Westchester Team Image Is 2nd in Colonial Classic…2nd Silver In Row.

WPCNR PRESS BOX. By John F. Bailey. January 12, 2004, UPDATED WITH FINAL PIX 4:45 P.M. E.S.T.: Team Image the Intermediate Synchronized Skating Team of the Yonkers Figure Skating Club, skated to its second straight Silver Medal competing against 11 other synchronized skating teams at New England’s Colonial Classic in Lowell, Massachussetts this weekend. The strong second place finish behind the impeccable grace and style of the Colonial Figure Skating Club of Acton, Mass, followed on the blades of  the Intermediate Class Team Image’s second place finish at the Cape Cod Classic in Bourne four weeks ago.



 


HIGH ENERGY, CLOSE-IN SKATING WITH FLOURISHES  with Colorful Dance Hall Costumes, Big Hair and  Big Smiles From Here to Here whisked Team Image to Second Place Sunday morning even though performing in the final position among 11 teams. Here the Girls look like The June Taylor Dancers on Skates in their 4-minute program at the state-of-the-art Tsongas Arena in Lowell Sunday morning. Photo by WPCNR Sports


 


 




Team Image Intermediate consists of 22 girls 15 or younger, living in Westchester, The Bronx, New Jersey, Rockland and Connecticut, was joined by their sisters-in-ice-perfection by the Team Image Juveniles (11 and under) who finished 4th in their event; Team Image Preliminary (75% of whom are 9-and-under years of age) who finished 2nd; and the Team Image Seniors (aged 15-and over), who finished 2nd in the Short Program and 4th in their long program.



ON THE CIRCLE: TEAM IMAGE PRELIMARY TEAM about to peform the wheel, skating in Lowell, Massachussetts Sunday. Photo by WPCNR Sports.



TEAM IMAGE TRANSITIONS ONE OF THE REQUIRED SYNCHRO MOVES, THE WHEEL. Photo by WPCNR Sports.



 


Team Image travels to events via chartered luxury bus just like major league teams and skaters. They practice five days a week, both on and off the ice at New Roc City, Stamford Twin Rinks, and of course, their home rink, Murray’s in Yonkers. Coached by Sylvia Muccio, the club sends out teams in each of the levels in the United States Figure Skating Synchronized Skating competitions.


 


Girls Serious About Synchro. Football on Ice.


 


The Synchro experience depends on the young ladies’ abilities to listen, assimilate, execute, and remember instinctively where you should be every second you are performing on the ice, and of course, great skating.


 



PERFECT CIRCLE: A lot like football, synchronized skaters  require courage, fearlessness, and ability to trust in your teammates to be where they are supposed to be to execute moves like the wheel, the moving ladder, and the awesome backward lunge splice that is the move of the year in synchro in the intermediate division. The backward lunge splice was executed flawlessly by the creative standard, the Colonials at the Cape Cod Classic, and was added to programs by three other teams at the Lowell competition, including Team Image. Photo by WPCNR Sports.


 



WE DID IT! Team Image finishes with a flourish! Photo by WPCNR Sports.


 


 


A Taste of The Road Life of the Professional Skater


 


When the teams arrive at a venue, be it Bourne, Mass, Lowell, or Providence,  they spend 4 to 5 hours in off-ice practice in hotel ball rooms, executing and going through the sequences, much like a football team in chalk talk sessions. Some hours before the team performs their program, they get a chance to practice on the arena ice they will skate on for a limited time. Part of the tremendous pressure on the synchronized coaching staffs is preparing the girls mentally and physically off-ice to make the most of their limited ice practice time at the performance rink.


 


Scheduling an ice practice at Murray’s at 1 on Friday, the team left by charter bus arriving Friday evening in Lowell, all four Team Image teams had their off-ice time and practice times the next day Saturday.


 


Skating at the big time arenas just like the pros.


 


Of course, you never know what kind of ice you are going to be skating on. The Lowell Colonial Classic was conducted at Tsongas Arena a beautiful professional facility to skate in, in the heart of Lowell’s elegantly gentrified downtown. The arena is a marvelous resource, providing a terrific facility for the city. The management, courtesy, and the way the Colonials parents ran the competition was to be admired for the smoothness and professionalism. Madison Square Garden could take lessons.


 



 


TEAM IMAGE PERFORMS WITH THEIR NAME IN LIGHTS: about  to execute the Backward Lunge Splice, Team Image performs under their name on the overhead scoreboard, just like their figure skating idols, the Kwans, the Cohens, the Lipinskis. Photo by WPCNR Sports.


 


 


 


Unfortunately there is no intermediate professional facility in the entire New York Metropolitan area which could host such an event. Madison Square Garden, The Meadowlands, and Nassau Coliseum are too large and expensive to rent. However, a city such as Lowell, with slightly over 100,000 persons, can have a rink of this size?


 



THE TSONGAS ARENA IN LOWELL: Built in 1998, it seats 6,800 people, 7,800 for concerts, with press box, clean modern restrooms and snackbars, it is a venue for hockey, performing arts, and basketball. It will host the 2005 U.S. Figure Skating Synchronized Skating Championships, something that Westchester County cannot do.  Photo by WPCNR Sports.


 


Going to an event like the Colonial Classic in a classy place like Tsongas,  begs the question as to why Westchester County with over 1,000,000 people  does not have an intermediate size facility like this that could host the 81 teams that competed here this weekend. There is no rink in Westchester County that could host, let alone have the hotels to accommodate the influx of the estimated 6,000 to 7,000 skaters and 13,000 parents who accompany them. Playland Ice Casino does not have the seating, nor does Westchester Skating Academy. Ice Hutch, and Murrays, and Katonah Harvey School are too small. New Roc City could possibly host such a competition, but it would be tight.


 


Ice Quality Variability.


 


All teams noted the ice was slow, as most professional arenas are. Slow ice means you can not skate your program as fast as you would like, it throws off your timing with your music, and you have to adjust as best you can.  In the programs this reporter watched in the Preliminary Division, all teams appeared to be affected with their programs skating slightly slower than they skated them in the Cape Cod Classic.


 


For the Team Image Intermediate Team, this was a big test, the girls were thrilled with their second place at the Cape Cod Classic December 19. Could they skate better?


 



 


 THE MEDALS CEREMONY: Sunday they found out, skating in the final performing position,  they executed strongly with good energy  to seize a solid second place, vaulting 10 other teams except one, the divine Colonials. Photo by WPCNR Sports



TEAM IMAGE POSES FOR THEIR SILVER MEDAL PHOTO: Skater in the signature Team Image warm-up suit (all teams get a complete wardrobe of neat Team Image logo embossed jackets, sweats, pullovers, skate bags and sweatshirts rivaling the NFL Team Merchandise), was injured rehearsing the infamous backward lunge splice and teammates insisted she be in the photo. Photo by WPCNR Sports.


 



A SILVER SMILE! Photo by WPCNR Sports.


 


The opportunity to meet the greatest skaters from clubs all over the northeast and Midwest (81 in all),  is a marvelous experience for the girls. Team Image Intermediate  competed against Team Esprit from Hamden, CT., Sheer Ice from Pawtucket, R.I., Blades of Gold from Marlborough, MA.; Ice Illusions from Ogdensburg, N.Y.; The Snowbirds from Fitchburg, MA.; The Munchkins of Warwick, R.I., Precisely Right from Morristown, N.J., The Storm  of Haverhill, MA.; The Ice-Lantics  of Farmingdale, N.J., and the  Diamond Chips of Newark, Delaware, and of course, the Colonials. Each team presented artistic interpretations to music of their choice, originally choreographed.


 


Souvenirs and skating club pins and t-shirts and sweatshirts customized for each competition do a brisk hand-over-fist-with-cash business. It is a right of belonging to show you’re skating with the best.


 


Sportsladyship.


 


The first order of the day though is excellence and pushing yourself, and respecting the excellence of other teams’ efforts.


 


When Team Image finished 2nd at the Cape Cod competition, one T.I. member was not aware of it and was told by members of another team she had finished second, a skater on a team that did not place as well, said, “You were awesome!”


 


The Colonials Ladies are the state-of-the-ice-art in the Intermediate division. They skated in formal black costumes to the dynamic James Bond theme with group moves, exchanges and transitions that one observer described as melting into each other. They caught the mood of the music with their skating body language elegantly and radiated the savoire faire of the inimitable Mr. Bond magically. The Colonials are, as they say in Brooklyn,  a “woithee”, admirable standard of performance, commitment, creativity and execution.


 


Skating Looks Beautiful But It Is Danger Without Pads or Nets.


 


The guts it takes to synchro skate as well as figure skate cannot be underestimated. Those skating blades are sharp.


 


Team Image was particularly concerned about a new move they added to their four minute- program:  the dreaded backward lunge splice.  In this maneuver, a line of skaters, kneeling on ice in a two-point stance flow backwards at a line of an equal number of other skaters flowing backwards at them, right knee up, left leg extended backwards behind them, with razor sharp skate blades up  gliding between each other.  If you do not splice, you may end up getting sliced.


 


One slight misdirection and a razor sharp skating blade can tear up an oncoming skater’s leg badly, and the blades are coming at you at a swift medium speed. It is a lunge that takes courage, trust, nerve, heart, confidence, you name it. It’s a lot like 6 tight ends trying to catch passes between 6 defenders on ice skates.


 


This actually happened to a Team Image skater at the team’s New Roc practice one week ago.  A Team Image skater was severely cut on the knee when there was a very slight misalignment on the move. However, the girls wanted to continue the move, and worked through it.


 


Team Image Intermediate executed their backward splice lunge immaculately with good speed, without incident, and hope to be adding more enhancements to their program before they head to the Eastern Championships January 29 through the 31st in Providence, Rhode Island.



 


THEIR OWN MEMORIES ON ICE: From Competitor’s Badge, to Colonial Classics Pin, to Official Program, while Michelle Kwan and Sasha Cohen were skating in the U.S.Figure Skating Championships, Team Image and 80 other Synchronized Skating Teams had a competition of their own. Photo by WPCNR Sports.


 


 

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Board of Ed Expected to Approve All Day K Tonight, 55 as Passing on Regents

WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. January 12, 2004: The Board of Education will take up two historic issues tonight at Education House beginning at 7:30 P.M. The Board will vote to offer full Day Kindergarten for all beginning students in September 2004, and will follow the trend of the rest of New York State and keep the passing grade for 2004 Regents examinations at 55, instead of raising it to 65 as the district had previously planned.



 


ALL-DAY K ADVOCATE: Dr. Sharon Kagan, Professor of Early Childhood and Family Policy at Columbia University Teachers College, and Professor Adjunct at the Yale University Child Study Center for Children, and a consultant to President George W. Bush on the kindergarten issue, delivered an impassioned account of the national phenomena and benefits of all-day kindergarten to 65 persons, including teachers and parents last Monday at White Plains High School. She said that studies have shown that All-Day Kindergarten creates students better equipped to learn when they move to First Grade, with a dramatic drop in first grade retention rates, creating running starts for children, especially minorities. The upgrade to All-Day K will cost the School District $1.2 Million to hire 9 new teachers and renovate existing school space, according to Assistant Superintendent for Business, Terrance Schurers. Photo by WPCNR News.


Superintendent of Schools, Timothy Connors, brought Dr. Kagan to the district to give the Board and White Plains parents a perspective on All-Day K, the realities and the myths.


 


Kagan began with noting the growth of All-Day: she said that today 60% of today’s students who attend kindergarten prior to first grade attend full-day programs. This percentage has grown from 25% in 1979, to 40% in 1990 to today’s 60% level (as of 2000). She noted that the fastest growing segment of learning was “home schooling” which schools 2% of the kindergarten-eligible children in the country.


 


The professor said the advantages of All Day K included “a more relaxed instructional pace,” “more classroom involvement and time for children to reflect on their learning,” and “greater academic gains.”


 


She said that private child care facilities have begun offering kindergarten.


 


Public school kindergartens, she said, have come to look “more like nursery schools, highly structured, child centered.” They see all-day kindergarten as “an antidote to the learning gap affecting children with socio-economic issues and children with difficult backgrounds.”


 


Getting Ready to Learn.


 


She noted that studies show ‘Kindergarten makes a difference” in getting children ready to learn. She defined Half-day vs Full-Day, as being on average 4 hours of class a day versus 7 hours a day. The average All-Day Kindergarten she said runs 5 to 6 hours a day.


 


The reasons for these advantages, she reports, are that the children “spend more time engaged in child-initiated activities,” receive more one-on-one “teacher-directed individual work,” (teachers being able to zero in on individual childrens’ learning paces and devise personalized teaching tracks). She said that the All Day Format cut down the percentage of classtime spent in teacher-directed large groups, according to the Elicker and Mathur study, “What Do They Do All Day?”


 


She shared with the gathering the Gulb study, “Long Term Educational Effects of Half-Day vs. Full-Day Kindergarten,” which has determined, she said that


 



  • Children who attended full-day kindergarten scored significantly higher than children in half-day programs on both math and reading standardized achievement tests in 2nd grade.
  • Fewer children who attended full-day programs were retained in grade by 2nd grade.
  • (Children) improved language skills, social development, and academic achievement, particularly for children from low-income backgrounds.

 


`


Debunking myths.


 


Dr. Kagan dismissed what she characterized as “the myths” of All-Day Kindergarten. The myth that “children tire quickly,” is just that. This is “not so,” she said. “They are more than ready to handle a full day.”


 


It has been said that most parents will select a half-day K, but Kagan said, the overwhelming majority of parents select All Day programs when they are made available.


 


The mindset that “public schools should  not be in the business of providing custodial child care for young children,” has been, she said, proven to be not a good choice, because of the documented success of early learning programs before age 5 in preparing socio and economically disadvantaged children.


 


The All-Day K program, she said, continues the environment of the nurturing early learning environment by providing programs that are less didactive less prescriptible than Half-Day, where there is “more time in teacher-directed work and in large groups.”


 


Address All Areas of Development.


 


“Dr. K.” advised that any All-Day K would need a well-rounded curriculum, and “fully comprehensive, addressing all areas of (child) development,” including motor development. “To eliminate motor development is wrong. It is essential.”


 


She said All Day K should develop a child’s approach towards learning. I would ask, “Are they creative? Are they curious?”


 


Be careful Whom You Select To Teach


 


In developing an All Day K program, Dr. Kagan noted that many administrators desire the “broadest possible certification requests” in hiring kindergarten teachers. She feels it is crictical to hire teachers trained in early childhood development, and not select just any certification. “I would impose mandatory M-K to M to 1 Certification.”


 


Ratios.


 


Kagan said, as is commonly known, that All-Day Kindergarten is most effective with low class room ratios. We see a big difference going from 1 to 19 to 1 to 15. White Plains schools have usually 2 teachers (Lead and Assistant) for approximately 25 students, or 1 to 12.


 


You can Never Recoup


 


Kagan’s most serious statement of the evening was her admonition that early learning was critical, citing the studies showing the success of pre-kindergarten programs in addressing socio-economically disadvantaged children. She said “early learning” is critical in getting  children ready to learn, “it cannot be recouped.”


 


Timothy Connors, Superintendent of Schools, in response to a question in the q & a that followed, said that Half-Day would be made available to parents who requested it, however, he expected the percentage requesting that option would be very small. Presently, All-Day kindergarten is parceled out on a lottery basis in White Plains.


 


For more information on childrens learning studies, WPCNR refers you to this website  of the National Center for Children and Families, based at Columbia University, of which Dr. Sharon Kagan is a Co-Director. The site is at www.ccf.tc.columbia.edu/index.html.

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Killer Cold Implodes Home Infrastructures

WPCNR HOMETOWN SECURITY NEWS. By John F. Bailey. January 10, 2004: Plumbers in the White Plains area, heating oil companies were overwhelmed Saturday with a rash of panicked homeowners, whose heat stopped working when home heating systems, put under stress by the single digit cold bank that has “quick-frozen” White Plains and surrounding towns. The cold cloak was lifted Sunday with temperatures beginning at 3 degrees at dawn Sunday and rising to 19 by mid-afternoon.


The WPCNR News Headquarters was no exception from low of 0 degrees at 8 A.M., temperatures peaked at 13 degrees at 2 P.M.. At WPCNR, an over-burdened system blew a 53-year old steam return pipe causing water pressure to drop and requiring installation of a new return pipe, that required a return visit to fix when it, too sprung a leak after an hour. It was a problem that could be fixed, unlike homes abandoned by their owners.


A homeowner vacationing in Florida, my plumber told me, called them to say his maid had reported pipes were frozen, but in this case, there was nothing to be done because the plumber explained, when the ice melts, the pipes will leak due to the ice expanding in the pipes having opened the joints. If pipes are frozen, our plumber advises, damage to your home can be mitigated by turning off the main water valve until the ice melts. 


WPCNR’s oil company was swamped with calls Friday evening and was only handling heating emergencies. The cold was taking its toll on boilers, pipes, heating systems, sparing no one.

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DFEIS Without Technical Reports Appears at White Plains Public Library.

WPCNR MAIN STREET LINE.  January 10, 2004: In apparent reaction to Dan Seidel’s extracting the Draft Final Environmental Impact Statement from City Hall, by pointing out a law to them they did not know about, the City of White Plains has made available the Draft Final Environmental Impact Statement on the 221 Main Street Project. The DFEIS was inadvertently or intentionally suppressed from the White Plains citizens who asked for it. It is now available to the public in the White Plains Public Library. However, a reader notes that the document available in the library  is not complete and is missing its key appendices. The documents in the appendices explain the answers found in the main body of the document. In a comment, a White Plains “CitizeNetReporter” writes:





A “CitizeNetReporter” attempting to look at the Draft Final Environmental Impact Statement on the Cappelli Hotel project at 221 Main Street, at the White Plains Public Library,  reports that as of Wednesday, the 7th of January,  two days after Dan Seidel exposed the city failure to release the DFEIS to him when he requested it, violating the New York State Code of Rules and Regulations, that the DFEIS is on file now at the White Plains Public Library is incomplete, because it is missing the Technical Reports section, or appendices referred to by the bulk of the document.


The White Plains Public Library Reference Desk Specialist confirmed to WPCNR Saturday afternoon by telephone, that the library copy of the DFEIS did not contain what she described as “The Third Part, Technical Reports”. The Specialist did not know whether the Technical Reports were kept separately in the library, but they were definitely not with the DFEIS on file.


Public Gets to Read A DFEIS without backup


 Mr. Seidel, WPCNR readers will recall, analyzed the Draft Final Environmental Impact Statement with its appendices last week and made a number of technical criticisms of it on live public television Monday evening at the hearing on the Cappelli Hotel Project before the Common Council.


According to the “CitizeNetReporter,” who drew this to WPCNR’s attention: “They (the city) have removed the Draft Environmental Impact Statement,  and the draft DEIS from the WP Library and replaced it with a second edition of a “Draft FEIS”, but without appendices (the technical advisory reports as well as agency and state agency comments and letters) as contained in the 1st DFEIS filed with the City Clerk.”


The citizen feels there is a bit of a mystery as to why there are no technical reports, and offers a theory:  “Both 1st and 2nd editions of the DFEIS ( in the City Clerk’s office) are dated as submitted “12/15/03” and the 2nd Edition now on display in the library has hand written on the face sheet 12/13/03, something not written on the 1st Edition in the City Clerk’s office. The 1st Edition was without many Lead Agency comments and now the 2nd one,athough dated before the first one, has those (Lead Agency) comments, but no tech reports.”


The Draft Final Environmental Impact Statement Turned Over to Seidel Contained Technical Reports.


Mr. Seidel’s 5-minute “rough cut” on the Draft Final Environmental Impact statement contained a number of general criticisms, none of which could be heard well by the audience viewing from the comfort of their homes on WPGA-TV, Channel 75, last Monday evening, of which WPCNR was one.


WPCNR was able to hear the comments because our staff videotaped the hearing and reviewed it late Monday evening, being able to enhance the volume. WPCNR asked Mr. Seidel Wednesday to summarize some of his raw analysis, since he is the only other person other than Cappelli Enterprises and the members of the Common Council to have seen the DFEIS.


Cappelli Enterprises Got Copy, Prompting City to Release DFEIS


George Gretsas, the City’s Executive Officer, identified Cappelli Enterprises as the “someone not of White Plains city government who had seen the DFEIS” which lead City Corporation Counsel, Edward Dunphy to the ruling that since, someone other than the city govenrment had seen it, the DFEIS had to be released to the public. Mr. Gretsas told WPCNR by telephoneThursday the city was unaware of the New York State Code of Rules and Regulations statute that said that once filed, documents had to be made available to the public.


Mr. Seidel sent these comments to WPCNR and he makes many references to the appendices and technical reports citing what he feels are mistakes in selection of standards of measurement in some of the appendices, indicating to WPCNR that it would appear to be impossible to have confidence in Draft Final Environmental Impact Statements without the appropriate appendices the main text of the DFEIS refers to.


Seidel’s Written Analysis to WPCNR Shows Value of Technical Reports to Determine How Hard the Look Is


Mr. Seidel’s comments to us on sewage and wastewater, would not have been able to come to a conclusion, other than implicit trust in the experts of the city and the developer, if he had not had the Technical Reports section. This rudimentary analysis of just one section of the DFEIS by Mr. Seidel, (he provided to WPCNR  on request), shows how essential it is to have the technical reports to evaluate the efficacy of the DFEIS statements.


DFEIS page II-H-2, Comment H3 (fromPublic hearing 2, Dan Seidel, 9/2/03) “You’re talking about problematic sewer hookups, water service.”

Applicant Response: refers back to Appendix D of the DEIS  for the discussion of electricity. The Response then refers back to “DFEIS Applicant Response H9 and H10 regarding sewer capacity for the project”.

Applicant Responses H9 and H10 base the estimates of water and waste water demands in stats and reports as provided in the DEIS Chapter III-D.

III-D-2 and D-7,8,9 of the DEIS talk about water usage and wastewater flow averages, indicating that a 3 bedroom unit will produce about 400 GallonsPerDay (gpd) of wastewater. The consumption stats are from NYS Dept of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the wastewater flows are from the same source.

The stats are supplemented by a Divney 4 page letter dated 9/18/03, (DFEIS Tech Appendices Exhibit “F”) addressing the “concerns” and still basing the data of outflow on the Averages, as produced by the NYSDEC, not on actual usage or projected,site specific actual usage ( ie scenario: 50 people taking showers in the 6:45-7 a.m. period and putting, at 2.5 gpm shower heads with 8 minute showers, at about 125 gpm into the system, then add 50 more people at sinks washing up (3-5 gpm = 150-250 at that same time period, then 50 more people at kitchen sinks (2-5 gpm= 100-250 at that same time and you have about 375-650 gpm (a conservative morning estimate residential peak from a partially filled building) peak (150-250 residents).This does not even take into account projected businesses firing up in the morning, and local heavy rains or snow-melts, other business uses, etc.  The averages used also assume a 1.2 gal rate for a bath (not very realistic) (I can’t find that sheet right now!). AT full capacity for the 221 Main project, you could have disastrous occurrences at peak flow times, when coupled with runoff from stormwater, snow melt, etc. AND the cumulative impact upon the sewer system by 10 Main, City Center and other proposed towers, almost undoubtedly causing the sewer and other city infrastructures to use up whatever “spare capacity”, more in particularly what ever  exists after City Center fully comes on line.


The Divney letter appears in the appendices, which are missing from the copy of the DFEIS for review by the public at the White Plains Public Library as of Saturday at 1 P.M. Any citizen opening that DFEIS  desiring to get a handle on how the comment was answered can only guess at what the Divney letter (in DFEIS Tech Appendices Exhibit “F”), says about it.




 





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