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)

WP Recovery Hampered by Lack of Con Ed Crews: Nicoletti

Posted on July 24, 2006 by John Bailey

WPCNR WEATHER SCOOP. By John F. Bailey. Exclusive Interview With the Commissioner of Public Works, Bud Nicoletti July 24, 2006: Joseph “Bud” Nicoletti, Commissioner of Public Works of White Plains told WPCNR Monday afternoon that recovery efforts to clear away debris is still continuing and will do so for another week. Mr. Nicoletti reported that very shortly after the July 18 storm ended, he and Police Chief James Bradley personally mapped out the streets that the city needed to open first, to clear roads for emergency vehiclesbeginning after midnight Wednesday morning after “The Mystery Storm” had hit at 10 P.M., and ravaging the Highlands, Gedney Farms & Meadows, Hillair Circle, Rosedale, Saxon Woods, and Haviland Manor in the city until little before midnight.

Nicoletti said he personally toured city shortly after the storm hit and determined the extent of the damage. He reports that he was able to mobilize 5 City crews prepared to clear trees blocking city streets compared to 2 Con Ed Line Crews the first two days and occasionally a third line crewthe first two days of the storm. Had Con Ed responded with more line crews the city streets could have been opened sooner with the implication power could have been back on faster with more crews. Nicoletti estimated there were between 500 and 600 trees downed.

“We mounted two shifts a day, immediately, 70 on the day shift and about half that on the night shift, and we continued to work Saturday and Sunday, working around rain storms, working 10 hours each day. You can’t get blood out of a stone. This is a marathon not a sprint. (On Wednesday and Thursday) We’re working at the pace of Con Ed too, as fast as they could disconnect the lines, we’re hard on their heels to take the trees away,” Nicoletti described the last five days of DPW activity with Con Edison.

Would you say the DPW had more crews to remove the trees than Con Ed had crews to turn off the power, WPCNR asked the Commissioner, “Oh, by far,” the Commissioner responded, “Con Ed had one or two or sometimes three line crews on its part (for the entire city). The minimum number of crews we had out was four to five. I know we were always manning 4 to 5 with aerial crews, ground crews. Each crew had a loader, dump trucks, chain saws. When Con Ed told us the electricity was off, we would remove the trees and chop them up, and move them over to the side of the road, because we had multiple road closings. hen we would go on to the next one.”

WPCNR was informed that more crews were brought by Con Edison on Friday and Saturday. Exact numbers of line crews from Con Edison at any given time in White Plains were not made available to WPCNR by Con Edison Media Relations at any time.

WPCNR asked how he assessed the state of the city at the present time:

“The roads are cleared. That’s our top priority that the roads are not blocked.”

Con Ed Food Spoilage Refunds May be Claimed for Equipment Failure Only Not Storm

Posted on July 24, 2006 by John Bailey

WPCNR WEATHER SCOOP. By John F. Bailey. July 24, 2006, UPDATED JULY 25, 2006 5:35 P.M. In a reversal of yesterday’s policy, the Media Relations Office of Con Edison reports to WPCNR that citizens who were knocked off line only by Con Edision equipment failure (not BY wind-related damage) can file for refunds for food spoilage by downloading a Claims form on the Con Ed website at www.coned.com. Persons not having a computer can call 1-800-75CONED and speak to a customer service representative to get a form mailed out to them, (however, be prepared to go through the voice mail selections for what appears to be at least 5 minutes).

Westchester Residents or Commercial customers suffering equipment damage can file for $350 in food spoilage payments without receipts. If power failure was due to trees falling on wires, your outage is not eligible for food spoilage reimbursement.

If you wish to mail a request for a form, mail it to Con Edison, Claims Department, PO Box 801 New York NY 10276, the representative WPCNR spoke to reports.

Asked if Claims Forms were automatically going to be sent with White Plains residents’ next bills, the representative did not know at this time.

WPCNR also learned that claims forms were available at the Con Edison “Command Center”
in White Plains last week. However, the representative speaking to WPCNR said that “Command Center” in White Plains is now closed. At no time last week was WPCNR informed by the city or the county where the Con Edison “Command Center” was.

The representative said that the Claims Form can be drawn up by going on the www.coned.com website, clicking on my account and going down the “drop down” menu to Claims, clicking on claims and clicking on either the “Residential” or “Commercial” Claims forms.

WPCNR Apologizes for Mixup on Posts.

Posted on July 24, 2006 by John Bailey

WPCNR. Mr. & Mrs. & Ms. White Plains Voice. July 24, 2006: WPCNR was in error in including an addition to a reader’s review of Wal-Mart, in a case of mistaken identity, and apologizes for the mistake. As the reader points out:

Concerning my Wal-Mart review, which you yourself revised with your own words, you now state that I, the author of the letter, made that positive addendum to my post myself.

This is a lie and you have tried to wrongly discredit me and my associate. You are blatantly trying to cover up your wrongdoing.

Please print this letter as a retraction. If you do not and allow this lie to perpetuate, perhaps I can ensure your readers find out by other means.

Lois T

THE WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER NOTES: I apologize, Lois T, in mistaking a separate mailing for yours as an addendum to your original comment. Thank you for pointing this out. And I have removed the comments.

Mary Cavallero Resigns as Chairperson of the Planning Board.

Posted on July 24, 2006 by John Bailey

WPCNR CITY HALL CIRCUIT. July 24, 2006: As reported by WPCNR six months ago, Mary Cavallero, the Chairperson of the White Plains Planning Board, a member of the Board for 17 years, has resigned effective at the end of August, as she said she would.

Ms. Cavallero is the indefatigable, sharp-tongued, detail-oriented, issues-concious, fearless critiquer of sloppy site plans and relentless challenger of Gucci-shod multi-dollar-a-minute barristers’ loosey-goosey interpretations of zoning ordinances. She is the leader of the Planning Board who took sophisticated but ordinance-challenged architects “to school” monthly — catching mistakes in math, interpretation and uncreative design.

She with Robert Stackpole, John Garment, Carols Roskol were the defenders of last resort of neighborhoods and residents’ interests on many projects. She resigned in a letter to the Mayor as of July 1. Unlike certain persons in elected positions who miss things in site plans (like possibility of sewage catastrophes), Ms. Cavellero read every word of every proposal and studied site plans on her own time and raised hard issues no matter how rich, how well-connected the presenters were. Her letter:

July 1, 2006

Hon. Joseph M. Delfino

City of White Plains

255 Main Street

White Plains, NY 10601

Dear Mayor Delfino:

As you know, I announced at the December, 2005 meeting that serving on the Planning Board has become difficult as I have increased my teaching responsibilities. This purpose of this letter is to formally summit my resignation from the Planning Board, effective at the end of the August, 2006 meeting.

Over the last seventeen years, I have truly enjoyed serving the citizens of White Plains. White Plains is a wonderful city and my love for it has grown as I learned more about it.

I want to complement you and the members of the Common Council for not interfering with the work of the Planning Board. As a result, you have received our honest recommendations on all matters that are referred to us.

Sincerely,

Mary Cavallero

cc: Hon. Members of the Common Council

Eileen McClain