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)

Board of Education Selects Final 3 for Superintendent; Names Community Committee

Posted on March 22, 2002 by John Bailey

Friday Getaway Gazette, By John F. Bailey, Filed 3/22/02, 4:30 PM EST: The President of the Board of Education informed WPCNR Friday that the Board has reviewed candidates for the soon-to-be-vacant (in June) Superintendent of Schools position and has selected three “finalists” for the position.
Donna McLaughlin, President, reports that in executive session held we believe Thursday evening, that the Board has selected three finalists to present to a Community Committee of citizens in approximately two weeks, who will be interviewing the three finalists for Superintendent.

Screening Committee from the Community

McLaughlin said that the “Final 3” will be interviewed by a 7-member screening committee from the community. The committee will offer representation of three District labor unions: Jerry Gorski, President of the White Plains Teachers Association, Hugh McKiernan, President of the Association of School Administrators, and Natalie Arone, President of the Civil Service Employees Association.

Representing the community will be former White Plains Councilperson, Pauline Oliva, Nancy Smith, Co-President of the White Plains PTA Council, Judith Aucar, representing Centro Hispano, and Dr. Linda Ochser, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, representing the School District.

Three Finalists a mix

The finalists are both male and female, McLaughlin said, and not all are from the Northeast or immediate geographic area. She said she was “very excited” about the selected finalists. She said the committee was “a great addition to the selection process.” Mrs. McLaughlin added that she had “always been optimistic” about attracting top candidates because White Plains was “a great district.”

Fisher Hill Committee Seeks facts About JBFCS Group Home. JBFCS Responds.

Posted on March 20, 2002 by John Bailey

WPCNR Afternoon Tribune by John F. Bailey & Correspondents, filed 3/20/02, 1:00 PM EST:Residents of Fisher Hill met with Mayor Joseph Delfino Tuesday evening and learned the city not been able to develop a clear picture of the types of Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services clients who they propose to house at 139 Walworth Avenue. A WPCNR interview with a JBFCS spokesman sheds light.

139 Walworth Avenue: Site of planned group home for formerly neglected and abused youth under the care of Jewish Board of Family and Children’ Services.
Photo by WPCNR

Residents attending the meeting told WPCNR that a citizens information committee had been formed to approach the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services and meet with the organization to get clarification of the plans.

Cynthia Ryan has agreed to head a committee of Fisher Hill residents who hope to meet with a Leonard Rodriguez, of JBFCS, who was described by the Mayor’s Office as the coordinator for the Westchester JBFCS operations. Claire Orlando, of the Fisher Hill Association said the Mayor had advised that the city had not been able to get much more information from JBFCS from contacts they had made.
JBFCS Spokesperson Clarifies Clientele

WPCNR interviewed Mindy Liss, Director of Marketing Communications for the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services, who gave us details about the young persons who are anticipated to occupy the group home at 139 Walworth Avenue.

Ms. Liss said the home is intended to house 10 children between the ages of 15 to 19, whom she described as “foster home care children, who have a history of being abused and neglected.” They are not mentally disabled. She said these children have been selected because they have “done very well,” and are considered stabilized.

She said the home residents will have 24 hour-a-day supervision, and their whereabouts will be accounted for at all times. They will be either at school or at work, she said, in closely supervised programs or when out of the home, in a supervised situation.

Ms. Liss said she is eager to meet with the Fisher Hill neighbors and explain the program, and took the number of Ms. Ryan to attempt to get in touch with her.

No date has been set for occupancy at 139 Walworth, because renovations are still on-going. She added that a group home had been run in the Eastview section of White Plains for twenty years by JBFCS, before it was closed to make room for the Clayton park apartment complex.

“White Plains Links,” the service compiled exclusively by WPCNR, tells you more about the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Service. CLICK ON “White Plains Links” in upper lefthand corner of this site, then CLICK ON the “Personal Health and Services Section,” to find the link to the JBFCS website.

King Komments:Aggressive Cleanup of Bronx River, Hale Ave, Mamaroneck Riv

Posted on March 18, 2002 by John Bailey

King Komments By White Plains City Councilman William King, Updated 03/19/02: Councilman William King, the “One Man Environmental protection Agency” on the Common Council, has been discovering to his horror, the shabby state of Westchester County-owned parklands in the city of White Plains. He’s also calling for city annexation of two Hale Avenue lots for parks and extensive cleanup of the Mamaroneck River within the city on April 6. Here are his latest observations with a call to action as Earth Day approaches.
We really have to put some fences up across the streams and stormwater flowages into the Bronx River from White Plains. Greenburgh and North Castle should too.

I just walked the river banks north of the County Center again over the weekend and the litter and trash on the banks is atrocious. Too much litter is flowing into the Bronx River. We have to catch it before it gets into the river. The river is being seriously affected by “non point source pollution.”

Calls for “Litter Catchers.”

We could have volunteer litter cleanups every other weekend all year long and we would not be able to catch up with the new litter floating in.

I will try to sponsor as many volunteer litter cleanups this year in the Bronx River as possible but I need some immediate action by the municipalities that they will do their civic duty in installing the fences and then starting having regular “litter catcher” cleanouts (at least once a week). We should install tight mesh screen fences that go below the water line and several feet above that would be several feet in front of every storm drain that pours directly into the Bronx River or into one of its tributaries. These Litter Catchers will catch the “floatables” before they wash further downstream.

Squatters Noted.

I noticed many birds nesting in this area but it must be so lousy for them nesting amongst all the trash. Needless to say, all the litter in the river and along its banks and tributaries makes it totally uninviting to people, save for a few squatters here and there that I have noticed evidence of, and puts the whole Bronx River area in the “loser” category.

We’ve got to get serious and get on top of this lousy situation.

Storm Drain Mesh Covers Urged

We should also install new steel mesh covers over some of our existing storm drains which we know from cleaning out are in the more problematic litter areas. I noticed such covers recently over the manholes in Norwalk, Ct. which also has a riverfront area they are way ahead of us in reclaiming.

The whole Bronx River Parkway Reservation could be so much nicer and more pristine – otherwise, why have it?

The city of White Plains and the towns of Greenburgh and North Castle have to get more proactive about helping keep this county parkland cleaner. We all have to jump on this one – right now.

City should Annex Hale Avenue Trash Sites
I would also like to mention that there is a really strong argument for the city acquiring the vacant, overgrown lots on each side of the north end of Hale Ave. next to Fortunoff’s and across from the Westchester Pavilion for a neighborhood playground and extra open space/parking space.

The lots have just sat there for years and years and all kinds of trash have been dumped on them and not picked up by the owners, totally blighting the neighborhood. I picked up all the tires there and stacked them along with other major pieces of trash. This can’t be happening in our city while we are on the watch.

“Outdoor Junkyard” in Mamaroneck River

I was checking out this stream that runs behind the 2 lower income apt. buildings on the east side of Lake St and the County DOT garage in Harrison, just below Silver Lake. Just north of the northern building in the little woods there I noticed a big metal desk and other items that make it look like some kind of “outdoor junkyard office” or it could even be used for some kind of rudimentary outdoor sleeping accomodations.

I think this is City land. Can we (the city) check this out and, if on city property, clean this area out? Per the Rec Master Plan, I want to have some Boy Scouts and other volunteers clean out the stream along Delfino Park, from the I-287 bridge north to the Silver Lake dam. But if this big mess in the woods is there, the scouts and volunteers will feel their efforts will be in vain.

I would like to do the stream cleanup on Sat., April 6. Can the (Department of Public Works) guys get that desk and other big junk out there? I also think we need to cut back the dense overgrowth there by the stream so people can get to it and use it and so we can get the litter and trash out of there. Do we have such a crew?

Thanks, Bill King

School Board Impressed with first set of 5 Superintendent Candidates;

Posted on March 18, 2002 by John Bailey

WPCNR Morning Edition, by John F. Bailey, 3/18/02, 11:00 AM EST: The President of the Board of Education reported to WPCNR Monday that Saturday’s opening round of talks with candidates for the vacant Superintendent of Schools position went “very well.” Tonight, the public is invited to the first presentation of the 2002-03 school budget at Education House at 8 PM.

Hazard, Young and Attea, the superintendent research consultants, said they would deliver between 3 and 6 candidates for White Plains to consider and they have done that.

Donna McLaughlin, President of the Board, delivered a report on the first round of superintendent interviews which commenced Saturday morning in Rye Brook, at a secluded local hotel.

Two Sessions.

McLaughlin said the full board interviewed the first set of candidates for two hours each Saturday morning, and are planning to bring in another set of candidates Wednesday evening.

McLaughlin described the interviews as having gone “very well, I’m very excited. We still have more to go, John. We only did the first set, we have another set coming up. It’s hard to say until I get the whole picture.”

WPCNR asked if she was impressed with the slate, her comment: “So far.”

Screening Committee Will Quiz 2 or 3 Finalists

McLaughlin disclosed that five candidates are being interviewed, with the second set coming in Wednesday evening: “We’re going to weed them down to two or three, then bring them back in in a couple of weeks. At that time we’re going to bring in another committee to join us (in the finalist interviews).”

McLaughlin said this screening committee would be made up of the Presidents of the 3 unions (White Plains Teachers Association, Civil Service Employees Association, and Administrators and Supervisors Association), a citizen at large, a representative from Centro-Hispano, and a PTA Co-President.

They’re coming to White Plains from all over.

McLaughlin said the candidates were not exclusively from the Northeast, but “from all over. We asked all kinds of questions, tried to cover the gamut.”

She said she was impressed with the answers she got: “We have to interview everybody, and weed it down, based on their answers.”

When asked what role salary would play in this, McLaughlin said, “We haven’t discussed it. Our number one criteria is the best candidate for White Plains. That’s our criteria.”

In other Board activity…

The Board of Education will hold its first public hearing on the 2002-03 School Budget tonight at Education House at 8 PM. The budget is expected to decline slightly from its last level which was over $127MM with an increase the same as last year, 7.1%.