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)

Robins Make Earliest Appearance this Reporter Can Ever Remember

Posted on January 24, 2012 by John Bailey

WPCNR PHOTOGRAPH OF THE DAY. By the WPCNR Roving Photographer. January 25, 2012 UPDATED WITH ROBIN INTELLIGENCE, January 26, 2012:

Two of the 5 Robins who visited WPCNR News Tuesday afternoon.

A squadron of five robins, red-breasted and well-rested landed at WPCNR World News Headquarters in White Plains, New York, USA Tuesday afternoon at 4:45 P.M and proceeded to browse the grounds.

A WPCNR Reader, Paul Schwarz responded to our inquiry yesterday as to why the robins are back so early. He explains they may never leave:

“I participate in Feeder Watch – a project which is based at the Cornell Dept. of Ornithology. Thousands of individual reports from all around the country help to create detailed maps and patterns of bird populations.

A couple of years ago, midwinter, I was startled to see a flock of robins. I emailed Feeder Watch, and was gently reassured that robins, while they have long been thought of as a harbinger of spring, in fact winter in all climates, including ours.

In last week’s report to Feeder Watch, along with the usual finches, sparrows, chickadees, cardinals and the rest, my list included 10 robins. (With the temperature below 32 last week, they were there for a drink from the heated birdbath. Robins aren’t interested in the seeds.)”

Schwarz refers Robin Watchers to the Cornell website on the habits and ways of the Robin, where you will learn that the reason you do not see robins during the winter is not because they head south, but because they roost in trees in the deep woods where berries are more common. Read all about the Robin, who is not a snowbird at

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/american_robin/lifehistory/ac

NICOLETTI: STATE DEC APPROVES CITY DUMP CAP, SEAL AND CLOSE PLAN

Posted on January 24, 2012 by John Bailey

WPCNR GREEN NEWS. January 24, 2012:

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has approved the White Plains measures to cap, seal and close the Gedney Landfill, Commissioner of Public Works Joseph Nicoletti told WPCNR Monday. The Commissioner said he received final approval from the DEC in a letter Friday.

White Plains Commissioner of Public Works Joseph Nicoletti

The plan was devised by the Commissioner in several versions over the last six years under the auspices of the NYSDEC. It came about based on a series of test well readings measuring the amount of Tri-Chloral-Ethylene (TCE) contamination below ground beginning in 2006.

After the series readings, the Commissioner of Public Works working with consultants devised a recommended plan to cap the dump on the surface and on its sides to prevent escape of an underground TCE pocket sixteen feet below the surface that has been polluting the Mamaroneck River for over 35 years. The TCE pocket was created by disposal of dry cleaning agents in the dump for many decades.

As part of the plan, the city will resurface the Our Lady of Sorrows Softball field adjacent the dump, to avoid users of the field from any contact with contaminated soil, according to the DEC) below the surface of the field, or adjacent to the field..

Commissioner Nicoletti told WPCNR bids will be requested shortly, and he expected the work to begin by June, 2012.

Previously the Commissioner has speculated the project could cost the city $8 to $10 Million with the state reimbursing the city approximately $2 Million.

City Will Acquire Turtle Passage off Orchard Street for $130,000

Posted on January 23, 2012 by John Bailey

WPCNR CITY CIRCUIT. January 23, 2011:

The Capital Projects Board voted unaminously this afternoon to spend $130,000 to purchase three-quarters of an acre of open space along Chapman Street off a development on Orchard Street to preserve the land as open space, adding it to the open space inventory.

Mayor Thomas Roach said the small parcel had been on the list of properties recommended by the Open Space Committee to acquire, and that it preserved a wild life habitat (of a migrating turtle) and also provided a buffer to the city’s watershed property that is adjacent to the strip of land to be acquired.

Asked if the area would be open to the public, Chief of Staff John Callahan said that the city had not considered that possibility yet.

Commissioner of Public Works Joseph Nicoletti, told WPCNR and Councilperson Milagros Lecuona that the $130,000 would be paid for out of the city Water Fund.

The land first came to the attention of the city and opposition formed against the proposed subdivision in the summer of 2007. The prospect of opening the wooded area behind the subdivision to possible future development, and possible runoff into the reservoir across route 120,as well as a threat to the Eastern Box Turtle, were primary reasons why the city explored acquiring the strip.

Democrats Meet Castelli-Want-to-Be’s This Week. Buchwald and Unknown Vie

Posted on January 20, 2012 by John Bailey

WPCNR BACKROOM BULLETIN. January 20, 2012:

David Buchwald, the White Plains Councilman, after two months of being asked repeatedly by WPCNR if he was going to run for Assemblyman Robert Castelli’s 89th Assembly District seat as the Democratic candidate, announced his candidacy for the seat to The Journal News Thursday.

Buchwald, who squandered two months of potential political positioning time by agonizing over whether he would run or notwhen he was shoring up support, is being challenged by a political unknown, Jeremiah Frei-Peterson, who has come out of nowhere. He is a lawyer locally and a White Plains resident since last year.

WPCNR Political Correspondent King tells WPCNR Mr. Frei-Pearson is the choice of the County Democratic Party, and perhaps the New York City Democratic power structure. Though unknown politically in the city, he is a seasoned, savvy political operative.

Frei-Pearson also announced his candidacy to the Journal News this week. The Gannett reporter, Richard Liebson writes Frei-Pearson ran for the Assembly in the 36th District in Astoria, Queens in 2010.

WPCNR has learned that Frei-Pearson competed against two other Democrats for the Democratic nomination to run for that seat, but dropped out of actually contending in the primary because, Frei-Peterson’s spokesperson at the time, Michael Murphy said in a Gotham Gazette article, “because Frei-Pearson and Aravella Simolas has similar stands on the issues, Frei-Pearson did not want to take votes from her that might allow for a third snd more conservative candidate, John Ciafone to win.” To read about this race, go to www.gothamgazette.com/article/Albany/20100805/204/3329

WPCNR has also learned Frei-Pearson is a accomplished attorney, who won a $63 Million lawsuit against Con Edison for victims of the Queens blackout, and has won state reforms in how the developmentally disabled are treated.

Liebson describes him as a native of the Lewisboro, Bedford Hills and Mount Kisco and reports him as saying he and his wife, Karla Mosley a television actress (with a former role as a regular on The Guiding Light, and now a star of the childrens show, Hi-5), , moved back to White Plains to settle down.

More about Frei-Pearson, can be learned at http://www.thealbanyproject.com/diary/8108/locals-want-jeremiah-freipearson-to-run-for-state-assembly

The local White Plains Democratic Party district leaders will get an opportunity to meet both candidates this week.