Sound Shore

Rye city officials have declined so far to respond to allegations in this very interesting article about a whistleblowing employee who said his superiors made him hide the fact that a Jan. 25 council workshop had been videotaped.

City Manager Scott Pickup told council members during the meeting and afterward that it was not recorded. Andrew Dapolite, an employee for Rye TV, said his superiors deliberately withheld the recording from the public and council—and that when the recording was eventually posted on Rye’s website, the audio levels had been lowered. Thursday’s Rye Sound Shore Review quotes from a letter he sent to the council this week.

Dapolite said he tried to resolve the situation internally with Rye TV Access Coordinator Nicole Levitsky before writing the letter. “It is my understanding that the actions exhibited by Mr. Pickup and Ms. Levitsky, by withholding the recording of the meeting, lying to city officials and members of the public, placing expectations on me that challenge good ethics and morals, is in direct conflict with the code of ethics,” he wrote. (Read the full text below.)

Council members were meeting Jan. 25 on the sensitive issue of Fire Department restructuring. The videotape wasn’t posted until Feb. 7.

Pickup and Levitsky declined to respond to Dapolite’s claims when contacted today. Mayor Doug French called the allegations a personnel matter. Council members Joe Sack, who had a heated public exchange with the mayor recently over French’s property problems, and Catherine Parker, the council’s lone Democrat, said the allegations were serious and need to be investigated. It’s unclear how that will happen.

Rye Corporation Counsel Kristen Wilson said she will advise the council on what steps it may take. As attorney for the city and its boards, her involvement may end there, and she declined to comment. A Journal News request to her to provide a copy of Dapolite’s letter went unanswered Friday afternoon.

Update: Dapolite agreed to release the letter after seeing that it was obtained by another media outlet. The text of the letter is below.

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Mamaroneck, Pelham, Harrison and New Rochelle have all had reports of armed robberies in recent weeks near local train stations. Rye police sent out an alert today telling residents to be on the lookout, though no such incident has been reported there.

Theresa Juva-Brown reports on LoHud.com today:

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Police are warning commuters to watch out for an armed mugger who robbed two men, injuring one of them, in separate incidents as they walked from the Mamaroneck and Harrison train stations on Thursday.

A 59-year-old Mamaroneck village man told police he was walking from the Metro-North train station at 8 p.m. near Stanley Avenue when a man came up behind him with a gun and demanded his property. The robber fled on foot with undisclosed property.

An hour later, as a man walked from the train station near South Road and the Interstate 95 bridge in Harrison, he was struck in the head with a blunt object. The mugger then took his cell phone at gunpoint. The victim was taken to White Plains Hospital with a head injury.

Investigators believe the two incidents are connected and said the robber may have taken the train between robberies.

The suspect is approximately 5 feet 10 and weighs 180 to 200 pounds. He was last seen wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans, and a light-colored bandanna or mask. He was carrying a silver or black handgun, police said.

Anyone with information should call Harrison police at 914-967-5111, Ext. 1, or Mamaroneck village police at 914-825-8541.

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Crime Stoppers had an alert earlier this month:

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Rye Brook is reporting a water main break on Talcott Road and Mohegan Lane. Customers in the area are advised:

You may be experiencing low or no water pressure or discolored water.  United Water Westchester crews are on site to make the necessary repairs.

Customers may contact United Water Westchester at 877-266-9101 or uwwccustomerservice@unitedwater.com

Rye police sent out an alert today about another possible use of an ATM skimmer:

The City of Rye Police Department is investigating the possible use of an ATM skimming device at Citibank located at 1040 Boston Post Road during the weekend of February 4 – 5, 2012. Customers who used the ATM at Citibank’s Rye Branch this weekend are advised to check their accounts and immediately report any unusual activity to their bank.

As a general precaution—despite the fact that ATM skimming devices have become more sophisticated with the passage of time, the best precaution is to cover the ATM keypad with your free hand while entering your PIN, so the numbers cannot be observed by cameras.

For more safety tips, see this earlier post.

The owner of a large commercial property in Port Chester is facing hundreds of code violations in the wake of a fire last month that was stopped before causing any major damage.

Village inspectors said they found 466 violations of building, zoning and fire codes at 200 William St., a 139,000-square-foot former factory-warehouse bordered by William, Oak and Smith streets. Assistant Village Manager Christopher Steers told village leaders in an email today:

In sum about 40 tenant spaces within the structure have been built out over the last several years without any permits and or C/O’s (certificates of occupancy) being issued. The multiple violations relate to permitting and C/O violations, prohibited uses, electrical hazards, egress violations, fire systems violations, and numerous other related violations. The most egregious violation relates to the sprinkler system being compromised due to the unlawful build outs. Further, a notice of violation was issued in April of 2011 for failure to obtain the required fire inspection.

The notice against the owner, listed as Independence Realty-Port Chester, orders compliance by obtaining the requisite permits or removing all work that was done unlawfully.

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.

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.

For a second year, drug-sniffing dogs were brought into Port Chester High School today to check lockers, and again found no illegal substances.

“We want to make sure students realize this is a zero-tolerance environment and that drugs cannot be brought onto this campus,” Principal Mitchell Combs said in a news release.

In a letter sent to parents, he stressed that the district was trying to discourage drug abuse through the pre-emptive search along with education and counseling:

New York State Police with drug-sniffing dogs conducted searches of lockers at Port Chester High School this morning. Working in partnership with Rye Brook Police, Port Chester Police, and New York State Police, the district decided to bring the canine unit to our school as part of improved surveillance and enforcement by school administration and local police. The canine unit was used to inspect lockers and other locations where we believe drugs could have been hidden.

… We understand that students with substance abuse problems are in need of help, and our counselors stand ready to work with them; however, drugs and alcohol have no place in our schools, and so we took this proactive move.

 

 

The fire just after midnight Tuesday in a large commercial building in Port Chester would have been a lot worse if DJs from an entertainment network hadn’t been inside.

Alarms linked to the sprinkler system, which should have alerted the Fire Department automatically to the fire at 200 William St., were faulty, as were exterior alarms that should have sounded, according to Port Chester code enforcement officials. The sprinklers alone probably would not have stopped the blaze, Port Chester Fire Inspector Kevin Brennan said. Luckily, people at the entertainment network Zedalza called 911.

“Had they not been in the building, we probably would have lost the entire block,” Brennan said. The structure is a 139,000-square-foot former factory-warehouse bordered by William, Oak and Smith streets. It includes woodworking shops, a commercial photographer, the Zedalza radio station and other offices. The fire apparently resulted from self-combustion from a buildup of dust in sanding equipment at a businesses called Avanti, according to fire officials. Inspectors found  construction work had been done there without a permit, and issued a stop-work order. The fire damage was minimal, charring the floor beams, Brennan said. Inspections are continuing throughout the building.

Code-compliance work is continuing at two other large commercial properties in town where fires occurred: a set of businesses at Westchester Avenue and Main Street and and a retail parcel at North Main and Adee streets with apartments on the upper floors. Both properties are only partially re-occupied and have been cited for numerous electrical code violations.

Journal News columnist Phil Reisman follows up today on the mail carrier who helped an older couple escape their burning home in Rye Brook last week.

Jason Dang spoke humbly about his efforts at the Port Chester post office, where one of the WPA-era murals (pictured) acknowledge the mail carrier as part of the community work force.

Dang encountered 80-year-old Judy Uhry on Rock Ridge Drive as her husband, Gus, who uses a walker, was still inside the smoke-filled house.

Read the rest of the column here.