Sound Shore

It’s been a year of high drama at the state Capitol — a full assortment of scandal, corruption, tax troubles and a Senate coup. In 2010, all 212 seats in the Legislature and all statewide offices will be up for election. What would you like to see happen in Albany?

We’d like to hear some thoughts from Westchester. Send an email to reporter Leah Rae at lrae@LoHud.com with your comments and contact info.

Jim Cody, a carpenter at Rye Playland, works in the cold wind as he checks for loose shingles on the roof tops of the bus stops at the amusement park. Shingles were being blown off from the heavy winds blowing, causing a safety hazard.

Read more about the cold weather effecting the Lower Hudson Valley region in tomorrow’s editions of The Journal News and on LoHud.com.

Yes, it’s mighty windy out there today, and the gusts are taking a toll on Christmas ornaments.

A family on Bowman Avenue in Port Chester was forced to deflate SpongeBob along with Santa and a yard full of other characters. But they’re not down for the season, yet. Check LoHud.com for the news on outages and train delays.

Today I was photographing Steve DiDonato, a New Rochelle resident who has been trying for months to have a manhole cover raised to street level, near his house on Webster Avenue. The cover is sunken an inch or so and DiDonato complains that cars and trucks create a racket when they drive over it. His efforts to have it raised have taken him through various governments and agencies, including City Hall, Con Ed and United Water. Finally, they have learned that it belongs to Verizon.

As reporter Ken Valenti and I were talking to DiDonato after photographing him and the manhole cover, subcontractors from Verizon arrived to fix it. Here, DiDonato, left, talks to the workers. Check back at www.lohud.com to read more about the story by reporter Ken Valenti.

Harrison superintendent Louis N. Wool was named New York Superintendent of the Year this month by the New York State Council of School Superintendents. Wool, who has been superintendent since 2002, shares why the award can positively change what people think of the suburbs, how the district is controlling spending, and what he did to fund his own education.

Q: Tell us why receiving this recognition is so significant.

“Harrison Central School District’s demographic evolution is symbolic of what is occurring in many suburbs across America. People make assumptions about our community because it is in southern Westchester and has pockets of upper income families, but like many suburbs we are becoming increasingly more diverse… In the past suburban districts were viewed as homogeneous — sometimes based on race and ethnicity — and almost always based on economics. Harrison has never fit that profile. A large district geographically, it has always had economic diversity, but like so many suburbs, it has diversified ethnically as well.”

Read more about this in an upcoming edition of the Sound Shore Express.

The Spanish mission-style pavilion at Rye Town Park is about to regain some of its century-old character with a restoration project beginning in January.  The red tile roof will be repaired, and copper spires will return to the two towers overlooking the beach.

I spoke with architect Lisa Easton for a story, posted after the jump. If you look closely at the historic postcard below, you can see one of the original features: The tower windows used to be open-air, with columns on either side. Long ago they were sealed with vinyl-clad windows, shown at right.

The towers were probably meant to evoke the feeling of a lighthouse, Easton said, while the pavilions were intended to create an exotic atmosphere. Originally, visitors changed in wooden bath houses where the parking lot is now, and walked through tunnels to arrive at the beach.

Capt. Anthony Marraccini will be acting police chief as the Town Board decides on a permanent replacement, says Town Attorney Frank Allegretti.

Police Chief David Hall will retire Dec. 31, and according to state law, the captain will take his place, Allegretti said.

Marraccini  said he “never had a desire to move up the ladder” while Hall was chief. “Being that he is retiring, and I believe he is retiring happily, I would seek position of the chief,” he said.

The Town Board has to choose from a Westchester County Civil Service list of three candidates, which also includes Lt. Douglas Buschel and Lt. Larry Marshall.

The board has three months to make an appointment, according to NYS Civil Service law.

Read more about this in tomorrow’s Journal News.

(Capt. Marraccini, on the right, is seen with Police Chief David Hall during a news conference last year. Photo by Meghan Cawley)

While Rye police haven’t made any arrests in a string of 8 broad daylight burglaries this month, the brazen break-ins appear to have stopped, said Rye police Lt. Joseph Verille.

“We’ve been quiet for the holiday period, so that’s a good thing,” Verille said. “Maybe they can see we have increased (police) activity and they move somewhere else, or it’s that they are incarcerated somewhere else.”

In November and earlier this month, half a dozen homes in Hix Park and Glen Oaks neighborhoods were hit, with the thieves taking jewelry and cash.

On Dec. 16, a home on Elizabeth Street was targeted when an alleged burglar tried to break in, but was scared away by the homeowner, Verille said. It’s unclear if that attempted break-in was connected.

Rye police have advised people to keep their lights on and lock their doors.

Brian Voekel of Iona Prep, left, and Daquan Brickhouse of Peekskill compete in the Slam Dunk Tournament at the Westchester County Center in White Plains Monday night.  Click here to view all the action in our special Slam Dunk photo gallery.

A Larchmont nurse at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx sprang into action Sunday when a man came rushing into the hospital saying his wife was outside going into labor.

Andrea O’Neill of Larchmont came running outside to help deliver the baby of Pamela Akukuma, who was in the backseat of a car parked on a service road in front of the hospital. O’Neill took off her jacket and asked onlookers to get someone in the hospital for help.

O’Neill then safely delivered the baby and wrapped him in her jacket. Hospital workers were waiting to carry Akukuma and her new son Richard into the hospital.

“In my many years in nursing this experience was certainly the most unusual,” O’Neill said in a hospital press release. “The opportunity to help Pamela bring a new little life into the world was also one of the nicest Christmas presents I have ever had.”

The hospital reported both the mother and newborn are in “excellent condition” and provided this photo of O’Neill holding baby Richard with Akukuma.