City Center New Cleaning Contractor Will Offer Workers Jobs Back. Kite Realty to County Board: County Displaced Workers Law will be Followed

WPCNR LABOR LAW JOURNAL. By John F. Bailey. December 28, 2020:

A spokesman for Kite Realty, of Indianapolis, Indiana, owners of the City Center in White Plains, told WPCNR this morning, the company has reached out to the Westchester County Board of Legislators (reacting to a letter the Board had written Kite Realty last week and published in WPCNR) and has assured the Board of Legislators the company had never considered not following the Displaced Persons Law in the Kite transition from one Cleaning Contractor to another, beginning January 1, 2021.

The spokesman made clear to WPCNR the developing situation:


“Kite Realty Group wants all laws to be properly followed.

Kite Realty does not directly employ the cleaning workers

The previous cleaning vendor terminated their agreement with Kite Realty, and the contract was sent out to bid.

The new cleaning vendor is in the process of extending job offers to the required workers

We have reached out to the Board of Legislators and hope to be in contact with them soon.

WPCNR has learned that the previous contractor was not a union contractor, and the decision to seek a new cleaning contractor was forced upon Kite.

The number of persons required to clean the City Center is being determined by the new contractor, and the reason for the reduction, the spokesman believes, is that many of the City Center space renters are closed, thus reducing the need for the full force of cleaners (needed previously pre- covid) until the retail and restaurant venues become active.

Westchester Corona Cases Infection Rate Dips to 5.7% from 6% in Last 7 Days. 573 New Covid-Infected a Day, 4,015 Total in a Week.

https://youtu.be/oRD6gwqlERQ
County Executive George Latimer on the Covid Situation as of Monday afternoon Today 4:52

WPCNR CORONAVIRUS REPORT. From the NYS WorkBook Covid-19 Tracker. December 28, 2020 UPDATED 4 PM EST:

In the last 7 Days Sunday to Sunday, the number of persons in Westchester County testing positive for Coronavirus was 4015 (5.7%) of 71,189 tested From Sunday December 20 through Sunday, December 27.

Sunday Positives reported today as of 2 PM

The Infection Rate is a decrease from the 6% infection rate the county has been averaging the last 3 weeks.

For comparison purposes, last Tuesday December 22, 11, 368 Westchester persons were tested and 651 came back positive with the corona virus, an infection rate of 5.7%, as reported by the NYS Covid-19 Tracker website.

The Westchester infection rate as of last Tuesday was just below 6%. Since December 1, 13,340 Westchesterites had tested positive, a per day new Covid case average of 606 new Covid Positives a day.) The 556 average a day is an 8% decrease in the number of cases a day (606 compared to 556).

A reminder, The 3,587 new infections though mean that if those persons do not maintain strict quarantines, they could infect 2 more persons each or 3 or 4, continuing to spread the virus exponentially by double or triple those 3,587 persons through their families, friends or persons they come in contact with. They of all persons should wear a mask with others.

Another insight: If the Westchester hospitalization rate continues at 4% to 5%. this indicates that 160 to 200 of those 4,015 people could become hospitalized continuing to put pressure on the county hospitals were reported to have enough bed capacity to handle potential hospitalizations.

With a new positive rate of 556 new positives a day, this means that at a 4 to 5 % hospitalization rate, 27 people could be hospitalized within a 2 week period from just one day of 551 new positives. That would translate out of each day of 550 positives, 189 new hospitalizations within 15 days. If the positive rate continues at the 550 a day level, or worse increases in spread, the hospitals may find their capacities to care for covid patients dwindling. Controlling covid depends on stopping the spread of the disease.

County Executive George Latimer in his Covid Briefing today reported 392 hospitalizations, which he said were running between 4 to 5% of active cases. He also noted the number of deaths has been increasing the last 4 weeks in the county. He also said that at 2,500 hospital beds available in Westchester County for covid treatment he felt the present hospitalization rate was “manageable.”

In the Q. & A portion of the briefing Mr. Latimer said he advocated a more logical approach to restaurant restrictions on the City of Port Chester where restaurants are shut down because of Port Chester being a yellow zone and hoped restaurants with social distancing, mask enforcement and plexiglass between tables could be allowed to open, but said that was up to Governor Andrew M. Cuomo

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WIDESPREAD POWER DAMAGES IN BEDFORD. NYSEG, CON ED IMPROVES RESTORATION PERFORMANCE SAYS BEDFORD SUPERVISOR

WPCNR THE POWER STORY. From Chris Burdick, Bedford Town Supervisor.Friday Evening. December 26, 2020 UPDATED 1:30 PMEST:


Power Outage – December 26 Afternoon Update
I have been in very frequent contact both with NYSEG and Con Edison.  NYSEG now reports 319  customers currently without power in its service area in Bedford (down from 1333.

For those who check the NYSEG outage list except for individual ones of “still assessing” (which at this point means special issues/problems), the estimate time of restoration is tonight at 11:00 PM.  I have been pressing NYSEG hard to do its best to get power restored sooner, and they are trying to do so.  
Con Edison now reports 13 customers without power in its Bedford service area (down from 138). 

Status of Crews

I just got off the phone with NYSEG which continues to have several crews in Bedford – four crews working on the Bedford Hills Circuit (accounting for about 55 customers) and six crews working on the Cantitoe Circuit (about 250 customers). As earlier noted, NYSEG crews did work through the night.

Downed Trees and Wires

Please report any downed trees or utility lines to Bedford Police Desk at 241-3111.

NYSEG customers should immediately call 1-800-572-1131 to report downed power lines or other hazardous conditions

Con Edison customers should immediately call 1-800-75-CONED (1-800-752-6633) immediately.  
Please be safe staying away from downed lines.  
This storm did a great deal of damage with downed trees, power lines and blocked roads throughout town both in NYSEG and Con Edison service areas. 

The priority has been on restoring service to life support and special needs residents and on unblocking roads – particularly 172 leading to the hospital and roads for which ingress/egress was completely blocked. 

 These priorities, as I understand, have been met. NYSEG and Con Edison has done a decent job in providing crews to handle the significant remaining damage and restoration task.  

Outages  NYSEG now reports 859 customers without power in its service area in Bedford (down from 1333 as of 12 noon) with nearly all roads’ estimated time of restoration still shown as “assessing” on the NYSEG outage list on the website.  

I reported to my NYSEG representative that Davids Hill Road was incorrectly delisted from the outage list. It’s an anomaly, he tells me, because the rest of the circuit has been restored. 

The outage list has been updated to show estimated restoration times of 11:00 PM tonight for some streets and 11:00 PM tomorrow for other streets. 

  Con Edison now reports 93 customers without power in its Bedford service area (down from 138). Con Edison has taken cleared all road closures.  The 95% estimated time of restoration is 11:00 AM Saturday morning.  

  Status of Crews NYSEG continues to have 12 crews in Bedford. NYSEG crews were working Friday night.  Our Public Works Commissioner has confirmed that the crews have been diligent in handling the safety issues described above.  Con Edison has also been clearing roads and will have their crews working through tonight. 

 Dry Ice/Bottled Water – Now Available ​NYSEG has made dry ice and bottled water available. My thanks to Frank Zipp of our Building Department for going up to Putnam County to pick up 100 packages. They now are available at the usual distribution point in front of the Town Offices at 425 Cherry Street.  I haven’t been over there, so do not know whether any supplies remain.  

Downed Trees and Wires Nearly all of the roads that were blocked have been cleared.  Please report any downed trees or utility lines to Bedford Police Desk at 241-3111.

NYSEG customers should immediately call 1-800-572-1131 to report downed power lines or other hazardous conditions
Con Edison customers should immediately call 1-800-75-CONED (1-800-752-6633) immediately. Please be safe staying away from downed lines.  

 Cell Service and InternetI have not heard back yet from Altice as to the status of providing crews. The protocol, however, is that the power lines first need to be restored on utility poles and then the telecommunication lines. I have been in touch with Altice government representative pressing for crews.  

Deputy Supervisor MaryAnn Carr Working With Me As I mentioned this morning, please also note that my Deputy Supervisor MaryAnn Carr is working closely with me throughout this power outage. As you may know, under NYS law the Deputy Supervisor has all the authority and responsibilities of the Supervisor in the absence of the Supervisor. I leave office at midnight on December 31 (to assume my new role as Assembly Member) at which time MaryAnn will assume such authority and responsibilities. 

CON ED WAS SO “ON IT”. “PREPARED FOR THE STORM” SUPERVISOR SAYS

WPCNR THE POWER STORY. From Paul Feiner, Greenburgh Town Supervisor. December 26, 2020:

I’d like to commend Con Ed for the way they handled the power outages in Greenburgh on Christmas day.

After the storm a number of residents of Greenburgh contacted me – complaining that they were out of power. After Con Ed was notified of the power outages – they promptly sent crews to repair the outages.

I spent some time spot checking neighborhoods where there were outages and personally  observed Con Ed crews working hard to restore the power on a holiday! 

It wasn’t difficult to find Con Ed crews working almost immediately after every outage was reported to them.  In most cases power was restored within a few hours.

Con Ed was prepared for the storm – they had more crews available than they had during past storms and their municipal liaisons provided updates and explanations when there were unusual circumstances ( Hawthorne Way, Hartsdale for example, a 60 foot tree fell down damaging the transformers-making it harder to immediately restore power).

Over the years I have been highly critical of Con Ed after every major storm.  I joined other officials from around the county and state condemning Con Ed for being unprepared after every storm. 

Speaking personally – I’ve been out of power for over a week at least three times in recent years –most recently this summer.  In the past we didn’t see Con Ed repair trucks for days and ratepayers and officials were provided with inaccurate information. 

It’s my hope that Con Ed will continue to work hard to improve their responses to power outages. Their efforts on December 25th, 2020 was a great start.  The company deserves our thanks for trying and learning from their previous mistakes.