WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER TOPS 5 MILLION VISITS IN A YEAR! 5,566,746 VISITS IN ONE YEAR BY 1,769,260 VISITORS 7,631 VISITORS A DAY! IN AUGUST, 247,700 VISITORS MADE 684,903 VISITS (22,830 DAILY)

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WPCNR’S ADAM IN ALBANY. By District 89 Assemblyperson Adam T. Bradley. January 24, 2004: When it comes to our health, or the health of our loved ones — we cannot compromise the care our families need. Last year, the governor tried to cut health care by $2 billion before a bipartisan legislative coalition stopped him. This year, the governor is repeating many of his wrong choices of last year by proposing a $1.4 billion cut to health care, including:

·        Nearly $800 million in cuts to Medicaid;

·        A “sick tax” on hospitals, nursing homes and home health care agencies – that will cost these providers $429 million; and

·        $178 million in cuts to other public health programs.

To make matters worse, the governor’s budget pushes affordable health care out of reach for those who need it the most. The governor is proposing co-pays and eliminating dental and vision coverage for people covered by the Family Health Program, which is the state program bringing affordable health care to the uninsured. Additionally, his budget cuts $75 million in Early Intervention funds when fully implemented – which hurts our most vulnerable, disabled children.

In a blow to seniors, the governor’s budget attempts to cut $60 million from EPIC, the state’s prescription drug program that helps them afford their medication. These cuts will drive pharmacies out of the program and make prescription drugs less available to seniors.

With many of our hospitals and nursing homes already losing money and facing severe staffing shortages, cutting Medicaid will only threaten the quality of care available to our families. These cuts and the governor’s proposal to raise taxes on hospitals, nursing homes, and home-care agencies will force health care facilities to cut jobs and eliminate services. The Healthcare Association of New York State has called on the legislature to “again reject the tax-and-cut proposals from the Governor.”

Just last year, St. Agnes hospital in White Plains closed and this year Westchester County Medical Center is facing severe financial difficulties. The medical center, the largest hospital in the seven-county Hudson Valley region, provides important care that local hospitals are unable to provide and is one of Westchester’s largest employers. It recently layed-off 300 employees. The center also recently received a credit rating near junk bond status. The governor’s budget proposal threatens to seriously jeopardize the quality of care here in Westchester County and may further hinder the medical center’s ability to thrive.

To relieve local governments from escalating Medicaid costs, the governor has proposed a ten-year takeover of long-term care – saving localities just $24 million this year. I’m encouraged that the governor has finally followed the Assembly’s leadership and addressed the need to ease the Medicaid burden on local taxpayers.

In fact, had the governor gone along with the Assembly’s proposals to have the state assume a larger share of Medicaid and the full non-federal share of Family Health Plus, we would have saved local taxpayers over $750 million since 1995.

 Essentially, the governor’s budget asks us to pay more for health care and, in turn, receive poorer care. Our families deserve better. I will continue fighting to ensure that Westchester families have access to the type of quality health care that saves lives.

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WPCNR FOR THE RECORD. From Paul Wood, The Mayor’s Office. January 23, 2004: City Hall complied promptly and courteously to WPCNR’s official Freedom of  Information Law Request to the Department of Public Works Friday for a copy of the September 14, 2001, Memorandum provided the Journal News as a result of that medium’s FOIL request. Herewith is the text of that Memorandum, written by Joseph Nicoletti, Commissioner of Public Works, City of White Plains, to George Gretsas, the Mayor’s Executive Officer, at 7:12 P.M., September 14, 2001.

A MYSTERY MEMO NO MORE: The Mystery Memo by Joseph Nicoletti was faxed Friday at 5:10 P.M. E.S.T. to the WPCNR News Center. The transcribed text follows. Photo by WPCNR NewsLab

From: Joseph Nicoletti

To: George Gretsas

Date: 9/14/01  7:12 P.M.

Subject: Sanitary Sewer capacity regarding Cappelli project

George,

As per your request and yesterday’s discussion, we have investigated the capacity of the City’s sanitary sewer system so as to determine if it will be adequate to cope with the loads from the City Center project.

Although the developer is now performing actual flow meter tests in various S/S (sanitary sewer) manhole locations downstream of their project site, we did manual observations of the outfall pipes. Note that these pipes are between fifteen and twenty feet below the surfact of the roadways, and the measurement of fluid level entailed our men going to the bottom of these manhole shafts at hourly intervals last night and this morning. While there was expectedly a lull in flow after midnight, it picked up again after 4:00AM and was never found to be much below the 75% level throughout the day and into the evening. In many instances (particularly near the Martin Luther King Blvd. intersection with Main St.- where the 16” diam. Line connects to the newer 27” and then quickly to a 30”) we noted the pipes to be running very close to design capacity. Of course, this is with the present building load. The additional sewage from the Cappelli project will easily overload this length of pipe and cause catastrophic backups. Further the current 8” pipe which resides in Main Street between City Hall and the City Center site is now running at 40% capacity and will definitely need to be replaced with a larger pipe, say 16”, in order to handle the discharge from the north apartment tower and the movie theater. This small line (the minimum size for a munipal S/S main) is very old (constructed of clay) and serves very little else at the present time, other than the Fleet Bank, City Hall and Halpern’s office building next door to us at 245 Main Street.

We have also done a cursory cost estimate to install ductile iron pipe of a large size in the necessary areas:

Replacement of the present 8” clay tile pipe from a manhole on Main Street, just West of Conroy Drive, to the intersection with Mamaroneck Ave. will require about 470 linear feet of pipe. We have never seen sewer pipe replaced for less than $100/ft. in recent years, but because of the location, depth, preponderance of existing underground utilities, and the need to replay the new pipe in the exiting pipe’s trench, We would estimate costs to be more on the order of $300/ft. The depth of the pipe requires significant sheeting and shoring, and the many other utilities will need to be temporarily rerouted during construction (gas, electric telephone, fiberoptic cable and numerous lateral service lines will be in the way). As the roadway carries significant traffic volumes, shortened work days (or late night construction hours) will need to be instituted and expensive traffic control and protection devices will be required. Finally, since there is no alternative corridor for the new line to occupy, it will have to go in the original pipe’s trench, thus requiring a bypass pump system to operate while the old line is taken out of service. Estimate a this time: $150,000.00.

The second piece of this concerns the existing 16” and 18” lines which connect on Main Street between Mamaroneck Ave. and Martin Luther King Blvd. This line is even deeper than the aforementioned 8” line and owing to its even more critical location in Main Street, we project costs to be $500/ft. This results in a value of about $500,000.00 for its 1,150 foot length.

In short, based upon present information and our historical experience, the total sanitary sewer work necessary to support the City Center project (commercial and residential components) is estimated to be $650,000.00 exclusive of design costs, construction management, and as-built certifications. This could amount to an additional $100,000.00. We stress that these costs are only projections, and that the project would need to be fully designed first in order to get better accuracy, and then put out to bid to test to market reaction to the difficulty of the job.

Thanks,

Bud

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WPCNR CITY HALL CORRESPONDENT. January 23, 2004: Mayor Joseph Delfino at city hall told WPCNR late Friday afternoon, when asked about his written statement, issued earlier Friday, said he did not have a schedule on when the Main Street sewer was to be “lined” by Louis Cappelli Enterprises (“I don’t have a schedule on that,” he said.) Asked if  the controversial 16-incher pipe that carries the effluent from City Center was going to be lined even if 221 Main, (the Cappelli Hotel project), was not approved, the Mayor told WPCNR earnestly, “I don’t have an answer on that,” and proceeded into his office suite without pausing to answer any further questions.

Moments prior to this chance encounter with His Honor, WPCNR had asked Rick Ammirato, spokesperson for the Mayor’s office, the same question, Ammirato, said  the Mayor stands on his statement, which you can read on WPCNR below.

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WPCNR Chatterton Chatter. By John F. Bailey & CitizeNetReporters January 23, 2004. Updated January 24, 2004, 12:30 A.M.: An ad hoc committee of approximately 25 persons gathered at the Jacob Purdy House Thursday evening at 8 with Susan Chang, the former editor and publisher of the White Plains Watch. According toWPCNR correspondents in attendance, the meeting was co-lead by Dr. Saul Yanofsky, former Superintendent of Schools, and Jack Harrington, President of the White Plains Historical Society. Also in attendance were Barbara Benjamin, Michael Seymour, Marc Pollitzer, and a number of persons described as staff of The Watch, or persons who wrote for them.

Ms. Chang disclosed to her audience that she now has enrolled 1,400 subscribers, including all her former “volunteer subscribers,” and that she said she needed 3,000 subscribers to continue the paper. Saul Yanofsky, according to our correspondent said that there were 50,000 people in White Plains and that it was a shame that more had not subscribed. Chang informed the meeting, observers said, that she did not intend to change the paper format, and our correspondent was lead to believe she would not publish again until she reached the 3,000 subscriber level. No prospective advertisers or former advertisers attended, our observer said. A door-to-door subscription campaign was one of the ideas contemplated.

In a further report, our correspondents said there was no statement from Ms. Chang if there would be a  February issue.

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WPCNR City Hall Correspondent. By John F. Bailey. January 22, 2004, Updated 12:23 A.M. E.S.T., January 23, 2004.: Robert Greer, City Councilman, confirmed Pauline Oliva’s revelation that the Joseph Nicoletti  Memorandum disclosed in part in a Journal News article Thursday morning, was not made available to the Common Council in the days just prior to the vote on approving the Louis Cappelli City Center project. Greer, who voted for the resolution approving the City Center, told WPCNR by telephone Thursday afternoon, “I don’t recall ever seeing something like that. I should think a revelation of that sort would  have gotten the attention of the council.”

George Gretsas, the Mayor’s Executive Officer asking to speak to WPCNR from West Palm Beach, Florida, Thursday afternoon, in a conference call with Mr. Wood, and Rick Ammirato listening in, said the memorandum in question was addressed to him. He said the resolution quoted in this story showed that the Common Council knew of Mr. Nicoletti’s concerns.

Before WPCNR could ask Mr. Gretsas any further questions as to whether the sewer had to be corrected before City Center is completed, (as appears to be indicated in the resolution), Mr. Gretsas terminated the conference call abruptly. Later Thursday evening, Mayor Delfino, attending a Common Council work session was not in a position for WPCNR to ask him that question.

After the brusque termination of the conference call, WPCNR asked City Hall spokesperson Paul Wood if we could have the Memorandum, and Mr. Wood said “No” that WPCNR would have to file a Freedom of Information Law request to obtain a copy of the Memorandum the Journal News referred to in their story, and that it would be available in five days.

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Meanwhile, Paul Wood, spokesperson for the Mayor’s office, disputed Ms. Oliva’s recollection reported earlier Thursday by WPCNR, that the council was not made aware of the memo, saying that Nicoletti’s concerns were expressed and provided for in the resolution approving the City Center project that the Council approved.

When asked by WPCNR if Mr. Greer recalled the commentary by Mr. Nicoletti in the resolution, Mr. Greer said, “perhaps they were mitigated.” Pressed by WPCNR whether Mr. Nicoletti had ever made the Common Council aware in work sessions of his concerns that the City Center effluent might cause backups in the sewer line of a “catastrophic” proportion as reported in the memorandum, Greer said “no.”

Mr. Wood faxed WPCNR the page in the Common Council minutes detailing the language of the Resolution that approved the project in which Mr. Nicoletti, in a letter included in the resolution on page 1,398 of the Common Council Minutes of Sepetember 20, 2001:

It is likely that the City’s sanitary sewer system will not have sufficient excess capacity to cope with loads from the entire project site. Flow tests and architectural building load projections will need to be conducted by the Applicant and such data subsequently analyzed by the Commissioner of Public Works. Per the City’s standard practice, the cost of the system upgrades are to be paid by the Applicant, and for any subsequent Developments benefitting directly from these system upgrades, it is the intent of the City to seek a contribution from the subsequent Developer for a share of the costs.

All work within the City’s rights of way (including street trees, relocation of bus shelters and “promenade lights”), must conform with this Department’s current standard construction specifications, methods and details.

In conclusion, we recommend the issuances of a Special Permit allowing a 350 height, in addition, we have no objection to the City Center Site Plan Proposal provided that the captioned issues are addressed to the satisfaction of the Commissioner of Public Works, perhaps during the construction permit phase of the project.

Joseph Nicoletti, Jr., P.E.

Commisoner of Public Works

Dated: September 20, 2001.

The memorandum in question that Mr. Greer refers to was reported by The Journal News Thursday morning to have been circulated September 14, 2001, six days before the approval vote, warning of “catastrophic” results if the City Center project came on line without improving the Main Street sewer. WPCNR has been promised a copy of that Memorandum by City Hall, which we await. A City Hall spokesman said they did not know to whom the memorandum was addressed, but described the communication as an “internal” memo.

Mr. Wood advised WPCNR at 5:30 P.M. Thursday evening that WPCNR would have to file a Freedom of Information Law request to obtain a copy of the Memorandum referred to in the Journal News story, and it would delivered within 5 days from the time WPCNR filed it.