Sound Shore

 Scarsdale’s Ian Klein celebrates with James Nicholas following Nicholas’s third goal on the night against New Rochelle at The Ice Hutch in Mount Vernon Jan. 31, 2012. Scarsdale’s won 6-4.

Circuit Road—Two tires were stolen off of a 2011 Honda Accord that was parked
on Circuit Road sometime between Jan. 27 and Jan. 28, New Rochelle police said.
The tires were worth $300. Police said the same thieves may have stolen two
tires from a 2011 Honda Accord that was parked on Elm Street between 3:15 and
4:30 a.m. Jan. 28.

The New Rochelle City Council has appointed the members of its new Citizens’ Panel on Sustainable Budgets. Todd Kern, founder of 2Revolutions LLC, described as an “education design lab,” will serve as the panel’s chairman.

Mayor Noam Bramson, who announced the appointments on his website on Tuesday, proposed the idea of convening such a panel as he and the other members of council were in the final stages of passing the 2012 city budget. It had been a contentious process, with officials grappling with the state’s property tax cap and coming close laying off firefighters, crossing guards and other workers.

Bramson had suggested the panel as a means to identify the community’s priorities and develop new approaches to crafting the budget.

According to a separate news release issued Tuesday by the city, the group will be “tasked with analyzing service delivery levels and methods in the face of dwindling resources for 2013 and beyond.”

In addition to Kern, the members of the panel are Judith Berger, David Bieber, Michael Boyle Sr., Emily Bromberg, Kyran Cassidy, Matthew Costa, Michael D’Ambrosio, Jeffrey Hastie, Linda Kelly-Fauci, Bo Kemp, Todd Kern, Martha Lopez-Hanratty, David Peters, Ann Rolett and John Rorer. Bramson will serve on the panel as well.

The city’s release said North Avenue Research would provide consulting services on a pro bono basis.

The panel will have its first meeting in February and work through July.

Last summer, at the end of their fiscal year, officials at the New Rochelle Public Library admitted that shoddy bookkeping led them to overestimate the amount of cash they had by $300,000. Earlier this month, the library’s Board of Trustees posted on the library’s website the results of an investigation into the error, saying it was “due to an inconsistency in the designation and reporting of ‘restricted funds’ versus ‘assigned funds’ in the library’s Fund Balance.” The trustees said they had since reorganized internal staff; appointed board members with accounting backgrounds to oversee the budget process; and vowed to work more closely with the School District’s treasurer.

The Rye library will be closed on Tuesday mornings this year because of budget constraints.

Until now the Rye Free Reading Room’s Tuesday hours were 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Starting in February, the hours will be 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. City funding remained flat for 2012 as staff costs costs increased by about $45,000, Director Kitty Little said. The library had planned to close Thursday mornings as well, but applied savings and extra income from 2011 in order to avoid that move. It’s the second year in a row that hours have been scaled back. In 2011, a $75,000 cut in funding prompted the library to close on Sundays. The strains continue as the library runs at a $55,000 deficit in its 2012 budget.

The hours of operation are posted here. Library officials are planning to revamp the website this year, and make it easier for customers to find the eBook collection. For the moment, that information is here.

On March 6, the Jewish Studies Program at Purchase College SUNY will present Israeli filmmaker Avner Faingulernt who will discuss and screen portions of his riveting films “War Matador” and “Fishermen’s Diary.”

“War Matador” explores the curious phenomenon of “war tourism” which flourished during the 2009 conflict that took place on the Israeli-Gaza border.  People from all over the region swarmed to the border to observe the shelling of Gaza.

Faingulernt’s 2005 film, “Fishermen’s Diary: Men on the Edge,” will also be partially screened.  It  tells the story of four fishermen – two Israelis and two Palestinians – who work together on a small beach wedged between Israel and Gaza, and how they form a delicate working relationship despite political tensions.

“Bringing huge, seemingly intractable issues to an interpersonal level is an essential step in addressing conflict. It makes the complexity understandable,” said Christopher Robbins, an Art & Design School professor at Purchase College whose work includes think tanks working in Israel, the Gaza Strip, Serbia and Kosovo.

Peyton, the potbelly pig currently residing at the New Rochelle Humane Society, woke up Tuesday morning to a breakfast that included oatmeal, apples and a peanut butter-coated carrot. As explained here in this story, Peyton came to the shelter Sunday by way of a trio of Iona College students who rescued her from a man on Long Island who’d been keeping her as a pet but planned to dispose of her. (Apparently, Peyton didn’t get along with the man’s German shepherds.)

(Peyton the pig. Photo by Ned P. Rauch)

The Humane Society is looking for a permanent, more rural (and muddier) home for the pig and has been in touch with Farm Sanctuary, in Watkins Glen. It’s about four-and-a-half hours away, in the Finger Lakes region, and seems like it’d make for a happy home for a hog.

A water main break in Rye Brook this morning may be leaving customers in the area with little or no water pressure or discolored water. United Water Westchester crews are on the scene of the break on North Ridge Street near Crawford Park to make repairs. One lane is closed on North Ridge, Police Chief Gregory Austin said.

Information is available from United Water Westchester at 877 266 9101 or uwwccustomerservice@unitedwater.com.

Congresswoman Nita Lowey is taking another opportunity today to rally for Social Security with local seniors, this time observing the anniversary of the first checks being issued under the program Jan. 31, 1940. Rep. Lowey marked the program’s 75th birthday in August at the same venue, the Anthony Posillipo Community Center in Rye Brook.

Though the program has been a target for the GOP, Republican presidential candidates have said little about the topic lately, even as they travel Florida in advance of today’s primary. Suffice it to say that Lowey does not agree with former candidate Rick Perry’s line from last year about the program being a “Ponzi scheme.”

At her 11 a.m. appearance, Lowey will “reiterate her commitment to protecting Social Security benefits for older Americans, survivors, and individuals with disabilities,” according to a spokesman.

Rye Country Day School held its annual Festival Chorus Concert Sunday with 175 voices and a full orchestra at Purchase College Performing Arts Center.

The 17th annual concert was titled “I’ll Fly Away.” The chorus performed quite a range of music: the Fauré Requiem, Beethoven’s Hallelujah from Christ on the Mount of Olives, and some traditional folk tunes, backed by a Bluegrass band. The Festival Chorus features the Upper School Concert Choir and a choir of alumni, current and past parents, faculty, and friends.

(Photo: Todd Shapera Photography)