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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Rennaissance Square sweltering at 10 A.M. today

WPCNR WEATHER SCOOP. June 21, 2012:

As of 4:20 P.M. the temperature at WPCNR Headquarters was 89 degrees in the shade, creating a sweltering, but breezy afternoon. The wind is a heat rush, West North West at 10 MPH. It feels about 95 degrees in the sun. The humidity is 46%

Allan Drury of Con Edision reports no electrical outages in White Plains and just 10 electric outages in Westchester County. Drury said that total electrical demand throughout the Con Ed metropolitan NY service area was 12,291 Megawatts as of 4 P.M., 900 megawatts short of the all time record demand, 13,189 Megawatts peaked at July 22, 2011.

Tonight, temperatures are expected descend only into the mid-70s. Tomorrow, continued hot and humid with chance of thunderstorms late in the day.

The Westchester County website has a map showing “cooling centers” where citizens can go to escape the heat. The site is at http://giswww.westchestergov.com/

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From Westchester County Department of Communications. June 20,2012:

County Executive Robert P. Astorino today announced tourism in Westchester grew by 8 percent in 2011 to $1.7 billion, returning to pre-recession levels and currently supporting 24,000 jobs. To build on the resurgence, he unveiled a new branding campaign, Meet Me in Westchester, which capitalizes on a comprehensive study of how residents, visitors and businesses perceive Westchester County as a tourism destination.

“Tourism has been gaining strength across all sectors – retail, recreation, food, beverage, lodging and transportation,” he said. “The opportunity in front of us is to build on that momentum. One way to do that is to increase awareness of just what the county has to offer visitors as well as residents. The Meet Me in Westchester campaign is designed to do just that.”

Tourism represented 6 percent of the total jobs in Westchester in 2011. In addition, Westchester accounted for 54% of all travel and tourism spending in the Hudson Valley region, according to Tourism Economics, a consulting company that prepared the 2011 “Economic Impact of Tourism” report for the New York State Department of Economic Development.

Members of the tourism industry joined Astorino for today’s announcement at the Lyndhurst National Historic Site overlooking the Hudson River in Tarrytown.

Phoenix Marketing International, which specializes in travel and leisure research and is headquartered in Rhinebeck, N.Y., conducted the research on Westchester County as a travel destination. The quantitative and qualitative study surveyed 1,000 Westchester residents and non-residents living within a 250-mile radius of the county. In-depth conversations with key stakeholders and community leaders were also conducted.

            The Positives

·        Westchester is viewed as a short getaway destination that overall is affordable and accessible.

·        Visitors know that Westchester offers many venues for business as well as fine dining experiences.

·        Visitors look forward to the opportunity to learn more about Westchester’s offerings.

The Challenges

·        To build a compelling destination image almost from the ground up with limited resources.

·        To build awareness about all Westchester has to offer in terms of tourism opportunities.

·        To encourage repeat visitation and willingness to recommend Westchester as a tourism destination.

Westchester County Tourism & Film, a division of the County Executive’s Office of Economic Development that is funded entirely by a portion of the hotel occupancy tax, will roll out the Meet Me in Westchester campaign in a series of print and digital advertisements starting in July. The www.visitwestchesterny.com  website, accompanied by social media, will also ramp up this summer so that visitors will have easy online access to great deals and special packages available at hotels, restaurants, retailers and destinations throughout the county.

 “Westchester has a great deal to offer both the leisure and business traveler,” said Dan Conte, general manager of the Westchester Marriott and president of the Westchester Hotel Association. “Branding and developing outreach programs that meet today’s market conditions are crucially important to creating and retaining customer loyalty. We applaud the County Executive and Tourism & Film for taking the lead in moving Westchester forward.”       

The Meet Me in Westchester advertisements will initially focus on a 100-mile radius of Westchester. The campaign will highlight some of the county’s top attractions, including hiking and biking trails, such as the Northern Westchester Trailway; extensive and unusual conference and meeting facilities, such as those at the Tarrytown Conference Center, the nation’s first conference center; and top restaurants in stunning locations, such as X20 Xaviars on the Hudson, which overlooks the Hudson River and the New York City skyline.

“Meet Me in Westchester will highlight our 18,000 acres of open spaces, many miles of hiking and biking trails, almost 900 restaurants and  6,000 hotel rooms,” said Natasha Caputo, director of Tourism & Film. “We think Westchester will be hard to resist once people know all the things we have to offer.”

Meet Me in Westchester was created by Tourism & Film in partnership with Thompson & Bender.

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About Westchester County Tourism & Film

Tourism & Film is Westchester County’s official destination marketing organization. Its mission is to generate economic benefits by promoting Westchester County as a desirable business and leisure destination. The role of Tourism & Film is to promote and coordinate tourist-related activity within Westchester County. Services include: marketing and promotion programs for tourism-related businesses and activities; assisting meeting planners in booking hotels, conference centers and venues; developing complimentary customized itineraries; coordinating site inspections; publishing the official Destination Guide and collateral for visitors; assisting with film and television location scouting, permitting and logistics.

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WPCNR QUILL & EYESHADE. Special to WPCNR  From the New York State Department of Taxation & Finance. June 18, 2012:

White Plains is having a very good year in sales tax receipts. The May city sales tax receipts from Albany show the city collections are up 15.6% over the first 11 months of the city fiscal year ending June 30.

 Westchester County is showing  the start of  statistically significant growth in the county economy, too, up 4% the first 5 months of their fiscal year.

Through May, White Plains has collected $46,754,475 in sales tax receipts in fiscal 2011-12,  $6.3 Million more than received through May in fiscal 2010-11 when the city had collected $40,419,241. The growth is real full 15.6% because the sales tax rate was equal both years.

If the city collects $5 Million in June as the city did last June, the city is on target to collect $51.7 Million in sales tax receipts for fiscal 2011-12.

The County has collected $186.4 Million in sales taxes the first five months of its new fiscal year 2012, compared to $179.3 Million in 2011, a 4% growth in the county economy so far.

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WPCNR ALBANY ROUNDS. From Thomas J. Abinanti, Assemblyman, 92nd Assembly District. June 14,2012:

The Assemblyman forwards the following critique of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s reform bill that would establish a superagency to determine which services and how much money would be spent on disabled individuals’ care. The bill, previously highlighted only on the White Plains Week television show, has serious flaws in Mr. Abinanti’s opinion.

Here he highlights the flaws of the legislation as presently constituted. Mr. Abinanti’s office has been notified to ascertain how committed the two houses are to passing the bill in its present form.

The legislation was conceived in response to the federal government requiring more accountability from the state which has been found to be using medicaid money for the disabled as part of the general fund budget. The state response was to formulate this bill to spend federal funds more prudently and save money.

Mr. Abinanti writes about the bill’s ambiguities and pitfalls:

e. The act should use accepted language of “people with disabilities” not “people with special needs.”

The proposed legislation appears to reinforce present “confidentiality” provisions which have served to cloak care agencies in secrecy and block family access to information. (Example, Why restrict medical examiner’s release of death report to justice center?)

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WPCNR POLICE GAZETTE. June 13, 2012. :

Since WPCNR reported Monday Judge Gerald Loehr’s decision striking down 12-hour police shifts, requiring the city of White Plains to return to the practice of paying overtime after 8 hours of duty for patrol officers, the Mayor’s Office has not responded to WPCNR requests for how the city will manage the overtime drain, that three years ago was costing the city $500,000 a year.

 The 12-hour shift, according to former Commissioner of Public Safety Dr. Frank Straub cut overtime in half. The President of the Common Council, Beth Smayda has not returned a call from WPCNR asking if the council would consider officially approving the 12-hour shifts or at least reopen the discussion of whether 12-hour shifts indeed do cut overtime.

However, Robert Riley President of the White Plains Police Benevolent Association issued a statement to WPCNR on the matter of 12-hour shifts and points out that since 11 police officers were fired by the Common Council in 2010,  serious crimes in White Plains  (Murder, Rape, Robbery, Aggravated Assault (domestic and non-domestic, Burglary, Larcenies and Auto Theft have risen 50%. Here Officer Riley Comments on Judge Loehr’s decision  effect on overtime and the crime trends — which reflect the data on the Public Safety website.

Mr. Riley’s statement: