Scarsdale Bond Offering: How Much Is Too Much?
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- Written by Melissa Hellman
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Should the Scarsdale School Board proceed with a $16.7 million bond or take advantage of low interest rates to borrow $18 million? That was just one of the discussions at the September 22 Board of Education meeting that can be viewd on the Scarsdale Schools Cable Channel An Executive Summary of the proposal was also issued with the evening's agenda and can be accessed here.
At an open work session on September 8, the Board approved by a vote of 7-0 a modified facilities plan that would require a $16.7 million construction bond. This approved proposal eliminated some elements from the designs as they existed in the spring and reduced the bond requirement by $1.3 million from $18 million.
In the months leading up to the September 8 work session, the proposed plan was thoroughly reviewed under Dr. Hagerman's leadership. Board Member Lee Maude presented a detailed history of the work and community input that occurred over the summer that led up to the final proposal including open study sessions, meetings with architects, schools tours, BOE members' input and discussion with school principals. Also, Dr. Hagerman stated that one of his objectives was to move this plan forward with the full support of the Board and the Scarsdale community and made his recommendations to reduce the cost of the bond with this objective in mind.
During the discussion period, Board member Lewis Leone suggested that since present borrowing conditions are extremely favorable it could be in the best service of the Board's fiduciary responsibilities to increase the level of borrowing. While no specific dollar amount was mentioned, the discussion centered on a possible additional amount that would not exceed $1.3 million.
There was much discussion about what projects additional money could be used to fund. Should some of the design elements eliminated from the original proposal be reinstated? Should the money be used to increase contingencies? Should it be used on other priority items that were never part of the original plan (examples include the artificial turf field, Dean Field, and new seats in the high school auditorium)?
The Board had this discussion with the knowledge that a draft of the overall facilities master plan just issued to them (not part of the night's agenda, but certainly on their minds) calls for $65 million in facilities spending by 2030 and therefore they did not want to lose this opportunity to borrow funds at a favorable rate.
Ultimately, it was decided that Dr. Hagerman and Assistant Superintendent Linda Purvis would review projects with top priority projects to determine if it makes sense to include them in the bond referendum. There would be no changes to the plans as approved on September 8.
At the same time, there was much concern expressed that returning to discussion mode on the agreed upon bond amount was opening up a "whole can of worms" on an issue that is now extremely time sensitive. In order to take advantage of retiring debt and favorable borrowing conditions, the Board must vote on October 6 to get the referendum proposal on the ballot for a community vote on December 11. Will the community support a larger bond referendum?
You can watch this very important portion of the meeting (here).
What do you think is the best way for the Board to proceed?
Six More Homes to be Demolished in Scarsdale
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- Written by Joanne Wallenstein
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The Committee for Historic Preservation met on Tuesday night Setpember 16 to decide whether or not to give the go ahead to demolish six more homes in Scarsdale. The demolition of all six was approved.
Here are the homes that will go down:
157 Brewster Road: (Pictured above) 3 bedroom, 3-bath home on quarter acre lot in Greenacres. Currently listed for $999,000. Built in 1926
33 Stratton Road: 4 bedroom, 3.1 bathroom ranch on 2/3 of an acre in Quaker Ridge. Built in 1952. Currently listed for $1,517,000.
109 Carthage Road: Now listed as a picturesque colonial on .72 of an acre in Heathcote for $1,395,000. Built in 1949.
361 Heathcote Road: 3 bedroom, 3 bath split level home on 1/3 of an acre, currently listed for $949,000
Homes not currently on the market:
45 Penn Boulevard built in 1952.
4 Brookline Road built in 1928
Primary Election on Tuesday September 9
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- Written by Joanne Wallenstein
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A reminder to Scarsdale residents that a Democratic Party and Conservative Party Primary Election will be held on Tuesday, September 9, 2014. Hours of the election are 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. All Polling Locations will be open as follows:
Election Districts Location
1, 2 & 19 Greenacres School
3 & 4 Fox Meadow School
5, 11 & 12 Scarsdale Library
6 & 7 Village Hall
8, 9 & 10 Edgewood School
13, 14 & 18 Heathcote School
15 & 16 Quaker Ridge School
17 Crossway Fire House
For registered voters who will be out of Westchester County on Election Day, an absentee ballot can still be obtained by applying for an absentee ballot in person at the Westchester County Board of Elections, 25 Quarropas Street, White Plains, N.Y. 10601. The deadlines for absentee ballot applications and voting are as follows:
• Monday, September 8, 2014 –- last day to apply in person for a ballot
• Monday, September 8, 2014 - last day to postmark a ballot if returning by mail; must be received no later than September 17th
• Tuesday, September 9, 2014 - last day to deliver a ballot in person to the Board of
Elections
To look up a polling location by residence, or to find additional information on the General Election and voting, residents may visit the Westchester County Board of Election website at www.westchestergov.com/citizenparticipation_boe.htm, or call (914) 995-5700. Residents may also call the Scarsdale Town Clerk's office at (914) 722-1175 for further details.
Election News: Primary Results and a Democratic Fundraiser in Scarsdale
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- Written by Joanne Wallenstein
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The Democratic primary results for Westchester County show that voters favored Governor Andrew Cuomo to challenger Zephyr Teachout by 62% to 36%. In the race for Lieutenant Governor, Kathy Hochul, the candidate endorsed by Governor Cuomo took 59% of the vote to Timothy Wu's 41%. The results for Scarsdale have not yet been released but it will be interesting to see how local votes compare with the overall counts for Westchester.
In other election news, on Sunday September 7, the Scarsdale Democrats hosted a 
fundraiser at Taiim Cellar in Scarsdale and many of the state's top Democrats attended. Visiting Scarsdale was NY State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli who is running for re-election against Republican candidate Bob Antonacci, who is now the comptroller of Onondaga County. DiNapoli called Congressman Elliot Engel, who was also in attendance, the hardest working representative in Congress."
Di Napoli urged everyone to vote in the primary saying "Bad things happen when good people don't vote."
DiNapoli introduced State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, calling her "Landslide Andrea" and the next Majority Leader of the NYS Senate. If Cousins is re-elected and if Democrats rule the Senate, she is slated to be the first woman in the history of the State Senate to be Majority Leader.
Stewart Cousins said that Scarsdale residents are "the most civic-minded, involved, multi-faceted residents," and said, "there is no one Scarsdale." Stewart Cousins will run for re-election as senator for the 35th district against Republican candidate Robert Lopez Foti of Yonkers.
Also at the event was Scarsdale Arlene Katz who is current the Acting Village Justice in Scarsdale and is running for Family Court Judge in November as well as County Legislator Ben Boykin.
Scarsdale Girls Dive In for a Successful Season
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- Written by Megan Shelton
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When people in Scarsdale talk about the high school's athletics, the Varsity Girls Swim Team is not always the first team that comes to mind. This year, however, the girls are ready to step into the Scarsdale limelight.
Last season, Coaches Barney Foltman and Tim Callahan graciously allowed over forty five girls to swim for the team. However, practices were difficult, as lane space was limited and, since there is no swimming pool at the high school, the bus that took the team to and from the Westchester Community College pool was often cramped. While creating lineups for the meets, Coach Foltman and Coach Callahan did their best to make sure that everyone could swim at least once, but that couldn't always happen.
This year will be different. There are only thirtynine girls on the team, so everyone should be able to swim at every meet, and more than once. The bus will be less crowded, and thus far there have been no complaints of cramped lanes. More importantly, the new swimmers as well as spirited captains Nicole Katchis, Rebecca Kearns, Catherine Scarcella, and Trisha Pabby are predicted to lead the team to new heights.
"Last year, we are about five and five, but we lost some good swimmers along with one very good swimmer who didn't come out for the team this year," Coach Foltman recently confided. "My hope is that we can get to five hundred, if not a little bit better and be competitive in the league. We have some new talent that's come in that should really help us: Sydney Vleck, Sabine Con, Merritt Shelton, and Natalie Isick to name a few. So I think that we should be able to get some depth. Right now we are trying to put in some yardage, and we are going to get a little more concerned with speed as we start to progress closer to the competitive season. But right now, we are just trying to finetune all our skills."
Friday, August 29 marked the beginning of the season. The girls wrapped up their twoweek preseason with time trials, in which swimmers dive off blocks and swim a given event as fast as possible. The girls are excited to swim in their first meet on Friday, September 12 against Pelham at the Westchester Community College pool. The girls were not able to beat Pelham in their meet against them last season. But they are sure that this year, the tides will change.
Coach Callahan, reflecting on the determination the girls have shown since the first day of preseason, remarks: "As a team overall, I think we are extremely wellbalanced this year. I see a lot of girls that are going to help us out in a lot of different events, namely the A, B, and C relays. I think our goal for the season is to finish higher in our division and higher in the section than we did last year."
