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)

LCOR: Build 55 Bank Job in Steps,Tied to $$$. $300M Elusive.Defaults $5M Owed WP

Posted on July 3, 2008 by John Bailey

WPCNR THE BUILDING NEWS. Special to WPCNR from White Plains CitizeNetReporter Correspondents. July 2, 2008: LCOR, the developers of 55 Bank Street, the 536-Unit residential “showcase” affordable housing project approved in May, 2007 by the Common Council announced to the council Wednesday afternoon they could not raise the $300 Million in one lump sum to finance the project in today’s financial conditions.

Peter Gilpatric, center of photo, of LCOR, Shown April 12, 2007 when the Common Council was considering a PILOT on the 55 Bank Street property. (WPCNR News Archive)

of LCOR and LCOR attorneys William Null and Robert Feder of Cuddy & Feder proposed instead a substantial redesign of the project to keep it alive. Trading two slender pillars for one long 28-story building running the entire block of the property fronted by a short 14-story building and a different configuration for the parking garage. The project is a complete redesign, which Gilpatric hopes to get underway by mid-summer, 2009, financing forthcoming.

LCOR also proposed a two month delay in paying the $5 Million installment it owes on the commuter parking lot the city sold LCOR last spring to build the project on. LCOR has Lehman Brothers lined up for that payment if the Common Council and Urban Renewal Agency approve this “save” of the project.

We like White Plains!

Jim Benorofe told WPCNR that Mr. Gilpatric began the meeting with a statement that said the company liked White Plains wanted to continue to do business here, and to build this project, but today’s financial markets prevented them from building the project originally planned because the entire project could not obtain $300 Million in financing. He said the project instead could be financed only in approximately $100 Million increments if it were broken up into three steps.

To achieve this the Urban Renewal Agency and the Common Council would have to amend the site plan approval tying the start of each building contingent with securing financing for it.

The “design” consisting of a rough sketch was shown the Council. It had LCOR building one diminutive tower of 14 stories ( the size of the Bar Building), fronting on Bank Street and a massive 28-story wall of a building a full block in width behind the 14-story structure. The 28-story building extends the width of the property closest to the Metro North railroad tracks. The third piece would be a parking garage for the project behind the 14 story tower.

Hotel to come?

The hotel proposed all along to be built on the present 5 Bank Street parking area is still planned for that location. Mr. Gilpatric said LCOR had a term sheet out to a hotel chain “with a substantial White Plains presence,” (possibly, WPCNR speculates Marriott or Starwood).

A very rough outline sketch of the project was passed around to the Common Council to demonstrate the “save” of the project that is in very rudimentary design stage. WPCNR’s correspondents report

The councilmembers present: Benjamin Boykin, Glen Hockley, Rita Malmud, Dennis Power, and Thomas Roach were stunned to learn that LCOR had not paid the $5 Million due on the LCOR purchase of the city commuter parking lot. The city had sold the land to LCOR for $16 Million, with $6 Million paid last June and $5 Million due last Monday. The $6 Million last year balanced the city budget.

The LCOR representatives said that Lehman Brothers would lend LCOR the money for that payment and it would be paid to the city in September, if the city approved the new design and staggered financing.

Accrual Method Proposed to Prevent City Finishing in Red

Mayor Joseph Delfino said the payment technically due Monday of this week and planned for in the 2007-2008 budget, would be booked as an “accrual” until September to avoid a deficit in the budget, if the Urban Renewal Agency adopted a rewording of the site plan approval allowing the buildings to begin construction when financing is secured for each of the 4 buildings. This unusual request will be taken up by the Urban Renewal Agency July 16.

Another request of the Common Council is that the $4.8 Million remaining on the payment for the commuter parking lot would not be due until the complex is completed, which Gilpatric anticipated would happen in 2012.

107 Units spread throughout

The 107 units of affordable housing owed the city on the project would be split between the 14 story building fronting on Bank Street and throughout the 28 story one block long building along the railroad tracks. No traffic patterns were shown, according to our correspondent. The retail component would also be included in the 14-story building.

The 107 units of affordable housing (rentable to earners making 60%, 80% and 100% of median income, $73,000) have been a key component of the development since the city granted it 15 years of tax abatements on the project as incentive to have LCOR build the project a year ago.

Mr. Gilpatric said, according to WPCNR’s observer that the company had spent $4 Million on the previous design and needed an indication from the council whether the redesign “concept” presented Wednesday afternoon was acceptable, before proceeding (spending millions more) on a more detailed design of his rough sketch. Gilpatric did not anticipate starting the project for about 14 months (mid-2009).Jim Benerofe told WPCNR the Council seemed agreeable to the redesign to save the project.

One Project Left

Presently the LCOR project is the only project still viable in the city. Windsor Towers and The Boker Condominium project on Maple Avenue have both balked at paying the additional affordable housing “buyout fees” now owed by those projects thanks to new Common Council legislation passed in April

The only Councilperson adamantly opposed was Councilperson Rita Malmud who accused LCOR of defaulting on the payment to which Mr. Gilpatric agreed. Ms. Malmud also complained that this was the first time she had heard of the default. The Mayor said he had first heard about it 8 days ago, then amended that to five days (last Thursday).

$29 Million Tax Abatements

At the time of the unanimous Council approval in May of 2007, total tax abatement on the project was

put at $29 Million over 18 years. The PILOT took the previous planned towers off the

roles and assigns their assessment to the Westchester County IDA, which is not required to pay

property taxes on the assessment. It was not discussed last night how the PILOT arrangement would

be affected by the new deal. The PILOT approved by the Council was $486,000 a year in payments

going out 18 years.

You Got Mailed: City/Sch Taxes Hit.$700G Median Home Total: $12,740.STAR CUT!

Posted on July 1, 2008 by John Bailey

WPCNR QUILL & EYESHADE. By John F. Bailey. July 1, 2008 UPDATED 6:30 PM EDT: City government may delay very important decisions, but they do not delay tax bills. Like death, the city tax bill for the first half of 2008-2009 arrived suddenly, confirming what only WPCNR of all the media in the state reported to our readers last April.

This year’s city and school tax for the median homeowner will be $10,342 compared to the 2007-2008 tax bill of $9, 634, a city and school tax combined increase of 7%.

Albany legislators secretly cut the STAR Exemption, raising your assessment. In today’s tax bill the STAR Exemption was cut to $3,330, as WPCNR reported in April, from last year’s $3,700. This results in a $10,342 tax bill between city and school for the White Plains median home judged to be worth $700,000 on the market. Inspecting your tax bill you will find your RES STAR Assessed Value to be $3,330.

Albany’s reducing the STAR Exemption $370 costs the median homeowner about $186 more in school taxes, $7,618.09 under the $3,330 exemption as opposed to paying $7,431.97, under the $3,700 exemption in effect in 2007.

It results in about $1 million more in taxes in the district – about 85% of the increase in state aid the city is getting, according to Assistant Superintendent for Business for the School District, Fred Seiler in a WPCNR report written in April

The County Tax, estimated by WPCNR to be $2,400, tagged on to the city and school tax bill brings the total tax on the White Plains median home to $12,742 – higher than WPCNR had originally estimated in the spring of this year, where our WPCNR Math Lab estimated $12,600. Those of you opening your tax bills who own a home valued on the market over $700,000 will pay more, considerably more.

The city included a flier with the tax bill showing that the County collects 19% of your tax dollar and the school district, 61%, and the city 20%. It reminds the recipient payment is due by July 31 to avoid any interest charges.

WPCNR encourages the taxpayers to get their payments in early.

No Agreement with White Plains Teachers Until Fall

Posted on July 1, 2008 by John Bailey

WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. July 1, 2008: WPCNR has learned that White Plains teacher negotiations on a new contract have been suspended through the summer and will not resume until the fall. A source close to the negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity, told WPCNR there will be no agreement until teachers return to work in September because the teachers’ contract specifically forbid any vote on a contract during the summer.

A vote on a teachers’ contract can only occur while the contract is in effect from September 1 through June 30, the source said. The source said the current items under discussion are salary and medical benefits. The source said the teachers were particularly annoyed at the increases in the salaries of 42 full-time Coordinators, Directors and principals and assistants who received $444,553 in salary increases for 2008-2009, an average of 7.5%, and an average raise in pay of $10,584. Though no salary figures have emerged from the clandestine negtiations, the teacher salaries in last year’s contract were held at 3.2% across all steps, substantially less than 7.5%. Some administrators received salary increases over 10%

Our contact said that the current contract for 2007-2008 would remain in effect until a new contract is negotiated and approved. The last time this happened, they recalled was in 1999-2000,

School Bus Contractors, Districts Plea with Albany for Diesel Fuel Relief.

Posted on July 1, 2008 by John Bailey

WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. July 1, 2008: John Silvanie, President of White Plains Bus Company told WPCNR today he saw no relief in sight for the 50% increase in diesel fuel prices his company is facing due to the runup in diesel fuel. He told WPCNR his company is locked in to a transit contract with the White Plains City School District that entitles his company to fee increases tied strictly to the state Consumer Price Index, which he said this year is 4%.

The district is presently protected against school bus transportation increases, however they face possible monthly increases in their cost of electricity from the New York Power Authority. (The authority has the right to increase the cost of electricity they sell the district, at one third less than consumers pay, a spokesperson told WPCNR last week.)

Silvanie said that the State School Bus Contractors Association and other school districts across the state are mobilizing an effort to get the state legislature to provide more school aid to offset the doubling of transportation fuel costs. A bill has been introduced in the Assembly by Assemblyman Peter Rivera to roll back fuel taxes for school bus operations (the state gets 70 cents a gallon for every gallon of diesel fuel), and also force school districts into a 4-day school week to conserve fuel costs. Presently the legislature is on vacation, and expects to be on vacation the rest of the year, pending the governor’s calling them back into session.

Last week WPCNR asked Silvanie if he had any recourse in extracting more fuel money from the White Plains School District, he told me again today what he told WPCNR then – “We don’t have any recourse. There’s nothing in the New York State Municipal Bid Law that allow us to be paid an additional amount for the (additional) cost of the fuel. I know there is some talk in the industry about trying to get a bill passed in Albany that would provide some relief.”

WPCNR asked if he was planning to consolidate bus routes in White Plains. “We really can’t. We’re not the ones to decide what the bus routes are the school district does. We commingle the routes as much as we can so we use as little equipment as we possibly can. The district does not pay me to run one bus and run another an hour later on an elementary school trip or something like that. There’s no place we can go, in terms of our municipal customers, not that I haven’t thought about it. The same is true of our contracts with Westchester County.”

How does your company survive,WPCNR asked: “Not easily, we’re tightening our belt as much as we can. We’re trying to get the best deals we can out of our fuel suppliers. But the reality is the cost of fuel is up almost $2 a gallon.”

We asked, how long do you feel you can hold on at this level? “We just did a multi-year extension (contract)with White Plains. We’re contracted to do that. We have a moral and legal obligation to do it, so we’re going to do it.”

What do you anticipate the cost of living increase the state will give you? “The CPI this year (2008) is 4%. So the state has approved CPI increases of 4%. And our guess is, going forward it’s going to be more than 4% (next year). When the cost per fuel goes up $2 a gallon, 2,3 or 4% isn’t going to take a big dent out there.”

State could change law on CPI relief.

The state cannot, Silvanie said increase the CPI allowance more than once a year according to the Municipal Bid Law, Silvanie said unless they changed the law. “If they change the law, we certainly would try and get our school districts to help out.”

I asked what the other transportation companies are doing about this problem. “I know they have been talking in Albany about the potential of passing a bill that would allow contractors to get reimbursed from the school districts for the additional cost of fuel, and I think part of that was to also provide additional state aid for it because the school districts clearly don’t have the money to do that. Tax money doesn’t come from nowhere.”

Fuel Efficient Vehicles.

WPCNR asked if he anticipated adding to his fleet with more fuel-efficient vehicles:

“School buses migrated in the 50s and 60s when they were gas-powered to where they were diesel-powered. There were two reasons for that, diesel was much less expensive at the time than gasoline and diesel engines are more efficient so they burned less fuel. A gasoline powered school bus in the 70s and early 80s got 5 miles a gallon, where diesel vehicles got 7 miles a gallon. Everybody in the industry migrated to diesel powered equipment.

“With the most recent 2007 and 2010 emission requirements on diesel engines, they are starting to be less efficient. People who are running 15-20 passenger school vans that are gasoline powered, they are finding there isn’t a big difference in consumption between diesel and gasoline-powered equipment and so the mpg are much closer. And the cost of diesel is significantly more than gasoline now.

So the reality is, as we buy new equipment we may migrate the smaller vans back from diesel to gasoline. It would take some time.”

How long can he sustain? Non-Contract Customers Raised 5 to 15%

WPCNR explored long he could operate under these fuel conditions.

“We don’t envision going out of business as a result of this. We’re raising rates for our non-contracted customers and so we’re doing what we need to do to stay in business. In the 86 years we’ve been in business there have been upturns anddownturns in the business climate and we’ve managed to stay in business and it’s our intention to continue to be in business. It depends on the customer, anywhere from 5 to 15%.

Sports Consolidations

As far as field trips for the schools, WPCNR asked, does he anticipate increasing costs for those. “The reality is, with respect to the school district they are under contracted numbers. We really can’t. We will probably ask the school district to limit the non-educational field trips. Athletic trips, if we can double teams we’re going to do that as well. Instead of two buses we send one bus.”

Albany Attitude

I asked about the enthusiasm in Albany for perhaps giving bus companies relief:

“You have to remember that the children in New York State get school buses. Half of the school buses in New York State are owned by private contractors like our company, the other half are owned by school districts, so the school district operations have the same fuel problem the private bus companies have.

There obviously has to be a great deal of pressure on the non-contracted districts, because their cost of fuel has gone up the same $2 a gallon my cost has gone up. So there has to be pressure on those school budgets,which means that they’re going to be putting pressure on the elected representatives in Albany to find some relief for.