Guitarist Wali Ali, a New Rochelle native, is among the Westchester musicians putting on a Haiti benefit concert tomorrow night at the White Plains Performing Arts Center. He will share the stage with everyone from Guy Davis to the choir of the French Speaking Baptist Church of White Plains.

Here are members of the choir singing at the Arts Exchange yesterday.

Flash video:

From left to right are Lirose Supreme of Yonkers, Alen Myrthil of Elmsford, John Dorcinville of Greenburgh and Stephanie Saintil of Yonkers.

For more info check the performing arts center’s web site or call 914-328-1600.

Below is a Journal News article about Wali Ali written by Elzy Kolb.

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Have you ever showed up to a blood drive dressed as a vampire? I’m NOT recommending you do it for this event, but it’s pretty funny to see the confused look on the nurses’ faces when you show up dressed like Dracula. I did it a couple of months ago with my little brother and the lady at the counter asked us if we were donating blood and I said “Actually, we’re here to order. Can I see a menu?”

Anyways, here’s some info on an upcoming blood drive in Larchmont:

The Larchmont Temple will hold a blood drive on April 18 to benefit the Sound Shore Medical Center. Coffee, juice, bagels and donuts will be served. Walk-in donors are welcome and appointments can also be set that day by calling David Szabo at 914-833-2866. Donors are required to show photo ID and provide the last four digits of their Social Security number. The drive will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Garden Room of the temple, located at 75 Larchmont Avenue.

A fire in a manhole closed Westchester Avenue at North Regent Street in Port Chester for at least two hours Tuesday morning.

Police said the 8 a.m. fire was out by 9:55 a.m. but the street remained closed while Con Edison checked out wires and makes repairs.

Con Edison spokeswoman Sandy Miller said defective cable caused the smoky condition.

Con Edison crews were on the scene making repairs.

It was not known when the area would reopen, police said.

There were no reported power outages.

Is it me or do we seem to have turned a corner with the reusable-shopping-bag trend? It looks like the bring-your-own-bag habit is becoming second nature at the grocery store. Anyway, the next ecological frontier may be the dry cleaners.

Behold the Green Garmento:

Seth Friedman gave me a demo of the garment bag he’s been selling to customers at Rye Ridge Cleaners in Rye Brook. It doubles as a laundry bag that can be used to line a hamper. Friedman and his wife, Robin, got their first shipment in January ‘09 and sold about 250 at $9 apiece, or two for $15. The change has saved them about 875 pounds of plastic, or 35 rolls, over the last year. Plastic garment bags (below) cost the business 5 cents apiece, or $35 a roll, so the reusable bags are good for business, too.

New Rochelle came back from behind to defeat Mount Vernon 77-67 in boys basketball action on the Knights own court.

New Rochelle’s Antoine Mason drives to the basket as Mount Vernon’s Horace Copeland plays defense. You can see more photos from the game here.

Bob Tighe of Somers, takes a walk along the Rye board walk.  “I have been coming to Rye Beach since I was an alter boy.” I like the view.”

AvalonBay Communities has agreed to make $9 million in land payments to the City of New Rochelle over the next five years, about two decades ahead of schedule, city officials said today.

The company, which owns two residential towers downtown, has agreed to pay $3 million in 2010 that was supposed to have been paid in 2029. It will also pay $1.5 million annually starting in 2011 and ending in 2014, money that was not due until 2035.

City officials asked the company to make donations to the city to help deal with dwindling revenues in a tough economy. That request, first made by Councilman Louis Trangucci in September, resulted in months of negotiations and finally an agreement for advance payments.

Trangucci said he wanted AvalonBay to help out because the company has a generous tax agreement with New Rochelle that absolves it of city, school and county property taxes on its buildings until 2028. Instead, AvalonBay makes payments to the city that amount to about $650,000 a year.

Joe Acocella is still anxiously awaiting a life-saving kidney transplant from  his sister.

The town clerk, who has been out on medical leave since the fall, is waiting for his doctors to give him a clean bill of health before the surgery.

“I’m hoping it’s not going to be too much longer,” he said from home, where he has kept up with his clerk duties.

Acocella, a double amputee since age 3, received a cadaver kidney 10 years ago, but the organ began to fail last summer.

He has been on dialysis since then.

“It’s on a day by day basis,” he said of how he is feeling. “Dialysis treatments have been hard on me.”

Last month, Shield and Cross, a motorcycle club made up of Harrison police officers, raised $30,000 for Acocella and his sister.

(Photo by Stuart Bayer)

Many parents have been up in arms after Superintendent Paul Fried last week proposed changing some elementary schools to half-day kindergarten. I spoke with many of them over the weekend that said something like that would make them consider moving out of the district, in light of all the tough budget cuts the school district has made year after year.

Well now, the school district put out a memo to parents today saying a budget proposal will be presented tomorrow that won’t touch full-day kindergarten classes.

“The Board will continue to explore additional options and refine options already offered,” the memo said. ” An additional elementary option that does not reduce kindergarten to a half day program will be presented.  The Board will have an opportunity to consider this new option along with those previously discussed.”

What that proposal is remains to be seen. I’ll have a story in Tuesday’s paper talking about this in detail.

The tuesday school budget meeting will take place at 7 p.m. in the McClain Auditorium of Mamaroneck High School.

A father from Rye Brook is fighting for the return of his 14-year-old son from Bosnia, where the boy had visited his mother for Christmas and did not fly back as scheduled Jan. 3. The Mauriello family, with help from Congresswoman Nita Lowey, is pressing the United Nations to intervene, because the boy’s mother and stepfather are employed by the U.N. Development Program.

Our story and video about the case are linked here.

Photo: Angela Gaul / The Journal News