Sound Shore

Rye will be conducting milling and paving operations at the intersection of Locust Avenue and Purchase Street Thursday night. Locust Avenue will be closed from Purchase Street to Haviland Lane from 5 p.m. Thursday until no later than 8 a.m. Saturday. Purchase Street will be closed from Boston Post Road to Smith Street from 7 p.m. Thursday to no later than 8 a.m. Saturday. Parking is not permitted in those areas during the paving work and cars may be towed if they are left there. No parking signs have been posted to alert motorists.

Maybelle Chapter #18, Prince Hall Order of the Eastern Star, will hold its precentennial annual luncheon Oct. 1 at 11:30 a.m. at Juliano’s, 700 Main Street, New Rochelle. The event will honor humanitarian Mildred Coverdale of Yonkers and Ibe Moses Nwampka, a CPA. Suggested donation $65. For more information, call former New Rochelle councilwoman Beuenia M. Brown at 914-636-2609 or 914-636-8193.

Legislator Judy Myers, a Democrat in District 7 on the Westchester County Board of Legislators, holds a 13-vote lead over her Republican challenger Suzanna Keith for the Independence line.
As of this afternoon, Myers had 75 votes to Keith’s 62, according to unofficial numbers provided by the Board of Elections. Eleven votes are being challenged.

While Myers, a Democrat, was backed by the Independence Party, Keith challenged her for the line in a write-in, or opportunity to ballot. Keith is a Republican and member of the Rye City Council.
A court challenge was adjourned today to Monday, though the Board of Elections was going over ballots with representatives from both camps this afternoon.

“We’re still counting,” Democratic Commissioner Reginald LaFayette said.

Myers and Keith are running against each other in the November race.

According to the Rye police department, Milton Road is back open again, a few hours after minor coastal flooding briefly closed the road between Dearborn Avenue and Hewlett Avenue. Minor coastal flooding had also affected Stuyvesant Ave south of Van Wagenen Ave.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the blunt Republican whose efforts to lessen taxpayers’ burdens have made headlines across the nation, continues to stand firm that he is not going to seek his party’s nomination for president in 2012.

Do you think he should enter the race? Do you think he’d be a good candidate? Share your thoughts with us:

Good morning. Here’s a look at opinion content published today in The Journal News:

Mandate relief: Editorial
We comment on news that Bedford town officials voted to create a local law to override the 2-percent property tax cap. We encourage Gov. Andrew Cuomo to get serious about mandate relief. We write:

Some towns are already signaling their 2012 budgets could surpass New York’s new 2 percent property-tax cap on local tax levies. Expect similar Hamlet-like struggles from counties and school districts as they look for ways to meet the cap and provide the services their constituents demand.

This should come as little surprise: The tax cap, by itself, is a blunt instrument. It provides a ceiling, but not the steps to get there.

New Yorkers, who struggled to lose the mantle of “most taxed in the nation” amid their sinking fortunes of the Great Recession, demanded it. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who cajoled, berated and begged the state Legislature to pass the cap, gave the people what they wanted.

Now we need the sequel: mandate reform, government consolidation and more discussion among taxpayers on what they are willing to pay for, and what they will do without. …

Good Tuesday morning. Here’s a glance at opinion content published today:

“Sexting” and cyberbullies: Editorial
We comment on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Friday signature on the New York’s Cyber-Crime Youth Rescue Act. The law, we write, “sets up a two-year, diversionary educational program for kids under age 16 who are caught texting, emailing, tweeting or otherwise electronically disseminating nude or obscene images.” More:

The program should not be an easy out. Like local counties’ Drug Courts, the program must demand intense education, close monitoring and restrictions for first-time offenders. Judges, who will determine whether a youngster qualifies for the program, must weigh each case carefully, as cyberbullying is not a victimless crime.

Longtime Scarsdale resident and poet Ann Cefola will launch her newest book, “St. Agnes, Pink-slipped” from 3 to 5 p.m. Oct. 15 in the newly restored library at Trinity St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 311 Huguenot St., New Rochelle.

Cefola got inspiration for the title of her book after hearing that St. Agnes Hospital in White Plains had changed its name.

“She picturred the displaced saint trudging up North Street,” a publicist said. “That image became the inspiration for the title of her new poetry chapbook” available from Kattywompus Press.

“In the early 2000’s, so many people in Westchester had been downsized,” Cefola said. “Who would think it could happen to a saint?”

The event will feature a reading by the poet and refreshments. It is free and open to the public, although the church is accepting donations to its building repair fund.

To learn more about Cefola, visit www.anncefola.com. For information on the church and directions, visit www.trinitystpaul.org.

Here’s a look at opinion content published over the weekend in The Journal News:

Saturday, Sept. 24
Troy Davis: Commentary
Alice T. Crowe, a Nyack attorney and playwright, offers a Community View on Troy Davis, the African-American man put to death last week in Georgia for the 1989 murder of white Savannah, Ga., police officer Mark Allen MacPhail. Crowe argues against the death penalty.

Sunday, Sept. 25
Infrastructure repair: Editorial
We comment on a report that 45 percent of Westchester County’s bridges are “functionally obsolete,” according to the state Department of Transportation. The figures are similar in Rockland and Putnam Counties. We argue in favor of President Barack Obama’s American Jobs Act, which would fund badly needed infrastructure repairs. We write:

… Of course, many commuters travel great distances, and from state to state, so they experience the breadth of the region’s infrastructure woes, from rundown bridges to overmatched wastewater treatment facilities and broke water mains. The state Comptroller’s Office, looking at long-range maintenance needs for bridges, sewers and water systems, estimates that New York needs to spend $250 billion over the next 20 years; about $80 billion of that is unfunded. “The central theme is that we have immense infrastructure needs and very limited resources to tend to those needs, and that presents some significant challenges,” Deputy State Comptroller Tom Nitido told The Journal News and LoHud.com.

(more…)

The village of Mamaroneck and its chamber of commerce will host a “Spooktacular 2011,” featuring a haunted house, a costume parade and children’s crafts, from noon to 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 23, on Mamaroneck Avenue.

Attractions at this rain-or-shine event include:

• Window painting from noon to 2 p.m. Registration starts at 11:30 a.m. in front of Robert’s Department Store. The first 50 children who register will receive free t-shirts.

• A first-ever Halloween Costume Parade for children and pets at 2:30 p.m., starting at Enzo’s Restaurant near Halstead Avenue.

• A “Tricks & Treats Kids Korner” featuring crafts and holiday-themed fun for children from 3 to 6 p.m. at the parking lot across from the old Hook and Ladder Firehouse.

• A haunted house in the firehouse from 4 to 7 p.m.

For more information, contact: the Mamaroneck Chamber of Commerce at (914) 698-4400, chamber10543@optonline.net.