WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER 3,374,995 VISITS IN ONE YEAR—65,000 VISITS A WEEK BY 985,281 VISITORS

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WPCNR’S THE FEINER REPORT. By Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner. May 5, 2004:

I am very pleased to report that a compromise has been reached regarding the proposed Hastings affordable on Warburton Ave. The Greenburgh Town Board met with Eric Anderson, Sue Smith of the Hastings Affordable Housing Committee and with Sharon O’Shea of the Warburton Ave neighborhood Association. Some great results:

****There will be 14 affordable housing units built at the site of this foreclosed property. A few weeks ago the developer had proposed 16 units of housing—8 luxury and 8 affordable. This is a big improvement!  100% affordable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

****3 buildings will be built, instead of 4 – an enhancement for the neighborhood.

****More open space.  The developer has purchased property next to the 3 buildings which can be used by the community for a community garden or community benefit!

****The housing development, as proposed, is almost entirely within the Hastings Zoning Code.

****No commercial units in this development. Originally, when the proposed development was suggested, the developer was planning 5500 sq feet of commercial space.

****This will be a green building.

****The town will received back taxes owed by the property owner. And, the property will be placed back on the tax rolls.

 

What pleases me the most about this initiative is the fact that during the past few weeks the Warburton Ave Neighborhood Association worked closely with town officials and the developer to make this compromise work. Special thanks to Sue Smith and Jim Keaney of the Hastings Affordable Housing Committee for working so hard so affordable housing could happen in Hastings. Hastings Manager Neil Hess and Mayor Lee Kinnally also deserve special recognition.  Special thanks to Association members Jim Metzger, Cyndy Travis, Larry Houghteling, Larry Young, Barbara Erwin-McGuire, Al Straub, Tina DiLuoffo  and Michelle Noe.  A special thank you to Vanessa Merton for acting as a liaison between the community and town. I will invite each of the above named leaders to accept Greenburgh’s Citizen of the Month award at our May 12^th Town Board meeting at Anthony Veteran Town Park, Heatherdell Road, Ardsley on Wednesday, May 12^th at 7:30 PM (newcomer’s reception being held from 6 PM to 7:30 PM the same night).

 

This is a perfect example of democracy in action. We all worked together —for the common good. And, everyone came out a winner!

PAUL FEINER

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            WPCNR POLICE GAZETTE. From Westchester County Department of Public Safety. (Edited) May 5, 2004: With prom season approaching, Westchester County Executive Andy Spano announced that the county Department of Public Safety, as well as local police departments, will be vigilant in efforts to prevent underage drinking, whether it be in limousines, at catering halls or at pre- or post-party “hangouts.”

            At the same time, Spano reminds parents that they play a crucial role in this effort – that they need to talk to their teenagers and get answers.

            “For most Westchester students and their parents, prom night will produce memories of beautiful dresses, budding romance, dancing and fun. But all too often, these memories are marred by tragedies involving alcohol and other drug use,” Spano said. “The police will do their part, but parents must do theirs as well.”

 

Freeway Flyers Gonna Write You Up Now. Don’t Even Try to Drink Now.

 

            The county’s Department of Public Safety will increase its patrols during prom season. They, as well as local police departments, will be visiting high school and junior high school proms. They will also be inspecting limousines for proper licensing and to make sure that there are no alcoholic beverages in the limousines.

            There are no alcoholic beverages allowed in limousines that transport prom goers. All livery operators licensed by the county have been warned that purchasing, serving or allowing the consumption of alcoholic beverages in their vehicles is a criminal activity and violations will not be tolerated.

 

Those Big Orange and Whites Will Be Out and Checkin on You.

 

             “The police will be vigilant,” said Spano. “We want to protect our young adults. We want them to have a safe night. Police departments throughout the county have been given additional funding through the county Office of STOP-DWI for added overtime patrols to deter drinking and drugging – with or without the driving component — on those nights that proms are being held. Some departments will patrol the areas where establishments cater to proms, some will patrol neighborhoods and others will increase their patrols around favorite hangouts.”

            Spano added, “All of this is not to under-stress the important role parents must play to ensure prom safety. And the key to that is communicating with their child—asking questions and getting answers. We know from experience that this can go a long way towards preventing serious problems.”

            The county has sent letters to school and to limousine companies with information about prom safety.

 

HERE ARE SOME SUGGESTIONS FROM THE COUNTY:

 

At least a week before the prom talk with your son or daughter.

·        State that you love him/her and your primary concern is for his/her health and safety.

·        Discuss prom night expectations and concerns.

·        Ask what plans are in place (if any) for post prom celebrations.

·        Assure your child that you understand prom night pressure and fears.

·        Discuss your position on possible uncomfortable/dangerous situations and suggest ways to handle these situations. Be sure to discuss issues of drinking and driving, alcohol poisoning, and use of other drugs.

·        Ask your son/daughter to think about these issues and tell him/her you’d like to continue the discussion.

·        When hiring a limo, make sure it is properly licensed by the Westchester County Taxi & Limousine Commission. (Ask for the company’s WCTLC permit number.) Find out who the driver will be and make sure he is properly licensed as well. Make sure the service understands that there will be under aged passengers and NO alcohol is to be allowed and that the bar in the vehicle is not to be stocked with alcohol.   

 

At least one day before the prom:

• Re-state your concerns for health and safety with your son or daughter.
  
• Re-state your position on handling potentially dangerous situations.
  
• Ask if he/she has additional thoughts or feelings.

 

The day of the prom: confirm the schedule of events.

• Where will he/she be at what time?
  
• What time can you expect to hear from him/her and what time will he/she be home?
  
• Stress you will pick him/her up whenever or wherever if he/she wants to come home or you will leave money for a taxi in a certain place if he/she doesn’t want to call you but wants to come home.

When the limousine or party van comes:

• Double check that the van has the proper licensing from the WCTLC. Cars licensed to do for-hire business in Westchester County will have a rectangular WCTLC decal on the lower right side of the windshield.  The expiration date of each permit is prominently displayed on the permit. The driver should be able to produce a valid WCTLC driver permit.  The expiration date of the permit will be prominently displayed in red underneath the driver’s picture. NYS DMV requires that the driver of a car that seats 15 or more passengers have a Commercial Driver’s License.

 

• Speak directly to the driver and discuss your expectations that alcohol and other drug use not be allowed in the limousine or party van. Make sure your car service understands the laws on alcohol consumption and their responsibility under those laws.  Also speak to the driver and explain to him that he is not to provide alcohol or allow the consumption of alcohol by under aged passengers while riding in his vehicle.

• Inspect the limousine, including the trunk, for alcohol or other drugs.
  
• Do not permit your son or daughter to bring non-alcoholic beverages in the limousine if the seal has been broken or the beverage opened. Adolescents have mixed vodka with Snapple drinks and fooled parents by saying, “I’m just bringing Snapple in case we get thirsty on the way.”
  
• Tell the driver you do not want any stops made on the way to the prom. Adolescents sometimes  “stash”  alcohol elsewhere to be picked up on the way to the prom.

 

After the prom:

·        See your adolescent when he/she comes home. If your adolescent has obviously been drinking or using other drugs, don’t let him/her go back out.

·        Talk to your teen about his/her experience and compliment good choices. Talk about any difficult  situations that may have arisen.

 

Things to remember:

·        It is illegal for parents to serve alcohol to young people (under 21) in their home.  Hosting a pre or post prom party that includes alcohol sends a dangerous message to your child and leaves you open to civil or even criminal liability.

·        Accidents can happen not only at the after-prom sites (beach, hotel,  club) but going to and from as well.  

·        Vomiting, passing out, and other alcohol and drug-related incidents can result in damaged reputations, lowered self-esteem, ruined relationships, and potential injury.

·        Driving while tired may be as dangerous as driving while under the influence of alcohol and other drugs.

 

 

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WPCNR PRESS TENT. By John F. Bailey. May 5, 2004: Well, we’ve just finished a St. Pauli Girl brew at the Lookout Grill, overlooking the foothills of the Catskills in the distance, and we’re ready to tackle the brutal back nine of Westchester County’s newest golf course, Hudson Hills. Let’s go pick up our satellite-equipped golf cart and head to the 10^th Tee.  (To view the WPCNR Play of the Front Nine, see previous story.)

 

TENTH TEE. Hudson Hills. In an earlier article, WPCNR took you on a round on the Front Nine, now we’re heading home. Links Aficionados should note that the holes of Hudson Hills do not have names, but as a reporter, I have invented names for the holes to give them cache. Grab your clubs and head with us to the 10^th , on an WPCNR virtual round at Hudson Hills, where all the tee shots are dead solid perfect, all the approaches up and down, and every putt “in the hole.”Photo by WPCNR CourseCam

 

                                                       Lost Valley. 10th Hole Par 5

                                                          Photo by WPCNR CourseCam

The golfer starts his long trek home on Lost Valley, yet another blind tee shot, a macho man’s hole demanding a 250 yard fade drive for eagle to clear the cart path (not visible on the right)  and land into the second fairway.  You’ll get lots of roll because the hole is downhill to the right down in the valley.

 

This is a blind tee shot with the green lying 250 yards from the cart path 300 yards diagonally from the wall of trees on your right. Your shot must carry with precision over the cart path to have a clear shot at making the green in 2 for bird.

 

The driver-challenged golfer may choose to lay up in the middle of the first fairway in front of  the tee.

 

The second fairway is no White House Lawn, there is a rock creek crossing the fairway and the diminutive green is guarded by traps left and right and water deep right if you hit your approach fat.

 

10th Green, Looking back to Tee.

Photo by WPCNR CourseCam

 

Lost Valley  plays 521 yards from the black, 491, 452, and 413 from the green, blue, and gold tees. The green is beveled making for a tricky putt from front and there’s tendency to fly the small green and land on the 11^th tee, or for a prevailing west wind to knock down your shot.

 

 

                                                            Pine Glen. 11^th Hole. Par 3

Photo by WPCNR CourseCam

 

An innocent looking hole giving you a false sense of relief coming off the challenges of the 10^th. But, don’t let it fool you.  The green is like the infamous postage stamp at Troon, but slightly larger, and not much apron between the back of the green and the pinetrees. Your shot has to carry a precise 190 yards and bite that carpet. Too strong and you’re in the pines. Green is relatively flat. A birdie opportunity.  As the weather gets warmer the green will get faster and demand more caution on the part of the birdie hunter.

 

Pine Glen is 200 yards from the Black; 174 from the Greens, 151 from the Blues, and 120 from the Golds.

 

The Tower. 12^th Hole. Par 4

Photo by WPCNR CourseCam

 

The 12^th hole leads you back to the summit. Your tee shot should be aimed for the below right of the Tower seen on the horizon. The green is up the hill and to the right, demanding the ability to hit cleanly off about a 45 degree angle uphill lie.

 

12th Green: The green is narrow and hourglass shapped, sloping up hill and then down with a swale in the middle (not a good thing). Watch the grass bunker on the left with your approach. Photo by WPCNR CourseCam 

 

The Tower plays 435 from the black, 400, 362, and 313 yards.

 

                                                          Westward Ho. 13^th Hole. Par 4

                                                           Photo by WPCNR CourseCam

 

The thirteenth hole is one of the most beautiful on the course and does not demand precision off the tee. The green is curled into the copse of trees on the upper left of the crooked fairway.  The leftside bunker is 205 yards from the green, offering an inviting target to go for the up and down.

 

 

13th Green: Your approach though demands elegance and touch because you have to thread your 8-er or 9-er into the deep throated green that again is beveled. Photo by WPCNR CourseCam

 

Westward Ho plays down hill left with a very manageable 474 yards with a lot of roll. 424,380, and 337 from the Green, Blue, and Gold Tees.

 

 

                                                     THE GRAVEYARD. 14^th Hole. Par 3

 

This hole’s name was coined by one of the golfers WPCNR interviewed, so called because the tee is right along side a 19^th century cemetery whose silent stones observe your tee shot. It can be a graveyard for your round, too. Don’t the “Graveyard Gallery” scare you.

 

 

This 187 yard par 3 carries over a gulch,  to a broad triangular green with two traps. You have to be straight.  Graveyard Gallery is at your left. Again the copse of trees surrounding the hole will drop your shot dead when you hit into the west wind, while a North-north east wind will drift your shot left into a very nasty rough.

 

 

                                                           Hudson Crest. 15^th Hole. Par 5

                                                           Photo by WPCNR CourseCam

 

Holes 15 through 18 challenge your final leg with a Par 5 and three Par 4s.

 

Fifteen is a Big Time Hitter’s delight and a duffer’s nightmare. Here is a chance to show and use your power if you hit it straight. This is an uphill climb, the longest hole on the course from any of its four tees, it runs straight up hill but relatively free of pitfalls (unless of course, you slice or hook).

 

Here you’re looking up the hill to the green. The hole demands a carry of 250 yards to clear the scrub in the middle of the fairway Once you drive past the “scrub” in the middle of the fairway,  you are 245 yards from the center of the green.

 

 

Hudson Crest’s green is guarded by a trap to catch the weak approach, which will roll back if you do not clear the crest. There is a forgiving apron surrounding the green, which is beveled to cup and hold your approach, but a “hot” low approach will shoot right through if you’re going for the green in 3. Photo by WPCNR CourseCam

 

Hudson Crest plays 568 from the Black, 532, 502 and 464, respectively from the Green, Blue and Gold tees.

 

 

                                                    Big Sky Country. 16^th Hole. Par 4

                                                      Photo by WPCNR CourseCam

 

The most scenic of the Par 4s, Big Sky Country is welcome relief from the trek up 15, presenting an inviting birdie target. Plenty of room for your drive. The only panoramic fairway on the course.

 

Beware the two traps on the right. Big Sky Country plays 407 yards from the Black, 375, 351, and 324 from the Green, Blue and Gold tees.

 

 

                                                   Stairway to Heaven. 17^th Hole. Par 4

                                                         Photo by WPCNR CourseCam

 

The hole on this 458 yarder is tucked away on a notch on the upper center right where the cart path leads. The skinny green is slightly to the right of the white sandtrap speck, and to the left of the cartpath. The fairway gradually then steeply rises up to the hole, which is guarded again by a trap and mogul like hills to the left of the crested green. It is 142 yards to the green from where the cartpath appears on upper right. Again the green is elongated beveled and tricky to putt. The “Stairway” plays 458, 393,348, and 316.

 

 

                                                             River Ridge 18^th Hole. Par 4

                                                            Photo by WPCNR CourseCam

 

WPCNR’s round finishes with a walk up 18 which with its classic clubhouse is reminiscent of Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. The finishing hole is forgiving, and delivers breathtaking views west to the Palisades and mountains across the Hudson. You cannot quite see the Hudson River but it is there.

 

                                                                      Walking the Ridge.

                                                             Photo by WPCNR CourseCam

 

The fairway leaves no margin for error, hooks and slices will make the sayonara hole not very pleasant. A trap right in the landing area awaits, and two traps left of the green menace your second shot.

 

18th Green: A Demanding Approach to an uphill lie green. Photo by WPCNR CourseCam

 

The course is relatively short for tournament play, County Executive Andy Spano told WPCNR Sports, but he hoped the course could be used for championships of some kind.

 

The course design was by Mark Mungeam of Cornish, Silva and Mungeam, Inc., and runs 7,000 yards.

 

Cornish, Silva and Mungeam have created Stow Acres in Stow, Massachusetts, a GOLF DIGEST top 75 public course, Shaker Hills in Harvard, Massachusetts which was named Runner-Up by GOLF DIGEST as The Best New Public Course to Open in 1992, The Captains Course, selected by GOLF DIGEST as the Best Public Course to open in the USA in 1985 and currently ranked in the Top 25 Public Courses in America by GOLF DIGEST. They also created Cyprian Keyes Golf Club, selected by GOLF DIGEST as the Fifth Best New Affordable Public Courses for 1998.

 

Their renovation work includes Seminole Golf Club in North Palm Beach, Florida,

Olympia Fields Country Club in Chicago, site of the 1997 U.S. Senior Open and 2003 U.S. Open,  The Broadmoor in Colorado in preparation for the 1995 U.S. Women’s Open, Jupiter Island in Florida, Lookout Mountain in Georgia and

Myopia Hunt Club in Massachusetts.

 

Be Careful out there.

 

WPCNR likes the front nine, because of the charming and challenging shotmaking required that challenges the skills and decision-making, self-analysis club selection required. You, sir, have to know your limitations and your capabilities.

 

I consider the back nine slightly anticlimactic. It could use more hazards, after the considerable creativity and use of terrain on the front nine.

 

The course is very fair, but requires some awfully long blasts of 250 yards or more off the tees to carry you over disaster trouble. The greens are very slow now without a lot of break, but golfers tell me that would change as the weather gets warmer.

 

Three of the final four holes are relentless challenges to hit the ball up hill, which you really get tired of along about the 18^th  tee.  I would have liked to see some water hazards on the back nine. (How about some sandtraps crossing the short fairways? A humpback fairway? A shrub encrusted green? How about some mogul hills in the fairway or along the fairway? How about some tree placement around the greens? Could we have a moat around one green? Or at least one multi-tiered green on this entire course? (Sadistic, I know, but no less so than the back nine.)

 

Know Your Game, Baby.

 

You have to know how to hit off a sloped lie on this course. It is a narrow precise game called for on most holes, but forgiving in the fact that the rough is almost nonexistent, not like the jungle rough of all other county courses. The fairways are like most greens on other county courses.  The greens on Hudson Hills do not appear extraordinarily difficult, but  are relatively small, narrow and conducive to rolloffs.  They offer you no margin if your approach is hot and low or your tv shot approach has no bite.

 

Amenities.

 

The clubhouse is small, and should have been built larger, which it was originally planned to be. It is advertised to accommodate 175 persons for a golf outing, but that would be a tight fit, in WPCNR’s opinion.

 

Here you have this beautiful spot, and it deserves a really good restaurant venue, with some major league cuisine found in any country club, where corporate types could entertain. This place is classy, but cozy.  Though I love the pampering at curbside by the very hospitable staff, the clubhouse could have a little  more style, style, sprawl and opulence, yet I love the wrap around deck, from which you can sip a foamy brew and watch approaches to the 18^th green.

 

 

 

 

On the positive side the Lookout Grill, though it was not open when I was there, is tranquil, has great views, and is a cool place to sip a crisp cold, dewy chilled glass of brew after a round. I like what we have in the Lookout Grill, but it could have been so much better. Think the sprawl of the Ridgeway Golf Club lounge, for example.

 

 Perhaps in the future the county would consider adding a separate sprawling restaurant interested in putting in that missing piece.

 

Play it. Enjoy it. Stay Home in Westchester.

 

The course is easily the best public course in the metropolitan area, Shinnecock Hills and Bethpage Black not withstanding.

 

WPCNR would be interested in golfers’ comments on the layout after they have played it.

 

Hudson Hills Scorecard and Souvenier Golf Cap. Photo by WPCNR CourseCam