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 County Clarion-Ledger. By John F. Bailey. December 17, 2004: WPCNR News has learned Westchester County will announce today  whether Samaritan House, the women’s homeless shelter at Grace Church on Church Street will remain open or close by the New Year.

County Legislator William Ryan told WPCNR Thursday afternoon that Nancy Travers, Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Social Services, had assured him closing was not an option as previously reported by other publications, that the rent was the last remaining issue.

Rent the Last Hurdle.

Ryan made it clear to WPCNR it was his understanding the Samaritan House homeless shelter situation had been resolved between the two parties with the goal to stay open, and only the final rent was left to discuss.

He said that staying open, meant Samaritan House would stay open without any interruption in service as the goal, and the attempt would be made that residents would not be sheltered elsewhere while other arrangements to keep Samaritan House open were worked out.

The county and Grace Community Services have kept the residents of Samaritan House “in the dark” for a week, not advising them or the management staff supervising the residents whether they will still have a home or a job as of the first of the year. A source who works for Grace Community Church in a management capacity, interviewed by WPCNR said they were operating with two mandates: 1.) To close the shelter, and 2.) To keep it open.

The source employed by the Grace Community Services operation, said the organization had just begun an effort to contact and hire the “5 or 6 persons” back they needed to keep Samaritan House open, (as of Wednesday), and that the day-to-day operations staff were very stressed over the ambiguity of their fate. Samaritan House has been operating by shifting personnel back and forth between the men’s shelter, Open Arms, and Samaritan House, they said

Gifts from the Santa Spano and the 17 Legislators in Spano’s Workshop.

Coal for Samaritan?

The County Legislature started awarding early holiday gifts of its $9 Million surplus this week.

One of them was an additional $750,000 in funding for the arts and county service agencies, including  My Sister’s Place, the county-contracted service for battered women, long supported by Amy Paulin, the State Assemblywoman  for the 88^th District.

Three Weeks to debate less than half the Arts and Social Services Windfall.

On the other hand, the county has spent three weeks deliberating how to deal with a requested increase less than half the “gift” announced Monday to the arts and other social service agencies.

 The month-long hissy fit between the D.S.S. and Samaritan House, which according to Ryan, Samaritan House overreacted defensively to D.S.S. budget questioning, has been causing residents to fret and go through anxiety over having to leave to go to other shelters. This has been confirmed by WPCNR by speaking to our insider employee sources at Samaritan.

The Samaritan House budget increase request was for less than half that amount that the County showered as a bonus to the arts and social service agencies. A sum settling in the $225,000 range was the Samaritan House figure that stirred the Department of Social Services scrutiny.

Tolchin Not Talkin’

It should be noted that WPCNR has repeatedly asked Susan Tolchin, Chief Advisor to County Executive Andy Spano, and Director of Communications to have Kevin Mahon or Ms. Travers of the D.S.S. explain to WPCNR, whether it was a management problem at Samaritan House, an accounting problem, or a staffing problem that caused them to balk at the figure.

WPCNR  asked  Ms. Tolchin, for the Department of Social Services could explain how many staff persons were required by law to operate a homeless shelter for 19 persons on each 8-hour shift, since Samaritan House dismissed six employees in mid-November and has been operating with 1 to 2 employees on every 8-hour shift.  

How many do you need on shift anyway?

The D.S.S. has yet to contact WPCNR, even though Ms. Tolchin has been asked to prod them to do so.  The source WPCNR has who is familiar with personnel matters there could not explain to WPCNR how many staff they had to have per shift. The reason this question is key is that if Samaritan House was billing the D.S.S. for 9 persons and only paying for say, six, or five when occupancy of the home dipped, that might be a cause for concern. On the other hand if for the last month it is o.k. to operate with 3 persons supervising,  then why did Samaritan House need 9 in the first place.

Samaritan House the Final Hours or a Christmas Miracle.

The WPCNR source at Samaritan House, speaking on condition of anonymity, reported that Samaritan House management (Grace Community Services) had had a meeting with Larry Schwartz, Deputy County Executive, and Kevin Mahon, Commissioner of the Department of Social Services last Wednesday where a cut budget (according to County Legislator Ryan) was submitted.

The Samaritan House source said the D.S.S. asked some questions about it, and Grace sent back answers to those questions on Friday, and were queried some more. The source said the second round of answers were submitted to the Department of Social Services Monday, and as of  late Wednesday evening Grace Community Services had not heard back.

Ryan: Closing Not an Option. Rent’s the Hurdle.

Today after Ms. Travers was quoted in The Journal News as still considering the “close option,” we asked Legislator Ryan why there had been no response on the part of the D.S.S. since Monday.

Ryan who has been closely monitoring the association told WPCNR Thursday afternoon by phone that “all differences have been resolved except one. They are now negotiating on the rent issue.”

According to published reports, Grace Community Services was charging Samaritan House in its building a $70,000 increase in rent, (paying rent to itself). Sources attempting to explain the situation to WPCNR said that the church was trying to cover its deficits in running the program.

Ryan told WPCNR he was expecting an agreement to be arranged.

A call to the Department of Communications at 6 P.M. yielded no information as to when any announcement was to come.

Nevertheless, the question remains, will County Executive Spano have one more check left in his bag? Or is this just fool’s gold?

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WPCNR Southend Times. By John F. Bailey. December 15, 2004: Eight White Plains citizens, calling themselves the “Citizens’ Plan Committee,”  have analyzed the execution of the 1997 Comprehensive Plan since the beginning of the Delfino Administration.  They delivered their 66-page preliminary “state of the plan” report to Mayor Joseph Delfino and members  of the Common Council, last week.

Robert Stackpole addressing about eighty persons in May at Our lady of Sorrows when Mike Graessle, former Commissioner of Planning called for a new look at the 1997 Comprehensive Plan for the city. A report generated as a result of this meeting was delivered this week to the Mayor, calling to start the process, saying the time is now to see where the city is at. Photo, WPCNR News Archive.

Their report targets issues they  feel the city needs to address now as 21^st Century White Plains evolves. The Committee alleges the city is allowing developers to determine how the city will evolve. They want the Mayor and Council to develop a tighter vision of what the city will become, by involving the members of the committee and the citizens of White Plains and ask for creation of a new Comprehensive Plan Task Force.

The CPC has invited the Mayor and Common Council to begin the process of updating the 1997 Plan by  joining them and “the community” in a meeting to start the task on January 13 at Ridgeway School, at 7:30 P.M. The Mayor’s Office, to WPCNR knowledge at this time, has not responded with a statement on the invitation.

The eight leaders challenge the Mayor and the Council to take up the process they have begun with the issuance of their report. The 66-pager is entitled Citizens’ Plan Committee Approach to Updating the 1997 Comprehensive Plan, calls for a citywide Comprehensive Plan task force to undertake a “comprehensive examination” of a variety of issues, challenging the present administration to evaluate their assumptions.

The report  is described as “an outgrowth” of a six-month effort by a number of well-known White Plains citizens, many of whom participated in the preparation of the 1997 plan, and who contributed to the new report.

The roster  includes,  Terrence M. Conroy (long Parking Authority member), Claire M. Eisenstadt (local architect), Michael Graessle (former Commissioner of Planning), John W. Harrington (White Plains history expert), Daniel P. Hickey (former Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety), John B. Kirkpatrick (development law and zoning expert), Robert H. Levine (architect/planner), John M. Martin (former councilman), Robert Myerson, ( 1997  Comprehensive Task Force Committee member) Marc Pollitzer (1997 Comprehensive Plan Task Force Member, Council of Neighborhood Associations personality), Robert Roston (Conservation Board Chair), Daniel R. Seidel (environmental law activist), Robert Stackpole (Planning Board member), Lewis P. Trippett (Board of Education member Emeritus), John M. Vorperian (county attorney and Council of Neighborhood Associations member), and Saul M. Yanofsky (Superintendent of Schools Emeritus).

Questions Development. 

“The community didn’t knock itself out developing the 1997 Plan just to see it superseded by isolated development interests,” Committee member Bob Meyerson is quoted in the official press release as saying. Meyerson is a committee member, who worked on the 1997 plan, and says, “As a community, we articulated the importance of maintaining the City’s unique social and economic diversity and our proud tradition of distinct neighborhoods complemented by a vibrant commercial sector.”

The roster of preparers of this report does not  include representatives of the African-American community, the Hispanic community, the business community, the health community, restauranteurs,  property owners of major parcels in the downtown, county government (White Plains is the County seat) or major “developers,” (Louis Cappelli, Peter Gilpatrick, Martin Ginsberg, Leon Silverman, Anthony Longhitano), whom the Committee sites as the major reasons for creating a new Comprehensive Plan now.  All of the preparers live in the outlying ultra suburban, higher priced neighborhoods of the city, and the roster of preparers apparently do not appear to enlist the services of any residents of apartments.

The Challenges

The 66-pager isolates four areas of concern and asks the city consider with them and the community of White Plains

Finance:

The report, according to their press release expresses concern about city finances going into the future, calling attention to the need for closer analysis: “The long anticipated rebuilding of the core area, and extensive neighborhood infills have not, however, produced the positive financial impact that the citizens had reason to expect,”

Core Area:

The news release notes the $1 Billion of development underway, but suggests “it is time to take stock of all this development cumulatively.”

The Committee calls for setting limits if needed on building heights, determining impacts on infrastructure, figuring the city capacity for additional development and whether zoning should or should not be revised.

Neighborhoods

The news release asks that the new Comprehensive Plan is needed to address the need for affordable housing, protection against “commercial encroachment.”

Transportation, Traffic and Parking

The CPC report calls on the city to make an independent study (not developer-funded),  to create a “comprehensive approach” to parking and traffic. The report advances the opinion that “a beneficial fit between daytime and evening/night parking demand” would be the result of the present development, but “it hasn’t worked out that way.”

The CPC release also asks that part of the “2005 Comprehensive Plan” preparation answer questions on the effects of:

·        Development and illegal housing on school capacity and funding.

·        The St. Agnes Hospital closing.

·         Expansion of White Plains Hospital Medical Center.

·        Renovation of City Hall.

·        Post 9/11 Concerns.

·        Using the City Heritage to economic advantage.

·        Active recreation facilities.

·        Resolution of the New York Presbyterian Hospital land conflict.

·        Design of the emerging city.

Letter to the Mayor – Review of Plan, two years overdue.

The Committee, in delivering its report to the Mayor and Common Council last week, described the report as a next step after their May, 2004 meeting at which 100 persons attended a meeting at Our Lady of Sorrows  that called for a review.

Their cover letter pointed out that the 1997 Comprehensive Plan called for a review every five years, and it has now been seven years since the plan has been reviewed. The Committee said that the report submitted this week was “In response,” to that meeting and that they “organized a participatory effort along the lines of the previous Comprehensive Plan Task Force to:”

1.)   Review original (1997) Plan assumptions, projections and recommendations

2.)   inventory and evaluate what has been accomplished thus far so that we could

3.)   seek the interest and involvement of elected City officials and staff and of all citizens of White Plains to

4.)    update the Plan for 2005, as appropriate.

The letter closes as follows:

Our Phase 1 and 2 efforts have resulted in the enclosed document. We’d like you to read it and we’d like to talk to you about its implications before making it generally available on Tuesday, December 14^th, in anticipation of public meetings, the first of which will be held on January 13, 2005. We want to work together with you on Phases 3 and 4; please get in touch with Committee Member Robert Stackpole at XXX-XXXX. We look forward to your response with enthusiasm.

The letter is signed by members of the Citizens’ Plan Committee: Michael J. Graessle, John W. Harrington, John B. Kirkpatrick, Robert H. Levine, Robert H. Myerson, Marc Pollitzer, Robert J. Stackpole, and Saul M. Yanofsky.

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WPCNR WEST SIDE STORY. By John F. Bailey. December 13, 2004: Mayor Joseph Delfino’s vision for White Plains, as he continues to makeover the city of his birth, will turn its attention to the city’s nondescript West Side, specifically the South Lexington Avenue and East Post Road-West Post Road cross roads, according to Common Councilman Arnold Bernstein.

BRINGING IT BACK? The original Schulman- Potenza Plan for revitalizing the South Lexington and West-East Post Road area. Area target is between the dotted lines. Plan is from March, 1996.  Photo by WPCNR News.

Councilman Arnold Bernstein reports to WPCNR that the Mayor’s office has confirmed to him that the stretches of South Lex and the Post Road have an appointment for a makeover in the Spring. Bernstein, speaking to WPCNR last week, said that the Mayor plans to involve the neighborhood  of Winbrook and Fisher Hill in a community dialogue for ideas, direction, and input on how it might be achieved.

Bernstein confirms what two other Common Councilpersons have said were rumors they had heard of a West Side upgrade last week.

The dialogue with neighborhood never been done. 

WPCNR interviewed the merchants of fifteen business establishments along the East-West Post Road corridor and on the West Side of South Lexington last week and they said they had not heard of any specific plans for the area brought to them by the city.

View of South Lexington Avenue, Across from Winbrook complex, December 4, 2004.  Photo by WPCNR News

SCENE OF POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENT: Townhouses might be built on city-owned vacant lot, and on the rest of the West Post Road block up to Calvary Baptist Church on Orawaupum Street (red awning). Shown December 4, 2004. Photo by WPCNR News.

REVERSE ANGLE VIEW, Looking down East Post Road. Buildings on left (North Side) of Post Road were included on the former Schulman-Potenza Plan. The Winbrook complex, far left, is not included. Shown December 4, 2004. Photo by WPCNR News

More interestingly, all said they had never been approached by the city for their ideas on how the chock-a-block appearance of the South Lex-Post Road corridor could be improved.

Though the Winbrook housing complex, home to 2,000 persons, the most densely populated area of the city on South Lexington Avenue looks neat and displays manicured grounds, the line of stores across from the residential complex,  has no ambience, is all-too-frequently home to itinerant street-drinkers and loiterers many not from the complex itself.

A very social street.

South Lexington Avenue, as any resident of the area will tell you is badly in need of a redesign, or at least enforcement of the loitering and anti-street drinking ordinances.

The same description can be said for the East Post Road-West Post Road stretch, home to a collection of car dealerships, restaurants and delicatessens, though thriving with walkins from the neighborhood, and a step above the line of establishments on South Lexington in appearance, could use an architectural facelift at the very least. A major construction project completely changing the ambience was once planned, and the rumored townhouse construction previously reported by WPCNR is supposed to be the start.

More than a facelift.

However, a facelift is more than the Planning Department had in mind when this idea was first proposed according to former Councilman Bill Waterman, (“The Councilman in Exile”). Waterman says that during the Mayor Sy Schulman Administration a plan was introduced by Planning Commissioner, Joseph Potenza and Deputy Commissioner of Planning (at the time) Susan Habel (now Planning Commissioner),  that would condemn two  swaths along South Lexington Avenue and East Post Road, converting most of the area to moderate and affordable housing. Waterman remembers the housing was going to be for workers of White Plains Hospital Medical Center.

Eminent Domain Imminent?

Waterman expressed the opinion that at the time of the Schulman-Potenza plan, the area fit the definition of “a blighted area,” which would have enabled the city to use powers of eminent domain to condemn the properties and acquire them for the massive project.

It is unknown at this time whether the City plans to use those eminent domain powers in what Bernstein thought was going to be  “The Mayor’s Revitalization Plan 4.”

It is not known at this time whether Mayor Delfino’s revival of this plan would be restricted to simply low to moderate and affordable housing or be  a combination of low and moderate as well as middle and upper income housing.

A New Story for the West Side

The Mayor’s plan is scheduled to begin, according to our sources with turning the city-owned vacant lot on the corner of South Lexington and West Post Road, and the stretch of restaurants-salons-delis  up to Calvary Baptist Church into moderate and affordable housing town houses to be built by “a prominent local developer.” So, far, who this “prominent local developer” might be has not been made public.

CROSSROADS MAKEOVER: The corners of Lexington Avenue and Post Road. Townhouses are said to be planned to occupy the vacant city-owned lot (shown below) to the left center out to Orawaupum Street, extreme lower left. Photo by WPCNR News.

CITY OWNED LOT: Destined for Gentrification? Photo by WPCNR News.

NEWS TO THEM: WPCNR interviewed fifteen restaurant, salon, grocer and deli operators on the West Post Road–South Lex block a week ago. None of them knew anything about the rumored city plan to take over the block. However, one tenant on West Post Road (in the phantom path of the townhouses) did reveal that the owner of his building was shopping the property. The West Post Road block, December 4, 2004. Photo by WPCNR News.

A salesperson employed by the car dealership across the street complained that his dealership has attempted to buy the vacant lot from the City of White Plains but has been rebuffed, as has another car dealership in the neighborhood. The rumored plan is that the phantom townhouses would be built on the Lexington Avenue to Orawaupum Street block, across from Calvary Baptist Church.

Speaking of Calvary Baptist Church, which plans a building of a new sanctuary at a cost of $2 Million, of which half has been raised, their minister, Lester Cousin says he has never heard of such a plan and was busily seeking more information from the city Planning Department.

About 20 to 25 Owners Involved.

Eleven individual owners on Lexington Avenue, and four individual owners on West Post Road, and ten individual owners have to be dealt with in order for the city to acquire the properties.

The area selected for revitalization on the original plan ran from the corner of Orawaupum Street and West Post Road on the West down East Post Road to the corner of East Post Road and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and from the corner of Fisher Avenue, South on the West side of Lexington Avenue.

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. By John F. Bailey. December 9, 2004, UPDATED 2 P.M. with balance of Interview: In an exclusive interview with the White Plains CitizeNetReporter, Chair of the County Board of Legislators, White Plains’  Bill Ryan gave WPCNR an update on the Samaritan House crisis saying it was going to remain open in 2005, because he wants it to remain open.

County Legislator Bill Ryan, June, 2004. Photo, WPCNR News Archive.

 Ryan said that he has extracted assurances from the Department of Social Services and Grace Community Services that both organizations want to keep the White Plains homeless shelter for women open, and that Grace Community Services has already reduced its budget request submitted yesterday during their meeting with Deputy County Executive Larry Schwartz. Ryan said he expected negotiations to be wrapped up by the end of next week, and indicated residents of Grace Samaritan House should stop looking for another place to live.

Ryan said he met at 1 P.M. with Lois Bronz, County Legislator, Reverend Janet Vincent, Joseph D’Ambrosio, and a member of the Grace Community Services Board.  “I told them I was not interested in who said what to whom. I told them it was time to move on. At 4 P.M. there was a nuts and bolts meeting, which I understand dealt with revised budget request.”

Deputy County Executive Larry Schwartz arriving  at the Schwartz Summit at Samaritan, Wednesday afternoon. Photo by WPCNR News.

Ryan said the 4 o’clock  Schwartz Summit at Samaritan was “the first of a number of meetings they’re going to have.”

Regarding the 1 o’clock meeting with Grace Church players, Ryan said “It’s my sense there’s been a misunderstanding as to what the other side is saying. I told them I wasn’t interested in who said what to whom. I told them to move on.”

Ryan also said that community leader Bill Campbell was at the 1 P.M. meeting, as well as Tom Roach, the White Plains Common Council President.

Mayor Delfino on Sidelines

Mayor Joseph Delfino, the Mayor of White Plains has not issued a statement on that matter, except through a spokesperson for the Mayor’s office who told WPCNR yesterday the Mayor supported keeping the center open, the first indication the Mayor has indicated support for the shelter.

The Mayor’s spokesperson said the Mayor had been invited to attend a meeting of a group of White Plains clergy to discuss the matter of the closing, as well as Mr. Roach. Mr. Roach had said at the time the Mayor was supportive of the shelter.

Ryan continued his report on his 1 o’clock warmup with Grace officials, Lois Bronz and Tom Roach meeting Wednesday.

“What I told them was this: I have a budget that I expect to have the County Board approve Monday. I told Janet (Vincent), I explained there is money in the 2005 budget for a contract for Samaritan House, subject to their (Samaritan House) ability to find remedial cost issues,  that should not be a complicated item to deal with if (Samaritan House) can justify costs. The D.S.S. is prepared to fund reasonable cost increases. “

Not a Big Loser.

Ryan told WPCNR that it in his opinion, “My position is that Samaritan House was one of the last shelters that would ever close.”

Ryan disclosed that he had asked for a list of homeless shelters open in the last year that the Department of Social Services was planning on closing, and that Samaritan House was not on that list.

Ryan said when he heard of the Samaritan House closing news, he also asked for a ranking of shelters by their costs of operation, and requested that of the Department of Social Services. When it was supplied within five hours of his request, Samaritan House was not high on the list.

Chides Samaritan House for Overreacting.

Ryan indicated he was perturbed with the attitude of Samaritan House and Grace Community Services reaction of announcing they were closing, “When you asked for help in July with concerns, you do not simply throw up your hands,” Ryan said.

Asked if the Samaritan House operation could be funded out of the County Legislator budget surplus, Ryan said, “As the budget is rolled, you have a little more ability to find funds than you may have thought you did.”

By the same token, Ryan said, he trusted the administrative agencies, “the professionals” in county government, to treat service organizations with respect and cooperate. He said he as a legislator was disturbed when he felt that agencies and service organizations could not work collaboratively. He said that as a legislator he is always open when organizations providing services to county government feel they are not being treated fairly. “They run into a buzz saw when they reach the County Board. I won’t stand for that.”

Asked if he had any idea why there was all the mystery around the contract negotiation and  Samaritan House had refused to open its books to the Department of Social Services when asked to do so,  whether the Department of Social Services suspected any wrong-doing or poor accounting, Ryan said, “You’re absolutely right. I can’t put my finger on it.”

A Three Person Shelter Legal for 14 Clients?

WPCNR also asked Mr. Ryan if Samaritan House could operate the shelter with only three persons, and was allowed to trim staff based on number of clients serviced. Mr. Ryan did not know, saying that was a good question.

 Sources in the city government and familiar with the homeless shelter state requirements have said homeless shelters are required to have 9 persons on staff (3 staff members for each 8 hour period),at all times to keep a shelter for 20 persons open, Ryan said that was a good question and he would ask the Department of Social Services to explain that to WPCNR. 

The cutback to three persons, in effect for almost three weeks, according to Reverebd George Sinzer, has resulted in one client left to sleep on the steps of the shelter just inside the doorway one night.

Whistle Blower Not Sure.

Reverend George Sinzer who broke the news of the closing to NewsCenter 4 November , told WPCNR Thursday morning,  it was his understanding that any homeless shelter not having 24/7 staffing of 9 persons for 20 people, would have to shut down immediately.

WPCNR awaits the Department of Social Services explanation as to whether it allows homeless shelters in the county are to trim their staffing based on number of clients served, either because of caseload, or because of anticipated closing and keep the money budgeted (to keep staff members on call on a freelance, as needed basis.)

Ryan was puzzled. He said “I don’t know. They are audited.”

The Future Looks Good.

Ryan said the Crisis Developed Because of a Discontinuence in the Talks.

“ Why they stopped talking. That’s history,” Ryan said. “All I said to them (Samaritan House) was do you want to stay open. The church said Yes. I asked the Department of Social Services do you want them to continue? They said Yes. All that’s left is the terms of the contract.”

Ryan said Samaritan House will not be terminated in 2005.

He expected the contract between D.S.S. and Samaritan House to be finalized by the end of next week after the budget is passed, and that that is what the parties agreed to find a way to do yesterday.

Samaritan House Residents Not Informed Positively Yet.

Samaritan House has not been informed of this upturn in the Samaritan House gloom, according to what WPCNR has found, that the house will remain open, just a cryptic note according to another news medium that the talks were “ positive and productive.”