Shout it Out

Details: Published: 07 September 2011; Created: 07 September 2011; Last Updated: 07 September 2011; Hits: 3494

The FEMA Disaster Recovery Center at the Westchester County Center in White Plains is now open for individuals, households and businesses to get help filing for Hurricane Irene disaster aid. The Disaster Recovery Center will operate from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week until further notice. (Parking fees have been waived.)

The first step is to register: by calling FEMA’s registration number 1-800-621-3362; or on line at www.disasterassistance.gov . For those with speech or hearing disabilities, use the TTY number at 800-462-7585. FEMA strongly advises people to register in advance of visiting the disaster center.

In addition to state and federal partners at the center, staff from the county Department of Social Services will be on hand to help residents. There will also be representatives from the Small Business Administration, who can explain the low-interest loan packages available to individuals, nonprofits and businesses of any size.

(photo credit: Bruce Wells)

Details: Published: 01 September 2011; Created: 01 September 2011; Last Updated: 01 September 2011; Hits: 7363

September 1st was Orientation Day for incoming freshman at Scarsdale High School. Implemented a few years ago, the transition day gives incoming 9th grade students a chance to get familiar with the sprawling high school before the pressure is on to find their way to class. The day began with an assembly for the 400 newcomers to the school where older students performed skits and freshman were given student planners.

Students were broken into smaller groups and taken on tours of the school by peer leaders and upper classmen and introduced to all of the high school clubs and extracurricular activities at a club fair in the afternoon.

Teachers Jen Wagner and Kathleen McGreal

This year, student government leaders organized another activity for the freshman. The student government asked many local retailers for donations for sandwiches and had each freshman make a sandwich to be given to Grace Church Community Center. Each sandwich was accompanied by a personal note to the recipient, written by a new 9th grader. Teachers Kathleen McGreal, Jen Wagner, Tammy Marchini and Kate Krahl were just a few of the teachers on hand to lead the sandwich-making effort. School Government Advisor Neil Ginsberg counseled incoming freshman and implemented this community service activity.

Terry Frank and Lauren Pomerantz

For lunch, the Peer Counseling Team of Terry Frank, Lauren Pomerantz, and Emily Vallario with student peer leaders hosted a barbeque. Here they are manning the barbeques on a very steamy day.

Best of luck to the class of 2015!

Jack Plattus and Rachel Kushnick

Lauren Pomerantz, Sasha Bakin, Rachel Kushnick and Emily Vallario

Thanks to those who donated food for sandwiches

Pictured at top: Student Government Advisor Neil Ginsberg counsels newcomers

Details: Published: 28 August 2011; Created: 28 August 2011; Last Updated: 28 August 2011; Hits: 5105

Here is a letter written by Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner about Con Edison repair work in Westchester: To the Editor: Hurricane Irene left a good portion of Greenburgh and Westchester out of power. Con Ed issued a press release after the storm that indicated that most of their NYC customers would have their power restored by Tuesday night and Westchester customers would get their power restored two days later--by late Thursday night.

I realize that Con Ed cannot restore everyones power immediately after a storm but question why Westchester ratepayers are treated like second class citizens. After every storm Westchester customers wait much longer to have power restored than our NYC neighbors. We pay the same rates as NYC customers pay but don't get treated equally. Why should NYC customers always get their power restored first--a few days before Westchester customers?

My home phone is ringing off the hook with calls from senior citizens and disabled residents who experience real hardships whenever there are power outages. I think it would be fairer if Con Ed treated all of their customers the same----and if they would spread their crews around their service area until power is restored to all. Another option: they should rotate the order of service restorations--during one outage NYC should get service restored first and Westchester second. The second outage Westchester gets power restored first and NYC gets it second.
PAUL FEINER
Greenburgh Town Supervisor

Details: Published: 22 August 2011; Created: 22 August 2011; Last Updated: 22 August 2011; Hits: 4356

Below find a letter from Scarsdale resident Harry Reynolds concerning Scarsdale's Non-Partisan Resolution: In accordance with the provisions of the Resolution of the Non-Partisan Party, I have formally objected to the proposed amendment in November, 2011 of the Non-Partisan Resolution insofar as it provides for secrecy in new Section 7 of Article V:

“Section 7. CONFIDENTIALITY POLICY. Each member of the Citizens Nominating Committee shall observe strict confidentiality at all times, whether during or after the deliberations of the Citizens Nominating Committee, as to the identities of persons seeking positions before, sources of information provided to and discussions, determinations, decisions and votes of, the Citizens Nominating Committee.”

Scarsdale’s Non-Partisan System, as regulated by the proposed amended Non-Partisan Resolution, keeps secret the identities of persons seeking the system’s nominations to electoral office. It bars voters from learning the identities of persons seeking nominations and facts concerning their qualifications. It also keeps secret what those applicants said, or failed to say, when they appeared before the nominating committee, and what members of the committee said to them.

The system’s curious argument for keeping secret the identities of applicants is that applicants would be lower in number if they foresaw their embarrassment upon the public learning that they had not been selected. There is no electoral system in the free world that advances that laughable, mindboggling argument. Are these applicants adult women and men or fretful little boys running around in knickers and little girls in frocks of silk? The public should know the identities of the applicants who were rejected in order to determine the integrity and electoral judgment of the nominating committee. Why should that knowledge be denied the public? The system's pressing for that secrecy is evidence that it regards itself as less a political party than a shuttered, closed-end social club with a village, ignorant as they are of the Non-Partisan system, looking on as spectators who move their lips as they read.

A claim for secrecy must be supported not by bizarre reasoning but by a supervening cause consistent with, and in support of, the public good. If the rule were otherwise, we would risk living in a society governed by secrecy laws. Incredibly, the secrecy given to nurse the anxieties of a very small number of applicants denies all voters of the knowledge of the identities of all persons who are seeking the power to govern them, surely an irrational inversion of electoral values in a democracy.

Further, there is no rational justification for keeping secret the statements made by applicants before the nominating committee and the statements of committee members made to the applicants. The only place on earth in which that justification could be made with a straight face is in a poorly lit asylum late at night. Do you seriously tell Scarsdale’s voters that they should not be told what an applicant knows, thinks, believes, plans, or desires concerning the public office he seeks? Do you tell the public that they should not know how honestly and diligently the nominating committee applies itself in questioning applicants?

If we have been taught anything about government, it is that secrecy is the refuge of the hypocrite and the curse of the persecuted. In the 1930’s, 1940’s, and 1950’s, the secrecy in the conduct of the then essentially Protestant Non-Partisan system was used successfully to keep Jews out of Scarsdale’s public offices. (See, O’Connor, Carol A., A Sort of Utopia, Scarsdale, 1891-1981, pp. 98-100) Would you be surprised if anti-Semitism or some other group hatred returned again to the Non-Partisan system through its rear door of secrecy? Are you aware that the secrecy that the Non-Partisan system desires will enable it to conceal the system’s incompetence, prejudice, ignorance, or corruption, should it be present but hidden? Why should you ask the public to give you that secrecy? What is it that so attracts secrecy to a Non-Partisan system that was created in reaction to the deceits of organized political parties?

Harry Reynolds
Bradley Road

Details: Published: 17 August 2011; Created: 17 August 2011; Last Updated: 17 August 2011; Hits: 4259

zebrareturns A large zebra that was missing from a traffic triangle in Greenacres has reappeared – as mysteriously as it disappeared. Pearl Stark of 47 Greenacres Avenue donated the large ceramic sculpture of a black and white striped zebra to adorn a newly planted traffic island across the street from her home. Stark lived on Greenacres Avenue since 1965 and moved away in August. She gave the zebra as a parting gift to the community as she wished to thank the neighborhood gardeners for providing a lovely vista from her front porch.

The zebra was placed in a corner of the triangular island on Saturday July 23 and peered out at drivers coming up from Colvin Road. Sometime before Tuesday morning July 26th, the zebra was stolen. Heartbroken neighbors posted signs asking for the zebra to be returned and filed a police report.

Their prayers were answered when the zebra returned on Wednesday August 17th. There were no witnesses to its departure and no one seems to know how it reappeared. Lt. Altizio at the Scarsdale Police Department was pleased to hear the zebra was back but had no idea how it got there. If anyone has a guess about what happened, please share your thoughts in the comments section below.