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 STAGE DOOR. Theatrical Review by Renee Marks Cohen October 6, 2012:

Don’t miss the White Plains Performing Arts Center production of “August: Osage County,” Tracy Letts’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony award winner (Best Play, and four more). “August” is the opener for the WPPAC’s special 10^th anniversary season; this is the venue for the New York regional premier of the play.

A Taste of “August”

From left, the actors are Amanda Yachechak, Daniel Mian, Mark Lanham, Peter McClung, Derek Robert Smith, Laura Cable, Robin Lilly, and Suzy Kimball. Peter McClung as Uncle Charlie and Amanda Yachechak as the Native American housekeeper are extremely strong in their portrayal of wise individuals navigating amidst hellish chaos. Uncle Charlie protects his son, a late bloomer, from the verbal viciousness of others. The housekeeper is meditatively focused on doing her job with kindness.

Photo, Courtesy White Plains Performing Arts Center by Kathy Davisson.

All is not OK in a hot hot northern Oklahoma August. The Weston family is driven together to await the return of a missing father, who is a poet, professor, and openly alcoholic. The matriarch, Violet, is a long-time pill-popper. Three daughters, an aunt, significant others, a niece, and a household helper complete the Weston dance of dysfunction.

This is a semi-gothic household where the window shades are taped shut, because day and night do not matter. The scenery—three levels—is superb, as is, I stress, each and every cast member.

Will you judge this family’s dysfunction against your own experience? You will rivet your focus on scenes where the family sits at the dining room table, in ensembles of entropy. All the scenes are a funny unraveling of secrets and lies.

Congratulations to the cast and to Jeremy Quinn, who is the Director and WPPAC’s Producing Artistic Director.

When  “August” opened in New York in 2007, the New York Times called it “the most exciting new American play Broadway has seen in years.” Variety said it was “darkly delicious and ghastly.” Playwright

Tracy Letts’s father, Dennis, played the role of the patriarch in the original Chicago cast.

“August” is on stage at the White Plains Performing Arts Center. 8 p.m. Oct. 5-6 and 12-13; 2 p.m. Oct. 7 and 14. To order tickets call 914 328-1600; or go online at www.wppac.com or visit the Box Office at 11 City Place, City Center, 3^rd floor, White Plains. Recommended for those ages 16 and older.

Yes, there will be a movie soon, produced by George Clooney and The Weinstein Company. Visit http://vimeo.com/12892186 to see and hear Howard Starks reading his poem “August: Osage County,” which inspired the play’s title.

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WPCNR POLICE GAZETTE.  October 4, 2012:

After receiving the Analysis of the White Plains Police Department  Wednesday evening from the Mayor’s Office by e-mail, WPCNR found it also contains an analysis of police conduct in handling the Kenneth Chamberlain incident in November of 2011, in which Chamberlain died after being shot by police.

The Chamberlain death prompted the city to commission this report to analyze the police department procedures in their entirety: training, selection, operation, staffing, standard procedure in handling incidents, etc.  The Chamberlain family is currently suing the city over the shooting.

On pages 35 and 36 of the Haberfeld report, Professor Michael Walker presents his analysis of “200 pages of documents along with crime scene photos, audio-video clips filed as a result of the situation on November 19, 2011 involving Kenneth Chamberlain and members of the White Plains Police Department.”

The report describes Professor Walker as having “taught police use of force in academies throughout Northern New Jersey and has been accepted as an expert witness in cases where Patterson (N.J.) Police Officers have resorted to the use of deadly force.”

Professor Walker’s analysis of the material notes,

 “the officers used a Haligan tool from the fire department to hold the door (to Chamberlain’s apartment) open while using a pair of bolt cutters to cut the snap lock. As this was being attempted, Chamberlain threatened to kill anyone who came into the apartment. Chamberlain then took a meat cleaver and struck at the officers through the door opening and, at an opportune instant, the officer using the bolt cutters to latch onto the cleaver and rip it (the cleaver) from Chamberlain’s hands. Chamberlain then used a butcher knife to cut at the officers through the door opening.”

Walker describes, “At one point an officer was sent to the outside rear of the apartment to bang on the windows and distract Chamberlain so that entry could be made while he was away from the door; this failed to get the desired result.”

“The officers on scene used a novel combination of implements to keep the door wedged open while attempting to stay back from Chamberlain’s knife slases; the axe that originally held the door open was replaced with a Halligan tool connected to the officer controlling it by a length of rope.”

“When the door was finally breached at approximately 6:30 A.M. it fell into the apartment but at a tilt since a chair had been placed behind the door. Initially the officers attempted to deploy a Taser to incapacitate Chamberlain, but only one dart lodged in him and the device was ineffective.”

“The officers then decided to use less-than-lethal bean bag rounds to disable Chamberlain, who was still gripping the butcher knife and threatening to kill the officers; the first round was intentionally aimed at Chamberlain’s upper thigh because officers felt that a shot to the chest might cause a heart attack. The shot hit its mark and Chamberlain was unaffected by it and still held the knife; three more (bean bag) shots followed into Chamberlain’s chest but these too were ineffective — they knocked him back but he still gripped the knife.”

“As Chamberlain advanced on a sergeant in the room, an officer fired two rounds to stop Chamberlain: one hit him in the top of the arm which held the knife but traveled into Chamberlain’s chest and turned out to be the fatal round, the other (shot) missed.”

“Chamberlain fell backward onto the floor and began to use the knife in an attempt to cut his own throat; the knife was knocked free with an ASP baton and Chamberlain was restrained and given medical assistance. He was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead at 7:09 A.M.”

The report prepared by Dr. Maria (Make) Habergeld, Dr. John DeCarlo, Dr. Robert Vodde and Professor Walker concludes this analysis with the following comment:

“Based on Professor Walker’s assessment of the documents presented to us, his law enforcement training and experience it is his belief  that the shooting of   Mr. Chamberlain was totally justified and took place only after negotiations and all non-lethal means were unsuccessful and Mr. Chamberlain came at a police sergeant with a knife.”

The report has two recommendations for the police department in handling such barricaded situations: “Purchase additional equipment, like cameras that can be slipped under doors, in order to assess the gravity of given situations,” and “ensure that the hydraulic ram (which enables the breach of a door typical of one found in a housing development) be available at all times for members of the White Plains Police and Fire Departments”

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WPCNR MR. AND MRS. AND MS. WHITE PLAINS VOICE. October 3, 2012:

With the closing of the Open Space Recreation District hearing Monday evening, the fate of the ordinance, which has receivcd very little community support from citizens outside the neighborhood effected (along Ridgeway Street, adjacent the defunct Ridgeway Golf Club and the still-operating Westchester Hills Golf Club, the council has to decide whether to revise it or pass it, or conveniently ignore it.

Considering the lack of support the measure got in hearing two Monday night, and the all-too-possible lawsuits if the ordinance is passed (a threatened one from the French American School of  New York, and the possibility of one from Westchester Hills Golf Club), the Council might still pass it.

In a nutshell the ordinance exacts setbacks from the edge of the property of 100 feet, effectively making it almost impossible to build out the present buildings on the property; it allows building of 58 homes on the property, and preserves the rest of the property as open space, and suggests a possible usage by a sports complex with ballfields and tennis courts and an indoor facility.

It was suggested on the part of the Gedney Association President that the ordinance was not the answer, that a new comprehensive open space management plan be developed by the city for all remaining open space, private and city owned in the city.

What does everybody think about this ordinance? Vote at the right.

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WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL CHRONICLE-EXAMINER. By John F. Bailey. October 2, 2012 UPDATED 11:00 A.M.: 

After a presentation by the Sunrise Detox applicant, 21 persons from the Carhart Neighborhood Association, some of whom have professional experience with dealing with substance abusers, spoke out forcefully against the project, with 5 persons scheduled to speak who had left. Their overwhelming concern was the security of children and neighbors.

 Linda Burns,  Chief Executive Officer of Sunrise Detox in describing the company’s present detox centers in Lake Worth, Florida, and Sterling, New Jersey, responding to Councilman David Buchwald’s question about the facilities safety record in the communities, said  “to our knowledge, no patient or staff member has ever harmed or committed crimes in the communities we’re operating in.”

Burns’ statement was later challenged by a resident of the Carhart Neighborhood, who read off a list of offenses based on police responses to actual calls originating from the Sunrise detox centers in Lake Worth and Sterling, New Jersey calling in the community police departments for a response.

The speaker, a criminologist with the John Jay College of Justice, said police in Lake Worth and Sterling told him there were over 200 police records  of Sunrise-reported incidents,  involving assault, burglary, attempted suicides, and one conviction of a Sunrise counselor involving sexual assault of two women clients,  who is now a registered sex offender.  Later the hearing, this list of 200 offenses was described by one speaker as “a rap sheet.”

The Sunrise attorney, William Null, said the facility was applying for a Special Permit as a community residence. The facility eligibility for that designation, was challenged by a speaker, saying that “residents” had to stay over 30 days, according to state law, and Sunrise patients usually stay 5.7 days.

Representatives from the Fisher Hill Association, the Gedney Association, and the Rocky Dell Associations each urged the council to not approve the Sunrise proposal. The hearing was held over to the next Common Council meeting on November 5, 2012, with no vote taken.

Open Space Ordinance in Deep Water

A continuation of the hearing started in September on the possible establishment of the Open Space Recreation District ordinance followed at 10 P.M. 

Two new speakers spoke: one in favor of the OSRD ordinance,  and a representative of Westchester Hills Country Club, who said present city ordinances and procedure were adequate enough to protect the environment, and that the OSRD detail  was “obsessive, and crosses a line.” The Mayor then opened the door for repeat speakers.

 Daniel Seidel, expressed disappointment with the city for not exploring sources of finding to buy the former Ridgeway property from the French American School, (for $6 Million), then exploring the alternative of a horticultural farm and Stone Barns type restaurant on the property. He also repeated his opinion that the Bonnie Briar legislation that the Town of Mamaroneck crafted to prevent Bonnie Briar from being developed had been upheld, because the Supreme Court had refused to consider it.  

After a pro-FASNY speaker Christine Clark stepped up calling the OSRD itself “a setback,” encouraging the Council, “We do not need setbacks. We need advancement. Vote it down.”

Terrence Guerriere, President of the Gedney Farms Association took the podium and appeared in his remarks to stop just short of abandoning the Open Space Recreation District Ordinance in its present form by encouraging the Common Council to undertake a long term open space plan (“A Comprehensive Open Space Vision,” he called it), involving in interworking roadmap of how all remaining open space in the city could be developed, not just involving the properties the OSRD ordinance affects (Ridgeway, Maple Moor, Westchester Hills, all golf courses). 

Seth Mendelbaum, the attorney for Westchester Hills, indicated his client was opposed to the ordinance, because the setbacks included in OSRD legislation took away the only area Westchester Hills could expand to enhance its facility, if it needed to do so to remain viable as a golf club.

Michael Zarin, the attorney representing the French American School of New York, talked with a silken toughness.  After detailing what he thought were flaws in the OSRD restrictions concerning issues that the proposed ordinance failed to explore in the intricate detail required of his client to address, Zarin said that if the council passed the OSRD, the city could be in “for a period of  protracted, costly and unnecessary litigation.”

A representative of AKRF, the French American School environmental consultant, showed how schools in a residential setting in Greenburgh, Eastchester and White Plains had coexisted among homes similar to the quiet estates of Gedney Farms, saying “There’s nothing special about the Gedney neighborhood.”

A resident of Ethelridge Road, disputed that statement as insulting. She said the schoolsin the neighborhoods the AKRF man shownhad already been in the neighbohoods for years, and then the homes were built, referring to the AKRF consultant’s contention that schools helped improve neighborhoods. She also said that describing a golf course as a pollutant was not true, because she said the course had stopped using pesticides five years ago.

Phil McGovern, lifelong resident of White Plains, took the microphone and called the FASNY School and Conservancy, “A once in-a -generation proposal.” He pleaded with the Common Council to accept it. “We are defending the indefensible” (declining the project), he said. He said approving the project would put “White Plains in a whole different  league.” “At the end of the day you have a world-class institution. You get a central park. I don’t know what the discussion is. This is like the emperor’s new clothes.”

John Botti, head of the French American School of New York Conservancy planning team closed the hearing, disputing the claim by the opposition that  Ridgeway had not used pesticides five years prior to the FASNY purchase. He said he would be furnishing the council with Ridgeway receipts for pesticides dated in 2010, the last year FASNY was in operation.

The Mayor closed the hearing on the Open Space Recreation District, without voting on the ordinance. The fate is uncertain at this time.

IN OTHER ACTION…

The Common Council this evening approved Elizabeth Cheteny of East Aurora, New York as its new Commissioner of Planning effective Tuesday for at the salary of $144,330 a year, (the council approved pay $20,910 less than the previous Planning Commissioner was paid) . Ms. Cheteny begins her assignment October 9.

The Council extended the city hotel occupancy tax through December, 2015.

It approved the first project under the new ordinance allowing scientific facilities in office parks along Westchester Avenue by approving Combe, Incorporated request to build a 4,200 square foot research lab on the first floor of 1101 Westchester Avenue.

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WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. September 30, 2012:

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo issued this statement on the death Saturday of  New York Times publisher, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger:

“Today we mourn the loss of a true New Yorker and American, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, a respected businessman and publisher who built The New York Times into the globally renowned newspaper it is today. Mr. Sulzberger’s life was one of service; as a young man he, along with so many others of his generation, answered the call of duty and joined the Armed Forces during World War II. Mr. Sulzberger changed the course of American history with his journalistic decisions, including publishing the Pentagon Papers, ultimately fulfilling the foremost task of the media to report the unfiltered truth to the American people. We will miss Mr. Sulzberger’s integrity, unwavering commitment to the highest qualities of ethical journalism, as well as the role he played in the civic and social life of New York City and our nation. I send my condolences to his friends and family.”