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WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL. December 20, 2005, UPDATED Dec. 21, 10:45 A.M. : Bob Roston, Chair of the White Plains Conservation Board reports to WPCNR that his board too is short members. It consists of 9 persons, but presently only has four members serving. Mr. Roston, invites White Plains residents interested in city environmental issues to apply for the Board. He attaches the following description of members duties and what the Conservation Board does.

Mr. Roston invites those interested in serving or who would like more information on serving to contact Bob Roston, 6 Pilgrim Road, White Plains, NY 10605-3703 Tel. 914 761-3364 Fax 914 761-1811. E mail: bob@rostonfamily.com.

 

WHITE PLAINS CONSERVATION BOARD

 

 

Conservation Board is a State mandated board under Article 12-F of the General Municipal Law; Section 239x. Excerpts of the Law are:

…to advise in the development, management and protection of…natural resources.

…coordinate the activities of unofficial bodies organized for similar purposes…

…cooperate with…official…bodies active in the area of community planning…

            …carry out any other duties, tasks, or responsibilities, consistent with the                                    objectives of this article…

            To …assist a city…in the development of sound open area planning and assure preservation of natural and scenic resources…

            …evaluate the proposed use…may include preferable alternative use…

 

It is comprised of a maximum of 9 volunteer members.

The members are appointed to the Board by the Mayor and Members of the Common Council. The term of office is 2 years. The appointed members serve without remuneration. There is no limitation on the number of years served.

 

The Conservation Board meets every 3^rd Monday of the month. The meetings are held in the Common Council Chambers at City Hall. All meetings start promptly at 8:00 PM. All meetings are open to the public.

 

In general, the function of the Board is to:

–         To advise the Mayor and the Common Council on environmental

matters.                                                    

  ‑    To advise the Mayor and the Common Council on matters related to                        the conservation of natural resources.

                          ‑     To make recommendations to all City Agencies on the environmental                                   implications of land use changes for all properties listed in the ‑

Open Space Inventory or those affected by their proximity to the listed

                                properties.

                         ‑   To engage in such other activities as may benefit the people of    White                            Plains through an improved environment and through wise   use of our               

                              natural resources.

 

Specifically, the functions of the Conservation Board are:

            Review all applications for use or development of any open area:

1)      Listed in the Open Space Inventory or is abutting or affected by its

      proximity.                                                                                     

2) All Conservation Developments.

3)      All Environmentally Sensitive Sites.

            Update the Open Space Inventory every 10 years.

            Create minutes of all meetings.

 

Applications for use or development, as defined above, are referred to the Conservation Board by the Common Council, the Planning Board, the Zoning Board of Appeals and Corporation Counsel. Members of the Conservation Board are assigned the Referrals, they visit the sites, they write reports/letters and lead the discussions of the projects at the regular monthly meetings. The final reports/letters are voted upon by the Board. The secretarial work of typing and distribution is performed by the Planning Department.

 

 

 

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. December 20, 2005: The architects preparing the five year facilities plan for the Board of Education presented a sharply lower renovation and infrastructure plan for the School District last night which has the district taking care of only Priority 1 and 2 infrastructure items, and proposing the building of a new Post Road School, and artificial surfacing of Loucks Field and increasing its capacity to only 2,500. Surfacing of Eastview athletic fields and the Highlands Parker Stadium was eliminated, but the Parker Stadium field surfacing is still being considered.

 

Board of Education Hears Trimmed Bond Plan Last Night at Education House. Russ Davidson addressed the Board of Education. Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors is seen at far left, seated. The meeting was videotaped and will be telecast on the School Channel 77 this week. Photo, WPCNR News.

New Proposal: Now under analysis by the Board of Education. Totals of dollars to be sent on each facility are at far right. Photo, WPCNR News.

 

 

The new Preliminary Proposal before the board calls for spending $67.5 Million over five years instead of the previously considered amount of $95 Million.  A total of $35 Million of that $67.5 Million investment is for construction of a new school at Post Road.

 

The Board plans to issue a Request for Proposals with a few weeks for a Construction Manager to analyze specific costs as the plan is considered and moves forward.

 

Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors emphasized that no decision has been made to go ahead with any portion of the plan at this time, and any adaption of a construction plan awaited intense Board discussion of the options presented last night.

 

Connors said the district enrollment was seen as steady over the next five years but was 10% over facility capacity at this time. He allowed that  “we could get hurt if there was a sudden increase in class size.”

 

$66 Increase in Taxes to Bond

 

Assistant Superintendent for Business Terrance Schreurs noted to the handful of observers and the board that the cost to the taxpayers of a $65 Million Bond would not be felt until the budget year 2007-2008. He said the bond would raise the school taxes of the average White Plains residence ($15,000 Assessed Valuation), $58.05 in 07-08, $70.50 in 08-09, and $69 in 2009-20010. This carrying cost of the bond would be in addition to tax increases required by future school budgets in those years, and whatever tax certioraris might impact the School District.

 

Tax Rate Increases From Proposed Construction Bond and Certiorari Bonding. The handwriting shows the combined increase in the tax rate per $1,000 of assessed valuation from the new $67.5 Million bond combined with projected certiorari refund bonding.  There would be no bond cost in 2006-07, but there would be a $6.88 increase in the tax rate due to the school cert liability already committed for. In 2007-2008 the new bond would cost taxpayers $3.87 and an additional $6.25 in cert repaying for a total of $10.12/per $1,000 of assessed valuation. The combined impact of certs and the new construction bond on Mr. & Mrs. & Ms. White Plains would drop to 4.76 in 08-09 and 4.65 in 09-10.  Photo, WPCNR News.

 

The Tax Impact. Photo, WPCNR News

 

The Board’s Peter Bassano said he was not convinced that the District needed to do any of the renovations and infrastructure upgrading proposed. He thought the 16 day time frame of deciding on the specifics of the project prior to January 6 was too short.

 

Russell Davidson the principal of the architectural firm handling the Facilities Plan for the city advised the Board the renovations were not in any way mandatory or required to be done by the state. He said that in order to do anything, though, the district needed a survey of facilities and plans to be submitted to the state.

 

Donna McLaughlin, President of the Board of Education, expressed the thought that the district was not locked in to a bond referendum at the same time as the District Budget Vote in May, though referendums had always been done in the past in conjunction with the budget vote.

 

 

Russell Davidson, the principal architect on the project for the School District noted that the skyrocketing construction costs (projected at increasing 9.5% in 2005)  indicated that the renovations and infrastructure would only cost more in the future. (Blue Bar indicates cost of construction. Photo, WPCNR News

 

Preliminary Timetable for a May Vote Issued.

 

A tentative  draft timetable for pulling together the paperwork and community information necessary to present a bond to the District in May at budget time was presented. According to this timetable, the Board is to consider what projects if any, are to be done, and decided the bonding amount by January 6.

 

Draft Schedule for a May, 2005 Bond Referendum. Photo, WPCNR News

 

After the meeting the Board members agreed that they would be discussing the Preliminary Proposal in early January on a schedule for presenting individual school renovation plans to the residents of the district in mid-January.

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WPCNR THE HOMELESS NEWS. By John F. Bailey. December 19, 2005: A spokesman for the Mayor’s Office, David Maloney, this morning told the CitizeNetReporter that Westchester County never told  the city their plans to house 43 “hardcore homeless” persons at 85 Court Street across Court Street from the County Office Building,  beginning January 10.

 

HEARTBREAK HOTEL Planned for the DSS Building at 85 Court, one block away from City Center (to far right,tall building), across from the County office building to the left and a half block away from senor citizens housing planned for the parking lot in the foreground, and one block from the Cappelli Hotel and Condoplex, center of picture background. Photo, WPCNR News.

 

The Department of Communications  of Westchester County said the Court Street location and the monitoring of the homeless population destined for that location was discussed between the Westchester County Department of Public Safety and the White Plains Department of Public Safety as to safety and monitoring issues, and said the White Plains Department of Public Safety informed the Mayor’s Office. The White Plains Department of Public Safety has not responded yet to my call to confirm this.

 

 Spokesperson David Maloney said Mayor Joseph Delfino, who was in Florida last week, would be making a lot of phone calls today on the Court Street Homeless Location situation. File Photo by WPCNR News.

Mr. Maloney said the city is exploring avenues, (“leaving no stone unturned,” were his words),  to prevent the population of “hard core homeless,”  from taking up residence nightly at 85 Court, just one and a half blocks from the city’s reviving downtown.

 

 

City Concerned

 

Maloney reaffirmed the city position that the homeless planned to be housed in that shelter are not all from White Plains, as the county contends,  that they are all from all over, and should not be housed overnight within the city.

 

Victoria Hochman the county spokesperson on this issue told WPCNR that the persons are picked up in White Plains and that it made sense to have them stay overnight near the new Day Center for the Homeless being established at 96 East Post Road to be run by Grace Church Community Services.

 

That Day Center at 96 East Post Road for the Homeless to stay during the day has not yet been approved by the Common Council, and was tabled at the last work session, where it was pleaded to be a consent agenda item. The Common Council scheduled a public hearing on the 96 East Post Road Shelter for the January Common Council meeting. 

 

  The homeless who now spend the night at the airport shelter that Hochman described as a horrible, dilapidated place, are returned to White Plains mornings at 6 A.M., where they are expected to avail themselves of county services, but rarely do. 

 

No other Location in City Discussed?

 

Hochman did not know if any other location such as New York Presbyterian Hospital, or White Plains Hospital Center, (NYPH being a facility which specializes among other fields in the mentally ill), were contacted by the county as a possible overnight location.

 

Asked why the airport shelter population was not housed in the new Valhalla Homeless Shelter opened last week, Hochman said because the airport population were “hardcore homeless” who have refused to participate in programs available to the system such as drug rehabilitation programs, alcohol rehab programs, job training programs, counseling, and therefore did not fit in with the homeless population destined for the Valhalla Shelter who do take advantage of county services.

 

No Official Named as Responsible.

 

Hochman was asked who in county government had decided the airport shelter homeless should be overnighted in White Plains in the center of downtown. The “hardcore homeless” as the county calls them have been bused to the airport for decades. Hochman said she did not know whose decision it was, but speculated it was made by the Department of Social Services over the last few months.

 

 

Operations of 85 Court

 

As to operations of the 85 Court Street shelter, Hochman reports that homeless persons in White Plains seeking a bed for the night would still be expected to assemble at South Lexington and Maple Avenues, where they would be put on a bus and bused one block to 85 Court Street where their names would be taken and she believes they are checked to see whether or not they are previous convicted “sex offenders and possibly a criminal record.”

 

In order to stay the night in 85 Court Street, Hochman said the homeless would have to agree to be locked in, (as they are at the airport facility) put under security, and would not be allowed to leave. In the morning, they would be bused over to the new Day Center for the Homeless at 96 East Post Road where Grace Church Community Services would give them shower facilities, counseling, and give them a place to stay during the day. Hochman said they would not be forced to stay there.

 

Hochman said the homeless may stay past the present 6 A.M. “reveille” time when they are turned out of the airport center and put on buses back to White Plains or other areas where they come from, and that she thought it would be closer to the time when the Grace Day Center for the Homeless would open.

 

 

Hochman, told WPCNR the 85 Court facility would only house 43 persons maximum. Asked if there ever was an overflow, Hochman theorized, but could not say for certain, that the overflow would find other facilities around the county to take them in.

 

 

Records of the Hardcore Homeless

 

Asked if the county could check its manifests of persons taken at nightly bus pickups who routinely stay in the County Airport Shelter, Hochman did not know if those manifests were available or used to develop a profile of typical hardcore homeless populations in more detail as to how many had criminal records, how many were drug or alcohol addicted, and other various afflictions. She did not give a figure on how many were picked up nightly. She said the population changed nightly.

 

Nevertheless, the homeless population to be at 85 Court were described by Ms. Hochman as the vast majority being possibly mentally ill, some developmentally disabled, some drug-addicted, and with criminal  backgrounds from being housed overnight (from 10 P.M to sometime after 6 A.M.) in the heart of the White Plains downtown.

 

 

The Runup

 

Hochman reported to WPCNR that the Westchester County Department  of Public Safety had discussed the safety concerns and issues concerning locating the homeless at 85 Court Street with the White Plains Department of Public Safety, and that the White Plains Department of Public Safety had told the Mayor’s Office about it. She did not know when the Mayor’s office was notified by the Department of Public Safety. Martin Gleeson, media spokesman for the White Plains Department of Public Safety has been contacted for the Department of Public Safety side of this communication question.

 

County Legislator Bill Ryan contacted Saturday and again today by WPCNR as to whether he  knew about the county plan, has yet to respond.

 

Thomas Roach, President of the White Plains Common Council had no comment, because he did not know of the situation as of Saturday morning when WPCNR contacted him. “We’ll have to see how it plays out,” Roach said.

 

Cappelli Enterprises, which is constructing a 4-Star Hotel and condoplex a block and a half away from 85 Court Street has yet to respond with their reaction to the news.

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WPCNR PRESS BOX. December 18, 2005: The Ebersole Ice Rink Figure Skating School and White Plains Figure Skating Club, many of whom learned to skate at Ebersole a decade ago,  combined to entertain family and friends with group performances and individual solos at the traditional Ebersole Holiday Show Saturday afternoon on a beautiful day for ice-skating. Highlights of the Show were the March of the Penguins, Daria and Peter Marinelli, and “The Ebersolettes,” which showed they have a future in synchro skating, and, of course, the traditional visits of Santa and Frosty the Snowman.

The March of the Penguins, the Irrepressible Tots, Opened the Show,  Choreographed by Members of White Plains Figure Skating Club. Photo, WPCNR Sports.

Peter and Daria Marinelli, Father, member of  Men N Sync, the only Men’s Synchronized Skating Team in the Country,  and Daughter Daria of the White Plains Figure Skating Club, a longtime member of the club, skated a Pairs Solo — the Highlight of the Show. Photo, WPCNR Sports.

The “Ebersolettes” Execute a Synchronized Skating Line. Photo, WPCNR Sports.

Jenna Besignano of the White Plains Figure Skating Club  in  a silky smooth Layback Spin. Photo, WPCNR Sports.

Becky Riss in a Sit-Spin in her Solo Spotlight. Photo, WPCNR Sports

 

Peter and Daria Marinelli. Photo, WPCNR Sports.

Allison Fuerst Performing Run, Run Rudolph. Photo, WPCNR Sports

Juliana Bailey  Wishing Figure Skating Fans a “Happy Holiday ” . Photo, WPCNR Sports.

 

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Santa and Frosty the Snowman Invited All onto the ice at the finale to finish up the afternoon with the most fun you can have on ice: skating outdoors at Ebersole Ice Rink, White Plains. Photo, WPCNR Sports.

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WPCNR ALBANY OBSERVER. From Assemblyman George Latimer. December 18, 2005: New York State Assemblyman George Latimer (D-Westchester, 91st A.D.) has two on-line sites where District residents can track his activities and efforts:

The State Assembly website provides news of the Assemblyman’s
legislative agenda and important programs:

www.assembly.state.ny.us/mem/?ad=091

Latimer also maintains a personal website that includes press clippings,
endorsements and other political as well as policy information:

www.GeorgeLatimer.com

Both sites allow e-mail communication for constituents on issues and
opinions.

Latimer is completing his first year representing Rye Brook, Larchmont,
Mamaroneck Town and Village, Port Chester, Rye City and part of New
Rochelle in the State Assembly. He can be reached locally at his
District Office, (914) 777-3832, 933 Mamaroneck Ave., Suite 102,
Mamaroneck, NY 10543.