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)

Louis Cappelli Comes Through. Will Reline Main Street Sewer Beginning in 2 Weeks

Posted on August 13, 2004 by John Bailey

WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL. By John F. Bailey. August 12, 2004: Cappelli Enterpises announced to WPCNR Thursday that the firm will begin relining the Main Street sewer line in little more than two weeks. Bruce Berg, Vice President of Cappelli Enterprises said the firm is contracting with a private company within the next week to reline the sewer at Mr. Cappelli’s expense as agreed with the Department of Public Works. Berg said Cappelli Enterprises decided to hire their own firm rather than pay the city to execute the relining. He said work on the relining should begin very soon.

LOUIS CAPPELLI, The Super Developer Addressing the Common Council June 7, 2004 at approval of his 221 Main Street Cappelli Hotel-Condoplex. Photo by WPCNR News.

A sewer engineer told WPCNR the relining process, that consists of applying a plastic coating on the interior of the sewer pipe, has been found to improve sewer flow so much that it decreases the level of the sewer pipe by as much as 50%. He said that it prevents seepage from cracks in the sewer line, eliminates coagulations of grease and other sluggish contents that tend to slow the flow.

Louis Cappelli was very confident in the process in his appearance on White Plains Week on December 3, 2003, he explained the compromise he and the city had worked out to make sure the Main Street Sewer could handle the effluent from the City Center:

“The Department of Public Works came up with a very creative and ingenious idea that the pipe capacity could be increased substantially by lining the pipe, in effect making it smoother, and that cost of lining that pipe which is in very good shape, but could be lined is significantly less than in rebuilding the sewer because you don’t have to dig in the ground,” Cappelli said.

On that show, Cappelli explained the process: “You do it from inside. You actually get inside the pipe with special equipment, go down the pipe and you line it. It’s much cheaper.”

The Nicoletti RedLine and Nicoletti Bypass Solution.

The lining of the pipe was the suggestion of Joseph Nicoletti, Commissioner of Public Works, as a solution to the controversy over just how high the water in the pipe was running. Mr. Cappelli’s consultants said, based on flow meter tests, that it was averaging 25% tops and 15% at its lowest based on their flow meter tests.

Mr. Nicoletti doubted those results and purchased the exact same machine for the city of White Plains to check out the results over objection by Mayor Delfino. Mr. Nicoletti’s flow readings showed the sewer was averaging less than 20% average capacity.

However, the meter used only measures flow rate, it does not measure volume.

Mr. Nicoletti, leary of his Sewer Stick measurements (the standard way of measuring volume of sewer flow in cities and towns nationwide). His stick tests showed the sewer running at or near capacity. He wrote a memo to George Gretsas in September, 2001, (as the City Center approached approval), warning of “catastrophic results” if the City Center effluent from its two apartment towers were to be added to the Main Street sewer line.

The September 2001 memo surfaced by luck only last fall as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Susan Elan of The Journal News. What the memo confirmed was that Mr. Nicoletti had serious reservations about the sewer capacity that was surpressed by the City’s former Executive Officer from the Common Council.

All Council members told WPCNR they had never seen the memorandum, and did not take seriously, or did not noitce, or thought to be just “boilerplate” the paragraph written into the Site Plan Approval in which Mr. Nicoletti noted his concerns about the sewer.

As a result of the surfacing of that memo by Ms. Elan’s brilliant and gutsy FOIA, producing the effluent memo,The Mayor, Mr. Cappelli, Mr. Nicoletti and the Common Council agreed on relining the Main Street Sewer and building a separate “direct connect” sewer line, just to make sure for the Cappelli Hotel Condoplex would be safely effluented. That Hotel project (known more prosaicly as 221 Main Street) was just approved in June of 2004.

WPCNR has learned the city relined a portion of the sewer line south of Main Street on Broadway within the last year which has substantially improved the flow on South Broadway and also required and had relined the Mamaroneck Avenue sewer line as a condition of the JPI 300 Mamaroneck Avenue Jefferson project.

Louis Cappelli’s Summer Swing Postponed to August 18.

Posted on August 12, 2004 by John Bailey

WPCNR WHITE PLAINS AFTER DARK. August 12, 2004: A threatening weather forecast which did not materialize caused Cappelli Enterprises to postpone Summer Swing, the party Mr. Cappelli was throwing at Renaissance Plaza Fountain. It will be held Wednesday, August 18, 6 to 9.

SUNY IS IN THE MONEY.

Posted on August 12, 2004 by John Bailey

WPCNR’S ADAM IN ALBANY. From the Office of Assemblyman Adam T. Bradley. August 12, 2004: Assemblyman Adam Bradley (D-White Plains) announced that he helped secure over $8.75 million in capital funding for improvements at SUNY Purchase’s Campus Central Plaza in this year’s state budget.

“SUNY Purchase provides quality higher education, and has been a tremendous asset to our community. I am delighted to help the college maintain the infrastructure for those that study, work, and enjoy the SUNY Purchase campus,” Bradley said. “By helping fund these capital projects, construction jobs will be created and the cost of higher education will be kept in check.”

The money will go toward badly-needed renovations and enhancements to the plaza, which is the center of student activity and campus life. Those improvements include new pavement, enhanced lighting, upgraded waterproofing, an updated drainage system, and other important enhancements.

“SUNY Purchase really needs this funding, because the school is a vital part of our economy,” Bradley said. “I’m going to continue my efforts to invest in New York’s higher education system.”

JPI Explains Planned Jefferson Condo Test Market Plan. Declines Comment on Leak

Posted on August 12, 2004 by John Bailey

WPCNR Mamaroneck Avenue Ambler. From JPI. August 12, 2004: JPI of Irving, Texas, builders of The Jefferson at 300 Mamaroneck Avenue have released a statement explaining the concept of their planned condominum market test for The Jefferson and denied further comment on exactly how news of the condominum conversion concept was released to the media before the White Plains Common Council was informed of the plan.

WPCNR contacted Paul Crisalli’s office at JPI Thursday afternoon to clarify exactly when Mr. Crisalli spoke with media on the condominium conversion plan and revealed it to the press, as Paul Wood of the Mayor’s Office said he did, so as to absolve city hall of the charge by a member of the JPI inner management team that city hall leaked the condominium plan in advance.

Late Thursday afternoon, WPCNR was contacted by a JPI spokesman saying the company would have no further comment on this matter. However they did release a statement on their condominum plan explaining how it will be approached. Here is the text of that statement, unexpurgated, unedited:

The Residences at Jefferson Place, 300 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, NY, has received approval from the New York State Attorney General’s office to solicit interest in the project as a condominium. The approval granted pursuant to the Cooperative Policy Statement No. 1, issued by the New York State Attorney General’s Office, File No: CP04-0090, is not an offering. No offering can be made until an offering plan is filed with the Office of the Attorney General of the State of New York.

Specifically the application approved by the Attorney General’s office, commonly referred to as an “Application To Test The Market”, permits the developer to solicit indications of interest in the project for occupancy as a condominium.

Bronxville based Houlihan/Lawrence Real Estate, along with New York City’s Halstead Properties, have been retained to work on behalf of the property’s developer to solicit interest in the property as a condominium during the Test of the Market. A modest advertising campaign is planned for the end of August, with a more aggressive campaign to follow in the months of September and October. The Houlihan/Lawrence-Halstead team will provide estimated pricing at the time the marketing campaign kicks-off.

The project’s construction timetable continues to move ahead unabated by these efforts, and until the Houlihan/Lawrence-Halstead team has had an opportunity to “Test The Market”, the project’s intended use will remain that of a luxury rental property.

In order to provide for the possibility that property will be occupied as a condominium, the developer will likely make certain changes to interior finishes within the apartments. These changes include an upgrade to granite countertops, ceramic kitchen floor tiling, upgraded appliances, and wood flooring in the living room, dining area, and foyers. No changes which would alter the current unit mix, and / or size of individual apartments is contemplated.