THE WORLD READS WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER — 8,324,077 VISITS IN ONE YEAR | 2,905,611 VISITORS VISIT 8,324,077 TIMES 3 TIMES EVERY DAY IN ONE YEAR. HIGHEST ACTIVITY IN WPCNR HISTORY.White PlainsCitizeNetReporter lifted its worldwide visits from unique visitors to wpcnr.com to 8,324,077,a 1,306,419 increase in visits in one year from 7,017,658 visits to the site last year which covers White Plains and Westchester County. The 8,324,077 visits were made by 2,005,611 unique visitors who visited wpcnr an average of 3 visits a day. ON JULY 20- -2026 visitors have accessed wpcnr and made 3,072 visits an average of 1.6 visits. In the last week 33,495 individual vistors made 54,458 visits, averaging 1.6 visits. In the last month, 152,940 visitors recorded 229,338 visits (1.5 visits)

Dredging of Hudson for New Tappan Zee Bridge Begins

Posted on August 2, 2013 by John Bailey

WPCNR TAPPAN ZEE NEWS. From the New York State Thruway Authority. August 2, 2013:

Tappan Zee Constructors, LLC (TZC) began 24 hour a day dredging operations today in the Hudson River as part of the New NY Bridge Project.

The U.S. Coast Guard has issued a revised Notice to Mariners with updated safety information, including a request that boaters use extreme caution within 1,000 feet of all construction barges as a safety precaution.

The Coast Guard boating safety information can be found the project website, www.NewNYBridge.com.

Dredging will occur over a three-month period from August 1 through October 31 to avoid negatively impacting migration and spawning patterns of local sturgeon populations and other fish species.

Dredging crews will work 24 hours a day, seven days a week starting from the main navigation channel end of the dredging footprint towards the shoreline on both the Rockland and Westchester County sides of the bridge. The operations will deepen the river’s shallow water level in the work zone by removing sediment from the river bottom. The dredged materials are being processed and properly disposed at offsite locations.

Impact Pile driving began this week as part of the ongoing test pile program and will continue over the next three months at various locations for future pile foundations. This work will be performed 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and at times on Saturdays from 12 noon to 7 p.m. The test pile program will verify subsurface conditions test structural load capacities in preparation for construction of the new bridge’s permanent foundation.

Ongoing operations:

Test pile program
Rockland bulkhead construction (including fence & gates)
Dock Extension at Rockland (under existing bridge)
Temporary Westchester trestle construction including pile driving on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Survey inspections on existing bridge
Rockland and Westchester environmental monitor installations
Geotechnical land borings
Mobilization at the exit 10 staging area
Support for river-based work from the Rockland shoreline

Westchester:

Limited test-boring operations will continue on Thruway property near the Irving Neighborhood in Tarrytown. The work is scheduled to be conducted between the hours of 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday, August 5 through Wednesday, August 6.

Rockland:

TZC, LLC will reconstruct the sidewalk along River Road in S. Nyack north of the existing bridge. This is part of the Bulkhead construction area and will be performed between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday, August 5 and Tuesday, August 6. River Road will be limited to one lane with flag persons in place to control traffic safely.

Survey activity will occur in the southbound lanes of I-87/I-287 and will require a temporary lane closure between exit 10 and the existing bridge from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, August 5 and Tuesday, August 6.

New York City Police Seek Whereabouts of Former WP Law Firm Paralegal. Missing from Brooklyn July 22

Posted on August 2, 2013 by John Bailey

WPCNR POLICE GAZETTE. From New York City Police Department. August 2, 2013:

The NYPD is asking the public to advise them if they know of the whereabouts of former Bleakley, Platt & Schmidt paralegal, Dana Lauren Bonanno, reported missing from her Greenpoint, Brooklyn apartment since July 22. The official information:

More Barges to Come. Thruway Authority Adds Lights Beyond Coast Guard Requirements

Posted on July 31, 2013 by John Bailey

WPCNR TAPPAN ZEE BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION NEWS. From the New York State Thruway Authority. July 31, 2013:

The Thruway Authority issued this follow-up statement today: “The U.S. Coast Guard made it clear that the lights on the barge met all requirements and were visible for one nautical mile but, as an added precaution, extra lights were added immediately following this tragedy because we wanted to go above and beyond to try and prevent something like this from happening again,” according to Dan Weiller, Thruway Authority Spokesman.

Approximately 2 dozen barges of varying sizes are currently in the Hudson River as part of the project but the exact number changes almost daily. More are scheduled to arrive shortly to begin dredging.

—After the incident after the Piermont barge crash last Friday, killing two passengers on a speed boat and injuring four others, dozens of extra LED solar/battery powered lights were added to all barges, moorings and other vessels as a precaution above and beyond US Coast Guard requirements

—At night the barges are in the fixed mooring locations, during the day they can be moved to get construction materials/supplies stored on them to active work areas

City Will Audit Verizon and Cablevision Revenues

Posted on July 31, 2013 by John Bailey

WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL CHRONICLE EXAMINER. By John F. Bailey, July 31, 2013:

THE CITY OF WHITE PLAINS will audit cable franchise operators in the city, agreeing to authorize spending $35,000 to hire an independent audit firm with experience examingng cable operations, to audit Verizon Fios and Cablevision for the last five years of operations in the city. The new effort was presented to the Common Council at a Special Meeting Monday night.

John Callahan the city Corporation Counsel told WPCNR the effort is to confirm that Verizon and Cablevision are paying all the money they should on all the revenue streams they are supposed to be paying their franchise fees on.

Callahan said that if the audit found Verizon and Cablevision are earning less, the city might have to pay a refund. However that is not likely. towns in the county have found in recent audits that they were owed amounts of approximately a million dollars by cable companies after similar audits.

The cable business has been losing share to new media.

Verizon has taken away about 4,000 subscribers from Verizon, which has 15,800, down about 4 to 5,000 from five years ago when Verizon came in. And the cable business is losing share to the new media.

Callahan, asked about the Public Education Grants fees that cablevision has not paid in six years, told WPCNR the city is negotiating with Cablevision on this matter. Estimates are the lack of an agreement on the PEG fee has been costing the city cable television operation $220,000 a year for 9 years.

Establishing regular PEG payments again with Cablevision is critical for the city to pay for the $1.5 to $2 million move to the White Plains Public Library some day. They have no money to do that yet, unless other revenues are diverted to the reinvention of White Plains Public Access TV to the library.