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WPCNR GOOD NEWS. June 11, 2006: Mr. and Mrs. Who’s Who of White Plains saluted Sonny Katz, the City Marshall for 35 years, on Mr. Katz’s 85th birthday Sunday at Fenimore’s, the swank restaurant at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Through their generous contributions, over 150 guests endowed two Sonny Katz Performing Arts Scholarships of $1,000 annually to be awarded beginning next year to two students planning to major in the performing arts from White Plains High School and Port Chester High School, Sonny’s alma mater — the first ever scholarships for Performing Arts Students at WPHS and PCHS.

 

“After all that, I’m the only one who doesn’t get an introduction,” the dapper Sonny Katz, City Marshall, still on the job after 35 years,  addresses throng of well-wishers at his 85th birthday party at the Crowne Plaza Sunday. Photo, WPCNR News.

 

Mr. Katz, thanking the persons who came out to honor him said, the scholarships which will be awarded by Westco Productions, Westchester’s premier independent theatre production company, of which Mr. Katz is the Founding Director and are being established to help two students in the performing arts every year in the future, so they would not have to forgo a life’s dream.

 

A guest list of over 150 persons of court dignitaries, city luminaries, politicians, and citizens and Mr. Katz’s childen, grandchildren, nieces and nephews turned out to celebrate the man who in one of the city’s toughest jobs, has done so much good for thousands of people from all walks of life through his kindness, his advice, and his ever sharp sense of humor.

Mr. Katz exemplifies the ideal public servant, who does his job not from a position of power, but from a position of empathy, humanity and common sense. One of the touching stories told by one of a parade of well-wishers who reminisced for the multitude, was how Mr. Katz in executing an eviction on her, turned around the life of a young woman by his compassion, his advice, and his wisdom. (Mr. Katz executes over 300 evictions a year in White Plains and through his ability to network, cajole, persuade and make sense, and mediate ends up evicting just 2% — thanks to the way he goes beyond his job to help people.) That’s his day job.

 

 

The festivities presented by Westco Productions was a complete sellout at the swank Fenimore’s Restaurant at the Crowne Plaza Hotel where wall-to-wall brunch was served, and as befitting a gathering where Sonny Katz is present, laughter, wisdom, and the best side of humanity bubbled like the champagne.

 

There was humor. Lots of It.

 

 

 

Mayor Alfred Del Vecchio, (Mayor of White Plains from 1976 to 1993, under whom Mr. Katz served for 18 of his 35 years, said Mr. Katz actually solved most of the city’s problems when the Mayor asked Mr. Katz what he thought about things over bagels three days a week.  Mayor Del Vecchio showed he has a career waiting in standup comedy, telling a joke set in the future where Mr. Katz is with a friend in a 140 story mall in White Plains with valet helicopter parking and Mr. Katz and his friend’s wives have wandered off. Mr. Katz asks his friend “What does your wife look like?” The friend says, “she’s blonde, about 42-24-36.” The friend says, “What does your wife look like?” Mr. Katz says, “Let’s search for yours.”  Mr. Katz is a far left, seated, as Susan Katz, his daughter, founder of Westco Productions listens to the Mayor. Photo, WPCNR News.

 

There were celebrities. Plenty of them.  

 

Each took turns alternately roasting Mr. Katz, and toasting him for the way he does his job, the brightness he brings into their lives.  Paul Bergins, Corporation Counsel during the Del Vecchio administration, praised Mr. Katz as doing his job with innate sense and “empathy.” 

 

 

 

 

Assemblyman Adam Bradley related a story of when he was a young man about 19, growing up in White Plains,  he had to pay a series of parking tickets at police headquarters and after having done so, had received another parking ticket (parking tickets are apparently a tradition in White Plains),  while parked to pay the ticket. Bradley’s resulting being detained at the police station eventually wound up being mediated by Mr. Katz who was able to resolve the dispute between Mr. Bradley and the police to the satisfaction of both parties.  Could this twist of fate  have set Mr. Bradley straight on his road to the New York State Legislature? Photo, WPCNR News

 

Judge Les Adler, speaking for Mr. Katz’s friend, Dolf Rockfeld, who could not be present, recounted Mr. Katz’s early days at the Hebrew Institute in White Plains, and subsequent love of horseracing, basketball, boxing, as “investments.” Judge Adler described Mr. Katz as “a mensch,” a person “of character and dignity, resolute who always does the right thing, a man you can always count on to look out for you.”

 

Susan Katz, Sonny Katz, Steven Sledzik, President of the Westco Productions Board of Directors with Assemblyman Adam Bradley. Mr. Sledzik presented Mr. Katz with an award for establishing the Scholarhips, and Mr. Bradley presented Governor George Pataki’s proclamation recognizing Mr. Katz’s contributions to the city. Photo, WPCNR News.

 

 

County Legislator Tom Abinanti read a proclamation proclaiming June 11 Sonny Katz Day in Westchester County, and said how Mr. Katz had helped him grasp how things worked in the courts when he was a beginning lawyer in White Plains. “He taught me so much,” Abinanti said.  Towards the end of the genial and entertaining series of roasters, Assemblyman Adam Bradley read a proclamation from Governor George Pataki in recognition of Mr. Katz’s service. Lois Bronz and Assemblywoman Amy Pauling also dropped by to congratulate Mr. Katz.

 

 

Judge Joann Friia of White Plains City Court and members of “The City Court Player” provided the live entertainment for the festivities singing the following parody of Glenn Miller’s In the Mood that delighted the well-wishers. Photo, WPCNR News.

 

We have come together cause we love you that’s why

 

No one can compare to you. You’re our kind of guy

 

Finding humor in the bleakest state of affairs

 

People say that sonny has a heart and he cares

 

Just look around the room, the faces you’ll see

 

Are people loving you unconditionally.

 

 

(Chorus)

 

Sonny Katz …an army sergeant

 

Did you know ….he had his own band

 

And he owned a little restaurant

 

The things you’ve accomplished and you’re still going.

 

SONNY KATZ … An office holder

 

SONNY KATZ…. A maitre’d D and

 

SONNY KATZ… The city marshall.

 

 

 

A husband, a father, you’re so worth knowing.

 

 

You never see m to lose that little glimmer of youth

 

The young boy that’s inside you lives and that is the truth

 

Now they’re saying something and we mean it sincere

 

You keep getting better looking every year

 

85 and always landing straight on your feet

 

Hey hey baba reba, to the boogie beat

 

SONNY KATZ…a great grandfather

 

SONNY KATZ…one you can truly count on

 

SONNY KATZ…a truly great mensch

 

You know that our love for you keeps on growing

 

The things you’ve accomplished, you’re so worth knowing

 

You’re just like the rabbit, you keep on going.

 

SONNY KATZ  YOU ROCK!

 

 

     The affair was punctuated by laughter and reminisces of family members, city officials, court personalities, and we heard stories of the rapier like wit of Mr. Katz, the donuts in his office, the sign on his desk (Lack of planning on your part, does not constitute an emergency on my part), and the way Mr. Katz always brightens the days of persons who come in contact with him.

 

Sample: Mr. Katz once went to execute an eviction. The party being evicted said, “I’m hungry. I have no money. And I grew up in a poor neighborhood.”

 

Mr. Katz on the other side of the door, master psychologist,  replied, “I was hungry. I used to have no money, and I lived in a bad neighborhood.”

 

The party replied, “I’m from Port Chester. Where are you from?”

 

Mr. Katz who lived in Port Chester, said he was from Port Chester, too.

 

The party said, “What street?”

 

Mr. Katz told him. The party said, “THAT  is a bad neighborhood.”

 

Mr. Katz’s ability to connect with persons in the dangerous, unpredictable world of the City Marshall,  came through again and again Sunday afternoon.

 

In his remarks, Mr. Katz began with the best laugh of the day. His words: “All that, and I’m the only one not to get an introduction. (cascades of laughter, then the kicker). “I’m unhappy about that.” (Rim-Shot missing.)

 

 

It was vintage Sonny Katz, the master of the deadpan line. Another example told by the keeper of the City Court Calendar, “Sonny once told me he had not spoken to Connie (his wife) in three days. I asked what’s wrong. Sonny said, “I was listening.”

Connie Katz, (Mrs. Sonny Katz), suprised her husband, revealing that when she asked Mr. Katz to the Port Chester High prom, her girlfriends said, “Are you crazy?” Photo, WPCNR News.

 

Katz thanked all who had attended, whose contributions had established the two performing arts scholarships, saying that the scholarships came from his one big disappointment in life. He recalled that in 1939 he wanted to play the part of  Sheridan Whiteside in The Man Who Came to Dinner in the school play at Port Chester. He could not audition because he had to work. This has haunted him for years. He said the scholarships which will require auditions, are being established so that young persons of talent in the performing arts would not have to forgo their dreams as he did. Katz’s advice:  “A smile is what it’s all about. Keep smiling in White Plains, you keep happiness with you.

 

Judging for the 120 “friends” who came out to give it up for Mr. Katz, he played a much greater role for thousands of people the last 35 years, than any stage role he could ever have played.

 

He was a veteran, serving in the Pacific in World War II, proprietor of Sonny’s Luncheonette on Main Street, philosopher and over-the-counter  therapist to untold thousands. He married his high school sweetheart before World War II. He joined the City of White Plains as Shelter Officer in 1967, responsible for 127 shelters throughout the city. In 1971, he was appointed to the office of City Marshall by Mayor Richard S. Hendey and the then Common Council of Carl J. Delfino, Lester E. Johnson, Hugh D. Leslie, Monroe A Felfer, Michael J. Keating and Harold E. Masback. Jr.  Mr. Katz is still City Marshall.

 

He does the best  Sonny Katz ever.

 

 

An emotional Mr. Katz center blowing out the candles on his 85th birthday cake with his grandchildren. Photo, WPCNR News.

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WPCNR WHITE PLAINS WEEK NEWS. June 9, 2006: This is Walk to D’feet ALS Weekend in White Plains, when North Fork Bank and the ALS Association stage a walk at Tibbetts Brook Park at 11 A.M. Sunday to raise money and awareness for this horrible disease which is afflicting White Plains beloved Common Councilperson, Robert Greer.

 

To raise awareness of the low profile the medical establishment has assigned this disease, White Plains Week, the City News Roundup Show on White Plains Public Access TV (WPPA-TV, “The Spirit of 76” on Channel 76 on your cable console), will interview Bill Monti of South Salem, New York on Monday evening’s show at 7:00 P.M.  Photo by RKO Keith, White Plains Week, WPPA-TV

Mr. Monti is appearing to focus attention on this Sunday’s ALS Walk. For information on how you can walk, form a team, and make a donation, contact 800-672-8857

Mr. Monti’s son Bill died of Lou Gehrig’s Disease, Arterial Lateral Sclerosis, at 32 years of age, and Mr. Monti’s daughter-in-law works in the White Plains schools. Mr. Monti, former director of Indian Point retired from that position in 1997, and devoted his time to caring for his son. Now since Bill’s death devotes his time to speaking about this hideous disease. Monday, John Bailey, the CitizeNetReporter, talks with Mr. Monti about ALS, how you know you have it, what it is like to have it, and who is most likely to get it. The show is quite disturbing and is not for the faint of heart. Mr. Bailey thinks it is one of the most important interviews he has ever done.

Mr. Monti is appearing to focus attention on this Sunday’s ALS Walk. For information on how you can walk, form a team, and make a donation, contact 800-672-8857

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METHANE GAS RISES FROM CITY COMPOST AT GEDNEY DUMP? The issue of possible environmental problems in the White Plains City dump was raised by White Plains resident Carl Albanese at the Monday evening Common Council meeting. On live television, Mr. Albanese addressed his concern to know what environmental standards the Common Council would be incorporating and amending into of the 1997 City Comprehensive Plan. Albanese showed pictures of the Gedney dump, showing methane gas clouds rising from the composting area. The blue clouds of methane are seen in center of this photo. Photo by Carl Albanese.

WPCNR’s The Environmental Epitaph. By John F. Bailey. June 7, 2006. (c) 2006, The White Plains CitizeNetReporter. All Rights Reserved.: WPCNR has learned the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is negotiating with the city to correct detected groundwater contamination at the Gedney Way City Dump. DEC testing of the dump conditions is being contemplated according to a DEC spokesperson.

 

In response to DEC concerns, the city has also hired a consultant to recommend possible solutions to the composting operation problems at the dump.

 

The consultant is working on how to create conditions that would allow the city to either continue composting operations at the dump or move it elsewhere, a spokesperson for the DEC told WPCNR Wednesday. The city would not confirm this to WPCNR or return calls for comment.

 

The spokesperson said the DEC has also directed the City of White Plains to close its landfill at Gedney Way where extensive composting continues daily. According to Wendy Rosenblatt, spokesperson for the DEC, “The landfill in there was supposed to be closed a long time ago, this just, I guess never was done. They are going to have to submit a plan on how they are going to do that (close the dump).”

 

 

 

The DEC contacted WPCNR in response to questions WPCNR asked of DEC officials raised by White Plains resident  Carl Albanese at the Common Council meeting this week. Albanese showed pictures on the live telecast the Council meeting of the city landfill and composting pile showing methane gas rising from the heap, and pictures of refuse in the tributaries of the West Branch of the Mamaroneck River.

 

Pipe from under the Gedney Dump Landfill City Compost Pile drains waters into the various streams of the old West Branch of the Mamaroneck River. Photographed March, 2006. Photo by Carl Albanese.

 

 

Carl Albanese addressing the Common Council Monday June 5. Albanese asked the Common Council to look into what he called the alleged pollution created by the City Dump, the hazardous waste release of methane gas into surrounding the city’s 55-acre dump, impacting the communities on Railside, Commerce, the Greenway and Stepinac School. Albanese said the Comprehensive Plan Review and amendments now under consideration by the Common Council needed to update White Plains environmental policies, regulations and guidelines to follow and implement for the future safety of those neighborhoods.  Photo Capture of White Plains Government Access Telecast by WPCNR News.

 

 

 

Stream leads out of the city dump into Mamaroneck River and out to Long Island Sound. Photographed March, 2006. Photo by Carl Albanese.

 

Clean Up Possibility.

 

Asked if this meant the city was going to have to clean up the 55-acre site, currently used for composting by the city, Rosenbach said, “It’s hard to say, we’re kind of looking into that now. They should be able to close the dump. They would have to submit plans to us for that (closing).”

 

WPCNR asked Rosenbach  if the dump was contaminated. Rosenbach said it was a possibility: “There is some potential of that.  There was supposedly some drums that were found there. At this point we’re not sure they have to do some more tests on that.”

 

WPCNR asked when the tests were going to be done. “I don’t have a time frame on that,” Rosenbach said. “We’re working with the City of White Plains to try to continue doing the composting, whether it’s there or somewhere else.”

 

Truck filled with grass clippings pauses at City Dump Check Point Wednesday afternoon. The Department of Public Works confirmed that composting service with valid permit were still open and dumpings of compostable material were still being accepted. Photo by WPCNR News.

 

Pickup Truck filled with Grass clippings pauses for clearance Wednesday afternoon. Photo by WPCNR News.

 

WPCNR asked, if technically the city was not supposed to be composting now. (trucks were delivering composting waste to the City Dump today.)

 

Rosenbach said the DEC was cutting White Plains some leeway on the issue of composting:

 

“We were saying that (to stop the composting) But at this point we got an application for the permit which we’re looking over now and we’re meeting with them, looking at other alternatives for composting. Composting may possibly be able to be continued there but that has not been decided yet.”

 

Asked when the composting, and dump closing procedure might be resolved Rosenbach said, “I have no time frame on that.”

 

Rosenbach  said no tests had been conducted yet.  This reporter asked what the DEC would be testing for. Rosenbach gave this insight: “I don’t know if they are actually going to be doing tests per se. I think it’s more looking back at the history of that landfill. This is pretty early on the process at this point. It just came up recently.”

 

Pool in city dump that feeds into Mamaroneck River. Photographed in March, 2006. Photo by Carl Albanese.

 

DEC Brass Meet With City on Dumping.

 

WPCNR has learned the DEC addressed this issue with the city in early May.

 

The inquiry into the City Dump is being overseen by the DEC. “What happens is any kind of plan (to close) that they have. The City has a consultant that would work for them. They would submit that (plan) to us, and then we would have to approve any sorts of plans.”

 

Rosenbach confirmed the City is working with a consultant to come up with a closing or reopening plan for the composting pile.

 

Pipe leading out of the dump draining to Mamaroneck River.  Photographed March, 2006.

More Drainage out from under the Compost Pile. Photographed March, 2006 Photos by Carl Albanese.

 

Silence from City Hall

 

The Mayor’s Office did not respond to WPCNR questions left Tuesday morning with David Maloney, a Mayor’s Office Spokesperson and again Wednesday afternoon on the Executive Officer’s answering machine. WPCNR asked who the consultant was, and whether there were any cleanup costs involved, or whether the city planned to move the composting operation, though as Ms. Rosenbach confirmed today the city has reapplied for the permit.

 

Wood in May: Nothing is Wrong.

Closing, Pollution of Landfill Denied.

 

Last month, Paul Wood, the City Executive Officer told this reporter in front of associates there was no plan to close the dump, and no remediation or expensive cleanup was necessary or even being contemplated.   Wood said the Department of Public Works forgot to reapply for the expired composting permit. Wood confirmed the city was holding “a couple of meetings” with the DEC on how to reopen the compost (which has actually never closed).

 

In May, Wood assured WPCNR there were no questionable conditions, no pollution issues surrounding the condition of the compost or the condition of the dump, and said there was no possibility the dump would close. He said the flap was simply on a failure to get paperwork in to the DEC.

 

The city also sold land on the Railside Avenue side of the dump, assuring purchasers the land was safe and there was no pollution issues.

 

 

Council Told Little.

 

WPCNR asked Rita Malmud, Common Council President,  if the Common Council was familiar with the consultant being hired to develop a closing plan for the dump.

 

Malmud said this evening that Mr. Wood had told the Common Council that  “I gathered there was some kind of change of personnel at DEC, and certain things we had done in the past were not being handled in the same way and there was no indication we would be closing. That’s really all I can tell you, I don’t have any details. I don’t recall any expenditure of funds for that.”

 

WPCNR told Malmud of the press officer’s comments. Malmud said, “We do do a lot of composting there. It may be a matter of semantics there. We don’t use it as a final resting place for garbage. We send our garbage to Peekskill. I have very, very, very very little information. I did have a discussion with Paul Wood, I was left with the impression that the landfill would not be closing that the city would work out whatever issues there were with the DEC.”

 

Malmud:  Landfill Cleaner.

 

Malmud said it was her impression the landfill was cleaner than it had been in the past: “There are monitoring wells. Those monitoring wells have shown that many years ago there was something dumped there but years have gone by and the presence of that substance has diminished over time so that is a positive sign rather than a negative sigh.”

 

Ms. Malmud had no idea what that substance was. “We have done some kind of monitoring over the years to ascertain what the status of that is.”

 

Groundwater Contamination?

 

WPCNR learned last month from a source at the DEC in New Paltz  that the landfill has a “solid waste problem,” regarding the way the landfill was used in the past, and that source repeated that to WPCNR Wednesday morning. Then Ms. Ronsebach officially confirmed the present efforts to find solutions for the landfill problem.

 

The city was notified by the DEC, according to spokesperson Rosenbach that the composting operation should stop, however composting has continued to this day, apparently with DEC blessing.

 

It was not until Wednesday afternoon that anyone from the Department of Environmental Conservation responded to WPCNR inquiries about the project.

 

WPCNR made two rounds of telephone calls to confirm what Mr. Wood told us last month. WPCNR left messages with six DEC officials referred as being familiar with the issue two weeks ago and none returned calls. I contacted four of the six again Wednesday morning, and they also did not return calls, however Ms. Ronsenbach did  acquaint WPCNR with the current dump situation.

 

The quiet way the DEC and the City of White Plains are handling this is reminiscent of the quiet way the six week raw sewage pollution in Silver Lake was handled last August when the public was not informed for six weeks of the toxicity of the sewage-polluted waters.

 

A Dark Past.

 

The city dump was used after World War II as a dumping place for ashes from the city incinerator. In the 1950s, according to Jack Harrington of the White Plains Historical Society,  it was the home to a bakery and a fleet of delivery trucks and a maintenance garage, where Harrington said there was a lot of dumping of motor vehicle waste on the site.

 

This reporter on summer nights when umpiring Little League games has inhaled and smelled the somewhat dizzying odors that drift over the Gedney fields along Ridgeway Avenue, the odors being a mixture of chemical and organic in scent. It is not pleasant to smell.

 

Neighbors have written WPCNR expressing concern over the stench that blankets the neighborhood periodically.

 

The probe of the last month is the first effort by the Department of Environmental Conservation to require the City of White Plains to pay attention to this condition that this reporter can determine. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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WPCNR Common Council Chronicle-Examiner. June 6, 2006. UPDATED 3:45 P.M. E.D.T.: The Common Council approved the building of the Avalon Bay project, a 14-story, 393 unit residential building the corner of Barker and Church Street Monday evening against opposition of the North Broadway Civic Association. The Association had pleaded with the Common Council to deny the project and turn the present parking lot that exists on the site into a city park.

 

Avalon Bay rendered viewed from Church Street looking South. Photo, WPCNR News Archive.

Avalon Bay rendered, viewed from intersection of Church and Barker looking North North West. Photo, WPCNR News Archive. 

 

Manhattanites fly in for a check out of the Avalon Bay Apartments site at the Church Street and Barker Avenue Intersection, seen in background in upper left of photo. Photo, WPCNR News.

 

The hearing on the  final  1997Comprehensive Plan Review report prior to its acceptance by the Common Council, saw a procession of acid-tongued speakers roundly denounce not only the review, conducted by the 15-citizen committee appointed by the council, but call for creation of a new Comprehensive Plan altogether.

 

The Ritz-Carlton Westchester zoning changes that were to clear the way for a restaurant and spa on the Main Street Ritz-Carlton condo tower and similar height increase on the Hamilton Avenue side tower were not approved as expected, but held over to July 5. The council received high heat.

The View of The Ritz-Carlton Westchester On-going Construction Tuesday morning looking SouthWest across the City.  Louis Cappelli reported last night in his brief remarks that 410 persons have already asked to be put on the waiting list for the opening of sales of the 290 residential condominium units. Photo, WPCNR News.

 

Bruce Berg, President of Cappelli Enterprises told WPCNR today that it was “his understanding” that by the Common Council not expressing an interest in reviewing the 15 foot increase in height of the Ritz-Carlton Westchester podium (already executed by Cappelli Enterprises), by the end of last night, that the Council was accepting the podium “structural change,” bracing the double condominium towers as a “minor site plan amendment,” leaving the already 10-story podium in place. 

 

Berg also told WPCNR that the  Council adjournment of the zoning changes for the 40th floor did not affect the present construction of the tower, seen in the above picture proceeding Tuesday at a smart pace, since Cappelli Enterprises did not need approval of the zoning changes until they reached the 40th floor of the condo tower.

 

The North Street Community hearing was held over until July 5, and appeared to have a serious “disconnect” with the Wyndam Close Neighborhood.

 

In another action, the Common Council approved the construction of a 5-story Emergency Room addition to the White Plains Hospital Center, to augment the overflowing emergency room services of the hospital .

 

 

 The Comprehensive Plan Review Saga Continues

 

A statement from Councilman Robert Greer was read for Mr. Greer, the councilman suffering from Arterial Lateral Sclerosis, (who again left the meeting early after consent agenda was approved). Greer’s statement supported the 1997 Comprehensive Plan and its vision, as well as the Citizen Committee’s Review of that plan. Citizens rejected Mr. Greer’s endorsement, calling for the Common Council to begin the process of creating a new Plan altogether, saying the plan is now inadequate, because it does not address height of buildings.

 

 

Robert Levine, a member of the Citizens Plan Committee which was out first with its own critique, written by a group of concerned citizens,  before the city responded with its review of the 1997 Comprehensive Plan, and whose members were, with three exceptions, (John Martin, Lewis Trippett and Jon Vorperian) were shut out of the Common Council/Mayor appointed Plan Review Committee said:

 

We read, this weekend, of a developer’s vision for 21^st century White Plains.

He favors increased critical mass–– Manhattan style–––– to bring more people into the downtown. It’s an idea––  probably not shared by many–––but he’s entitled to his opinion.  He backs  it up with money. Not enough, maybe, to handle the sewers, water, traffic, safety and so forth, Manhattan style, but lets not quibble. Progress has its price, and, as we have seen, money talks. And the Council listens––– the shut-off bell, which signals our meeting speaking limit, never rings for him.

 

As far as the Comprehensive Plan–– and citizen participation more generally–– are concerned, the shut-off bell keeps ringing for the rest of us. It rang when we asked for a timely grass-roots process for updating the Comprehensive Plan. It rang when we attended your Committee meetings and had no opportunity to ask questions or make comments. It rang when we spoke to Council members individually and asked them to open up the process. And the shut-off bell continues to ring as we see the administration and Council stonewalling in the face of a clear citizen desire for a representative, informed and unbiased plan review and update.

 

We have a lot more invested in our city than all the developers combined, and that’s not just money. Listen carefully. We want the informed, prudent, planning we deserve. We’re not getting it. Do you get it?

 

 

The Ritz-Carlton Westchester Legislation.

 

In the hearing on the zoning ordinance amendments affecting the 221 Main Ritz-Carlton site, that going in, Common Council pundits expected to be passed with the usual “Those in Favor. Those Opposed, Carried” to clear the way for a restaurant and spa on the top of the Ritz Condominium tower overlooking Main Street, approval did not happen last night. They got too much heat.

 

Louis Cappelli described the Ritz-Carlton Westchester choosing to come to White Plains was a coup for White Plains, saying “White Plains is now the Belle of the Ball.” Just as Mr. Cappelli was warming up, Citizens interrupted Super Developer Louis Cappelli’s presentation just when he was about to unveil to a citywide television audience the details of his top-of-the-tower proposal. Citizens shouted out from the gallery that he had reached his five-minute limit. (Citizens speaking in public hearings are limited to five minutes.) The Mayor bade Mr. Cappelli continue.)

 

Mr. Cappelli said he was “taken aback” and told the Mayor he would cut his presentation short and sat down with Mr. Weingarten,  without showing the plans he was about to show.  Thanks to the indiscretion of the gallery, viewers were denied the chance to see the first prime time televised appearance of Mr. Cappelli’s plans for the tower for another month.

 

Then came the deluge of denouncement. One after another, citizens torched the adjustment of the zoning ordinance that would allow restaurant and other uses to be used as “screening” for mechanicals on the 40^th floors of both Mr. Cappelli’s Ritz Carlton Westchester Towers, warning again of what they characterized as reckless, thoughtless precedent-setting by the Common Council.

 

Dolf Beil, President of the North Broadway Association calmly said there was a double standard in the city in site plan changes, that citizens had to follow the rules of the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals, citing two examples of residents in his neighborhood being forced to make $56,000 in changes in their homes by the Zoning Board of Appeals, while developers were cut slack and allowed to do whatever they wanted. 

 

The Super Developer’s attorney, Mark Weingarten, noted that Mr. Cappelli’s request for an extra 54,000 square feet, or 56,000 square feet for the Ritz-Carlton Westchester, (both figures have been mentioned), was withdrawn from consideration Monday evening and would be on for a public hearing at the July 5 meeting. The Common Council adjourned this hearing on the mechanical area ordinance adjustment and the 2% float of height that would allow both the Cappelli Tower(s) at the Ritz-Carlton Westchester to reach 408 feet, 2 inches more per floor (8 feet overall).

 

Weingarten also denied allegations by speakers that the Ritz-Carlton Westchester height change in the podium portion of the towers was executed illegally, saying this was not true, but did not elaborate.

 

North Street Community’s Posh Condos Too High Wyndam Close Says.

 

In the hearing on the North Street Community senior citizen condominium project, North Street Partners Principal C.J. Follini presented the latest plans for the project, which called for 390 units of senior condominium units in three buildings in the Southwest corner of the St. Agnes Property, doctors offices, and a onsite medical facility were also to be included in existing buildings 305 and 311 for its senior citizen residents.  

 

A North Street Community legal counsel, Paul Bergins, architect of the approval of The New York Presbyterian Hospital apparently defunct proton accelerator-biotech project in 2001, explained  the North Street Community request for a “Senior Residential District,” saying creating a special district would be more effective in controlling development than the granting of a Special Permit because it prevented another organization from applying for a similar Special Permit. He also said creating a Special District would prevent the spectre of “a floating zone” situation developing.

 

The North Street Community project met with a withering fusillade  of criticism from the Wyndam Close Neighborhood Association denouncing the project’s residential components as too high (at 7-8 stories). One resident of the Wyndham neighborhood, showed that the residential buildings were the height of The Jefferson on 300 Mamaroneck Avenue.

 

Mark Pollitzer  raised the possibility that creating a Senior Residential District could lead to Burk Hospital and New York Presbyterian Hospital (the North Street Community neighbor) to request just such expansions of these districts.

 

One speaker and resident of Wyndam said it was all about money for the developer, pointing out revenues from sale of the 390 units at $600,000 a unit would roughly approach $234 Million. He noted that similar density on the New York Presbyterian Hospital property lying adjacent to the North Street Community property  might create revenues of three-quarters of a billion dollars for the New York Presbyterian Hospital. A person speaking on behalf of the Carvel Children’s Rehabilitation Center (on the North Street Community), said the Council should consider that the developer has promised to preserve the Carvel Center and has been very nice to it. The hearing was adjourned until July 5, 2006.

 

Citizens: Council Disconnected.

Mayor: They are Most Connected Council Ever.

 

The evening ended with resident Ann Jordan from the Reynal Park neighborhood testifying she had come down to the council meeting to make the point that there was “a disconnect” between the residents of White Plains and the developers of White Plains, as well as a disconnect with the council and the public.

 

The Mayor had engaged in lively rebuttals and a series of lash-outs and corrections all evening, without substantiation at speakers who have become fixtures at these hearings. The Mayor turned the hearings into individual debates on some points.

 

Mayor Joseph Delfino, more exasperated than this reporter has ever seen him in public hearings, had the last word.

 

He closed the meeting with a vehement defense of his Common Council, saying he had never seen a council more connected with the people, and that the Council had “followed the Comprehensive Plan to a T.”

 

It was a lively evening which ended at 12:45 A.M. E.D.T. More to come.

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WPCNR PRESS BOX, June 4, 2006: Christine Glennon smashed a single up the middle with 2 out in the last of the eighth inning today at North Rockland High, scoring Alexa Tauban from second for the run that beat the White Plains Tigers, 1-0. Tauban lead off the inning with a smash single to right that umpire ruled she was safe at first on a very close play on the snap throw to first by the charging Tiger rightfielder.

Kelsey Kulk pitching in the sixth Sunday afternoon to the Rams Big Bopper. With two Rams on and two out,  second baser Dena Frederick preserved the scoreless tie with a full-tilt boogie, running backhand catch of a Texas League popup over her head in the Bermuda Triangle of short right center, saving two runs. It was the play of the day. Photo, WPCNR Sports.

Tauban was sacrificed to second. After Kelsey Kulk in her final splendid outing as a Tiger had induced the lead off hitter to fly out to center for out number two,  Glennon struck the first pitch hard with smoke  perfectly parting the middle of the diamond for a clean ground shot to center. Tauban, off at the crack of the bat allowing her to beat the throw to the plate from centerfield on the inside to score the run that won the championship for the Rams. 

The Tigers first appearance ever in a Section 1 Championship was a gem. They made great plays. Erin Cook made a back hand running catch in dead center to rob North’s cleanup hitter of a double in the fourth. Cook made another running backhand catch in left center in the seventh coming in. Dena Frederick saved the game in the sixth making a back to the plate back catch of a Texas League pop in right center that would have scored two runs. Kelsey Kulk allowed 4 hits and fanned 3, and didn’t walk anyone. She matched Deanna Minuto frame-by-frame, as each righthander defused jams. 

The Rams’ Deanna Minuto in the circle  finessing out of a jam in the Tiger seventh with Kelsey Kulk on second.  Minuto fanned 7 Tigers, did not walk anyone, gave 3 hits and was in total command. Only one Tiger reached third, but was stranded, and that was in the third inning. The Tigers had chances to score in only the third and seventh innings, but Minuto was equal to the challenge, not allowing a hit the last five innings and retiring 12 in a row until hitting Kulk in the top of the seventh. Photo, WPCNR Sports.

 Meanwhile Kulk pitched out of the only two scoring opportunities Clarkstown mustered in the 5th and the 6th.

Talking it Over in the Third. Sandra Mastrangelo stands on third as the Rams talk over strategy. Sandra had blasted a frozen rope drive in the gap for a double in the third, and was sacrificed to third by Erin Cook, but Minuto got the next twoTigers, denying the bid.Photo, WPCNR Sports.

Tiger Senior Captains Kelsey Kulk, left, Carrie Abbott, and Ashley Encanarcao accept the Section 1 Class AA Runnerup plaque as the Clarkstown North team applauds them.This was the first sectional championship appearance in the history of White Plains softball and the girls gave it all they had.  Photo, WPCNR Sports

The Last Warmup: Tigers warmup in the pregame in their traditional infield walkoff. Photo, WPCNR Sports.