Sound Shore

NEW ROCHELLE
Horton Avenue: A driver’s side window on a 2002 Ford SUV was broken and a GPS and 40 CDs were stolen, New Rochelle police said. The 39-year-old New Rochelle man who owns the car said it was parked on Horton Avenue between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. Aug. 30.

Burlington Lane: A 2004 GMC passenger side window was broken and a radar detector, GPS and radio, all valued at $1,050, were stolen. The car is owned by a 53-year-old North Salem woman who said she parked the car on Burlington Lane between 9 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Aug. 30.

Good afternoon. We’ve had a busy four days participating in the coverage of Irene. That said, we have been commenting on the storm and its impact. Here’s a digest of opinion content published since Sunday:

Editorials
Get used to warnings, New York, Sunday, Aug. 28
Climate change may continue to prompt storms like Irene, we argue. We write:

… New Yorkers will have to get used to the uncertainty, the warnings, the abundance of caution. The reason: climate change and where we live and build. Legitimate scientists — as opposed to global-warming deniers — disagree on whether global warming will make for stronger and more frequent Atlantic hurricanes. What is beyond dispute, though, is that the damage risk has grown significantly, because of the flood — of buildings and people — to coastal areas. The growth comes as sea levels on the East Coast have increased about six inches more than the global average. …

Irene was more than we needed, Monday, Aug.29

Give recovery aid where you can, Wednesday, Aug. 31

Columns and Community Views
Suffern residents return to mess, Bob Baird, Tuesday, Aug. 30
Irene can act as a learning tool, Arthur H. Gunther III, Tuesday, Aug. 30
Chatter about Irene was more vigilance than hype, Phil Riesman, Tuesday, Aug. 30

In Tuesday’s paper we reported on the fuel-oil spill at and subsequent evacuation of The Highlands at Rye, a 99-unit apartment building in Rye. Like many buildings in Rye, The Highlands took a sustained significant damage from Irene. The building’s bottom-floor apartments were flooded and, exacerbating conditions, a fuel tank ruptured, covering much of the property with heating oil and leaving a stench that few could endure.

Tuesday afternoon, Bob Cohen, of R.A. Cohen and Associates, Inc., which owns The Highlands, said about 1,800 gallons of oil spilled. On Monday, county health officials said the fuel tank was big enough to hold 7,000 and therefore could have spilled that much.

Cohen said he’s been in regular touch, via e-mail, with tenants and has made arrangements for some at a hotel in Elmsford. Others have been told to make other arrangements and that they will be reimbursed.

Each household will get $142 plus tax per night and $71 for food and incidentals per person per day. Rents will be suspended while the cleanup, which began Sunday night, continues, he said.

It will likely be weeks, not days, before any residents can return to their homes.

“We’re doing our best in a terrible situation,” Cohen said.

R.A. Cohen bought the building in September of 2007.

New York, the only state with waterfront property on two great lakes and the ocean, knows from water. It means something, then, when a city or town is determined to have the best-tasting water in the state. This year, that honor goes to the Queen City of the Sound, New Rochelle.

The New York State Environmental Facilities Corp. announced on Tuesday that New Rochelle beat out nine other finalists to take first place at the 25th New York State Drinking Water Taste Test at the New York State Fair.

New Rochelle’s water was judged the best in the surface-source water systems category, besting entries from Bolton Point, Rochester and New York City. Yep, that New York City.

The Huguenots’ H2O was then pitted against the winner of the ground-water drinking sources category: Baldwinsville, a village in Onondaga County.

After nearly 300 tasters made their choice, victory was New Rochelle’s—by three votes. Congrats, New Rochelle.

About a third of Harrison is still without power today, including the following areas:

• Park Avenue


• Harrison Avenue


• Fremont Street


• Second Street


• Thatcher Avenue


• West Street to Grove Street


• Franklin Park area


• Oakland Avenue


• Flagler Drive


• Highland Road to Purchase Street


• Cottage Avenue


• Gainsborg Avenue


• Old Lake Street from Lake Street to Buckout Road

In the aftermath of Irene, this might be a good time for a reminder about how to dispose of branches, bulk trash and the like. Rye Brook put out this briefing on local trash services and pump-out procedures.

Meanwhile, any tips to share with your Sound Shore neighbors? Let us know how the cleanup is going.

(Photo: Kristin Ohnmacht cleans a sign from her garden apartment on Purchase Street in Rye Monday after Tropical Storm Irene hit the region. Tania Savayan / The Journal News )

The Huguenot Children’s Library, which sits in front of the New Rochelle High School, is still without power and, as such, still closed. The main library, however, is open and fully operational.

Thousands remain without power and roads remain closed a day after Tropical Storm Irene passed through the Lower Hudson Region. Look for continual updates to the story, as well as photo galleries and video reports, at Lohud.com. Read complete coverage in tomorrow’s edition of The Journal News.

Eric Dierssen mops up water inside Tri City Auto Parts on Mamaroneck Ave. in Mamaroneck this morning. The auto parts store was one of the businesses along Mamaroneck Ave. that sustained water damage from tropical storm Irene yesterday. Photo by Seth Harrison

The Mamaroneck Artists Guild will display the photo-collages of Stamford, Conn., artist Karen Neems in its new exhibition “Off the Grid,” opening tomorrow.

The show will run through Sept. 17 at the guild’s gallery at 126 Mamaroneck Ave. in Larchmont, with a reception to be held Sept. 10 from 4 to 6 p.m.

“The inspiration for this show came from a photograph (Neems) took of a deer fence in the snow, which she then layered and combined with other photographs of the fence/grid to form an entirely abstract piece,” the gallery writes.

From screens and nets, to bricks and  barbed wire, the elements in Neems’s photo-collages “have a certain familiarity, but the space remains a mystery, creating a visual puzzle,” it continues.

Gallery hours are 10 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Call (914) 834-1117 for more information.

(photo from Mamaroneck Artists Guild website)

Here’s the latest post-Hurricane Irene update from officials in Mamaroneck:

MAMARONECK VILLAGE: The village lifted its evacuation order today, but is keeping a declared state of emergency in effect through midnight.

Con Edison estimated it will take at least a day, perhaps several, to restore power village-wide. About 2,200 customers in the village were without electricity this morning, down from at least 4,000 — or more than half the village — last night. To report an outage, call 1-800-75-CON-ED or visit http://www.coned.com/.

Most if not all flooded village roads are now clear, and there’s no further risk of storm-surge flooding from Long Island Sound.

Crews will be removing debris from the roads over the next one to two weeks. Due to limited staff and equipment, however, the village is not providing pump-outs, so flooded property owners will have to get those services from private contractors. There will be special pick-ups of  storm-destroyed property through at least Friday, Sept. 2. All garbage and debris should be dried out as best as possible, bagged or bundled, and left at the curb.  Cans of liquid paint and hazardous materials of any kind will not be picked up.

Dry ice will be distributed until 7 p.m. tonight at the Mamaroneck Metro-North train station at Mamaroneck and Halstead avenues.

Officials have asked residents to  document and photograph all losses and email the information to rslingerland@vomny.org, or dsarnoff@vomny.org. The village will give that info to the Federal Emergency Management Agency the Army Corps of Engineers as part of their flood remediation study, and will use it to seek future funding for flood mitigation improvements.

Leaf blower restrictions are suspended until 6 p.m. Sept. 3.

MAMARONECK TOWN: Con Edison has yet to give town officials a timeline for restoring power.

Garbage pickup will follow a normal schedule, though service may be spotty in storm-damaged areas. Residents may bring trash to the Maxwell Avenue facility from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays (except Wednesdays) and from 8 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Saturdays. Steer clear of downed power lines and trees.

Town court will be open tonight, and town center is scheduled to re-open at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

LARCHMONT: The village is working with Con Ed to restore power, but has not provided a timeline for completing the work.

Parking regulations are back in effect in all municipal lots.

Garbage collection may be delayed due to flooded streets and fallen tree limbs. Residents should bag organic waste and leave it at the curb no sooner than the night before their second garbage collection day. The village is lifting a ban on leaf blowers until Sept. 10 to allow residents to clear debris.

PHOTO: Businesses along Mamaroneck Avenue pump out floodwater after Hurricane Irene (Ned P. Rauch/The Journal News)