WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL. January 12,2010: As predicted weeks ago on the White Plains Week local White Plains public access television program, the City Center is getting a new tenant: a Shop-Rite Supermarket. Geofrey Thompson, a spokesman for Cappelli Enterprises announced the new tenant would be arriving in the summer. It will take up a portion of the second floor of City Center opposite Nordstrom Rack, according to Thompson & Bender, accessible from the bridge from the parking garage.
WP Holiday Sales Tax $$ Lowest in 11 Years. Projects to 15% Tax Increase
WPCNR QUILL & EYESHADE. By John F. Bailey. January 12, 2010:
The December White Plains figure was $3,024,008.63, $1,263,425.91 below the $4.3 Million collected in December 2008 – a 30% decline. Halfway through fiscal year 2009-10,
If the present 11.2% decline in sales tax receipts continues, the city faces a 15% tax increase just to make up for the projected $5 Million loss in sales tax receipts.
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If the city matches 2009 figures for January through June 2010 ($21,947,876)
The city is continuing to run a deficit in sales tax collection of 11.3% the first six months of the fiscal year July-December 09 ($21.6 Million the last six months compared to $24,362,919 July 08 to December 08). If this 11.3% downward trend continues,
County Runs $63 Million Deficit
Budget cuts and additional Federal Medicaid Appropriations money filled the $63 Million budget hole, according to the Westchester County Department of Communications.
Father Dunne Gets Probation. No Jailtime. Will Serve Parish in Dutchess Cty
WPCNR WHITE PLAINS LAW JOURNAL. By John F. Bailey. January 12, 2010: The saga of Father Patrick Dunne, former parish priest of Our Lady of Sorrows ended today in Courtroom 104 in the County Courts building at 11:10 A.M., when Judge Jeffrey Cohen sentenced the priest who plead guilty last fall to Grand Larceny in the Second Degree for stealing $432,000 from OLS and using it to gamble.
Judge Cohen after allowing a statement from Bishop Dennis Sullivan, Vicar General of the New York Archdiocese, in which Bishop Sullivan, speaking of Father Dunne’s 2-plus years of rehabilation in a gambling rehab program as being very successful,to the point where the Bishop said “he is a man in recovery,” and of Dunne’s lifetime of good works, said the Archdiocese would be assigning him to a Dutchess County Parish. Dunne’s attorney, Richard Ferrante said 260 letters from OLS parishioners had written on the priest’s half, pleading leniency in sentencing.
Father Dunne read a statement to the judge before sentence was passed, saying that he took the money from the OLS Building fund and the OLS Stipend Funds to win money for the OLS building project, but running up losses, tried to win it back. He asked for forgiveness from his parish. It was the first time Mr. Dunne had stated anything for the record about his behavior in the year the case has moved slowly through the court. He was charged in June, 2009
The Judge after hearing these words said to Dunne in passing sentence, that “no jail time can free you from this gambling addiction, and jail would serve no purpose.” Judge Cohen sentenced Dunne to 5 years probation and 250 hours of community service that had to be approved by the Judge, and performed by December 31, 2010. Cohen also imposed a judgment on Dunne of $432,000.
Judge Cohen “he understood the Parish has been made whole, and has not lost any money.”
An informed source with Our Lady of Sorrows familiar with the monetary situation regarding restitution by the Archdiocese of the stolen money said that OLS had received a check from the Archdiocese insurance company subsidiary, less about a $100,000 deductible, leaving the archdiocese with approximately a $300,000 restitution. The priest of the parish will announce the exact amount to the parish, WPCNR was told.
The case was originally brought in June, 2009, when the District Attorney’s Office charged him with 2nd Degree Grand Larceny, (a felony with a maximum sentence of 5 to 15 years), stealing over $432,000 from parish accounts.
The District Attorney said that the priest diverted monies donated by parishioners for collection campaigns including the church building fund, a collection for Hurricane Katrina victims, and the weekly offertory.
The D.A.’s office said the priest accomplished this through writing and endorsing checks to himself and to “cash,” failed to provide an accurate accounting to church officials and “deliberately concealed the books and records relating to the parish development account.”
There is some question as to how the ongoing thievery was uncovered, but from what WPCNR has been told it was a combination of Father Dunne’s not accounting for certain moneys to the church management and a investigation of the Archdiocese, after the Archdiocese was called in, according to what Bishop Sullivan said in court today.
Father Dunne was removed from the parish in March 2008 and was charged in June 2009. On October 20 of last year he accepted a plea bargain offered by the District Attorney’s Office.
Ridgeway School Principal Resigns. Lahey Appointed Interim Principal.
WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. January 11, 2010: The White Plains Board of Education accepted the resignation of Ridgeway School Principal Evette Avila tonight at the second Board of Education meeting of the year, for “personal reasons,” according to Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, Lenora Boehlert.
The resignation was effective June 30, 2010. Avila was scheduled to earn $172,433 as Elementary School Principal from July 1 2009 to June 30, 2010, and apparently will collect her salary for the balance of the year. Boehlert gave no reason for the resignation and Ms. Avila is no longer principal of the school. Tashia Brown remains as Assistant Principal.
Francis Lahey was appointed Interim Principal by the Board. No statements were made to the public by the Board on the Ridgeway School situation, or Mr. Lahey. Mr. Lahey previously served as interim principal at Eastview School in January 2009, and was Principal of Fox Lane High School.