Sound Shore

Flags were half-mast today in Port Chester after the death this morning of former Mayor Peter Iasillo. He was the dominant figure in local politics for more than a decade and stayed involved well beyond his 1980-93 mayoral term.

Friends and family were remembering him as a jovial figure – some thinking back to the sight of him in a nightcap and gown for the annual charity “bed races.”

The funeral Mass is set for 9:15 a.m. Saturday at Corpus Christi Church. Visiting hours are 4 to 8 p.m. Friday at Craft Memorial Home. Read more in our story on LoHud.com.

At left, Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library employee Chris Hernandez, 27, lowers the American flag to half staff today. “My family’s been here since the 50s,” Hernandez said, adding his family’s involvement with the Republican Party led to him meeting Iasillo as a youth. “It’s sad, he’s definitely one of the best mayors we’ve had.” (Photo by Xavier Mascareñas / The Journal News)

Mamaroneck town officials are exploring the scenarios that could result from a possible dissolution of the nearby Rye Town—including the adoption of about 7,600 new residents.

The neighborhood known as Rye Neck—about 1.4 square miles—would become an orphan of sorts if Rye town decides to go out of existence. A study is under way to determine whether taxpayers would save money by doing away with Rye town or by merging municipal services in some other way.

Rye town envelops the villages of Port Chester and Rye Brook along with Rye Neck, a separate fragment of land that belongs to Mamaroneck Village.

The Town of Mamaroneck is a bystander in the study, but has a serious stake in the outcome.

“It’s an interesting, but very complicated issue,” Supervisor Nancy Seligson said this week as the town board ventured into a discussion on the matter.

If Rye Neck becomes part of the Town of Mamaroneck, it would still receive most services from the Village of Mamaroneck. But Rye Neck residents would no longer pay a slight premium for town recreation services like Hommocks pool, for one thing. But their town taxes might rise, according to one former study on the question. Under a second scenario,the Village of Mamaroneck would secede from the town, taking Rye Neck with it and becoming its own “town-village.”

Mamaroneck Town Administrator said he report to the town board by April with a look at the potential impact from the two alternatives. Any change in the municipal map would require a referendum.

The Rochester-based Center for Governmental Research is conducting the study for Rye Town and the villages of Port Chester, Rye Brook and Mamaroneck through a state grant. Information about municipal services and videos of the related public forums are online at www.cgr.org.

A group of Port Chester High School students called on the village board this week to ban smoking at local parks. Armed with a PowerPoint presentation on local ordinances and a survey of their peers, they said smoking is keeping residents away from the parks and setting a bad example for young people.

Village trustees welcomed the presentation by Kyle Thomas, Andrecarol Davila, Maria Ayala and Joanna Cruz, members of the youth committee of the Port Chester Cares Community Coalition. The board referred the idea to the parks and recreation commission.

The coalition has been working since 2007 to prevent drug and alcohol abuse and promote health in the community. It spoke out against a local gas station’s use of an old ice-cream truck to sell cigarettes just across the Connecticut border, and helped educate students on the danger of texting while driving.

In March, it will sponsor another “Family U” workshop series at the Middle School. Details here.

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.

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.

This just in from the Bronxville Library:

“The Bronxville Public Library announced today that Library Director Laura Eckley has submitted a letter of resignation, effective Feb. 3.  Ms. Eckley is leaving to become director of the Larchmont Public Library.

“Laura has been a true asset to our library, and we appreciate her dedication and expertise,’’ said Kathy Mullen, President of the library’s Board of Trustees.  “While we are sad to see her leave, we wish her all the best in her new endeavors.”

Eckley joined the Bronxville Public Library in 2003 and was named Library Director in 2009.

“It has been both a privilege and a honor to work at the Bronxville Public Library for the past nine years,” said Ms Eckley in a resignation letter sent to the board earlier this week.  “It was a truly rewarding experience to serve the community.”

Details regarding the search for a replacement will be released after the next board meeting scheduled for Feb. 8.”

The press release gives no information on how—if at all—Eckley’s resignation will affect the lawsuit she brought against the library after a raise to $100,000 was rescinded several weeks after it was instituted. The suit also charged that Eckley was the victim of gender discrimination, pointing out that men in positions of similar responsibility made much more than she.

Rye Mayor Douglas French is seeking an ethics review of the city’s handling of tax and building-permit problems at a rental property he owns, but that’s only bringing more criticism.

The mayor circulated a memo this week explaining what led to his improper STAR exemption and lack of permits for 13 Richard Place. (See the LoHud story.) The city Board of Ethics, made up of three former city officials as voting members, declined to review related accusations presented in this video, submitted by Ray Tartaglione to City Manager Scott Pickup. Pickup forwarded the video to the ethics board; he and the city attorney are ex-officio members of that board but recused themselves from the case.

Councilwoman Catherine Parker says in the following commentary the situation pointed to a problem with the setup of the ethics board. Stay tuned.

I believe the questions regarding Mayor French’s property at 13 Richard Place brought forward by Mr Tartaglione bring to light a current flaw to our existing Ethics Board—it is too small. Currently, there are three appointed positions, in addition to the City Manager, Corporation Counsel, and the Mayor. Given the fact that, in this case, the Mayor, Corporation Counsel, and City Manager had to recuse themselves the question was left to the other three members.  I disagree with two of their positions:

1) The initial referral to the Ethics Board was made by a city official – Scott Pickup, City Manager. I don’t understand why this wasn’t acknowledged.

2) Two of the three remaining members had contributed money to Mayor French’s campaign, and had been part of   his effort to get elected. That sounds like a conflict to me.

The New Rochelle City Council on Tuesday is expected to vote on whether to extend by another 60 days its agreement with developer Forest City Residential regarding the proposed waterfront complex known as Echo Bay.

The current Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been extended several times already and expires Jan. 15; City Manager Charles Strome III described the current extension request in a memorandum to council members as a “minimal” change. He noted Forest City had funded a number of studies—including on the cost of replacing the DPW garage and of re-use options for the city Armory—and said the extension would allow the city “to more fully understand the results of the studies and to lay the groundwork for more demanding MOU/LDA obligations and understandings going forward.”

As initially proposed, the $450 million project called for a 300-room hotel, retail space, townhouses and apartments. But last winter, as the economy slumped, the project’s development manager said it would likely be revised to drop the hotel, and include fewer residences and less retail space.

Added: Meanwhile, late Friday the city said a study of the location and needs of the muncipal DPW yard concluded constructing a new DPW facility at city-owned property on Beechwood Avenue was preferable to modernizing it at its present location on East Main Street. It said the Beechwood option would cost $13 million while upgrading the existing site would be $16 million.

The city yard would need to be relocated in order for the Echo Bay proposal to move forward. However, some neighbors and city officials have expressed concerns in the past about whether the Beechwood site is the best place for a relocated facility.

Here is the prepared text of Rye Mayor Douglas French’s 2012 “State of the City” address given during Wednesday night’s council meeting. You can watch the video here (Item 3).

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Good evening, it is an honor to once again stand before you as Mayor of the City of Rye to present the State of the City on this night and in this year – the year when the City celebrates its 70^th anniversary of becoming a City.

Mayor Platt, Rye’s first Mayor and whose portrait hangs in the Mayor’s Conference room said in his inaugural address, given less than one month after World War ll had been declared, said that the world “…was in troublesome times …had we known such times were coming I sometimes wonder whether we would have undertaken this course … In any event we have a job to do, we will carry on…”

70 years later, while the circumstances are far different, the same spirit now is called for all of us – for now is the time for the City to once again be pioneers and look forward, and not be historians and look back.  Government as we know it needs to continue to change and we need to lead it.

There is a basic pact when each of us moved to Rye – great schools, great services, great value.  That pact was threatened in 2011 as two forces – the prolonged economic recession and Mother Nature – put significant financial and emotional strain on the residents who make up our community.

Residents like the retired couple who have spent their lives in Rye and now on a fixed income can no longer afford the rapid rise of School, City and County property taxes. Residents like the working couple who need two incomes to be able to afford to live here – but one has lost their job and remains unemployed.

Or, residents like the working professional who is under-employed and has experienced a significant drop in their compensation and retirement plan; yet have incurred spikes in their healthcare coverage expenses.

Or residents whose homes have faced drops in property values based on market conditions or flood waters.

Jaine Elkind Eney will be sworn in as a Mamaroneck Town Council member Jan. 18 to fill the vacancy created by the election of former councilwoman Nancy Seligson as supervisor.

The council voted 4-0 Jan. 4 to  appoint Elkind Eney, who was serving as village trustee in Larchmont. She is a former chair of the town’s Board of Assessment Review. Seligson, elected to the town’s top post in November, replaces Valerie O’Keefe, who stepped down after serving 12 years as supervisor.

In Larchmont, Peter Fanelli was sworn in as trustee Monday to fill Elkind Eney’s seat on the five-member village board. He was appointed by Mayor Joshua Mandell.