Sound Shore

MAMARONECK — Members of the Mamaroneck Elks Lodge No. 1457 presented a $1,000 check at Mamaroneck Avenue School last week to help it raise funds to build a new playground. Pictured: From left, front row, Principal Carrie Amon and PTA President Tina Maresca; second row, Elks members Christina Ballantyne, Deputy Mayor Louis Santoro, Mayor Norman Rosenblum, Joseph Vozza and Lynn Dearwester. (photo courtesy of Louis Santoro)

MAMARONECK — Burke Rehabilitation Hospital will host a ribbon-cutting event celebrating the grand opening of its new, outpatient satellite clinic from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at 703 W. Boston Post Rd. Village trustees Louis Santoro and John Hofstetter are scheduled to attend. The clinic began taking appointments June 13 for patients with physical therapy needs. The 4,600 square-foot, single-story facility features state-of-the-art physical therapy equipment for patients who have undergone joint replacement surgery or suffered an injury or illness that requires outpatient therapy.

Here’s a glance at today’s opinion content:

Health-insurance exchanges: Editorial
We encourage the state Senate to return to Albany to take care of some legislative odds ands ends, chief among them a bill that would create a health-insurance exhange — a market for uninsured individuals and small-business owners to buy coverage that is mandated by federal health-care reform. We write:

… The delay already narrows the odds for winning federal start-up grants. The state will miss Friday’s application deadline for Washington funds; the next deadline is Sept. 1, but there is no telling how much federal money will remain at that juncture. …

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MAMARONECK — The village Board of Trustees approved a 3-percent water rate hike at its regular meeting Monday night, to take effect with water used after meters are read in July.

David Birdsall, business director for Westchester Joint Water Works, said the rate hike is needed to cover increases in the base and excess rates of 5.6 and 7.5 percent, respectively, from New York City, which supplies much of the water to the village via Water Works. It will also help the utility cover a 4-percent rise in its operating costs as well as help fund capital improvements such as new water mains, booster pumps and pressure regulators and the rehabilitation of water-storage tanks.

Last April, the village raised its water rates roughly 75 percent to cover much higher costs from New York City.

“We’ve got rates to a sustainable level” this year, Birdsall said Monday.

LARCHMONT — Art appraiser Lee Drexler will hold a signing for her new book — “Fabulous Finds: How Expert Appraiser Lee Drexler Sold Wall Street’s Charging Bull, Found Hidden Treasures and Mingled with the Rich & Famous” — from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 9, at Anderson’s Book Shop, 96 Chatsworth Ave. She and co-author James Cohen will sign copies and tell “insider stories” behind the book, which chronicles her 35-year career as an appraiser of fine art, furniture, antiques and jewelry.

MAMARONECK — The state’s highest court will hear the case of a Mamaroneck man who claims his ex-wife should have to share the pain of millions of dollars in losses stemming from the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme.

Shortly after Madoff was arrested in December 2008, Steven Simkin, a Manhattan attorney who owns a home on tony Constable Drive, sued to rewrite his divorce settlement with Laura Blank, citing his lost investment.

Lawyers for Blank face a July 18 deadline to file a brief challenging his claims before the New York State Court of Appeals.

When the couple divorced back in 2006, they agreed to split their assets equally: Simkin, a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, kept their former Scarsdale home and three automobiles; Blank, a labor lawyer at the City University of New York, kept their Manhattan apartment and an Audi, according to court filings.

Under that agreement, Blank also received payments totaling more than $6.6 million from Simkin — including her purported $2.7 million share of the couple’s biggest asset: a $5.4 million Madoff account.

Blank cashed out on her share, but Simkin kept much of his money in the account following their divorce.

After the Ponzi scheme unraveled, he argued that the divorce settlement should be revised on grounds that he and his ex-wife had made a “mutual mistake” in assuming the account existed when, in reality, it did not.

Blank’s lawyers contend that the account did exist, arguing that Simkin would have been able to redeem his money until the scheme unraveled; in keeping his money invested, he assumed the risk of losing it.

“It’s Monday-morning quarterbacking,” said Richard Emery, a lawyer representing Blank.

Emery said his client’s case got a huge boost from the court’s ruling in a separate appeal last Thursday. In that case, Janet Schaberg was allowed to keep the proceeds of a divorce settlement, even though that money was allegedly tainted in fraudulent business transactions that, prosecutors say, involved her ex-husband, former Greenwich, Conn., executive Stephen Walsh.

In light of that decision, “I don’t see how (Simkin’s) case exists at this point,” Emery said.

Simkin declined to comment Tuesday.

Even if he had cashed out before the Ponzi scheme unraveled, it’s possible that the funds could have been subject to a clawback by the court-appointed trustee, Irving H. Picard, on behalf of other victims.

Simkin’s case made its way to the Court of Appeals after a lower state appellate court in January ruled 3-2 that Simkin could sue to revise the original contract.

Local officials and residents broke ground on the Grow! Lincoln Park Community Garden on Tuesday morning. The garden, now a 70-feet-by-50-feet rectangle of grass next to the park’s pool, will soon be home to 14 plots full of vegetables, fruits and flowers. Plots will be available to community organizations for $50 per season.

The community garden sits on the site of what had been Lincoln Elementary School. It was conceived as part of the school district’s commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Taylor Case, the first desegregation case filed in the north after the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision.

Richard Organisciak, superintendent of the school district, said the garden is a concept that “speaks to the life of the community, that speaks to growing, that speaks to the things we all want.”

City Councilman Jared Rice said, “It shows everyone in the these last 50 years that New Rochelle is the city of progress. We are the city of equity.”

Lincoln Park is New Rochelle’s second community garden. The first is at Ward Acres Park. The inaugural planting season for the Lincoln Park garden will be spring of 2012. For more information, search for Grow! Lincoln Park Community Garden/Lincoln Park Conservancy on Facebook or email growlincolnpark@gmail.com.

(From left, that’s Mayor Noam Bramson, City Councilman Jared Rice and Superintendent Richard Organisciak on the shovels. Linda Tarrant-Reid, one of the organizers of the community garden, stands between Bramson and Rice. Photo by Ned P. Rauch)

Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera talks about his plans to purchase the former Presbyterian Church on North Ave. in New Rochelle during a press conference at City Hall today. Behind Rivera is Mayor Noam Bramson. Look for the story at Lohud.com and in tomorrow’s edition of The Journal News. Photo by Seth Harrison

The Rockland County Jazz and Blues Society has such a deal for you!

The society has already mapped out its plans for Nyack Jazz Week 2011 from July 24 to 31, and it’s offering a special promotion to society members, musicians and friends – but it’s only through July 5.

Here’s the deal: join as a new member or upgrade/renew your current membership and receive free tickets to jazz week events.

Now, there are some specific details, but suffice it to say that the basic membership of $25 will save you $12 in admission to hear pianist Fred Hersch. The silver membership includes more enticements and a chance to hear Hersch and saxophonist Lou Donaldson (shown above) for free.

For the other details about the offer and the jazz week lineup, visit www.rcjbs.org.

The case of the last defendant accused of stealing from the Harrison food pantry might end up in the hands of a jury.

Adam Straface — the last of six former town employees accused of stealing food and clothing designated for those in need — requested a jury trial today in Town Court to fight his petty larceny charge.

Five other former town employees, including 91-year Florence D’Imperio, had taken a plea deal which resulted in a $1,000 fine.