Sound Shore

Abby Bagelman (2) of Mamaroneck and Kelsey Davey (5) of John Jay in game action at Hommocks Middle School in Larchmont. John Jay defeated Mamaroneck High School 20-14. To see more game action click on Lohud.com.

Journal News reporter Rebecca Baker reports today:

WHITE PLAINS — A Valhalla thief who drove head-on into a Port Chester police car, injuring the officer inside, pleaded guilty today to burglary and assault charges.

George Sayegh, 40, agreed to serve 2 1/2 years on two counts of second-degree burglary and one count of second-degree assault.

Sayegh led police on a wild car chase Dec. 5, 2008, that began in the driveway of a Marietta Avenue home in Mount Pleasant and ended in Port Chester, where he crashed into the cruiser, authorities said.

Read more here.

Port Chester Village Manager Christopher Russo has released a tentative budget for 2010-11, available here on the Treasurer’s Office web page. The $35.3 million plan is about 3 percent bigger than last year’s, and calls for a 3.4 percent increase in the tax levy.

“We continue to weather the storm of the national economic recession, which began in 2008, and its effect on our Village finances,” Russo writes in his budget message. The increase is predominantly due to retirement costs and union contracts. Savings come from the transfer of the Section 8 program to Westchester County and an expected drop in legal costs (given the resolution of the federal voting rights case).

Any citizens out there willing to look through the budget and identify some highlights? Let me know what you find at lrae@lohud.com.

Rye police Lt. Robert Falk told The Journal News’ Leslie Korngold the tide came in around 11:30 a.m. and there were no problems. Everything is set for “our ususal storm plans” but no problems are apopearing so far. “We don’t want to jinx ourselves,” he said at 2:15 p.m.

Join us at 1 p.m. Tuesday for an Editorial Spotlight interview with officials from Grassroots Environmental Education, a regional non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about the links between common environmental exposures and human health.

Grassroots and Pace University Academy for Applied Environmental Studies worked together to study 43 towns in Westchester from November to March to find out which employ the best environmental practices. Last week, in announcing the results of the study, the groups named Bronxville, Chappaqua, Katonah, Larchmont, White Plains and Yorktown as Westchester’s greenest communities.

To watch the LIVE session, go to www.LoHud.com/editorialspotlight. To submit a question on why your hometown did or didn’t make the cut, and what you can do to improve the local environment, engage the “Cover it live” feature on the right side of the screen.

Mamaroneck, no stranger to dealing with flooding in the past, is lining up it’s gameplan this afternoon to deal with potential heavy rainfall forecasted through Wednesday.

Town administrator Stephen Altieri said Mamaroneck’s emergency management team is meeting this afternoon to assess the situation. The general Sound shore area is expected to get five-plus inches of rain by Wednesday

To prep for the storm, Altieri said the town has begun lowering the water level at the reservoir in Larchmont so it can take on water that flows into it from the North.

“The idea is to hold it back so we can allow the streams to remain at relatively low levels in the town and the village of Mamaroneck,” he said. “We’re monitoring the reservoir, we’re monitoring the tides and we’re going to see any further action is needed.”

He added residents should check the town’s Web site throughout the day for any breaking updates. The town hasn’t made any emergency calls to residents urging them to take precautions for tonight’s storm but will do so if necessary, he said.

Sound Shore officials are keeping a wary eye out for potential flooding from today and tonight’s rain, Journal News staff writer Leslie Korngold reports.

Pelham Manor: John T. Pierpont, village manager, said a high tide is forecast for tonight and that usually impacts Wolfs Lane at Carol Place, but “we can’t really do anything about the tide,” he said.
Code Enforcer Charlie Verone has been and will continue to drive around the village checking water flow and sewer operation. Pierpont said all systems seemed to be “holding up under the steady rain,” as of noon.

Pelham village: Police are watching the pond just off the Hutch for flooding.

Port Chester: Police said they so far had no reports of flooding.

The Sound Shore’s projected to get 5+ inches of rain by the time the storm ends Wednesday morning, according to this National Weather Service map.

Find the latest forecast on LoHud.com’s weather page.

Editor’s note: Lynda LaMonte Garmong is joining us this spring as a guest blogger after winning our “unofficial mayor” contest earlier this month. Here’s her latest post:

Spring has sprung, and in between cleaning out closets and drawers, make some time to refresh yourself.   My thoughtful husband sent me to the Addison Street Spa over the weekend for a body scrub with a pure gold Swedish massage. There I was placed in the capable and loofah-mitted hands of massage therapist Angela Renzelti. Using an almond shell and baking powder mixture, Angela scrubbed away all the remains of winter dryness. After a quick shower, I returned to a heated massage table for a one hour Swedish massage using rich and luxurious shea butter. The warm shea butter drenches the skin with moisture leaving you revitalized and feeling like buttah! A great way to start Spring! Addison Day Spa is located at 9 Addison Street in Larchmont.

New Rochelle Democrats torpedoed a GOP plan to create term limits for the mayor and city council members. Republicans said term limits were needed for turnover and new ideas; Democrats countered they aren’t needed and that voters should have a choice at the polls. Councilman Barry Fertel noted that council members over the last 15 years had served an averaged of 6.2 years, less than the eight years that would be allowed under the term limit proposal. But Richard St. Paul, the Republican councilman who first called for term limits, said qualified and diverse people were still discouraged from running for office because of the difficulty of beating incumbents. What do you think? Should New Rochelle have term limits for mayor and council?

There’s been a growing campaign in Mamaroneck to contest the district’s decision to deny tenure to high school english teacher Jennifer Rosenzweig. So far over 450 people have joined the Facebook campaign.

Now the campaign is trying to get people to the Board of Education’s next meeting on April 6 to speak out about Rosenzweig’s tenure denial.

UPDATE: I spoke with district spokeswoman Debbie Manetta about Rosenzweig. She said the district for legal reasons cannot comment on the status of specific employees, but she answered questions with how the tenure process works.

“If the individual is denied tenure, that person does not return to teach the following year,” she said.

In other words, the district wouldn’t confirm if Rosenzweig’s been denied tenure, but if she was, she’s not coming back next year.

Hat tip to The Loop for bringing this to my attention