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WPCNR PRESS BOX. special to WPCNR from  Foxwoods Resort Casino. July 23, 2005: Foxwoods will play host to yet another knockout night of boxing, as ESPN 2’s “Friday Night Fights” returns Friday, August 5^th at 8 PM.  Fight fans will experience two of boxing’s most exciting heavyweight performers, as Hartford’s own “Lawrence Clay Bey” (18-4-0, 15 KOs) battles Derek “The One Man Riot” Bryant (21-3-0, 16 KOs) from Philadelphia.

Another Connecticut native, “Delvin Rodriguez” (15-1-1, 8 KO’s), will battle Luther “Sugarman” Smith (22-3-2, 12 KO’s) from Washington, DC.  This 10-round co-feature bout, which promises to be a fight to remember, will be shown live in primetime on ESPN2 and seen nationally.  The action-packed card is presented by Northeast Promotions, in association with ESPN2 and Foxwoods Resort Casino.

“We take great pride in bringing the best in championship boxing to Foxwoods Resort Casino and this fight card in particular will be a must-see for local fans” said Tom Cantone, Vice President of Entertainment at Foxwoods.  “We’ve worked closely with Northeast Promotions to showcase two of Connecticut’s rising stars.”

The remainder of the fight card will be announced closer to the event.  Tickets, priced at $65, $50 and $30, are available by calling Foxwoods at 1.800.FOXWOODS or by visiting the Foxwoods box office.  More information is also available at www.foxwoods.com. 

About Foxwoods

Foxwoods Resort Casino, owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, is the world’s largest casino resort with nearly 5 million square feet of exhilarating entertainment, gaming, dining, shopping, and resort experiences, all under one roof. Honored with 47 “Best Of” awards by the readers of Casino Player Magazine as well as AAA 4-Diamond awards for both its Paragon Restaurant and Grand Pequot Tower Hotel, Foxwoods is recognized as an incomparable entertainment destination.

With more than 50 restaurants, retail shops and nightclubs throughout its airy glass enclosed concourse, every imaginable amenity is available for leisure and business guests.  Foxwoods features 1,400 luxury hotel rooms and suites, 55,000 square feet of superior meeting space as well as world class entertainment in its 1,400 seat Fox Theatre. Six distinctive casinos with over 7,400 slot machines, 380 table games, the largest poker room on the East Coast, High Stakes Bingo and the Ultimate Racebook offer visitors the gaming experience of a lifetime

Foxwoods is the premier resort destination in the Northeast and recently completed a $300 million expansion adding a visually stunning Hard Rock Cafe, the first legendary Amy Ruth’s restaurant outside of New York City, a world-class golf destination, Lake of Isles, featuring two Rees Jones designed courses as well as clubhouse facilities and private villas, and additional gaming, retail, nightlife and dining experiences.

An additional $700 million expansion was recently announced that will add a new 825 room hotel tower with an expanded spa, 150,000 square feet of meeting and convention space, more restaurants, nightclubs and retail, as well as a new 4,000 seat multi-purpose theater.   This expansion will be completed during the summer  of 2008.

Conveniently located only 8 miles from Long Island Sound and Mystic, Connecticut, Foxwoods is easily accessible from Boston, New York, Hartford, Providence and Newport, R.I.

For more information call 1-800-FOXWOODS or visit FOXWOODS.com.

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WPCNR WINBROOK PRIDE. July 20, 2005: A CitizeNetReporter has contacted WPCNR to say that cranes were lifting two new compressor pumps to the roof of the Thomas Slater Center Wednesday afternoon. Our street reporter, speaking with the contractor, was assured by the contractor that one of the pumps would be working by early Thursday afternoon, which would be enough air conditioning power to  make the bulding climate endurable. The Center’s air conditioning was discovered to be not working Monday morning. Programs continued for the 100 or so youngsters in the building without cooling on the three hottest most uncomfortable days of the summer. Once the single pump is active, our correspondent assures us, the building will be comfortable. The second pump is expected to be online by Monday.

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WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL. By John F. Bailey. July 20. 2005. UPDATED 11:30 P.M. E.D.T Wednesday Evening ALL NEWS FINAL.:  Late Wednesday afternoon, Louis Cappelli contacted the CitizeNetReporter with new information on the Target Store leak and closing Monday evening. Cappelli said that the pipe joint that burst  causing the Target food was a 15 inch cast iron storm water drain pipe that collected storm water from the higher levels of the project and fed into the Martine Avenue.

Cappelli made clear that the steel rods installed to hold the rubber gasket joint that burst in place, apparently were removed during a regular maintenance process of joints called a “clean out.” For some reason the steel rods were not replaced, or not replaced properly. “It is not clear,” Cappelli said “whether this was one of our maintenance crews or Target’s who performed the clean-out.”

Cappelli said the Martine Avenue storm drains backed up with water “two feet” over the  storm drains between 4 and 5 P.M. Monday. This, Cappelli said, caused the rodless15 inch pipe  rubber gasket pipe joint in the ceiling of the Target complex (located on the lower level) to burst because the steel rods holding the gaskets in place were not reinstalled during the cleanout. Cappelli said this was a 100-year storm, and “In all the hundreds of rods and joints in the City Center complex, this was the one joint that the steel rods were not reinstalled during an apparent cleanout.” Cappelli said the city got 7 inches of rain in less than an hour.

White Plains Finest Brave the Rising Waters. Too Much Water Too Fast.

Here is just some of the water mayhem Monday’s deluge caused: According to Department of Public Safety spokesman, Inspector Daniel Jackson, White Plains Public Safety Department officers waded into car window-level water to help five motorists exit their vehicles at lowlying areas of the Bronx River Parkway, Bloomingdale Road and in the vicinity of  North White Plains Railroad Station on Haarlem Avenue.

Jackson estimated that the flow of water from the storm drains blew 15 to 20 manhole covers during the rain. Jackson said officers assisted motorists departing cars because of the danger of motorists stepping into open manholes. Jackson noted that all manhole covers were retrieved and put back in place.

Jackson said he was directing traffic at Bloomingdale Road and the sheer volume of rain in the short period of time, approximately 30 to 40 minutes, was the cause of the flood.. From where he was directing traffic, he said he could see the waters beginning to recede, as the storm ended, which indicated to him the existing city infrastructure, “any city infrastructure,” were Jackson’s words, couldn’t handle the flash downpour.

Steve Morton, suburbanstreet.com video and internet ace, driving home on the Bronx River Parkway reported water was halfway up the tires of his SUV, and it was raining so hard so fast, he had to pull off the road due to lack of visibility. “I have never seen it rain this hard ever in White Plains,” Morton reports, who has lived in the city most of his life.

Crowne Plaza Damage.

An employee of The Crowne Plaza Hotel, White Plains largest in-city hotel, suffered extensive flood damage to their lower lobby and ballrooms when water flowed down the sidewalk into carpeted lobby, ballrooms and into the swimming pool. The employee told WPCNR today “it was really bad.” WPCNR awaits a return call from the hotel manager to see how the Crowne Plaza is doing in the clean up, and how they are being affected.

Missing Steel Rods Caused Target Flood: Cappelli

The Target Store, according to Louis Cappelli was affected by flooding from when a rubber gasket pipe joint “coming in from the street in the ceiling of the Target Store”  joint burst in the ceiling of the Target Store at about 5 PM, because steel support joints that hold the rubber gasket pipe joints  together (where pipes change direction)  were missing, according to Louis Cappelli who briefed WPCNR exclusively on the Target situation Wednesday morning.

Cappelli theorized that sometime during the construction of the Target level that the steel rods (of which he said there were hundreds binding rubber gasket pipe joints throughout the City Center) were removed by some  workers and not replaced in this specific joint. He said this was common practice “because the rods do get in the way.”

But, once removed, the rods should be put back in place, apparently the missing rods were not replaced, which weakened the joint, Cappelli said. Cappelli indicated  that crews worked in Target from 5 P.M. Monday until 2 A.M. Tuesday, enabling Target to reopen. Cappelli noted that he felt this was a 100 year type storm with “6 or 7 inches” of rain. He said he was not going to speculate whether lead and oakum would have held, and attributed the break to the failure to reinstall the steel rods.

Cappelli was given a clearance by the city and the Common Council to use rubber gasket pipe instead of lead and oakum joints, as a cost saving measure, against strenous objections by the plumbers union who stood to make far less money installing rubber gasket pipes throughout the City Center Complex than if Cappelli was forced to use the White Plains code-dictated lead and oakum pipe fittings. The rubber gasket pipe technique is used throughout the state. White Plains was one of the cities to continue to require it and did so up until the construction of City Center. 

Elsewhere around the city:

The first floor of the Winbrook residence, 11 Fisher Avenue, was inundated with water.

An effort to speak with the Director of the White Plains Public Library to find out how much the White Plains Public Library was damaged by the rains, found the director unable to talk to us at the time. Jim Benerofe  of SuburbanStreet.comreported that damage to the library appeared slight to him and that the Trove, the new $2 Million children’s library project, looked to have sustained little if any damage.

White Plains Hospital Center took on two feet of water in their former emergency entrance (where deliveries are now made,  and had to pump it out.

A witness said water just cascaded down hills on the West Side of town, especially Orauwaupum Street, just streaming with water.

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WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL. July 19, 2005. UPDATED 11:45 A.M. E.D.T. UPDATED FRIDAY, JULY 22, 2005:  WPCNR HAS learned the air conditioning was restored to the Slater Center Thursday afternoon and “everything’s cool.”

Heather Miller, new Executive Director of the Slater Center told WPCNR earlier this week that the  Fischer Avenue youth center air conditioning remains off for the third consecutive day Wednesday, but stressed that the City of White Plains has contracted to have the air conditioning fixed and that it is being worked on.

Miller said the city has been very responsive but could not tell WPCNR when the city had told her the air conditioning would be restored. Ms. Miller did not say what was wrong with the air conditioner. (Our source told us it was a broken compressor, but Ms. Miller apparently could not confirm that.) Ms. Miller said the city has contracted for a private firm to repair the air conditioning, and that it was being worked.

Asked what the temperature was in the building, Miller said she did know, but the program directors are dealing with the situation, and the parents of children in the programs are aware of the situation.

 Miller said the air conditioning was discovered malfunctioning Monday because the Center was not in use on the weekends.

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WPCNR AIR NEWS. From Westchester County Department of Communications and WPCNR. (EDITED) July 18, 2005:  County Executive Andy Spano Monday sent a letter to the nation’s Homeland Security Chief urging the federal government to require standardized security measures at airports nationwide.

Spano announced that the Westchester County  Airport planned to spend an additional $4 million within the next four months on a wide-area computerized surveillance system to help detect intruders, such as the young man who stole a Cessna from Danbury Airport last month and flew it into Westchester County Airport (as reported by WPCNR) undetected by New York Radar Approach Control. The County Executive’s announcement today joins a chorus of suggestions by United States Senators and Representatives to exact fines as high as $100,000 for incursions into Washington, D.C. airspace.

Danbury Municipal Airport, Connecticut, site of The Case of the Purloined Cessna. The young man who stole the Cessna was familiar with both the plane and the airport, having been acquainted with the flight school which owned the airplane. Photo by WPCNR News.

In light of the June plane heist, the County Executive called on the  Department of Homeland Security and the FAA to implement measures at general aviation airports nationwide. He demanded the FAA institute the following.

          Spano said the case of a joy-riding 20-year-old who stole a small aircraft from Danbury Airport and landed at Westchester County airport last month is proof that general aviation security is lax. Writing to Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff and the Federal Aviation Administration, Spano said the stunt pulled by an alleged drunken Philippe Patricio and two young friends on June 22 could have been deadly. 

       “The ease with which this student pilot was able to take the plane raises serious concerns about the current security regulations governing general aviation and the vulnerabilities of the general aviation sector,’’ wrote Spano. “It is my understanding that Danbury Municipal Airport holds a Class IV Airport Operating Certificate under FAA regulations and that airport operators holding Class IV certificates must provide safeguards to prevent inadvertent entry to aircraft movement and safety areas. If the Danbury airport complies with your regulations, then obviously your regulations need to be strengthened, given this recent incident.’’

White Plains Aviator Comments

WPCNR contacted Peter Katz, publisher of “Aviation Monthly” and safety columnist for “Plane&Pilot” magazine for comment about the County Executive’s news release.

“Much of what Mr. Spano proposes already is being done,” Katz said. “The FAA and homeland security have been working with aviation organizations to enhance security efforts at small airports. Typical is the nationwide Airport Watch program. The FAA is phasing in new pilot certificates with enhanced security features. In the interim, regulations require pilots to carry government-issued photo identification. Pilots even have to produce a government issued photo i.d. for such routine things as being examined by an FAA-approved doctor for renewal of their medical certificate which is required to fly,” Katz said.

Katz noted that the County Executive’s proposal regarding transponders (electronic devices onboard aircraft which help ground controllers identify aircraft on their radar scopes) could require a major restructuring of the air traffic control system, including replacement of radar and computer systems, and the hiring of hundreds of additional air traffic controllers.

Katz, who is a pilot and flys out of Westchester County Airport, said that the upgraded security in place at the airport has been effective and is accepted by the pilot community. “However, recent events have proven that vulnerability exists in modes of transportation other than aviation,” Katz noted.

        Spano, who on June 22 promised to lobby for tighter airport security, said that he has already contacted  federal representatives to urge that security measures that exist in Westchester be adopted across the board. 
         Westchester, according to Spano,  has spent millions of dollars to upgrade airport security and has worked cooperatively with fixed based operators at its airport to raise the level of security for small aircraft. Tie downs, wheel locks, chains and a common employee ID system are all being used successfully to improve security in Westchester. 
                                                                               

“The potential terrorist targets in the county, as well as the county’s proximity to New York City, have heightened our own awareness and have led to some significant security improvements at the airport,’’ said Spano. “All of the controls we have put in place were done in cooperation with the fixed-based operators that use the airport. The FBOs have been willing partners in our mutual efforts to make sure no one can steal a plane from the Westchester County Airport,’’ said Spano.