WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From the Westchester County Board of Legislators with a WPCNR interview with Ken Jenkins.  August 8, 2014  (Edited)

County Legislator Kenneth Jenkins announced today that he has introduced legislation to lease the Playland amusement area to a partnership comprised of Central Amusements and Standard Amusements, the two remaining respondents to the proposal to reinvent Playland, which was issued by County Executive Astorino in 2010.

Mr. Jenkins told WPCNR, the legislation is in the form of a “Bill-Memo” that has yet to be considered within committee yet. He said at this time, “no other legislator is buying into it yet, we haven’t even dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s yet.”

He described  the “bill memo” as an attempt to get both amusement companies to run Playland jointly, that would possibley get the County $3 million to pay the Playland debt service as early as 2015, while the firm or firms if a common lease could be hammered would invest $25 Million the park in refreshed rides, new rides, while preserving the historic one.

Jenkins said the proposals of the two firms had already been examined by the Board three years ago, and the firms have not altered their proposal and he said they have not altered it significantly. He said Legislator Peter Harckham’s committee when they take up the review process again in September could do what they wished. He said Harckham had not backed his joint proposal at this time.

Jenkins told WPCNR, both Central Amusements and Standard would pay for County Police security at the park, would allow free admission and charge for rides only; move county employees out of Playland and hire summer employees. He said the details of the lease had not been worked out, and that was part of the idea of submitting a “bill-memo” so the concept of how a joint deal might be worked out. “Everybody participates adds, takes away, and shapes the final bill.”

The proposed legislation will be referred to committee at the next regular meeting of the Westchester County Board of Legislators (BOL) on September 8, 2014, after it was held over at the last BOL meeting on August 4, 2014 by Minority Leader John Testa (R-Peekskill).

Editor’s Note:The legislation is being introduced before the new review of Central Amusements and Standard Amusements “visions” and financials for Playland should they take it over, even begins. That review is not scheduled until September, reported County Legislator Benjamin Boykin to WPCNR Tuesday evening. 

The proposed legislation that Jenkins has introduced to enter into a lease agreement to operate the Playland amusement area with Central Amusements and Standard Amusements is modeled on the County’s lease with the Children’s Museum to operate at Playland  which was adopted unanimously by the BOL after being vetoed by County Executive Astorino.

Editor’s Note: the lease with the Children’s Museum  was for a lease fee of $1 a year, with the Museum investing, at last indication,$10 Million in money to fill the bathhouse with attractions.  The organization has yet to raise the $10 Million, after the county invested over $8 Million in renovating the North Bathhouse for the museum which the county is not expecting to be paid back. In return, Mr. Jenkins told WPCNR  this afternoon, the Museum would invest $8 to $12 Million in fleshing out the museum.

“The combined talents of these two world-class amusement operators and their confirmed investment of $25 million into Playland with a guaranteed minimum payment to Westchester County is a win-win-win situation for this great park’s future and the county’s taxpayers,” said Jenkins. “I am hopeful that this legislation can be considered and adopted in time to positively impact the 2015 County Budget.”

Lawsuit Against Astorino Management Agreement Is Withdrawn.

 
Westchester County Legislator Ken Jenkins (D-Yonkers)also  announced today that the lawsuit challenging the management agreement between Westchester County and Sustainable Playland, Inc. (SPI) has been terminated, now that Sustainable Playland has withdrawn from consideration.

“Filing a lawsuit was the only option after County Executive Astorino entered into the management agreement with Sustainable Playland without the approval of the Board of Legislators, which is required for any County contract that exceeds five years,” said Jenkins. “The SPI agreement crumbled under the scrutiny of the Board of Legislators’ review process.  The truth, though, is that this management agreement should have never been authorized by the Board of Acquisition and Contract in the first place without the approval of the Board of Legislators.”

Yonkers attorney Evan Inlaw represented Jenkins and entered into an agreement to terminate the legal action after receiving a copy a letter, which is attached to this press release, from SPI to County Executive Astorino, noting that the not-for-profit organization was exercising its right to terminate the Asset Management Agreement it had signed with Westchester County to revitalize Playland.

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WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS.From the New York State Education Department (Edited). August 7:

As WPCNR and White Plains Week first reported  last June, and again reported last week, the New York State Education Department  released approximately 50 percent of the questions used on the 2014 Grades 3 – 8 assessments Wednesday.

The released questions will, the Department said in a news release, help students, families, educators, and the public understand the breadth and depth with which the state tests measure college and career readiness.

Education Commissioner  John King, Jr.(center) after a meeting of the Westchester Business Council June  11 when he first said in response to a WPCNR question, that Common Core Assessment Test Questions would be released this month.

“The test questions we are releasing today (Wednesday), coupled with item level data analysis and instructional reports made available in July, are important components of a comprehensive approach to instructional planning and professional development,” said   Education Commissioner John B. King, Jr.  “We’ve listened to New York State educators make the case that having more test questions available would benefit our kids so we’ve doubled the number and provided a thorough explanation for every student response.”

The released questions represent a range of difficulty and illustrate how student performance is assessed in accordance with the learning expectations and instructional shifts established by the New York State Common Core Learning Standards.  Released questions can help inform classroom instruction and local assessment practices.

The released questions are posted here: https://www.engageny.org/resource/new-york-state-common-core-sample-questions 

For each released multiple-choice question, explanations are provided, detailing how the question measures the intended learning standard and why the right answer is correct and why wrong answers are incorrect.

For constructed response questions, several examples of student work are provided, with explanations of why the responses received the scores they did.

“New York State students and their teachers are rising to the challenge,” said Regents Chancellor Merryl H. Tisch.  “Educators can use this information together with student work from throughout the school year to help understand whether their instruction, assignments and classroom assessments reflect the rigor and depth of our learning standards and our statewide assessments.”

The 3-8 assessments are only one indicator among multiple measures of student performance and are intended to be used in conjunction with other tools to gauge student performance, educator effectiveness and school accountability. All Regional Information Centers (RICs) offer reports that allow educators to see the percentage of students that answered each test question correctly and (for released test questions) the percentage of students who selected each incorrect response.

This year, NYSED requested additional funding in the New York State Budget to increase the number of test forms – because more test forms would enable the Department to release more test questions and eliminate stand-alone multiple choice field tests. The request was not funded in this year’s budget.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires that states annually administer tests in English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics in grades 3 – 8 and high school. The 2014 Grades 3–8 Common Core ELA and Mathematics New York State Testing Program (NYSTP) has been designed to measure student knowledge and skills as defined by grade-level New York state standards in ELA and Mathematics.

A wide range of resources are available to parents and educators on State Assessments:

Performance Level Descriptions for 3-8 ELA and Math Tests that describe the knowledge and skills students should display at each performance level:

https://www.engageny.org/resource/performance-level-descriptions-for-ela-and-mathematics

Suggested analyses for 3-8 ELA and Math Tests that support student learning:

https://www.engageny.org/resource/suggested-data-analyses-for-3-8-ela-and-mathematics-state-tests

Test Guides for each grade and subject that contain specific details about the number of questions on each test, which standards are measured on each test, and how students will be graded on their performance:

https://www.engageny.org/resource/test-guides-for-english-language-arts-and-mathematics

Item and passage selection criteria for the 3-8 Assessments:

https://www.engageny.org/resource/new-york-state-passage-selection-resources-for-grade-3-8-assessments

https://www.engageny.org/resource/new-york-state-item-review-criteria-for-grade-3-8-english-language-arts-tests

At the high school level new Regents exams aligned to the NYS Common Core learning standards are being phased in and the complete exams were posted in June.

The Common Core Regents Exam in ELA (including annotated questions) is posted at:

https://www.engageny.org/resource/spring-2014-regents-examination-ela-common-core-resources

The Common Core Regents Exam in Algebra I (including annotated questions) is posted at:

https://www.engageny.org/resource/spring-2014-regents-examination-mathematics-algebra-i-common-core-resources

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WPCNR ENERGY & ANSWERS. From the Office of State Senator 35th Senate District, Andrea Stewart-Cousins. (Edited) August 5, 2014:

Today, Environment New York Research & Policy Center released a new report: “Lighting the Way” showing strong solar growth across the nation including a 30% increase in New York in 2013.

The report emphasizes that it is not availability of sunlight that makes states solar leaders, but the degree to which state and local governments have created effective public policy to help capture the virtually unlimited and pollution-free energy from the sun.

New York’s progress on solar has helped fuel a tripling of solar energy nationwide between 2011 and 2013. In 2013, solar capacity in New York grew from 175 MW to 250 MW. (Editor’s Note: this is comparable to the output of the Indian Point nuclear power plant in one year.)

 “Solar energy is emerging as a go-to energy option here in New York and across the country,” said Heather Leibowitz, Director of Environment New York. “Thanks to the commitment of New York’s leaders, this pollution-free energy option is poised to play a major role in helping us meet New York’s goal of a 44% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030.”

Here in New York, solar progress is attributed to a number of programs; including; Governor Cuomo’s NY-Sun Initiative.

“New York officials deserve tremendous credit for recognizing the environmental and economic benefits of solar energy and taking action to make it a reality,” said Leibowitz. “As more people see the benefits of solar energy, we’re confident clean, limitless energy from the sun will be a growing part of New York’s plan to reduce pollution from power plants.”

“The Solarize Westchester team is proud to be part of New York State’s ambitious efforts to maximize the economic and environmental benefits from solar technology,” said Nina Orville from Solarize Westchester.

“Through the Solarize Westchester initiative, we are focused on driving down the non-hardware costs of solar installations to make Westchester County New York State’s leader in solar installations.  Our efforts include assisting Westchester municipalities to adopt solar-friendly permitting and zoning policies and also leading Solarize campaigns, aggregating demand for solar installations at reduced costs, in eight Westchester communities.  We anticipate that these campaigns will result in approximately 400 installations during these 20-week campaigns. We’re proud to have the support of our funder, NYSERDA, and to work to deliver great results in Westchester County that can be replicated elsewhere in New York State.”

Democratic Conference Leader, State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins (White Plains 35TH Senate District) of Yonkers, said,

“Let’s make New York number one for solar energy use. We may not be in the top ten states now, according to Environment New York’s report, but we are committed with our government partners to expand solar because using the sun to generate electricity makes sense and reduces greenhouse gases.”

Solar in the United States increased more than 120-fold in the last 10 years. In the first quarter of 2014, solar energy accounted for 74 percent of all the new electric generation capacity installed in the United States. Ten states with the most solar installed per/capita are driving 89% of the solar installed in the U.S, while, representing only 26 percent of the population and 20 percent of the electricity consumption. 

And as the solar industry grows, the cost for installation decreases; making it more accessible. The price of installed solar systems fell 60 percent between the beginning of 2011 and the end of 2013.  Jobs in the solar industry are also growing rapidly. In 2013, there were more than 140,000 solar jobs in the U.S., including 5,000 in New York. 

“I am cheered by the belief that our collective conscience is at a tipping point, and that folks are waking up to the fact that renewable energy is the path to a healthy future for our planet, and our existence. Solar, wind, water power will guide our way,” added Weschester County Legislator Catherine Parker.

“I believe good news is upon us. New York State while an honorable mention today for its use of solar, has paved a way for New Yorkers to embrace solar, not as an alternative energy, something to be tossed into the mix like a cherry on an ice cream sundae, but as a renewable, dependable, affordable choice for running our businesses, our homes, our cars.  We have leaders who get this, who understand that solar power is not just for states like California, Arizona, and those that have warmer climates. Those of us who see what countries like Germany have done, know that we can get there too. It just takes persistence to keep banging the drum, and Environment New York is banging that drum today.”

Another major driver for solar energy is that it produces no pollution; including climate-altering carbon emissions.  According to the report, solar power produces 96 percent less global warming pollution than coal-fired power plants over its entire life-cycle and 91 percent less global warming pollution than natural gas-fired power plants.

“Environment New York’s report on solar states identifies and fosters an open forum for discussion of the smartest next steps that states can take now to capture the value and grow the market for solar power in a manner that protects ratepayers and strengthens the reliability of our grid while boosting clean energy jobs and the clean energy economy” said Tom Thompson of New York Solar Energy Society.

Several strong policies adopted by the top 10 solar states, like New York helped encourage homeowners and businesses to “go solar:”

•  9 states have strong net metering policies. In nearly all of the leading states, consumers are compensated at the full retail rate for the excess electricity they supply to the grid.
• 9 states have strong statewide interconnection policies. Good interconnection policies reduce the time and hassle required for individuals and companies to connect solar energy systems to the grid.
• All 10 states have renewable electricity standards that set minimum requirements for the share of a utility’s electricity that must come from renewable sources, and 8 of them have solar carve-outs that set specific targets for solar or other forms of clean, distributed electricity.
• 9 states allow for creative financing options such as third-party power purchase agreements, and 8 allow property assessed clean energy (PACE) financing. 

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION LEDGER. From the WCBOL Press Office. August 4, 2014:

The Westchester County Board of Legislators (BOL) announced today passage of a resolution calling for a stricter review process and full risk assessments in regard to the proposed expansion of the Algonquin natural gas pipeline through the county by Houston, Texas-based Spectra Gas Corporation.

The major construction project would replace existing section of the existing 26-inch diameter pipe for pressurized gas with new 42-inch pipe from Rockland County to Massachusetts via Northern Westchester and Putnam County. Included in the project would be a tunnel built for the pipeline beneath the Hudson River and expansion of compressor stations situated in Stony Point and Southeast, plus metering and regulating stations along the way.