Sound Shore

MAMARONECK — It may soon be a crime to keep your car running for more than three minutes on a village street.

The Board of Trustees this month is considering the measure intended to reduce carbon dioxide and other emissions that damage local air quality and pose health risks to residents.

The board on Monday night agreed to hold a public hearing on the anti-idling ban at its March 14 meeting.

“You shouldn’t be leaving your motor running,” Trustee Toni Ryan said in an interview. “It’s not good for the environment, and it’s not good for … people with respiratory problems.”

MAMARONECK—At tonight’s Board of Trustees meeting, Deputy Mayor Louis Santoro issued the following statement about Mayor Norman Rosenblum, who is recovering after cardiac bypass surgery last Thursday:

“I am pleased to inform the board as well as Village residents that Mayor Norman S. Rosenblum successfully made it through heart surgery this past week. Doctors are pleased with his progress and are confident he will make a quick (and) full recovery. The mayor has expressed his gratitude for the countless well wishes that have been poured out from the village. His family requests his privacy be maintained at this time and they will release more information as it becomes available.”

MAMARONECK — Pedro Espada may soon be calling Mamaroneck his permanent home.

The disgraced former lawmaker, who has mainly lived in Mamaroneck but owned a co-op apartment in his former Bronx state senate district, is back in the news — this time for trying to sell his New York City home.

The New York Daily News reported yesterday that Espada, who is under federal indictment for allegedly using his nonprofit health care center as a “personal piggyback,” has put the Bronx co-op property on the market for about $200,000.

The co-op “was a source of controversy throughout Espada’s political career, as he frequently had to fight off charges he only kept the co-op to establish residence in the Bronx and didn’t actually live there,” the Daily News reported.

Back in April 2009, CBS discovered that Espada mainly resided in a $700,000 home in Mamaroneck; neighbors in the Bronx said they had never seen Espada at the co-op at 325 East 201st St., according to Gothamist.

Government property records list the Mamaroneck home as one of Espada’s current addresses.

Last May, Democratic groups organized a protest outside the Mamaroneck home at 115 Beechwood Drive to speak out against the corruption allegations.

Espada lost a Democratic primary to Gustavo Rivera in September.

MAMARONECK — A presentation on the school district’s “Response to Intervention,” or RTI, initiatives for struggling learners will headline the agenda at a Board of Education study session, to be held at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Mamaroneck High School library classroom, 1000 W. Boston Post Rd.

RTI programs generally seek to address the needs of students with learning difficulties without placing them in special education.

Also at the study session: The Mamaroneck Schools Foundation will present its grant awards; and the school board will discuss “a crew team proposal” and Memorial Field user fees, organizers said.

LMC-TV is scheduled to televise the meeting live on Channel 76 Cablevision and 35 Verizon. It will be re-played on the same channels Friday at 9 p.m. and then again on Sunday at 9 a.m.

The Editorial Board will host two Editorial Spotlight interviews this week:

• Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic Inc. officials will discuss the impact of U.S. House-backed funding cuts to the organization at 1 p.m. Wednesday. Participants include Reina Schiffrin, president/CEO; Lisa Winjum, director, Public Affairs and Advocacy; and Jessica Baily, communications manager.

• Candidates for Port Chester mayor will join us at 1 p.m. Thursday. Democrat Dennis Pilla, the incumbent, faces Republican Bart Didden, who was elected last year to the village board.

To watch, go to lohud.com/editorialspotlight; submit a question by engaging the “CoverItLive” blogging device.

HARRISON — A former town police officer who was fired for covering up a late night bar scuffle involving another officer in June 2007 has lost his appeal of his termination.

Steven Heisler responded to a bar where off-duty officer Ralph Tancredi was being disorderly. Heisler was accused of not following proper procedure, including filing the report late and not calling for backup.

Heisler was fired in 2009 after an administrative hearing.

In his appeal, he challenged a few procedural points. Among them, he argued that two Town Board members should have been precluded from making a decision on his employment because they were defendants in another case. He also said the charges were not specific enough and that videotaped testimony from witnesses shouldn’t have been allowed during the hearing.

In a decision filed Feb. 22, the state appellate Court found that town officials acted properly in handling the case and that all of Heisler’s contentions were without merit.

“I’m pleased that the judge agreed with the town’s position,” Supervisor Joan Walsh said.

Town Attorney Frank Allegretti said the ruling not only validates the administrative decision but it will also help protect the community from litigation in the future.

“It’s a good precedent to have,” he said. “In future disciplinary matters, this case will be instructive to the next hearing officer.”

Allegretti said he planned to seek reimbursement for printing costs from the losing party.

Heisler’s lawyer, Jonathan Lovett, could not be reached for comment.

Tancredi has since been fired from the Harrison Police Department and has been involved in various criminal, civil and political controversies.

Here’s a glance at opinion content published in The Journal News on Saturday, Feb. 26, Sunday, Feb. 27 and today, Monday, Feb. 28:

Saturday, Feb. 26
Republicans and the budgets: Commentary
Joni Balter, a columnist for The Seattle Times, assesses the political landscape after a week in which Congressional Republicans took aim at social programs and Gov. Scott Walker, Republican of Wisconsin, battled with public-employee unions over benefits and collective bargaining.

Melbourne farmhouse: Commentary
Alan Strauber, a Yorktown Heights resident who is president and chairman of the Calvert Vaux Preservation Alliance, argues in favor of the preservation of the Melbourne farmhouse, am 1812 structure the Yorktown Central School District owns and intends to demolish.

Tilcon quarry: Commentary
John F. Meehan, a Suffern village trustee, comments on the town of Ramapo’s plans to sell the former Tilcon quarry property to a developer who has proposed constructing 440 housing units on 65 acres.

Sunday, Feb. 27
Wisconsin: Editorial
We comment on the situation in the Badger State, where public-employee unions and Scott Walker, the Republican governor, are engaged in conversation that begs questions of national importance: What role should public-employee unions play in the future of our states? Should public employees contribute to their benefits? Do we value collective bargaining? We write:

… New Yorkers have their own troubles, including a $10 billion budget deficit, and their own set of hard choices, including proposed multi-billion cuts to schools and health care, and negotiations with organized labor aimed at saving billions of dollars or, in the alternative, laying off thousands of workers. New York also wrestles with a marquee policy decision — whether to cap annual property tax increases at 2 percent — that is likely to have repercussions in the classroom and local governments long after the Wisconsin mess has been concluded.


But we are transfixed nonetheless.


Wisconsin has touched off an important nationwide discussion about public-employee salaries and benefits. In a far more limited way, it also has prompted fresh discussion about the shrinking middle-class and their future, against the backdrop of recession, scant growth in real wages and growing income inequality.


Regrettably, the drama has not shed one bit of light on a more important discussion about employment, one started by President Obama in his State of the Union address a month ago. He talked about preparing American workers for the jobs of tomorrow — by investing in education, infrastructure and energy independence. …

LARCHMONT
Railroad Way: A $240 bicycle was stolen from Lot 1 during the day Feb. 25.
Chatsworth Avenue: A bicycle was stolen from the bike rack in lot 3 Feb. 22 The theft was reported Feb. 27.

MAMARONECK TOWN
Madison Avenue: The passenger-side window of a 2009 Lexus was smashed while parked in the New York Sports Club lot between 3:30 p.m. and 4:34 p.m. Feb. 26.

Myrtle Boulevard: All four tires and rims, worth $1,000, were stolen from a 2009 Honda Accord parked in Lot 1 just over an hour, between 12:10 p.m. and 1:21 p.m., Feb. 25.

Myrtle Boulevard: A 21-year-old Mamaroneck town man’s bank account was cleaned out by someone using his debit card number at various locations without authorization Feb. 18. The identity theft was discovered Feb. 26 when the card holder checked his account. Just how much money was taken was not reported.

Boston Post Road: A stolen credit card was used to prepay a party at The International House of Pancakes Jan. 11. The restaurant first learned Jan. 17 that the unspecified charge was being investigated. The theft of services was reported Feb. 26.

MAMARONECK VILLAGE

Boston Post Road: A 1:30 a.m. Feb. 26 call to a fight in progress on the 1200 block turned up a 16-year-old Mamaroneck village boy with a bruised face. An unknown teen had struck him and fled before police arrived.

West Boston Post Road: The rear window of a vehicle was smashed by an unknown object Feb. 26 while the vehicle was parked on the 1000 block.

Halstead Avenue: A Mamaroneck village resident discovered Feb. 25 that someone tried to use his debit card number to make an unauthorized charge shortly after midnight.

PELHAM VILLAGE
Wolfs Lane: When a woman went into Bank of America to get a mortgage Feb. 25, she was told that two mortgages had already been taken out in her name. A credit report revealed that a Citi Bank credit card account with $3,669 due had been opened in her name in 2009 and that a Discover Card with $2,006 due had been opened in 2008.

RYE BROOK
Maywood Avenue: A woman discovered Feb. 14 and told police Feb. 24 that someone had filed a fraudulent tax return for 2010 using her identity. The IRS contacted her to go over the return, which the woman had not yet filed. The IRS advised her, after some investigation, that the return was fraudulent.

New York doesn’t permit same-sex marriages, but it does recognize the unions of gay couples married elsewhere. A New York appeals court ruled Thursday that the survivor of a same-sex couple married in Canada can inherit as a spouse, in a decision gay-rights group called the first appellate decision of its kind in New York. Do you think that gay marriage should be legal in New York? Share your view in our poll:

Pelham’s Will Donovan scores the winning goal past Rye goalie Aaron Rix during the Section 1 Division II hockey championship at West Point. Pelham won 1-0.

See more photos of Pelham vs Rye hockey