Rosa W. Boone Appointed to Commission on Human Rights in White Plains

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WPCNR WHITE PLAINS JOURNAL. July 23, 2003: White Plains Mayor, Joseph M. Delfino, recently appointed Rosa W. Boone, the Executive Director of the Westchester Coalition for the Hungry and Homeless, Inc., to the city’s Commission on Human Rights. Accepting the post as commissioner, her term will expire on June 30, 2006. The swearing in took place on July 10th at White Plains City Hall.


As head of the Westchester Coalition for the Hungry and Homeless, Inc., located at 48 Mamaroneck Avenue, Ms. Boone is responsible for an umbrella advocacy that works with 143 service providers in the county providing food and shelter to over 25% of the population. Working through churches, synagogues, community centers, etc., WCHH oversees service providers that operate 33 shelters, 38 soup kitchens and 72 food pantries in 24 communities from Mount Kisco to Mount Vernon.


Ms. Boone was chosen as an award recipient of the YWCA of White Plains and Central Westchester’s Salute to Women & Racial Justice ceremony in June.




 

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Mayor, Council to Hear Martine Ave Parking Beefs Tonight

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WPCNR TALK OF MARTINE AVENUE. July 23, 2003: Mayor Joseph Delfino and members of the Common Council will hold a public meeting for residents of Martine Avenue and environs to air their concerns and complaints and demands for more reserved parking spaces in the new City Center Parking Garage tentatively set for October, 2003. The meeting open to all will be held in the Common Council Chambers at 7 PM at City Hall

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Fast Pitch Nation: Battling Bunters, Ripping Risers, Gold Gloves

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WPCNR PRESS BOX. By John F. Bailey. July 22, 2003. Sterling, Virginia: The Brewster Rockets played under the lights Monday evening, meeting of all teams, the New Jersey Diamond Girls, traveling 350 miles to play a club from their own backyard. Monday night in their opener of the PONY Nationals in Virginia.


Playing under windy conditions under excellent lights on a dry velvet infield of Yankee Stadium quality, the Rockets took an early 1-0 lead that was quickly relinquished in the bottom of the first when a hits batsmen, a walk and a misplayed bunt set up the Diamond Girls with a 1-1 tie and two out. A Texas League single to shallow center lifted the Diamond Girls to a 3-1 in the first, and never looked back. The Diamonds added to it with a 3-run triple to the left centerfield gap to make it 6-1 after four innings, and that’s the way she stayed. Erin Dommermuth was strong in the circle for the Rockets, but got into jams  on a costly dropped throw at first, and a questionable hitsbatsperson with two out that set up the first inning rally for the D-girls.

 The Rocket batgirls were frustrated by a flaring riseball from the DiamAdd Linkond Girl pitcher who consistently dazzled the Rockets with her speed. The Rockets lone run came on a bloop double to left center by Meg Johnson in the first who moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Shane Pais’ perfect safety squeeze bunt.


  When the Rockets arrived at the Potomac Lakes complex for the night action, games of course were in full swing. Teams from Michigan and  were playing on one diamond. Clubs from Ohio were playing on another. And the action was great. WPCNR noted the the pitching was outstanding, and of course, the batters who could execute and catch up with the elegant violence of the fastballs and the teams that could field their shots were getting the better of it.


 Coming to the national competitions in fastpitch softball is a reality check. If you’re a pitcher you’re putting your stuff up against the nationals best hitters. As a hitter you’ll be seeing how well you can handle the stuff of top throwing windmillers from teams that have won tournaments in their regions. Teams quickly learn where their deficiencies are mentally and physically. You have to be prepared to play, rise to the occasion and get more out of yourself. It’s why you come to nationals, to measure yourself.

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Stimac & Rosenstock’s Theatres Offer Rich Source of Programming for WPPAC

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WPCNR WHITE PLAINS VARIETY. By John F. Bailey. July 22, 2003: Tony Stimac, Executive Director of the Helen Hayes Theatre Company in Nyack, and his co-producer Jeffrey Rosenstock of Queens Theatre In the Park are about to undertake the challenge of their careers. The duo must produce a fall schedule for the White Plains Performing Arts Center in 70 days with as of Tuesday, July 22, no stage, no lights, no seats, no nothing in place at the big empty space where the theatre is supposed to be created at City Center.


What “S & R Productions” do have is a just-released repertoire of what WPCNR sees as attractive programming scheduled for their own respective theatres, Helen Hayes in Nyack and QTIP in Flushing. Using those schedules as a base, S & R may just pull off a show business “Miracle on Main Street,” should they move some of these productions to the City Center’s WPPAC.


Stimac’s programming lineup at Helen Hayes is classic entertainment with a creative twist, beginning with Jackie Mason’s pre-Broadway premier of Laughing Room Only from September 19 to October 5. Mr. Mason’s show is described on the HHTC website as “a new musical comedy revue.” Could Mr. Mason’s show be eventually performed at the City Center? Mr. Mason’s new vehicle is scheduled for a September 19 to October 5 run at the Helen Hayes in Nyack.  


Stimac follows up Mr. Mason’s entry with The Mancini Project from October 18 to November 2, and it ballyhooed as a “haunting new musical based on the timeless music of Henry Mancini.”


The Music Man,  a revival of the 1950s musical, is the Helen Hayes big holiday show running from November 29 to December 28.


Across the Whitestone Bridge in Flushing, Jeffrey Rosenstock’s Queens Theatre In the Park, after being dark for two months, begins what appears to be an eclectic and intriguing mix of programs, their Latino Cultural Programming Schedule July 30. Mr. Rosenstock presents 15 different performances in two weeks, with a Latino accent, showcasing singers, dance troups, poetry reading in night after night of festive summer fare. QTIP’s website has a spectacular rundown of all 15 performers scheduled.


Rosenstock has scheduled a diverse mix of dance programs: Ailey II, on October 11, DeLunares Danza in November, a flamenco and Spanish dance troup, and in the spring, American Ballet Theatre Studio Ballet is scheduled to perform as well as Dance Brazil, specialists in Afro-Brazil dance with live music.


Mr. R. has programmed  four theatre productions for QTIP: My Cousin’s Wedding, from October 24 to November 2,  a premier of a comedy based on a misdirected wedding invitation; Meshugga-Nuns, from December 5 to 14, a musical revue; a mystery play, Agatha Christie’s A Murder is Announced, and a revival of the 1970s musical hit, I Love My Wife.


These two lineups offer Rosenstock and Stimac intriguing options for the first six months of White Plains Performing Arts Center program. Could they lure Mr. Mason into one last tune-up before he heads to Broadway in October? Could they schedule performances of any of their productions  either before or after they appear at their own respective theatres? The possibilities are there.


Meanwhile, it is up to Mr. Cappelli’s construction company G. H. Fuller to put up the inside “guts” of the theatre, as designed and “spec’d” by National Amusiments and their architect in 70 days for an October opening as planned.


For more on the productions at Mr. Stimac’s Helen Hayes Theatre Company and Mr. Rosenstock’s Queens Theatre In the Park, go to their websites, www.hhtco.org and www.queenstheatre.org.

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Fast Pitch Nation: Off Day on the Road

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 WPCNR  Press Box. By John F. Bailey. July 21, 2003: It’s a big softball playing America out there, sports fans, and 271 girls fast pitch softball teams gathered in “Mall Alley” along Route 7 in the towns of Sterling, Louden, and Leesburg in sweltering northern Virginia are doing the softball thing,  the PONY Nationals Tournament of Champions in Sterling, Virginia and environs, though you would never know it from the national sports media.


 


 


 The Brewster Rockets and their parent and coaching entourage drifted into town Saturday and Sunday driving down that eastern seaboard with other tournament winning and hosting fast pitch clubs from the great northeast, the Midwest and the southeast.

My fastpitch professional and her designated driver, yours truly headed down for the Elysian Fields of softball on Sunday, leaving White Plains at 6 A.M., riding out with the sun.


We hit Pennsylvania by 8 A.M., rolling out I-78 through the steeltowns of Bethlehem and Allentown, hitting Interstate 81 and taking the big loop back east towards Maryland, avoiding the I-95 corridor crunch. What is impressive about the roadlife of fastpitch is that there really is a big America out there outside the malling of the metropolitan areas we live in. There are those fields of corn about half-high out in Pennsylvania about now. There still are majestic mountains, and actually two-lane highways, like Route 15 which we took down into Leesburg, where you have to keep your headlights on in the middle of the day to spot cars headed your way on the two-lane blacktop.


What you also learn about on the Fast Pitch Trail is that much of America now has the same stores everywhere, and at least in Leesburg, nobody much pays any attention to zoning. What we saw on our way into town was ancient Leesburg, a close-to-the-street main street kind of town with old square brick buildings which resembled architecture, then we hit route 7. Except there are three or four Route 7s…there’s the business district route 7, the main route 7, the 15-Bypass. They all take you past so many modern malls, massive apartment and town house complexes that line either side of Route 7 for miles and miles. The site of so much development is stunning. The streets are so confusing, that I only found our hotel, the Hilton Inn & Suites by looking back out my review mirror and spotting it on a driveby.


My player and I arrived at 11 on Sunday and got to our hotel by noon. We met up with members of the ball club and showed up at the welcoming ceremonies held in Franklin Park down Route 7 West about 25 minutes from where we were staying. State Troopers waved us into the park, and I saw an amazing site that reminded me of Woodstock: hundreds of cars parked in a pasture, and down beyond the cars were tents and tents of softball teams arrived from half the country. There were the Flames, the X-treme, the Cobras, the Diamond Dolls, the Storm, and hundreds more of dedicated young ladies in colorful uniforms. The first order of business was pin trading, in which, girls approach each other and literally exchange team pins, usually consisting of their logos on a metal shield. This is serious business. To the din of loud speakers, the girls from the hundreds of teams exchange pins and generally celebrate softball.


This scene is also being repeated in Florida, in Missouri and at other ASA and NSA national tournaments, and you, Mr. And Mrs. White Plains and Mr. And Mrs. America know nothing about it, because the male-sports dominated national media, ESPN, Fox Sports and the other national networks do not cover it or do stories on it.
According to John Stratton, Manager of the National Women’s Fast Pitch 2003 Champions, ten million girls play fast pitch softball in this country. Stratton says, if every parent of every one of those windmillers and shortshorts sluggers, and golden glovettes out there sent telegrams to ESPN, NBC, CBS, and Fox Sports and Sports Illustrated, maybe, just maybe they might wake up to how great the fast pitch game is for today’s young women.


Fast pitch softball is a lot bigger than women’s soccer, but the recent Vancouver Cup international tournament in Canada featuring the Brakettes, and teams from the USA, and other countries, was not even mentioned in the newspapers or covered by ESPN or Fox Sports. That’s pathetic non-coverage.


After the welcoming ceremony the Rockets returned to the hotel to escape from the Virginia heat. They do not have their first game until 8 PM this evening, and so spent Sunday evening having pizza out on the terrace, and were able to sleep late Monday morning.


Today, Monday, the girls experienced what life is like in the major leagues “on the road” before a night game: they killed time, practicing in the morning in the parking lot. Going to a mall in the afternoon, then dressing for the 6 PM trip to the ballpark for their first game with the Connecticut Bombers.


And, what did the designated driver, yours truly do? I walked to a mall, got a haircut, got a new pair of glasses made (having lost my regular glasses at home), and spent the afternoon on the terrace reading.


It’s almost time for the air-conditioned charter bus to take the Fast Pitch Babes to the ball park. More from Fast Pitch Nation tomorrow.


 


 


 

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It’s Mayor’s Week on WHITE PLAINS WEEK

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WPCNR WHITE PLAINS VARIETY. July 21, 2003: This week, the city news roundup show, White Plains Week interviews former White Plains Mayors Alfred Del Vecchio and Sy Schulman  in interviews videotaped in 2001 as part of WPW’s Legacies of White Plains Series. On Monday evening at 7 PM, John Bailey, Alex Philippidis and Jim Benerofe reminisce with Alfred Del Vecchio, (Mayor from 1975 to 1993) in a free-ranging conversation covering his eighteen years in the Big Chair on Main Street. Friday evening at 7:30 P.M. his successor, Sy Schulman ( Mayor, 1993-1997) takes centerstage.


White Plains Week may be seen very week on “The House of Strauss,” WPPA-TV, “The Spirit of 76” on White Plains cable television.

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Adam in Albany: Cutting STARS Program ”The Wrong Choice”

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WPCNR’S ADAM IN ALBANY. By 89th District Assemblyman Adam T. Bradley. July 20, 2003: As our state progresses into the 21st century, we must equip our children to meet the demands of a rapidly-evolving economy. And we undoubtedly can – by ensuring that every student in Westchester has access to a top-notch education. But at the same time, we cannot afford to sandbag property owners with unfair taxes.

Strong communities and first-rate schools are the foundation of Westchester County. Since taking office, I’ve secured over $35 million in aid for our schools while at the same time protecting the STAR tax relief program that assists eligible property-taxpayers.


 


There’s no reason that property taxes should skyrocket so our children can attend good schools. And there’s no reason we should have to choose between keeping seniors on fixed budgets in their homes and providing our students with access to a successful tomorrow.    


 


As the Legislature works to address a recent court decision, which forces the state to find a more equitable school funding formula, we will look for solutions that build on the successes of programs like STAR, which move the funding of education away from regressive property taxes. By exchanging local taxes for broader-based state revenues to fund schools, STAR can help districts across the state raise academic performance. That’s why I was discouraged to read recent reports suggesting that STAR should be sacrificed to pay for the court-ordered changes to the state’s school funding system. That’s a false choice which I will vigorously oppose. 


 


Tough times call for difficult choices, but this is no time to make the wrong choice. This year, the Legislature united in a spirit of bipartisanship to prevent historic cuts to education and to protect STAR benefits. And last year, the Assembly improved STAR by protecting eligibility from cost-of-living adjustments. We have fought hard for this important program and now is not the time to hurt those who need property tax relief.


 

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Local News Websites Upstate Beating Media Goliaths on the News and the Money

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WPCNR WHITE PLAINS VARIETY. July 19, 2003: In today’s Online Journalism Review, an article details the success of online news websites and why they are taking over the news delivery system in small towns not being served by “traditional media.” Local advertisers are finding the websites strong, consistent ways to reach niche audiences. Read how local websites in New York State are delivering hard-nosed news and big-spending regulars daily on the web at http://www.ojr.org/ojr/glaser/1058302459.php


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Stimac & Rosenstock Work Without Contract

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WPCNR STAGE DOOR. Special to WPCNR. July 18, 2003: Producers Jeffrey Rosenstock of Queens Theatre In the Park, and Tony Stimac of the Helen Hayes Performing Arts Theatre are working on the organization and programming of the White Plains Performing Arts Center without having been formally signed to a contract according to George Gretsas, the Mayor’s Executive Officer. He said the final contract between the city and the performing duo was still in the Legal Department as of Thursday evening. Meantime, he said there was no problem, that the contract was undergoing some legal scrutiny, but nothing major.

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City Seeks to Bond a Cafe on Renaissance Plaza to Fund Open Space Acquisition.

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WPCNR’S MAIN STREET JOURNAL. By John F. Bailey. July 18, 2003: The city will ask the Common Council to bond some $350,000 for the construction of a cafe’ on the Court Street side of the new Renaissance Plaza fountain being constructed at the intersection of Main Street and Mamaroneck Avenues, according to George Gretsas, the city’s Executive Officer, relating the events of the Mayor’s “Open Space Incubator” News Conference Thursday.


The cafe’ building is a new evolution of the refreshment kiosk originally planned for the Mamaroneck Avenue side of the Renaissance Plaza, Gretsas said.


The cafe structure is to be constructed adjacent to the Hudson Valley Bank branch on Court Street, in partnership with a cafe operator such as a Starbucks, Gretsas explained.  He said it is the city’s intention to use the revenues generated from the cafe operation (estimated at about $50,000 a year) to build a fund to purchase open space within the city limits as open space becomes available on the market. Gretsas said the $50,000 a year could generate future bonding in the amounts of $500,000 or more to purchase and preserve open land within the city. The initiative was announced at a news conference Thursday at City Hall. Gretsas reported that Cappelli Enterprises now constructing the fountain plaza, will also build the cafe’ and has agreed to cap the cost of the cafe building at $550,000. The cafe building is anticipated to be completed in October, with the operator being selected after bidding, initiating service shortly thereafter.


 

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