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 ALBANY ROUNDS. From the Governor’s Office. September 28, 2013:

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that New York State’s Housing Recovery Program will fully compensate homeowners affected by Hurricane Irene, Tropical Storm Lee, and Superstorm Sandy for the repair costs of damage to their homes due to ‘earth movement.’

Under FEMA’s existing National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) regulations, damage caused by the movement of soil or earth – even if the movement is the result of flooding – is not eligible for coverage. In comparison, physical damage to a building caused directly by flood waters is covered under NFIP.

As a result of this gap in coverage, hundreds of impacted homeowners throughout the state have had their NFIP claims denied, leaving many with no place to live and no resources to rebuild.

“Over the last few years, we experienced three once-in-a-century storms that wreaked an unprecedented level of devastation in communities across the state,” Governor Cuomo said. “While we have made much progress in recovering from Irene, Lee and Sandy, many New Yorkers are still left without a place to call home and limited resources to rebuild due to National Flood Insurance Program regulations, which state that homes damaged by ‘earth movement’ are not covered.

“Yet it simply does not make sense that some New Yorkers who were just as hard hit by the same storms as others cannot be compensated for their losses. That is why the State is stepping up to bridge this unfair gap in insurance coverage. Under our Housing Recovery Program, homeowners will be fully compensated for all repairs of damage. We are pleased to deliver this assistance so that all New Yorkers can move forward on the path to a full recovery.”

“Many New Yorkers were hopeful that they would be covered since they had purchased flood insurance,” said Director of the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery, Seth Diamond. “However, they were unaware of this NFIP rule regarding earth movements. As a result, these homeowners did not receive the assistance they were seeking, and many who did not have the resources to rebuild on their own are still not back in their homes. Now, these residents will be eligible to receive funding through the State’s home rebuilding program instead, and their eligible rebuilding costs will be covered.”

The State will continue to conduct outreach to homeowners to ensure that those interested can apply for assistance. In addition, the Office of Storm Recovery will provide technical assistance to the communities under the New York Rising Community Reconstruction Program to evaluate and determine if local resiliency measures could assist with limiting the impact of earth movements. For more information, call 1-855-697-7263 or visit www.stormrecovery.ny.gov.

Governor Cuomo created the Office of Storm Recovery in June 2013 to centralize recovery and rebuilding efforts in storm affected municipalities throughout the State. In close collaboration with local and community leaders in these areas, the Office is working to respond to communities’ most urgent rebuilding needs while also identifying long-term and innovative solutions to strengthen the State’s infrastructure and critical systems for the future. Storm Recovery programs include the Recreate NY Smart Home program, which provides homeowners with assistance for home repairs/rehabilitation, mitigation and elevation, and buyouts, and the Small Business program, which provides small business grants of $50,000 or more, as well as low-interest loans.

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BAILEY!

John Bailey, The CitizeNetReporter since 2000!

KATZ!

The Anchor for All Seasons, PETER KATZ!

BENEROFE!

Jim Benerofe the Dean of the White Plains School of Journalism

 TOTAL COVERAGE OF THE COMPLETE FASNY STORY!

WHITE PLAINS WEEK WORLDWIDE!

FASNY AND THE SCHOOL BOARD

FASNY AND THE COMMON COUNCIL

FASNY AND YOU

WHERE THEY STAND  WHAT’S NEXT!

THE METRO NORTH  PUSH TO THE TRACKS

THE PHANTOM OF THE BIKE LANES

EXTENDING THE GREENWAY  EATS UP MORE GREEN

THE ESPLANADE $17 MILLION GARAGE EATS UP EVEM MORE GREEN

YOU ARE ABOUT TO ENTER THE TEXTING ZONE

THE FIRST CANDIDATES FORUM

AND

EXCLUSIVE ON THE INTERNET–

TWO! TWO  PLACES TO WATCH

 www.whiteplainsweek.com

www.wpcommunitymedia.org

EXCLUSIVE TAPED TODAY!

A FASNY WEEK SPECIAL

JOHN BAILEY AND JIM BENEROFE INTERVIEW

FASNY’S LEGAL STRATEGIST, MIKE ZARIN

AND BOARD MEMBER JOHN BOTTI

JOHN BAILEY WITH MICHAEL ZARIN, JOHN BOTTI OF THE FRENCH AMERICAN SCHOOL OF NEW YORK AND JIM BENEROFE RECORDING TODAY IN THE WHITE PLAINS TELEVISION SUBTERRANEAN STUDIOS IN DOWNTOWN WHITE PLAINS NEW YORK USA

ON THE NORTH STREET ENTRANCE TO FASNY PROPOSAL

and the looming Findings Showdown.

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From the Westchester County Department of Communications. September 26, 2013:

As a result of a multi-department effort that led to the arrests of part-time employees for stealing the receipts of county parking operations, a new system of controls has been put in place to prevent this type of theft in the future.

The Parks Department assisted detectives from the Department of Public Safety in the year-long investigation that led to the indictment of three former hourly Parks employees and the arrests of 12 others.  The thefts occurred between 2009 and 2012 and involved employees pocketing money from patrons for monthly parking permits and MetroCards and then falsifying records to cover their crimes.

County Executive Robert P. Astorino said he was disgusted that employees would steal from Westchester County taxpayers. “This is a violation of the public’s trust,” he said. “As soon as allegations surfaced, I made sure the county moved quickly to find out the full extent of the problem and take the steps necessary to prevent it from happening again. Theft in any form cannot be tolerated and we must always be vigilant to prevent it.”

Parks Commissioner Kathleen O’Connor, whose department oversees the county’s parking operations, said the implementation of new controls began over a year ago, but were not disclosed publicly until now to prevent tipping off those involved in the scheme.

“Now that the criminal investigation has concluded, we can report that changes have already been made to strengthen our internal controls,” she said. “These individuals were able – at least for a while – to get around the checks and balances. We have revamped the system to address these weaknesses. We can’t prevent every theft, but we can make criminal acts more difficult to commit and easier to detect and that is what our new controls are designed to do.”

Public Safety Commissioner George N. Longworth thanked the Parks Department for its cooperation over the course of the investigation and praised the work of Detectives Edward Kelch and George Ruiz of the General Investigations Unit.

“These detectives reviewed thousands of documents and conducted a detailed investigation to identify the extent of this fraud,” Longworth said.  “We believe that all persons who were criminally responsible have been identified and formally charged.”

O’Connor said that all of the employees who were implicated in the fraud were terminated following their arrests.

O’Connor said that changes made by the Parks Department include:

• Appointing a new parking supervisor;
• Requiring the financial staff assigned to the County Center to report directly to the Administrative Division at Parks Department headquarters;
• Limiting the number of parking permits distributed at any one time to the parking office staff that handles sales to the public;
• Installing security cameras in parking offices and booths, and
• Installing a new point-of-sale system with increased controls and reporting.

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AnneMarie Encanarcao Candidate for Common Council

WPCNR CAMPAIGN 2013. From the AnneMarie Encarnacao Campaign. September 25, 2013:

AnneMarie is a lifelong resident of White Plains for 46 years and has lived in 5 different neighborhoods throughout the city: Prospect Park, Soundview, Battle Hill, Fisher Hill, and now The Highlands.  She and her husband Rui have been married for 26 years and have two adult children, Ashley and Rui, who attended White Plains Public Schools K-12.

AnneMarie is a licensed insurance and real estate broker in downtown White Plains.  Actually, her insurance company is in the Republican Headquarters, thus ultimately leading her to run for Common Council.

Her exact words were “I want to run for Common Council because instead of complaining, I want to get involved!”  So that is exactly what she did.

AnneMarie went out in her neighborhood/district and got signatures to get her name on the ballot for Common Council along with her fellow team members, Cass Cibelli who is running for Mayor and Claudia Murphy who is also running for Common Council.

The Encarnarcoas: Daughter Ashley, Son Rui, Anne-Marie Encanarcao, and husband Rui

As a middle class working family, Rui and AnneMarie have seen their real estate taxes double in the 13 years they have lived in their same home in the Highlands!  This is one of AnneMarie’s biggest concerns, taxes.  She realizes through her career as a Realtor that senior citizens in the city can’t afford to live in their homes any longer because of the ever increasing taxes.  She would like to see a City Senior STAR for them to help alleviate the high taxes to try and keep them in their homes!

Another concern of AnneMarie as a lifelong citizen was the two large Open Spaces that were made available to the city over the last decade that would have benefitted all White Plains residents, young and old!

Both were voted down by some of the present common council members and the mayor!  One was NY Hospital’s proposal to give the city an abundant amount of acres for a “Central Park” including playing fields!   The other was Ridgeway Country Club that the city passed on buying.  It should/could have been White Plains’ “Lake Isle” as in Eastchester that is a money making venue for that city and a club for its residents.

As a Realtor in White Plains, AnneMarie has seen the effect that the sale of the (Ridgeway) club to The French American School of New York has had on the real estate values of the homes in Gedney Farms.  They have lost anywhere upwards of $200,000 each, which is approximately a 20%+ decrease, whereas other areas in the city have only saw half that or less.

AnneMarie is a kind hearted person and would help anyone she meets.  She now wants to expand that by running for Common Council and helping her city and its residents.  She knows exactly how they feel because she has been one of those citizens and is ready to listen, act, and try to make changes to the way business is done in the city.

The city has been at a stalemate and some of the decisions that have been made were not really the most beneficial to the residents.  AnneMarie feels the residents have been cheated out of useful, family, green space that would have been used by all, young and old!

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French American School of New York proposed this Aligned Intersection at the entrance to White Plains High School to the right in the simulation above,  creating a North Street entrance to their proposed new 1,200 student campus to be built on the old Ridgeway Country Club property. A two lane access road would be built into former fairways (left of picture) leading into the club. Cars attempting to make a u-turn heading on North Street north, would be able to turn around in the new Ridgeway entrance drive. Student crosswalks would be built to cross the street to the bus stop and the YWCA

WPCNR SOUTH END TIMES. By John F. Bailey. September 23, 2013 UPDATED September 24, 2013 11:30 P.M. E.D.T.:

Seventy persons packed the Board of Education meeting Monday evening, most drawn to hear the French American School of New York explanation to the school board of what FASNY would request for entrance redesign and construction of  the Board to allow at the White Plains High School entrance, should a North Street entrance be accepted by the White Plains city Common Council.

The School Board saw an animation of the FASNY choice of North Street entrance to the Ridgeway property consisting of four lanes– 2 northbound with turn lanes into FASNY and the high school  and  2 south bound with turn lanes into FASNY and the high school. The new entrance drive continues deep into the nature conservancy area into the FASNY campus. There is a turnabout on the FASNY drive for vehicles heading out of the YWCA to make a u-turn and safely return north without making a u-turn in the intersection as they do now on a regular basis.

The FASNY presenter pointed out that the aligned standard intersection had been endorsed by the Westchester County Department of Public Works and the Westchester County Traffic Commissioner (North Street is a county-owned road). The presenter said FASNY feels the aligned intersection on North Street is the best option, and presently is not considering the roundabout suggestion at North Street or an entrance on Bryant Avenue as noted in the Final Environmental Impact Statement approved last week..

Common Councilman John Kirkpatrick in attendance, asked if the White Plains Planning Department and Public Works Department had approved the aligned intersection too, declined to answer the question, and said “There are still a lot of problems with the Final Environmental Impact Statement. And we are keeping an open mind.”

FASNY also presented a series of North South and East West walking trails that would allow students to walk from Bryant Avenue and Ridgeway to the high school through the former Ridgeway School. They said a mandatory busing program would cut the amount of vehicular traffic by 50% (correction from 80% that appeared previously in this report).

FASNY allowed there would be a service entrance on Ridgeway, too. FASNY also said they will stagger starting hours for their high school, middle school and elementary and nursery schools on the site to mitigate traffic impacts, showing how overlaps spread out the traffic flow.

Fourteen of 16 citizens speaking at the traditional public comment period (scheduled at every Board of Education meeting), were against the North Street entrance alternative presented and most declared there would be too much traffic impact no matter how staggered the hours were.

Interim Superintendent of Schools, Timothy Connors, above, said after the hour and twenty mintute presentation and comment period, the Board of Education would now gather more information from FASNY, and get answers to questions the Board might have. If a request is made for the Board to act on any construction taking high school property, Connors said he would make a recommendation to the Board.

WPCNR reached out to Common Council President Beth Smayda, asking what the timing of any Board of Education vote on approving or rejecting a North Street entrance to the school.

 The issues on  timing  of Board of Education action on the North Street entrance presented Monday night are, (as best as WPCNR can determine) are:

 1.)should the Board approve or reject the North Street proposal before the Council makes a Findings Statement,

2.  after the Council makes a positive finding on the FASNY project (and before the preparation of a site plan by FASNY), or

3. after a site plan is submitted by FASNY

or

4. Whether a vote would only come if a Common Council site plan approval of the project included the redesign of the White Plains High School entrance to accommodate an entrance and egress drive off North Street  leading into the now dormant fairways of the former Ridgeway Club into the new French American School of New York campus.

Council President Smayda has not yet responded.

The representatives from the school said they, if greenlighted by the White Plains Common Council would open in 2015 with construction expected complete by 2019.