrades to the district buildings and athletic fields.

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WPCNR’S ADAM IN ALBANY. By Assemblyman Adam T. Bradley, 89th District. January 31, 2005: After the 2000 presidential election it became apparent that something was wrong with our nation’s electoral process. Pictures of the Florida recount headlined newspapers with hanging and pregnant chads from outdated punch card ballots. Five years later, New York has still failed to bring the election process into the new millennium.

 

The effects of the outdated system are reverberating in Westchester County. In 2001, a White Plains City Council race was tarnished by broken election machinery. Now, nearly three months after Election Day 2004, the 35^th State Senate is still undecided. In order to prevent election mishaps, the Assembly has always taken the lead. Recently, the Assembly passed legislation to change how elections are run in New York and to help the state comply with the federal Help America Vote Act.

 

 

We must do everything we can to ensure and restore faith in the integrity of our electoral process. To make voting easier and more accurate, the legislation:

 

·        bans punch card ballots; replacing it with a single type of voting machine with a voter-verified paper audit trail (A.5);

·        consolidates election operations at the county level – ensuring polling places are adequately staffed with well-trained workers (A.122);

·        creates a statewide computerized voter registration list with proper privacy protections (A.121);

·        establishes basic guidelines to ensure the disabled community has access to polling sites (A.120)

 

 It is not enough to change the way we vote, we must also change how campaigns are financed. We recently passed a campaign finance reform measure designed to stem the influence of special interest money on elections (A.4).

 

The plan would provide public matching funds to candidates for statewide office who limit large contributions and campaign spending. The legislation also creates an income tax check-off to help build a non-partisan, state-controlled campaign fund for eligible candidates. In addition, the legislation:

 

·        imposes limits on the amount of money political parties can contribute to candidates;

·        bans fundraisers by state legislators or statewide candidates within 40 miles of Albany during the legislative session;

·        sets limits on the amount of money that can be donated to candidates or political committees;

·        closes loopholes that allow corporations to avoid campaign contribution limits by funneling donations through subsidiary companies; and

·        bans unlimited “soft money” contributions to political parties’ housekeeping accounts

 

We must work to restore and maintain public faith in democratic elections, which are the foundation of our society. I believe the bills passed by the Assembly will help ensure citizen participation in our democracy.  I strongly encourage the Senate and governor to on creating a level playing field for those seeking to run for public office, and join us in ensuring that we have a fair electoral system that the public can have trust in.

 

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WPCNR ORCHESTRA PIT. From Purchase College. January 28, 2005: The Purchase College Conservatory of Music Faculty Artist Series presents the internationally acclaimed Mozartean Players, featuring Professor Steven Lubin, in an early music concert February 25 at 8 PM in the Recital Hall of the Music Building. The concert is free and open to the public.

The evening’s program includes Mozart’s Sonata in E Minor, K.304, for violin and fortepiano, Beethoven’s Sonata in F, Op.5/1, for cello and piano, Haydn’s Trio in C, Hob.XV/27, and Mozart’s Trio in Bb, K.502.

Purchase College, State University of New York, is located at 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, NY. For more information, call 914-251-6700.

 The Mozartean Players, founded in 1979, is one of the oldest, continuously active, early music organizations in America. The group’s special focus is the idea of “historically informed” performance, involving the use of accurate period instruments and ways of approaching interpretation relevant to the period. In its initial decade from orchestral to varied chamber formats, the group reinterpreted the classical masterworks in period style in a long series of path-breaking and widely publicized concerts in major halls in New York City. The concerts and recordings of the Mozartean Players Classical Orchestra influenced other artists’ projects internationally, and led to Mr. Lubin’s monumental Beethoven-concerto cycle of recordings for Decca in London.

 The current configuration of the group as a piano trio, unchanged since 1987, is comprised of Mr. Lubin, fortepiano, Stanley Ritchie, violin, and Myron Lutzke, cello. The group’s repertoire spans the era from Haydn through Schumann, the period during which the piano, starting as the delicate, five-octave, wooden-frame instrument of the Classics, changed gradually into the larger, early-Romantic piano. A large proportion of the group’s touring has involved Mr. Lubin’s readily transportable five-octave Walter fortepiano replica, performing trios of Haydn, Mozart and early Beethoven. The stringed instruments are accordingly in period disposition.

 

Steven Lubin, a founding member of the Mozartean Players, is one of the world’s premier fortepianists, sustaining a busy international career as a performer and recording artist. He is a professor of music at the Conservatory of Music at Purchase, and was the recipient of a Kempner Distinguished Professor Award in 2001. Mr. Lubin has served as soloist and conductor of The Mozartean Players Classical Orchestra in a five-year cycle of concerts at New York’s Metropolitan Museum and Alice Tully Hall, and in a series of Mozart-concerto recordings.  His Decca recording of the five Beethoven concertos with Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music was chosen as a Recording of the Year by The New York Times, Stereo Review and Gramophone, and was cited as the finest recorded Beethoven cycle available by the Penguin Guide. 

 

Stanley Ritchie, an internationally recognized authority on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century performance practice, joined The Mozartean Players in 1987. He has appeared as a soloist at festivals such as Mostly Mozart, Tanglewood, Ravinia, and Lufthansa (in London).  He has performed on modern violin in numerous tours and recordings as first violinist of the Philadelphia String Quartet, and concertmaster of the New York City Opera and Musica Aeterna Orchestras.  He is currently on the faculty of the Early Music Institute and director of the Bloomington Baroque at Indiana University’s School of Music.

 

Myron Lutzke is one of the foremost American players of eighteenth-century cello.  Equally active as a performer on both modern and period instruments, he is a member of the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, the Aulos Ensemble and the Bach Ensemble, and serves as principal cellist of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Handel & Haydn Society Orchestra and the Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra.  As a continuo player he has performed in the Metropolitan Opera production of Handel’s Julius Caesar and in Peter Sellars’ television production of the Mozart-DaPonte operas. Mr. Lutzke is a member of the Early Music faculty of the Mannes College of Music.

 

The concert is part of a residency the Mozartean Players are conducting at the Conservatory of Music on February 22 and 24, funded by the Chamber Music America Residency Grant Program. The residency focuses on the so-called Viennese classicism period, the era of Haydn, Mozart and early Beethoven (circa 1770-1800). Chamber Music America is a national non-profit service organization based in New York City that works toward promoting the art of chamber music in various ways.

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WPCNR’S ADAM IN ALBANY. By Assemblyman Adam T. Bradley. January 26, 2005: Assemblyman Adam Bradley (D-White Plains) announced Assembly passage of legislation to modernize the voting process and help New York comply with the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002.

 

“We must do everything we can to ensure and restore faith in the integrity of our electoral process,” Bradley said. “This legislation will help New York comply with HAVA and improve the democratic process.”

 

The Assembly’s reform plan will implement the Help America Vote Act to make voting in New York easier and more accurate by:

 

·        banning punch card ballots; requiring the adoption of a single type of voting machine with a voter-verified paper audit trail; and ensuring voting machines which are fully accessible to the disabled are present at every polling place (A.5);

·        consolidating election operations at the county level – ensuring elections are run consistently and polling places are adequately staffed with well-trained workers (A.122);

·        creating a statewide computerized voter registration list with proper privacy protections – helping to ensure voters get in and out of the polls quickly, record votes accurately and prevent voter fraud (A.121);

·        establishing basic guidelines to ensure the disabled community has access to polling sites (A.120)

 

“In Westchester County where we have an undecided State Senate seat and a city council seat in White Plains, which has been at issue for years, we know firsthand the need for updated, accurate and verifiable election machinery,” Bradley concluded. “These measures will help ensure the integrity of our elections.”