WPCNR GLOBAL BRIEF. November 27, 2008: As of 10:30 A.M. in Mumbai, India, 12:30 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, CNN reports 101 killed and 287 wounded in coordinated attacks by teams of terrorist gunman armed with automatic weapons and grenades at two Mumbai hotels, a hospital, train station and a restaurant. Hostages have been reported freed at the Taj Majal Hotel, a second hostage situation was ongoing at a second hotel. WPCNR suggests the CNN website which has an affiliate operation in India and has been providing the most up-to-date coverage of the vicious attacks reported to be the work of Indian Muslim extremist organizations.
WP SEWER TAX COULD RISE 50% in COUNTY’S BIGGEST CAPITAL PROJECT EVER.
WPCNR THE SEWER REPORT By John F. Bailey. November 26, 2008: The $234.7 Million sewer project announced in postcard mailers to residents in the Mamaroneck Valley Sewer District throughout White Plains this week, could cost White Plains residents $150 more a year in sewer bills by 2014, based on preliminary estimates the county has run on the cost of the federally mandated project to upgrade the Mamaroneck Valley Plant (on Mamaroneck Harbor), and the New Rochelle plant.
GREETINGS FROM THE WESTCHESTER COUNTY SEWER BOYS.
The postcard from Commissioner Tom Lauro announcing $234.7 Million sewer plant rehab project — the largest county capital project in history — according to the County Legislature Press Office. Very preliminary estimates indicate White Plains residents in the Mamaroneck Valley Sewer District would see bills escalate $75 to $150 and up by 2014, or sooner if the county does not get a bailout.
In 2008 the median White Plains home ($700,000) assessed at $18,475 a year paid $323 in sewer taxes. If the preliminary figures hold, sewer taxes for Mr. and Mrs. White Plains will go up related to the project funding beginning in 2011 out to 2014, or perhaps all at once depending on how the project is financed by the County.
2008, the Mamaroneck Valley Sewer District residents in White Plains paid a total of $3.3 Million to the county, Bronx Valley District residents in White Plains, paid $3.4 Million according to the White Plains Finance Department. Gina Cuneo Harwood told WPCNR Tuesday evening the way the sewer tax is figured is this: The county gives White Plains the sewer levy, and White Plains calculates the per $1,000 of assessed value tax rate, to figure the rate Mr. and Mrs. White Plains pay for sewer services.
The county will address the project Monday in a public hearing on the budget at the Michaelian Building at 3:30 P.M.
County Legislator Tom Abinanti, chair of the Health Committee for the county, stressed to WPCNR that the full impact of any sewer district increase affecting White Plains, Blind Brook, New Rochelle and Port Chester would not hit until 2014, that these were estimates he has only at this time. (The County Department of Communications has yet to provide as requested by WPCNR, the actual figures previously presented which would give more detail).
Mr. Abinanti supplied preliminary figures he has from correspondence. Abinanti made clear that the county is seeking other sources of funding for the $234.7 Million project, appealing to Senator Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton for federal aid, and that it is not altogether certain the residents in the four sewer districts, would have to pay for it.
At this time, residents of New Rochelle, White Plains, Port Chester, and Blind Brook are “on the hook,” for that increase, the County Legislator press office told WPCNR Tuesday.
The Legislative Press Office told WPCNR the fines associated with the county not complying with the federal order were $195,000 civil penalties and responsibility for funding $780,000 other environmental projects as selected by the Department of Environmental Conservation of New York State.
Stepinac Grad Brian Vega, Westchester Broadway Theatre Honoree
WPCNR STAGE DOOR. From Pia Haas, Westchester Broadway Theatre. November 26, 2008: On Wednesday December 3rd, Westchester Broadway Theatre will present this year’s Bob Fitzsimmons Award of $1000 to Brian Vega at the Press opening of WBT’S holiday show, “A WONDERFUL LIFE.”
Brian Vega of Stepinac 08, now attending Susquehanna University.
In recent years
Mr. Vega in Singin’ In the Rain at Archbishop Stepinac High’s production last spring.
Brian Vega is currently a freshman at
The $1,000 Scholarship is given annually to a college-bound senior who has excelled in the theatre arts programs while attending
The scholarship was established in his name by the owners of Westchester Broadway Theatre,
The first & most successful fundraiser was held at WBT, the second was held at
Longview Garage Opens — First Step in Post Road Upgrade
WPCNR THE PARKING NEWS. November 26, 2008, UPDATED 2 PM E.S.T.: White Plains Mayor Joseph Delfino and White Plains Hospital Center President Jon Schandler officially opened the $19 Million Longview Municipal Parking Garage, at a ribbon cutting ceremony, today. The garage holds 758 spaces of which 324 on the upper levels have been leased to the Hospital and will be open to parking for employees of the hospital Monday morning.
It features chemical reductive energy efficient lighting, roomy parking spaces with wide car clearances, among other amenities, and parkers pay using the central “Moroni Money Machines,” familiar to White Plains residents, eliminating pay-as-you-exit booths currently used by the hospital at the Davis Avenue garage.
The new garage will be open to the public Friday, according to Commissioner of Public Works, Joseph Nicoletti. The ribbon cutting marks the culmination of a 10 year process to construct the 758 space parking garage and provide critically needed parking to
Mayor Delfino, left, with Commissioner of Parking, Al Moroni, center and CEO of White Plains Hospital Center, Jon Schandler, right. at this morning’s opening. The Mayor called the new garage “The First Step” in the hospital’s planned $100 Million “Renaissance.”
The Mayor told WPCNR that the garage opening was the first step in the city’s planned upgrade of East Post Road, which he said would possibly mean a redevelopment of a portion of the Sholz Buick property at Post and Lexington Avenues. The Mayor said he did not know the details but Sholz was looking for a developer for a portion of their property on the open car display lot. Sholz, the Mayor said, would possibly continue his car dealer on another portion of the site.
She’s Open! The Stakeholders officially open the Longview Cromwell Garage Wednesday morning: Front: L to R, Paul Weissman, Chair of the Board, White Plains Hospital Center. Jon Schandler, Chief Executive Officer, Mayor Joseph Delfino, Councilpersons Rita Malmux and Thomas Roach. Standing on steps, Commissioner of Public Works, Joseph Nicoletti, builder of the garage, and Commissioner of Parking, Albert Moroni.
The garage will also be used by visitors to the Kensington Assisted Living Facility, to be built on the adjacent site to the garage. The White Plains Hospital Center $100 Million expansion plan shows the Kensington preliminary design above (the building to the right next to the Longview Garage that opened today.
The White Plains Kensington project currently awaits Housing and Urban Development Funding for that $30 Million project, in addition to over $900,000 in tax relief from the county and the city, without which the project, they indicated could not be built.
The Post Road Upgrade Possibilities.
Melissa Lopez, officer in charge of economic development for White Plains, told WPCNR that the city is willing to work with property owners of buildings on the side of Post Road opposite the possible towards improvement of their storefronts, but stopped short of saying the city would provide city dollars for the improvements. The Mayor said the buildings fronting the street on Post Road involved five separate owners, and therefore it remained to be seen how any development could occur on that sector without the owners agreeing on their property.
The Mayor said Winbrook, the public housing complex was there to stay and would not be touched, though the White Plains Housing Authority is entertaining a gradual rebuild of each building with Housing and Urban Development department funding, the details of which have yet to be finalized.
Moving Forward
Melissa Lopez, spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office, told WPCNR last July that the delay in the start of the White Plains Kensington assisted living project scheduled for groundbreaking this month, now delayed indefinitely, due to the Fountain Properties application with HUD to pay for the construction (due to the financial market malaise), would not begin possibly costing the city money until April 2009 when the first payment on the $19 Million bond for construction of the Longview Municipal Garage in the final stages of completion is due.
Lopez said last July, it is expected Kensington will begin making the payments in April, 2009, on the garage debt service and that the city will not have to pay the debt service and principle.