Sound Shore

The Westchester County Board of Legislators is looking to fill a landlord vacancy on the Rent Guidelines Board. Here’s the announcement:

Westchester Legislators Announce Landlord Opening on County’s Rent Guidelines Board

White Plains, NY – The Westchester County Board of Legislators (BOL) announced today it is seeking an owners’ representative to serve on the Westchester County Rent Guidelines Board.

“The Board of Legislators is searching for qualified owner candidates to be considered for this important board,” said Legislator MaryJane Shimsky (D-Hastings-on-Hudson), chair of the BOL’s Appointments Committee. “This member of the Rent Guidelines Board should be in place in time for the public hearings in June.

The New York State Emergency Tenant protection Act of 1974 (ETPA) provides for the establishment of County Rent Guidelines Boards in Westchester, Rockland and Nassau counties. The boards independently set the maximum allowable rates for rent adjustments effective October 1 of each year, for renewal and vacancy leases in ETPA apartments. (more…)

The northern end of downtown Port Chester, near the bridge across the Byram River to Greenwich, Conn., has been a very busy place in recent years—a major foodie destination with Tarry Lodge, Tarry Market and Tarry Wines on the same block, plus the growing Kneaded Bread Bakery across Mill Street on North Main. That has brought up certain parking challenges.

A proposal before the village Planning Commission would take down much of this dark-gray warehouse building, a former foundry from the 1800s, and create a parking lot.

Plans are still under discussion. But the current version would demolish the part of the structure stretching from the flat-roof section at far left to the first gable. Planning Commission members voiced support for the idea, though one member noted the historic trusses inside the building and suggested preserving the building for indoor parking. A public hearing is set for Monday night.

The warehouse building was until recently a Columbia Elevator factory, one of the last vestiges of Port Chester’s industrial past.

Read more in today’s Journal News story.

Voters in 15 villages in Westchester go to the polls today to elect trustees and in some cases mayors and justices. Polls are generally open until 9 p.m.

Elections are being contested in Buchanan, Irvington, Pleasantville, Scarsdale, Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown.

Elections are uncontested in Briarcliff Manor, Bronxville, Elmsford, Hastings-on-Hudson, Larchmont, Pelham, Pelham Manor, Rye Brook and Tuckahoe.

Find out who’s running: Visit LoHud.com’s Village Elections 2012 guide.

Port Chester teachers from the John F. Kennedy Magnet school are planning a personal visit to Albany this week as part of an effort to press for more state aid to the district. Parents like Nydia Alvarez, pictured below with her son, Aidyn Richmond, are planning to collect letters from their neighbors.

Alvarez is featured in today’s Journal News article. Her son is in Head Start at the Carver Center in Port Chester, and Alvarez is concerned about the impact the cut will have on her family and others. The lobby effort has been galvanized by the plan to move from full- to half-day kindergarten and to shut down the Early Learning Center, a part of the John F. Kennedy Magnet School. Parents are planning a “Save Our School” fundraiser.

The board will meet again March 28 and April 19 as it develops a budget plan. It will meet tomorrow on afternoon for a special session. On the agenda is an agreement with the union representing 15 school administrators.

Three-year-old Nadia Ortiz, at right, was one of the children who appeared at the podium during tonight’s Port Chester school board meeting as parents gave an emotional appeal to keep full-day kindergarten in place next year.

A switch to half-day kindergarten is by far the most serious cut being proposed as the Port Chester district prepares a 2012-13 budget. The move would save $1.7 million and eliminate the equivalent of 26 full-time jobs. Overall Port Chester is looking at $2.1 million worth of cuts and 30 staff positions.

School board members listened to a presentation by Superintendent Edward Kliszus on a draft budget, and officials emphasized that they hoped to ease the cuts by lobbying for more state aid.

Another child, 4-year-old Aidyn Richmond, was lifted to the microphone by his mother and summed up the community response better than anyone: “I deserve a full day,” he told the board, smiling.

One mother said she works in a medical office and questioned whether she might lose her job as she is forced to pick up her son at 11:30 a.m. every day. Nadia’s mother, Stephanie Rodriguez, wants to continue her studies at NYU. She did not attend kindergarten and ended up being held back a grade, she said. Rodriguez said she worried about children who will not be given the right preparation at a critical age, particularly those who rely on bilingual programs.

The district’s plan would close a building known as the Early Learning Center, which serves about 300 kindergartners and first-graders and uses a former Catholic school building rented from the Archdiocese of New York. It’s part of the John F. Kennedy Magnet School, which received a coveted “blue ribbon” designation recently. It serves a high-need population, with 75 percent of families qualifying for free or reduced lunch.

Parents and teachers begged the board to find another way to save money, saying the loss of full-day kindergarten would hurt the very foundation of education in Port Chester; cripple bilingual programs; threaten the household budgets of working parents and single mothers who rely on the full day, and diminish what has been created at the magnet school.

School board members said kindergarten, not mandated by New York State, was one of the few places where sizeable cuts were even possible, and that it would be more harmful to spread the damage throughout district and the grade levels. The district will save $300,000 just in rent at the ELC.

Blanca Lopez, the school board president, pointed to the tax cap and reminded listeners that it would result in cuts for the next five years.

“It should really be Gov. Cuomo who should be sitting here listening to all of you,” she said.

Other cuts envisioned in the $80.9 million spending plan affect the “educational intervention” programs, out-of-district placements through BOCES, and buses that take students to “out-of-zone” elementary schools.

The budget presentation is available on the district website.

With the presidential election in mind, a group called the Port Chester Committee for Better Government is holding a voter registration drive this Saturday in the Don Bosco Community Center. The drive runs from noon to 2 p.m. “Remember,” says the flier, “voting rights were earned with sacrifice.”

Port Chester, unlike most villages, has no local election this month. A year from now, all six trustee seats and the mayoralty are up for election. For trustees it will be the second election held through cumulative voting, a result of the Justice Department’s 2006 lawsuit over Hispanics’ voting rights. All trustees are now elected simultaneously every three years. The mayoral election, held every two years, coincides with the 2013 trustee election.

The League of Women Voters of Larchmont/Mamaroneck will host a Larchmont Village Candidate Forum at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday at the Larchmont Village Courtroom in Village Hall, 120 Larchmont Avenue.

Even though all the candidates this year are unopposed, the forum will allow voters to get a sense of each candidate’s position on a variety of topics of local concern. The candidates will have an opportunity to make a brief statement, and then the League will ask a number of prepared questions. There will also be an opportunity for questions from the audience.

Running for Larchmont mayor is Anne McAndrews, a former Larchmont trustee. The candidates for two village trustee slots are Marlene Kolbert (incumbent) and Peter Fanelli. All three candidates are running on the Democratic line. Election Day is Tuesday, March 20th from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The future of Port Chester’s waterfront is the topic of a meeting tonight as the village updates a state-mandated planning document. Environmental protection, development and public access are among the issues on the table during a discussion of the village’s “Local Waterfront Revitalization Program.”

A draft of the plan gives some history, going back to the boat-building days (when the village was known by its pre-1837 name of Saw Pit) and looks ahead to the impact of global warming. It goes into detail about the lack of public access and scenic views along the shoreline. In urban-planning-speak, “few significant scenic resources exist along Port Chester’s waterfront.”

These days the waterfront is, in a word, “underutilized,” according to the draft. The downtown portion has a big parking lot, and village-owned land on the Fox Island peninsula has a DPW storage and leaf-mulch operation, sewage-treatment plant, garages, machinery and an abandoned incinerator. The Greyrock residential neighborhood has choice views, but no public amenities.

Among the recommendations in the draft:

Fill in the rectangular cove in the Byram River near the foot of Westchester Avenue, which was once used to maneuver tankers bound for Greenwich. Convert the area into a waterfront park.

Redesign the walkway along the river so that it’s inviting and not visibly cut off from the surrounding area. The current configuration (not to mention the collapse of the bulkhead beneath it) make the walkway unsafe, the report says.

Build a walkway and fishing pier that links Columbus Park to the shore.

The document is available at this village website. The workshop, being held by the Port Chester Waterfront Commission, begins at 7:30 p.m. in the senior center behind Village Hall at 222 Grace Church St.

Got something to say to your state and county government reps?

State Assemblyman George Latimer and Westchester County Legislator Judy Myers are holding office hours – “Coffee with George and Judy” – on Saturday:

9:30 – 11 a.m., Ruby’s Oyster Bar and Bistro, 45 Purchase St., Rye

2 – 3:30 p.m., Nautilus Diner, 1240 W. Boston Post Road, Mamaroneck

Latimer is also speaking Friday at the League of Women Voters’ monthly “Issues Breakfast” at 8:15 a.m. at the Mamaroneck Diner, 405 E. Boston Post Road in Mamaroneck. Cost is $8.

No appointment is required for either. For information on the , call Assemblyman Latimer at 777-3832, or Legislator Myers at 995-2802.

New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson has been named a delegate in support of President Barack Obama.

Other prominent Democrats from the area who will join Bramson as delegates to the national convention, to be held Sept. 3 in Charlotte, N.C., are former New Castle Supervisor Barbara Gerrard; State Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson; Reginald Lafayette, chairman of the Westchester County Democratic Committee; and Ramapo Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence.

The Republicans will open their convention Aug. 27 in Tampa, Fla. Are Republicans named delegates to the convention included Vincent D. Reda, chairman of the Rockland County Republican Committee; John P. Cahill, former aide to Gov. George Pataki and, like Reda; and State Sen. Gregory Ball. All three are pledged to support Mitt Romney.