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 COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. Coverage From Westchester County Department of Communications. September 11, 2003: County Executive Andy Spano today announced that Westchester County is seeking proposals from artists to design a memorial to the 111 Westchester County residents who died on Sept. 11, 2001.

Spano made the announcement at a memorial event at Webb Field in Greenburgh to commemorate the second anniversary of 9/11 and break ground on another memorial – a wall of more than 2,000 tiles designed by Westchester residents.

During his speech to those gathered at Webb Field, the County Executive said that a committee made up of emergency personnel, family members of 9-11 victims, planners and parks officials have been working to find a location for the memorial and to come up with criteria for a design. The memorial will be located at the Kensico Dam Plaza in Valhalla.

More than 1,000 post cards announcing the county’s search for a design are being sent to artists and local arts councils nationwide. Information about the project as well as copies of the RFP can be downloaded from the county’s website at www.Westchestergov.com

 Artists must submit proposals to the committee by Jan. 15, 2004. The 27-member memorial committee will then select finalists who will be asked to make a formal presentation before the committee. The county hopes to announce a winner by April with construction to begin by July.

The memorial would be dedicated on Sept. 11, 2005.  The total cost of the monument would be $200,000 with $150,000 coming from county funds and $50,000 from state funds.

While the RFP states that the committee expects that the memorial will be some type of sculpture, it is open to other ideas, as long as the proposal meets other criteria. The memorial should fit in with the landscape at Kensico and take into account that residents will be using the area for recreation as well.

Juliette Brisman, whose husband Mark died while working at the World Trade Center, said the committee had agreed that the Kensico Dam Plaza was the most fitting location for the memorial because of its central location in Westchester and the fact that it was visited by thousands of people each year. In 2002, more than 40,000 people visited the park.

Brisman said that the committee’s key concern was that the memorial reflect the individuals who died. One idea discussed was to have a friend or family member write a short line about each victim that could be inscribed on the monument.

“A name on the monument was not enough,’’ she said. “We wanted people to know who our loved ones really were,’’ she said.

She added, “We also wanted the memorial to be low enough to the ground for children and so people could touch or walk through it.”

Spano said it would be up to the artist to propose a monument that both reflected the loss to the nation as well as the individual.

“This was a large loss for us all,’’ said Spano. “But I think the family members would like the memorial to serve as a reminder of the individual and what their deaths meant to their families and communities as well as to the nation.’’

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From Westchester County Department of Communications. September 11, 2003: Westchester County Executive Andy Spano will join representatives from the Rotary Club, Westchester Arts Council, the Town of Greenburgh and Project Liberty-Westchester at 12 noon to break ground on a memorial mural to victims of 9/11 at Webb Field in Greenburgh.

The memorial, composed of more than 2,000 hand-painted tiles created by county residents, was designed though the Westchester Arts Council and commissioned by Project Liberty-Westchester with funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Town of Greenburgh donated the site and the Rotary Club’s International District 7230 is funding construction of the wall.

At the event, Spano will make an announcement about Westchester’s own 9/11 monument, which will be built by Westchester County at Kensico Dam Plaza in Valhalla. Westchester has been working for more than a year with a committee of families members of 9/11 victims to design and build a memorial to the 111 Westchester residents who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Spano will update residents on the latest developments in the construction of Westchester County’s memorial.

 Webb Field is located on Central Avenue in Hartsdale.

In White Plains, Grace Church will present a Memorial Service also at noon. This evening Mayor Joseph Delfino will participate in a Memorial Service at the Church in the Highlands at 7:30 PM.

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WPCNR PRIMARY NIGHT. By John F.  Bailey. September 9, 2003: In the Republican Primary for Common Council in White Plains tonight, unofficial counts phoned in from poll watchers to White Plains Republican Primary Night Headquarters with all Districts in show Tim Sheehan the top vote getter with 920 votes, Jeffrey Binder runnerup with 859, Dan Hickey the challenger of the Republican Ticket with 830 votes, and Rosa Munoz with 807. The margin is 23 votes. Jeffrey Binder noting the 27 vote margin at 10 P.M. with District 39 missing, said “This is too close to call, it’s going to be decided by absentee ballots.

WAITING FOR THE LAST DISTRICT: Jeffrey Binder, left, and Tim Sheehan, at the keyboard at Dooley Mac’s Tuesday night, waiting for the report of District 39, which showed that the Munoz-Hickey battle for the third slot on the Republican Council Ticket was going to Overtime. Absentee Ballots will determine whether Dan Hickey’s bid for Council will forward. Photo by WPCNR News

Binder learned from Carolee Sunderland, the Co-Chair of the County Board of Elections that 142 absentee ballots were requested by Republicans and mailed out, and 44 were returned. Sheehan said moments ago in a telephone call to WPCNR, there was going to be a recanvass Friday. Binder said absentee ballots are due in postmarked one week from today. Only at that time, he said, would the ballots be opened at the Board of Elections.

In rough analysis of yet another close White Plains election, Binder and William Waterman each noted that Hickey was stronger in the Southend of White Plains, where what Sheehan characterized as “a strong, organized get out the vote campaign” helped Hickey do well. Hickey and Munoz were about even in the HIghlands area, and the Northend was stronger for Munoz.

OVERTIME! Scrawled final tally before the final District 39 numbers were acquired, confirming what Sheehan and Binder already knew, we’re going to overtime! Photo by WPCNR News

Rough counts from the sign in sheets delivered from voting locations around the city, showed 3,368 Registered Republicans voted out of 7,800 registered. But, as Sheehan pointed out to his colleagues, you can’t tell how many came out and just voted for their favorite, since each Republican could vote for three candidates. “It shows the importance of the crossover vote in White Plains,” Sheehan said.

Binder and Sheehan were asked by WPCNR how this result, if Hickey held his lead, would alter their campaign. Would they campaign with Hickey as a Republican, or campaign against him, in favor of Munoz, whom if she is defeated eventually by Hickey, would still be on the Independence Party and Conservative lines?

Binder said, “Frankly, we had not thought about it.”

Asked how yet another unanticipated delay meant the Republican Council crusaders would delay the start of serious campaigning against incumbent councilmen Benjamin Boykin and Robert Greer and first-time candidate Arnold Bernstein, Binder said “Our campaign will go forward regardless.”

Sheehan, on the telephone announcing the final count, was obviously pained by the razor thin 23-vote margin that Rosa Munoz was trailing Hickey. He said there was no way to tell exactly whether the absentee ballots favored Munoz or Hickey.

As I departed Dooley Mac’s out into the parking lot, I could not help but think of two other very close elections in White Plains in each of the last three years that went down to the wire and past it. The 2001 Hockley-Delgado election still has not been decided, and Councilman Glen Hockley serves by the grace of the Court of Appeals and the deliberateness of the Appellate Court in Brooklyn. The 2002 Democratic Primary featured Adam Bradley easing past Naomi Matusow by 23 votes only after two weeks of waiting for Absentee Ballots to be counted. Now, it’s 2003, and we have another race not decided on Election Night.

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WPCNR POLICE GAZETTE. September 9, 2003: Four White Plains Fire Companies and mutual aid assistance from other fire departments, including Greenburgh and New Rochelle, are fighting a major blaze engulfing Bet AmShalom Synagogue as of 11:30 A.M Tuesday morning. The stately synagogue was enshrouded in black and white smoke, turning a sunny day into night, with flames heard crackling in the morning air, and visible through the smoke. Flames had engulfed the top of the roof, appearing to be underneath the roof peak to the left of the entrance. Firefighters were streaming high powered water on and into the structure.

THE BET AM SHALOM  FIRE as it appeared at 11:15 A.M. Entrance is at right. Photo by WPCNR News.

Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety, David Chong told WPCNR the fire was discovered by a caretaker arriving at approximately 9:30 A.M. “She smelled smoke, felt the heat, and phoned in the alarm,” Chong reported. “We received the alarm at 10 A.M.”

Chong said 75 firefighters were involved, that it was a four-alarm fire, and neighboring fire companies were providing mutual assistance. As WPCNR left the scene to file this story, firetrucks from New Rochelle were arriving. Chong described the building as fully engulfed, and said that it was not under control as of 11:30 A.M. The fire was being fought from the west side of the building.

Chong said “The cause is undetermined at this time.”

FLAMES APPEAR SHOOTING FROM THE ROOF OF THE SYNAGOGUE. View is from the North. Photo by WPCNR News

SYNAGOGUE AT 11:30 A.M. Photo by WPCNR News

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WPCNR THE WHITE PLAINS STREET. September 9, 2003: Registered Republicans and Democrats are urged to vote in their respective primaries throughout the city today at their regular polling places. On the Republican side in White Plains, challenger Dan Hickey will be challenging Jeffrey Binder, Tim Sheehan, and Rosa Munoz. On the Democratic side, the Kathy Davidson-Susan Pollet Family Court Judgeship nomination will be a test of Democrat establishment influence in that Pollet’s maverick candidacy has been strongly criticised as being disloyal to the Democratic Party.  Results can be obtained on the Westchester County website late this evening.

WHAT DOES A CANDIDATE DO ON PRIMARY DAY? Tim Sheehan, Republican Candidate for Common Council, drove to 20 North Broadway Tuesday afternoon, (where he used to live) to give Republican voters Ann McGovern, right, Florence Giannone (in red sweater) and Louise Tartaglia a lift to their polling place at Eastview School. Voters of both parties have until 9 P.M. this evening to cast their ballots.  Photo by WPCNR News

JEFF BINDER AND TIM SHEEHAN ENTER RIDGEWAY SCHOOL where Mr. Binder voted in today’s Republican Primary. Polls are still open until 9 P.M. tonight. Photo by WPCNR News

CANDIDATE BINDER SIGNS IN AT THE POLLS. As of 10 A.M. 28 voters had voted, 21 of them Republicans. Photo by WPCNR News

ONE FOR “THE BINDER:”  Binder emerges from the voting booth. Next, Binder and Sheehan went calling on registered  Republican residents to encourage them to get out to the polls. Photo by WPCNR News.

AFTER VOTING, THE JOB IS GETTING THOSE REPUBLICANS OUT! Carrying lists of registered Republicans in the Club Pointe neighborhood, Tim Sheehan urges Carlos Munoz (no relation to the Republican candidate), to take time out to vote in the Primary. Binder, at left, said usually he and Binder would not walk together. If no one is home on their “Sidewalk Campaign,” they leave a brochure and write a note on it urging them to vote in the primary. Photo by WPCNR News