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 THE HOME NEWS. From Westchester Putnam Association of Realtors (EDITED) May 9, 2011:

Westchester Putnam Realtors today called for Albany to create real estate stimulus measures, a New York version of 2010’s federal first-time homebuyers’ tax credit and homebuyers pretax savings accounts for the purchase of a first home. 

“We need to focus on the first-time buyers,” said John Kope, President.  “If they (1st time homebuyers) can’t make it in the market, there’s no trade-up for anyone else, and the whole real estate market will stagnate.”

The association plans to lobby for the measures May 24, as well as a 2% property tax cap on Albany Day when a contingent of members visits the state capitol to lobby legisla tors on the real estate issues.

The Association opposes so-called transaction taxes such as new or increased mortgage recording fees and transfer taxes.  “These types of taxes are insidious.  They raise the average closing costs out of sight,” said Kope.  The REALTORS ^® will also vigorously oppose any attempt by the State Legislator to reduce or eliminate the mortgage interest deduction on State income taxes. 

The “Albany Day” gives members of WPAR, along with other local Associations and the New York State Association of REALTORS ^® (NYSAR) an opportunity to meet face-to-face with their local Assembly members and state senators to discuss the most important issues facing the real estate community as well home buyers and sellers.

The Association also will lobby for property tax relief.  Because New Yorkers and Westchester residents in particular have been burdened with some of the highest taxes in the nation, WPAR supports the Governor Cuomo-proposed two percent cap on property taxes.  “Skyrocketing taxes in our area have continued to plague potential buyers, keeping so many of them still out of reach of home ownership,” said REALTOR ^® John Kope, WPAR’s Legislative Chairman. 

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WPCNR SPORTS. May 5, 2011:

The City of White Plains Recreation and Parks Departments, Gillie and Delfino tennis courts are now open for the 2011 season. Gillie and Delfino tennis courts feature supervised Har-Tru surfaces. Both Gillie and Delfino tennis court are lighted and are available for day and evening use. Gillie tennis courts are located in Gillie Park, 85 Gedney Way.

Delfino tennis courts are situated at Delfino Park , 110 Lake Street White Plains. To take part in any tennis activities offered by the City of White Plains Recreation and Parks Department you are required to have a current recreation ID.

For specific hours of operation for Gillie and Delfino tennis courts please contact the White Plains Recreation and Parks Department at 914-422-1398 and 422-1348.

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WPCNR COUNTY-CLARION LEDGER, from the Westchester County Board of Legislators. April 29,2011:

Westchester County Board of Legislators Chairman Ken Jenkins (D-Yonkers) released a statement this afternoon responding to continued and unsubstantiated partisan attacks directed at him by Board Republicans through recent articles published in the Journal News.  The newspaper printed two articles this week about the county’s short-form contract process and Chairman Jenkins’ call for an investigation into possible violations of the contract procurement policy.

The statement:

“When I took over as Chair of the Legislature last year, I made a strong commitment towards furthering transparency and accountability within the Board of Legislators.  With this in mind, I strongly refute the half-truths that the news staff of the Journal News feels are worthy of multiple stories and sensational headlines.  

The baseless assertions being reported, along with the continued political posturing by Republicans to distract the public from the real need for modifications of the acquisitions and contracts process.  These attacks are nothing more than a sorry attempt to create a scandal out of thin air to distract the public from the Legislature’s substantial legislative accomplishments and cost-cutting initiatives under my leadership.  

Before Legislator Marcotte with the help of the news staff of the Journal News, launches another misguided attack, they should probably take a hard look at the facts.

FACT: Procurement Contract Reform was NOT launched due to the Journal News story.

To the contrary, I sponsored legislation last April to begin to examine and modify the county’s procurement process. [1] Through our legislative due diligence, my colleagues and I have been examining and analyzing the way that the county historically allocated funding to many diverse and important non-profit community organizations. 

On the heels of the before-mentioned legislation, I have asked several of the Board’s Committees to begin investigating alleged patterns of abuse throughout the short-form contract process, where several companies have been given multiple contracts for the same purpose. This practice is a violation of the county’s procurement policy. 

FACT: The Republican legislation calling for contracts to be listed on the web was already done under the previous Administration.

If Legislator Marcotte put as much energy into present legislative practices versus her political antics, she would’ve noticed that her recent bill calling for the County place all contracts on its website is a little late, given that, during the previous Administration, the County made available all contracts on their website.

The Board’s Committee on Legislation requested that all contracts be listed during it September 13, 2010 meeting, at which time, it was determined that it had already been done. The link can be found here: http://contractsearch.westchestergov.com/contractsearch/.  Legislator Marcotte should be more concerned about serving her constituents and reducing taxes than playing partisan politics and offering up redundant ideas.

The rhetoric being spewed really isn’t about me, as Chairman, but the need for the Legislature to move on true reform, ensuring that all vendors have an equal opportunity to bid for the County’s goods and services.  

Republicans are clearly concerned that a thorough review of the $5.3 million in short-form contracts authorized by the Administration in 2010 might show some irregularities.  I would think the Republicans would welcome a review of the distribution of approximately $75 million in contracts.

Working with county agencies, businesses and non-profit communities, the Board is embarking on instituting the kind of changes that will help ensure contracts are awarded only to responsible vendors who have the integrity and the capacity to deliver the goods and services they promise.  Westchester taxpayers a competitive and transparent contract system in place here at the county level.  These silly distractions need to come to an end, and Legislators need to refocus their attention on delivering real reform.  I am confident that we can, finally, get the conversation back on track, and create meaningful unprecedented contract reform that will offer giving Westchester residents complete faith in the way public dollars are spent.”

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WPCNR POLICE GAZETTE. From Meredith Wiley. April 28, 2011:

White Plains Public Safety Commissioner David Chong and Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore visited the preschool program at Country North Children’s Center to read to a classroom of young children and release a new report about the need for high-quality early care and education in New York State. The Commissioner and District Attorney said high-quality early education not only prepares children to succeed in school, it also prevents crime and saves New York State taxpayer’s money.

The report, “Quality Matters: High-Quality Early Education and Care Can Cut Crime in New York,” details the research on the crime prevention benefits of early learning and the need for high quality programs to achieve these results, including good teacher student ratios, a well trained staff and curriculum for social as well as cognitive learning such as taking turns, listening to the teacher and getting along with other children. The Westchester County law enforcement officials called on the Governor and Legislature to implement QUALITYstarsNY—a new quality rating improvement system designed to ensure quality in all early care and learning settings across the state.

Research shows providing at-risk children with high-quality early education prevents crime. A long-term study of the High/Scope Perry Preschool in Michigan found that at-risk children excluded from the program were five times more likely to grow up to become chronic lawbreakers than those who attended the program.

By age 40, those left out of the Perry Preschool Program were twice as likely to have been arrested for violent crimes, four times more likely to have been arrested for drug felonies, and seven times more likely to have been arrested for possession of drugs than those who attended the program.

“No child is born destined to go to jail,” said Commissioner Chong. “Research shows that we can make a difference in kids’ lives through early learning, dramatically improving their odds of becoming productive and contributing members of their communities.”

The State Office for Children and Family Services (OCFS) has just completed a 230-site field-test of the Quality Rating Improvement System (QRIS) called QUALITYstarsNY (County North Children’s Center participated in the field test). The law enforcement leaders say this system will ensure early education programs are high quality, helping more at-risk children succeed and ultimately reducing crime in central New York communities.

Chong and DiFiore urged policymakers to enact a plan to implement QUALITYstarsNY as the state’s quality system for all early childhood programs. They also encouraged OCFS, the State Education Department (SED) and the legislature to work together to forward this initiative.

Some studies from other states show that children in low-quality care were more likely to display behavior problems and fail to show any academic gains. In order to get the best return on investments in early learning, the programs must be high quality.

“High-quality early care and education can really make a difference by getting our kids on the right track and making communities safer, DA DiFiore said.  “A high-quality investment early on reaps benefits later. Quality outcomes only come with quality programs.”

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids State Director Meredith Wiley stated that that New York State currently has no statewide, standardized system to assess the quality of the state’s early education system or raise quality standards. He urged all policy makers to adopt QUALITYstarsNY as the statewide quality rating improvement system.

Commissioner Chong and DA DiFiore are members of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids New York, a bipartisan anti-crime organization of 300-plus police chiefs, sheriffs, district attorneys and violence survivors that advocates for programs and services that have strong research that shows they prevent crime. It is part of a national organization of more than 5,000 law enforcement members and victims of violent crime.

Assemblyman Robert J. Castelli (R, C – Goldens Bridge) also participated in the event.

“Education and early prevention are key components of modern-day crime-fighting techniques that need to be utilized more often to lower crime rates and make New York a safer place to live,” said Assemblyman Robert J. Castelli (R, C – Goldens Bridge), a 22-year veteran with the New York State Troopers and former Chairman of the Criminal Justice Department at Iona College. “Today’s event was a terrific opportunity to bring awareness to these important, but often overlooked, ways to combat crime.”

“It is no longer acceptable to have reactive strategies,” Castelli said. “It is important to have proactive strategies that nip criminal behavior before it starts in young people.”

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WPCNR POLICE GAZETTE. April 26, 2011 UPDATED 11:30 A.M. E.D.T.:

Public Safety Commissioner David Chong issued this statement to WPCNR this morning as the investigation of the shooting at Cobo Lounge (where two men were shot by possibly one bullet early Easter Sunday) continues.

Chong reports in a written statement:

“The only information provided by me is that we are investigating the possibility that one of the wounded could have shot himself. We are also investigating all other possibilities, as this is still an active investigation. There appears to only be one shot fired but the investigation is on-going. As for wanding and security, that is quoted by the management and the JN (Journal News) got the names and the criminal history through their own sources. We do not release names of victims.

The other quote given to the JN is that our bar and nightlife is safe and we have a reputation that you can come to WP and have a good time because we do not tolerate nonsense and we make quality of life arrests almost every night. So that the word is out, you can come and have fun but you can’t come to cause trouble. Most of the establishments cooperate fully with the police and manage themselves safely, cleanly, and within the law. This shooting can be classified as an extremely rare occurrence, we just don’t have these things happen inside our bars.”

Would Required Use of Counters/clickers by restaurants/clubs help?

Asked by WPCNR,  how clubs and restaurants might keep more accurate counts of how many patrons they allow in to their clubs, and whether legislation should be enacted to require “counters” and running counts of clubs to cut down on frequent overcrowding in the White Plains weekends, Chong issued this statement:

“I am not sure what the bars use for their headcounts and certainly since they are in the business, its their responsibility to keep the premises from overcrowding and to keep it safe.  We, routinely perform public assembly checks for overcrowding and other conditions such as fire exits, etc.  I have actually seen some places using clickers or a banding system on busy nights.  As for us demanding clickers, that is a thought, but no guarantee that the human aspect using the clicker is legitimate or competent?

I must mention again that the majority of the bars are compliant and have a good working relationship with public safety.  Many times they will let us know when they think that trouble is potentially brewing so that we can respond before something happens.