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 POLICE GAZETTE. By John F. Bailey. March 28, 2006: Police expect to charge a suspect in the stabbing death of Jermaine Pelletier, 20,  last night in front of the Post Road Mini-Mart, according to Martin Gleeson, Special Counsel, Office of the Commissioner for the White Plains Police.

The Intersection of South Lexington Avenue and Post Road: Scene of Monday Night’s stabbing death. The Mini-Mart  is in left of the picture. Photo, WPCNR News Archive(2004)

According to Gleeson, Pelletier entered the Post Road Mini-Mart on East Post Road & South Lexington avenue with two friends, one from White Plains, at 9:20 P.M. Gleeson said apparently some verbal exchange took place between Pelletier, his two friends and several other male blacks gathered on the corner as the victim and friends entered the Mart.

Gleeson reports police are still investigating, but what appeared to happen next was “it became clear to Pelletier he was going to be assaulted upon exiting the store.” On his exit from the store, Gleeson said “Two individuals strike him.  He (Pelletier) gets up. He’s stabbed twice in the neck.” Gleeson said the police received a number of 911 calls on the incident, and he said he was very thankful for the calls. Police responded and conveyed Pelletier to White Plains Hospital Center where he died.

Gleeson says it was too soon to tell whether this was a gang-related incident. He described what happened as incident “without rhyme or reason.”  Gleeson said it appeared street dialogue started the confrontation, street talk and turf might have been at issue, but that was “still under investigation.” A suspect is expected to be charged based on police interrogation of individuals brought to White Plains by police and who volunteered to come in. “An individual is likely to be charged this afternoon,” Gleeson said.

Gleeson said police are still seeking information, and invite persons who can contribute information to the investigation to contact the anonymous tip line, 914-422-6256

Mr. Pelletier was a resident of Open Arms, and stayed evenings at the 85 Court Street drop-in shelter at the left since March of this year, Mr. Gleeson said.  Photo, WPCNR News Archive. 

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WPCNR Southend Times. By John F. Bailey. March 28, 2006: Slightly over 100 persons turned out for the Rocky Dell/Reynal Park Neighborhood Association last night at Ridgeway School to fire indignant question after indignant question at Councilpersons Arnold Bernstein, Benjamin Boykin, and Glen Hockley last night over the impending sale of 9 lots along Railside Avenue. Bids are scheduled to be opened this afternoon and bids reported to be selected tomorrow, though this is not exactly clear when the winning bids will be chosen by the city. The upshot of two hours of grilling by the neighborhood left all three councilpersons indicating they would not change their positions disposed to vote in favor of the sale, though Arnold Bernstein said he would see about slowing the process down. Mr. Hockley remained for the sale, and so did Mr. Boykin.

Anthony Solomini, standing, moderating last night’s discussion of the Railside Sell-Off between an angry crowd and Councilpersons Glen Hockley, Benjamin Boykin and Arnold Bernstein. Photo, WPCNR News.

The Jury at Ridgeway School. Slightly over 100 fired antagonistic questions at the three councilpersons for 2 hours. Photo, WPCNR News

Bernstein said the city faces a double-digit tax increase at minimum in 2006-2007, and the sale of land would prevent the taxes from jumping another 9%.

Glen Hockley admitted that he and Mr. Boykin toured the neighborhood querying about the sale of land two years ago, and not this year as the audience had mistakenly believed.

Mr. Boykin stuck to his position that the Comprehensive Plan Committee, and prior to that the City Budget and Management Committee had set policy for the city to return foreclosed land (which is what the Railside properties are) to the tax roll, and selling the Railside properties were the first manifestation of that policy.

A resident of Havilands Manor noted that the reason the issue is so important is because there are pockets of land in Havilands Manor and other areas of White Plains that the city owns that could suffer a similar sell-off fate, affecting the ambience of that neighborhood.

The councilmembers pointed out to the city that sources such as the Trust for Public Land and the Westchester Land Trust were not in position to buy the Railside properties from the city at this time.

Equivocating to the end all three did not say they would vote for the sale, but indicated as much, despite the spirit of the neighborhood to slow the process down and eventually keep the land green.

Neighbors roasted the three councilpersons for the city’s short (but legal) notice of the sale, mailed and postmarked March 16.

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WPCNR PRESS BOX. By John F. Bailey. March 26, 2006: The Ebersole Skating Rink Skating School and Advanced Figure Skaters “iced” their 43rd Annual Show at Good Ol’ Ebersole Saturday night and delivered White Plains best hour and a half of entertainment. Skaters — 115 of them from Tot to 50-something showed off their camels, spirals, laybacks and spins to an appreciative audience of parents, grandparents, boyfriends and old friends on a perfect night to skate, showing what a recreation skating program is all about: relationships, tradition, and handing down skills to the young skaters coming on up.

The Terrific Tots Open the Show. Photos by WPCNR Sports

Skating their last Show at Ebersole, Alison Goldstein, left, and Mattie Salonger after entering the ice in white cap and gown take a star skate to close the show the company looks on.

Tots  1 & 2 and Special Alpha Skaters dressed as immigrants opened up festivities.

Katie Irmler, left and Nadia Abdulwahab were the first of a series of pairs, skating in syncronized rhythm to “Heart of Rock & Roll”

Pre-Alpha, Alpha & Beta Skaters Rock the USA

Allison Fuerst foreice, and Emily Brotmann got down with “Down in Mississippi.”

One of four soloing Seniors,  Meghan Laub spins to “What You Own”

“California Girls” Chelsea Pickholtz, left and Jenna Bisignano nail The Beach Boys hit with side by side sit spins.

Gamma, Delta and Freestyle 1 performers take us to “Miami” on ice.

Peter Marinelli and Louise Marin waltz on ice to “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”

Molly Seidel and Dawn DeMarco ice-boogie to “New Orleans”

Nora Steinman returned to Ebersole to skate to “Streets of Philadelphia,” with a performance of grace and interpretive style.

Those energetic high-stylin’ Freestyle 2 & 3 princesses have the right stuff to form an Ebersole Synchronized Skating Team. In their skate, the ice princesses formed a moving circle, a wheel and a spiral in a line to “Kids in America”

Maggie Dunne lead off the final solo performances with a wonderful skate to a Swing Medley, spinning, jumping and lindying.

Jen Bisignano executed a tight, swinging on the music skate to “New York, New York,” packed with footwork, spins and jumps.

The elegant Daria Marinelli skated her last solo at Ebersole Rink memorably and gracefully keeping “Georgia on My Mind”. She also skated a sharp tango with her father, Peter in the senior moments at the close of the show.

Juliana Bailey, Ebersole’s “Double Gold Medalist” in United States Figure Skating moves in a breathtaking layback spin, improvising to “Proud to Be an American”

Skating Director Kristen Fuerst ready to bring her charges on to the ice in her ninth Ebersole Ice Show.

Ice Pals: What makes hometown recreational skating venues like Ebersole Ice Rink so special and important to keep going, is that girls and boys, figure skaters and hockey players  grow up together across ages and the miles. They become friends for life. Here Allie Salonger, left, a sophomore at the University of Delaware and member of the Nationally prominent University of Delaware Syncrhonized Skating Team meets up with Juliana Bailey, a Junior at WPHS and Allie’s sister, Mattie, right, a senior at WPHS who was skating her last Ebersole skate tonight.

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  WPCNR County Clarion-Ledger. From Westchester County Board of Elections. March 24, 2006: Election machine systems manufacturers will demonstrate their voting systems  Thursday, March 30 from 1 to 7 P.M. at the invitation of the Board of Elections. The demonstrations will be held in Room B of the Westchester County Center in White Plains and are open to the public.

Participating voting system venders are as follows: Sequoia Voting Systems, Election Systems & Software (ES&S), Liberty Election Systems and Avante International Technology.  Additionally, Robis, Inc. will demonstrate its AskED voter assistance product and informational brochures will be on hand from IVS, which specializes in telephone voting.

Four years ago almost to the month, the White Plains Common Council considered electronic voting machines, but put off the decision awaiting state action determining the kind of voting machine the state would accept. That decision is still awaited from the state four years later. To read about those machines considered then, go to the WPCNR Archive at http://www.whiteplainscnr.com/article499.html

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WPCNR THE PARKING NEWS. By John F. Bailey. March 24, 2006: Public Safety Aides armed with their registration-registering hand-held computer scanners to identify offending parked cars,  handed out a series of $15 tickets along Westmoreland Avenue and Intervale Streets this week. 

According to Thomas McLaren, the President of C. G. Swackhamer, Inc., (the lumber company headquartered on Westmoreland Avenue area since 1942), there is no public parking in the area. For years, he says,  workers in the businesses on the strip, consisting of towing companies, collision repair shops, the Westchester ARC building, warehouses, a meat packer, and some offices have been allowed to exceed the unmetered street time limits (For years marked 1 hour, and recently changed to 3 hours on Westmoreland and continue to be1 hour on side streets) because there is no other place to park. McLaren told WPCNR the last parking ticket he had heard of handed out on the street was six months ago, until Thursday when one of his workers received a parking ticket.  Photo, WPCNR News.

This week, reports Larry Smith, Controller for Bearings & Motive Specialties Co. on 90 Westmoreland slightly down the block that policy changed.

The city Public Safety Aides are enforcing the 3 hour and 1 hour limits.  Even if a worker moves his vehicle to another space within the area, as Mr. Smith did, they still get a ticket Smith told WPCNR:

“The new parking enforcement group has begun a ticketing blitz on Westmoreland and adjoining Intervale Streets,” Smith said.  “The car registrations are being scanned and regardless of whether the car leaves for an extended period, and returns to the neighborhood such as our delivery car, if the car is anywhere in the neighborhood when the enforcement officer returns they are ticketed.”

Westmoreland Avenue. Bearings & Motive Specialties Co is on the right. Parking sign on left, indicates “3 Hour Parking, 7:30 A.M. to 6:30 P.M. Photo, WPCNR News./

Smith says this has stunned his work force: “This aggressive policy on the part of the city is putting an extreme hardship on these mostly small businesses. None of our employees can afford $15 per day parking fines, nor can our business afford to subsidize parking for them. Further, there is no alternative parking in the immediate area. The nearest city facility is at the White Plains Public Library, several (3 long) blocks away.”

City PSAs  Strike Without Warning.

Smith said the city did not inform the businesses in any way that the 3-hour and 1 hour regulations were going to be strictly enforced to the letter before he received two $15 tickets this week. The first ticket he received was in the afternoon, after he had parked his car in a different space in the same area, from when he had parked in the morning. (He had gone home for lunch.)

The Law on Intervale. One Hour Parking, 7:30 A.M. to 6:30 P.M. Park at your own risk. Photo, WPCNR News

He said he was not the only victim.  He reports “a long line of cars on both sides of Westmoreland” all of whom had received tickets. He said that Bank Street Commons (apartments) on Bank had been contacted about employees of his and other businesses using the empty places in Bank Street lots as an interim solution. Smith said he had been told they had to keep the spaces, even those unoccupied, to fill city parking availability requirements for the apartment units.

One Hour Parking on the Swackhammer corner off Westmoreland. Photo, WPCNR News.

McLaren, the Swackhammer owner  told WPCNR, “None of the people parking on this street are on welfare. They’re all hardworking people, working to put food on the table. There is no public parking in the area. Where are they supposed to park? I don’t feel I should be paying them (my employees) while they are out moving their cars.”

WPCNR observes some businesses have private parking lots on the street, but still there is overflow and workers park on the street. Until this week, they could.

 The Mayor’s Office Unavailable for Clarification of the Policy. 

The Mayor’s Office and the Department of Parking were not available for comment when contacted by WPCNR NewsCalls slightly after 5 P.M. today.

WPCNR is trying to clarify if the  parking ticket blitz policy of ticketing vehicles, even those returning to the same area  to park again (much like New York City cars shifting to another side of the street on street cleaningdays), after leaving a parking place,  extended to the downtown area where parking is metered on the street. 

 If the Westmoreland “no return” enforcement policy is the new model that would imply that participants could not “feed one meter” in the downtown past the 1 hour limit indicated on meters.

If vehicles in the Westmoreland “industrial area without meters,” were ticketed when they returned  to the neighborhood, that would imply a ticket should be written up if a vehicle parked in another parking meter spot in the downtown after having used up his/her first hour when their registration popped up on the Public Safety Aide’s hand-held computer registration scanner. WPCNR will pursue clarification on the matter. According to Smith’s information, the hand-held scanners do not differentiate by location.

Smith, after speaking with a Department of Parking representative, said “Due to the fact that there are no retail businesses here, (in the Westmoreland, Intervale area), I cannot understand the city’s enforcement logic, which, according to the parking authority rep is to provide everyone with a fair chance to park. Nobody parks here except employees. Most people in White Plains don’t even know that our street exists.”