Library Trust-Bees Win Scarsdale Library Spelling Bee
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With 20 teams in four swarms competing, the auditorium was abuzz with speculation about who would win the Friends of the Scarsdale Library Spelling Bee this year .... would returning champions "Hip to be Square" (Lucas Meyer and Esther Sloan – with Ben Zipursky) be able to match their performance from last year? Or would they be beat out by "Spellyoulaters," a team of high schoolers (Maleeha Chida, Viveka Kymal, Malika Lawrence) who had placed third in 2012? Prospects also looked good for the "Trigens," three generations of the Guggenheimer family who finished in the final four in 2011 and 2012 as well as Heather and Stephan Meilli, joined this year by Katharine Miao to form "The Presbeeterians."
And if those teams weren't formidable enough, "The Bee Informeds," Debra Banerjee, Linda Leavitt and Todd Sliss from the Scarsdale Inquirer, the "Humblebees", with Marcus Moretti, David Scinto and Jon Ungar and "Bee-Witched, Bothered & Bee-Wildered" (Former School Board Presidents Terri Simon and Florie Wachtenheim with Jonathan Flaxer) would be enough to scare any bee away from the hive.
The contestants, an audience of more than 300 word fiends plus The Friends of the Library and Library Board Members, all pulled out their pens to spell along as the contest began. The Bee was judged by State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, Scarsdale Mayor Miriam Flisser and Rachel Josselsohn from the Library Teen Advisory Board.
Returning emcee Ed Coleman, aka the voice of the Mets, kept the night lively -- sometimes helping contenders with his pronunciation of difficult words – but other times leading them astray – especially with a few of the words with French origins such as ENSEINTE, PEIGNOIR and EPERGNE. After months of anticipation, a few of the leading contenders were out in a flash while some new stars flew into view.
In the first round, four skilled teams battled to the finish, until Coleman was forced to move to the list of most difficult words and broke the tie with the word BALMACAAN– an overcoat with raglan sleeves. I had never heard that word before, and certainly don't own a balmacaan, and the word proved to be a deal breaker in round one. The only team who got it right was the Library Trust-Bees – a group from the Board of Trustees of the Scarsdale Library including Warren Breakstone, Barbara Josselsohn and Seth Ross. The Trust-Bees triumphed in the first swarm and continued to wow the audience with their expertise all night long.
The second swarm was also lengthy and the teams breezed through challenging words like ANTEDILUVEAN, LEPRECHAUN and VINAIGRETTE. No one was able to spell WEDEL (short swing turns made by skiers) and the Bee Informeds finally emerged as the victors when they were the only team to spell KALANCHOE (a succulent flowering plant).
In swarm three, a team of physicians showed their stuff, after two teams misspelled LABYRINTH – and another 
team tripped up on OBSEQUIOUS. The remaining two teams got past BACCHANAL, both misspelled QUOKKA (a small marsupial from Australia!) with ENCEINTE breaking the tie.
The next and final swarm consisted of four teams of students – the first falling on HALLELUJAH, with the four remaining teams stumped by ENNOBLE and the round ending with QUERELOUS. The Spellulators were on for the finals again!
Though in the initial rounds the teams wrote their answers on erasable boards, in the final round, one representative from each team had to stand before the audience and spell the word aloud. This increased the pressure, and also the possibility for error.
Back for the final round after intermission and refreshments were The Library Trust-Bees (Breakstone, Josselsohn and Ross), The Bee-Informeds (Banerjee, Leavitt and Sliss from the Inquirer), the Bee MDS (Jim and Seth Pullman and Mark Dursztman) and the Spellyoulaters (Maleeha Chida, Viveka Kymal and Malika Lawrence).
The students were out after they added an extra S to STREUSEL, and the Bee Informeds quickly followed, misspelling PERENNIAL (Perinnial). That left Seth Ross and Jim Pullman to vie for the title at the mike. A confident speller, Ross spelled SABOTUER, followed by Pullman with CAMPHOR and Ross with PECCADILLO. Then the docs got lucky when they were given the word DIPHTHERIA and Ross continued with MERINGUE. But in the end, it was a drink that tripped up the medical squad. Pullman included a C in the spelling of DAIQUIRI and first place was won by the library trustees – a nice reward for the work they do to support the library.
This year, proceeds from the event will go toward the creation of a business center at the library, including office equipment. Also in the works is a redesign of the interior of the library. It looked like the proceeds from the 2013 Spelling Bee will go a long way toward helping the library accomplish their plans. Congratulations to all the contestants and to the Friends of the Scarsdale Library for a job well done.
Photo Credit: Eric Levine
Water Main Break and a Leaky Valve in Scarsdale
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The Village Water Department shut down water service on Rural Drive in Scarsdale today to repair a water main break there that was affecting customers within a half mile of the leak. According to a Rural Drive woman, workers from the Department of Public Works worked through the night to repair it. Here's a photo taken outside her home of rushing water on Rural Drive. Residents in the surrounding area reported a lack of water pressure and discolored yellow water on the night of January 29.
The Scarsdale Water Department completed the repair at noon on Wednesday, but warns residents that when water service resumes they may still have discolored water. They recommend that residents run the cold water for a minute or two to see if it becomes clear and to use a sink in the basement, near the entrance of the waterline to the house. Keep checking it approximately every hour until it clears.
Though the water is disinfected the Water Department recommends that residents wait for it to clear up completely before drinking it or cooking with it. They said that the discolored water may stain clothes in the washer and warned customers to avoid using the hot water when the cold water is discolored because it could draw sediment into the hot water system and this sediment may end up settling in the bottom of the water tank. They recommend that residents "minimize the flushing of toilets in order to reduce the risk of potential clogging of small tubes and devices within the toilet."
After making the repair, workers had to backfill a huge hole that was caused by the rushing waters.
At 4:45 pm on Wednesday January 30, the Village also reported that a leaky valve had to be repaired on Harvest Drive, forcing the Village to turn off the water there. The Village did not provide a timetable for the completion of the work.
Photo Credit: Yale Buchwald
SBNC Election Results Are In
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The results of the Scarsdale School Board Nominating Committee January 16 election are in. Due to snowy weather, 279 voters turned out to elect the following nominators to serve three -year terms on the School Board Nominating Committee. 61 mail-in ballots were also received, bringing the total vote to 340.
Edgewood:
Jeannine Palermo and Carolyn Stevens
Fox Meadow:
Deb Morel and John Spiro
Greenacres:
Perry Braun and Kevin Higgins
Heathcote:
Michael Blumstein and Daniel Goldman
Quaker Ridge:
Ronny Hersch and Alison Singer
The weather was blamed for the low voter turnout which was down significantly from 528 votes in 2012 and 381 in 2011.
Many changes to the Non-Partisan Resolution were also proposed and they all passed. The complete list can be viewed on the SBNC website, but here is a summary of the more significant changes:
1) No campaigning within 25 feet of the polling place
2) Mail-in ballots can be received up to 4 pm on election day
3) Allow SBNC Administrative Committee records to be available at the Scarsdale Library, Village Hall and on the SBNC website
4) Clarification of confidentiality obligations when performing due diligence and background checks.
Learn more at: http://scarsdalesbnc.com/press-2/
Photos by Nan Berke
Look for Humane Solutions to the Goose Problem
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Here is a letter to Scarsdale10583 from Kimberly Gold of Bell Road in Scarsdale concerning the geese at Library Pond: When I learned that the Scarsdale Board had approved a plan to kill the Canada geese at the Library Pond, I was horrified. As I began to tell my family, neighbors and friends, they too had the same reaction. Killing Canada geese does not solve anything. More geese simply move in to fill the void. Geese are attracted to bodies of water and short grass. The Library Pond, as it is currently landscaped, might as well have a neon "Vacancy" sign for geese. There are humane and effective strategies to address just about every complaint one can have about the geese.
A humane goose management plan must be comprehensive. The first, and easiest, component is to change the landscape so that it becomes undesirable to geese. Planting tall grasses around the border of the pond is one solution. These grasses are beautiful year-round and require very little upkeep. The geese do not like to nest in areas with tall grass because it limits their ability to see predators. Another solution is to use "goose birth control," called Ovo-control, that can be fed to the geese in bread. It is safe and effective. "Addling" eggs so that they do not hatch is another strategy. Using machines to remove feces and turn it into compost is an ecologically-sound strategy that many communities use with great success. This also solves the problem of goose feces on fields. I was shocked to learn that the community had not tried even one of these solutions before calling in the USDA to kill the geese.
It has been noted that Scarsdale tried a dog program in 2008. This program consisted of using dogs to harass the geese away from the pond. While this is a generally effective strategy that is widely used, it was not administered properly in Scarsdale. The dogs came only once per day, and it is necessary for them to come three times. With this knowledge in mind, a dog program is something that is worth trying again.
All of these solutions are tools. Like any tool, it must be used properly to do the job for which It is intended. We owe it to ourselves and our children to make sure we have properly used every tool at our disposal before resorting to violence. There are many communities with far fewer resources than ours who manage the geese successfully without killing them.
Goodbye to the Geese at Library Pond
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The geese will soon be gone from library pond. Aggressive geese have been leaving droppings on walking paths, parks, open areas and playgrounds and threatening residents who walk near their nests. Now the Village has made an agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture for an "integrated wildlife management program" to get rid of the geese. They will be "humanely euthanized" and "processed for human consumption."
To prevent more geese from hatching, Canadian goose nests and eggs will be treated with corn oil. The program will run from March through September at a cost to the Village of $5,054. The resolution to do away with the geese was passed at the January 8, 2013 meeting of the Scarsdale Board of Trustees.
Also at the meeting, Mayor Miriam Flisser made the following comments:
1) Emergency Notifications: All residents received a letter in their annual Recycling/Trash Pick-up Schedule Mailer, sent in the past few weeks. The mailer explains how the Village Emergency Notification System works, and recommends that residents go to Scarsdale.com, the Village Website, and click on the BlackBoard Connect Logo for instructions in adding more email, text and telephone numbers, including cell phones, to be used for information calls from the Village. The Village already has your home telephone number, but if the telephones are not working, it's best to have another point of contact, such as a work number, for our use.
Some residents reported to me that they hung up on my voice on Robo calls that I made during the recent Hurricane disaster, because since it was election time, they assumed that the calls concerned getting out the vote. Please be assured that the Village Board of Trustees set strict policy for the Emergency Notification System when it was initiated, in 2011. It is to be used for important Village notices such as dangerous situations, never for other matters.
2) I'd like to remind the residents that the Village Wide Revaluation of all properties is entering a second phase, and Tyler Technologies, our contractor for this process, has scheduled a meeting to present this phase, the distribution of property data mailers to all homeowners, on Wednesday, Jan 16 @ 7:30 PM in Rutherford Hall.
Please join us at this important presentation.
3) I'd also like to mention the Village Board's deliberation on the amendments to the regulations concerning
Permanent Emergency Generators, a topic that we have been working on since 2011. Tonight we have scheduled Public Hearings on Zoning and Noise, and we invite residents to present their opinions on this matter.
In addition, there have been 4 Public Hearings held at the Planning Board, and an additional Law Committee meeting with public comments presented in December. The Law Committee will meet on Monday Jan 14 at 6:30 PM to continue to work on these amendments, and I am hoping to have a resolution to be presented to the Village Board for final approval at our meeting on January 22, 2013.
Photo courtesy: © Yuan Zhang
