Sound Shore

Local police officers played the role of Santa’s helpers by bringing presents to the students of Cerebral Palsy of Westchester.

Members of the Harrison Police Benevolent Association have been visiting the school for more than 30 years in hopes of making the children’s holiday season a little merrier.

They also raise money beforehand to buy each child a gift off their individual wish list.

William Sullivan of Port Chester, a Vietnam War veteran with the Marine Corp, right, listens as Billy Malone of Port Chester, a Vietnam War veteran with the Army, reads a passage from the bible at a memorial honoring veterans at Port Chester Vietnam War memorial on Dec. 25, 2010. Vietnam War veterans, family and their supporters gather every year at Christmas to honor the six Port Chester natives who died in the Vietnam War. ( Xavier Mascareñas / The Journal News )

See more from the service honoring Port Chester Vietnam War veterans in a gallery, and go to LoHud.com to read Ken Valenti’s upcoming story.

MAMARONECK — Democrats and Republicans on the Board of Trustees are clashing over whether the village attorney should be a full- or part-time job.

The debate comes as the new Democratic majority calls for a review to see which option is more cost-effective for the village in the wake of several high-profile lawsuits involving millions of dollars in legal fees.

Democrats favor having a staff attorney who works solely for the village, providing regular counsel and protecting against litigation. This approach, they say, saves money in the long run.

“Having somebody who is available to focus only on the needs of the village, to me, is like preventive medicine,” said Democratic trustee Toni Ryan.

But Republicans contend that a part-timer can do the job just as well, and saves the village hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills.

“It just doesn’t make sense economically” to have a full-time attorney, said GOP Mayor Norm Rosenblum. “And if you do happen to need legal representation, it’s going to be specialized, so all those outside legal expenses are going to continue anyways.”

In 2007, officials made the village attorney a full-time staff job in an attempt to curb costs. Janet Insardi made a $130,000 salary in the position, plus about $40,000 in benefits. But Rosenblum ousted Insardi after winning office in November 2009, and replaced her with Christie Derrico, the wife of a GOP party chair, as part-time village attorney. Derrico received a $60,000 retainer over the past year, plus about $8,000 for additional work. She stepped down earlier this month to be sworn in as village justice.

Tarrytown lawyer Steve Silverberg is serving as part-time attorney while the board considers its next move.

The village racked up about $199,000 in legal bills over the past year, not counting village attorney compensation. It spent about $293,000 on outside legal counsel the year before that, when officials said there were more high-cost legal cases to deal with.

In 2008, the year Insardi began her job, the village spent around $329,000 in legal fees — almost half of what it spent in 2007. In comparison, in 2005 and 2006, the village had no staff attorney and spent more than $1.4 million in each of those years.

Read the full story in The Journal News on Monday.

MAMARONECK — Mamaroneck High School may have a new principal as early as March if the district wraps up its search on schedule, district officials say.

After advertising for the job in November, officials this month began interviewing a slate 11 candidates, winnowed from an initial pool of about 150 applicants.

“We’re right in the heart of the search process right now,” said Mamaroneck Schools Supertintendent Robert Shaps. He declined to discuss who is in the running, but said interim principal John Goetz has not applied.

Goetz took over after former principal Mark Orfinger made an abrupt announcement in April that he was stepping down at the end of last school year following a 13-year tenure as the school’s head.

School officials plan to visit the finalists at their schools after conducting second-round interviews, with the goal of naming the new principal sometime this spring.

School districts in the Sound Shore area are looking for ways to do more with less in the new year as they brace for rising mandated costs and declining state and federal aid.

Superintendents say their priority, as they begin preparing their 2011-12 budgets, is to maintain current programs while keeping tax increases to a minimum.

But that could prove difficult in the face of sharp cuts in state aid next year, expiring federal stimulus funds and a possible cap on property taxes, combined with other, district-specific challenges such as spiking enrollment.

“It’s the proverbial vise,” said Rye Superintendent of Schools Edward Shine.

“We know the concerns of taxpayers. And we know the state is dealing with a $10 billion projected deficit,” he said. “Now, it’s all pushing against school districts. We have to figure out how we balance that, and keep the vise from absolutely closing in on us and destroying public education.” … 

Read the full story in the Sound Shore EXPRESS section of The Journal News print edition Dec. 30.

PHOTO: Harrison Central School district Superintendent Louis Wool says he anticipates “this could be the most difficult budget cycle we have faced.”

The Rye city school board agreed to a 4-year deal with its custodial group, CSEA Local 860, at its recent meeting.
“Members of the custodial unit and the services they provide are very important to the children of the district,” said board President Josh Nathan.
The deal, which is retroactive to July 1, 2009, includes salary increases averaging 1.5 percent per year. Their health insurance contributions will will go up to 12 percent in 2009, 13 percent in 2010, 14 percent in 2011 and 15 percent in 2012.

NEW ROCHELLE—Board of Education meetings are often pretty dry affairs. No offense to school officials, but the nitty gritty of the education business, while of undeniable importance, can fall a little short of riveting. Get the students involved in a BOE meeting, however, and wow—what a difference.
The New Rochelle Board of Education meeting Tuesday night began with a performance by four high school flutists—sophomore Rachel Heinemann, junior Christopher Roldan, senior Christine Torres and junior Beth Treffeisen. Standing at center stage of the new Linda E. Kelly Theater, the quartet let fly a beautiful rendition of Scherzo Opus 77, by A. Wouters.
From there, Raj Basak, a senior, sang a knockout version of “Bring Him Home,” from the Broadway musical “Les Miserables.”
Junior Rachel Kessler was recognized for her swimming achievements, the football team earned accolades for its record and, finally, a trio of ringers enrolled in the school’s architectural design program, Jeremy Cutler, Shannon McCullough and Patrick Rice, spun 3D computer models of their plans for homes and other buildings.
It made for an impressive evening.
The musicians are part of New Rochelle’s Performance and Visual Arts Education, or PAVE, program, in which students get to school early to explore, practice and refine their art. There are 375 students enrolled in the program, which was introduced in 1999.
In the architecture program, which was recently developed and added to the curriculum, 30 students are earning college credit and receive training on professional-grade engineering software.
In his report to board members, New Rochelle High School Principal Don Conetta said the school’s aim was to use programs like these to get each student so interested and invested in a subject that he or she is “excited to come to school.”

Gildo Daniele has set up Dec. 22, 2010, a 50-square-foot nativity scene at his Larchmont home, complete with hand-painted Italian figurines and a sprawling backdrop painted by Diane Nelson, at left, a Hommacks Middle School teacher. Daniele, a custodian at Hommocks Middle School, said the creche is a family tradition from his boyhood in southern Italy. Read more about Daniele’s holiday family tradition in an upcoming edition of the Journal News and on LoHud.com.

The Port Chester Police Department took boxes of documents away from Village Hall on Wednesday after serving a subpoena for records in the departments of public works and finance, Mayor Dennis Pilla said.

The mayor saw police staff “walking out with boxes and boxes of records” at noon. “I did not know the content. I was not previously aware that this was going to happen. I was surprised as everybody,” he said.

This is not the first police inquiry at 222 Grace Church St. Building Department records were seized in May, and an investigation into missing parking-meter funds at the DPW is ongoing. Public Works General Foreman Gary Racaniello resigned in September in return for the cancellation of disciplinary charges related to the missing funds.

“I am pleased to see that we are eradicating any alleged corruption,” Pilla said.

A group of friends getting together each year to decorate gingerbread houses? That’s not so unusual.

But 19 of them — and all men? Year after year ever since middle school? Now that’s a holiday tradition worth carrying on.

Photos by Tania Savayan/The Journal News

Even so, this year might be the last for this particular group of friends from Larchmont. They will be scattering across the country for different jobs after college graduation, so their long-running ritual of affixing pretzels and icing and gum drops to home-baked gingerbread has taken on a little more meaning.

From left, Rory Fugazy, 21, Scott Krenkel, 21, and Philip Comerford.

“They’re very sentimental about each other this year,” says Betty Comerford, who hosts the gatherings each year for her son, Phil, and his friends. “It’s about so much more than the gingerbread. They’re just such a unique group of boys.”

Phil Comerford, in the grey T-shirt, and his friends, decorating their gingerbread houses over Thanksgiving weekend.

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