By Stacy A. Anderson
The Journal News
December 12, 2008

GREENBURGH- The biggest capital project in town history, in the making for more than a decade, will open next week.

The $20.2 million Greenburgh Public Library at 300 Tarrytown Road will open to patrons Monday. Meanwhile, the staff is finishing a monthlong effort to stock it with 160,000 volumes.

Library director Eugenie Contrata said the library board first discussed plans to expand and renovate the library in 1995.

“It’s absolutely a dream come true,” said Contrata, who has worked at the library for 16 years. “It’s remarkable and exciting.”

The first level of the new library includes the circulation desk, a collection of new books, DVDs, a lounge area and a training room.

More than $30,000 of equipment in the training room, including a SmartBox projection system and 13 computers, was funded by the Greenburgh Public Library Foundation and will be used to teach basic Internet searches, e-mail use and Microsoft skills, Contrata said.

The lower level also includes a large multipurpose room holding up to 140 people, the network and mechanic rooms, bathrooms and library personnel offices.

Most of the books are on the upper level, which has another lounge area in a 40-foot-high glass foyer overlooking Route 119 with an ultra modern curved roof.

The top level includes the children’s library with a play section. An oval-shaped area has been designated “Teenburgh,” with materials catering to young adults.

A study area, music collection, reference desk, 16 computers, bathrooms and additional administrative offices complete the top level.

Contrata said technology for the training room, three electronic signs and additional lounge furniture will arrive after the opening. A local history room upstairs will open next year.

The Town Board approved a $19.9 million bond referendum in May 2005 to build the 46,000-square-foot library, twice the size of the old one.

Voters approved the project by only 66 votes out of 4,400 cast. The new library will cost the average taxpayer about $68 a year for 25 years on a house assessed at $15,000.

The Town Board approval of the size and shape of the project, coupled with indecision over where to move the books, delayed the beginning of construction until February 2007. Meanwhile, the cost of labor and materials rose after the project’s approval.

The town used about $400,000 in state and federal grants to demolish the old Town Hall next door to make room for more parking on the 9-acre site, construct geothermic wells, build a circulation desk and buy furniture, bookshelves and daylight-saving controls.

To further offset costs, the library foundation raised about $91,000 in cash and in-kind services to pay for landscaping, technology and furniture for the children’s room.

Town resident Hal Samis, a vocal critic of the town’s spending on the project, said the completed library is not what they presented for the referendum years ago.

“This is a completely different project then what the public was told about when this started, and it’s essentially been downgraded to stay on budget by design, change orders and degradation of value, or what they call ‘value engineering,’ ” he said.

Samis said previous plans included a larger multipurpose room and more parking. He questioned why the library would not be completely furnished by opening.

“Taxpayers are paying for it,” he said. “Why isn’t everything there?”

The Town Board’s library liaison, Councilwoman Diana Juettner, countered critics of the new library and commended project coordinators for staying close to budget and deadline.

“They might not have gotten the same exact thing they wanted, but it’s a beautiful library,” she said. “I enjoy it because, as an educator, I know the library is an important part of the town and community.”

While the old library has been closed for almost two years, the staff continued service by operating three satellite locations and a bookmobile with about 20 percent of its materials.

The remaining 80 percent of the library’s volumes and materials were stored in Long Island.

The library offered more than 450 programs to 13,000 people with a $3.4 million budget this year, Contrata said.

Reach Stacy A. Anderson at sanderso1@lohud.com or 914-694-5080.

http://www.lohud.com/article/20081212/NEWS02/812120401

By Stacy A. Anderson
The Journal News
November 19, 2008

GREENBURGH – Officials have abandoned a five-year effort to relocate and double the size of a health center serving Greenburgh.

The center has put up for sale a 2.6-acre parcel on Knollwood Road it purchased in 2002 for $1.5 million that would have served as the clinic’s new home.

Carole Morris, chief executive officer of Mount Vernon Neighborhood Health Center Inc., said the lengthy approval process, lagging economy and an expired low-interest loan led officials to terminate the project.

The nonprofit organization, which runs a main facility in Mount Vernon, operates satellite centers in Greenburgh and Yonkers.

The $10 million plan called for construction of a 2 1/2 -story, 34,000-square-foot medical facility with additional exam rooms and specialty services, such as X-rays and dermatology, about a half-mile from the center’s current site.

Morris said costs to build a new center had doubled during the past five years.

“There is no way we could carry the debt services without jeopardizing the center,” she said. “More than half the people we serve are not insured.”

Morris said the existing Greenburgh Health Center at 330 Tarrytown Road will undergo cosmetic renovations next year, including painting, new carpeting and reconfiguring the locker room and conference room into two exam rooms and a waiting area.

The center received approval to build a new structure in 2006, after facing objections from the Greenburgh Town Board and neighbors.

Broadview Civic Association, which represents about 40 families in the Knollwood Road area, questioned plans for the new center that lacked pedestrian access.

“It’s a very busy, hilly type of roadway, and it has limited availability to install a sidewalk,” said Robert Reninger, president of the Broadview group. “A multiple-family residential area or assisted-living facility would be an excellent use of the property.”

The Mount Vernon Neighborhood Health Center revised the site plans last year to include construction of a sidewalk along Tarrytown Road (Route 119).

The Greenburgh Health Center has provided services since 1972.

Reach Stacy A. Anderson at sanderso1@lohud.com or 914-694-5080.

http://www.lohud.com/article/20081119/NEWS02/811190378/1027/NEWS11

By Stacy A. Anderson
The Journal News
November 16, 2008

DOBBS FERRY – For teen girls like Julia Selig, 15, meeting “America’s Next Top Model” winner Whitney Thompson was a real thrill, since most celebrity models are gauntly thin.
“She’s gorgeous and she has a positive body image,” Selig said.
Thompson, who became the first “full-figure” model to win the popular television competition show earlier this year, met with fans at Industry yesterday.
Young girls packed the fashion boutique off the Saw Mill River Parkway, some as early as 7 a.m., to meet the 5-foot, 10-inch beauty from Atlantic Beach, Fla.
“It’s awesome,” Thompson said. “It’s incredible that they were here before I even woke up.”
Thompson said she was encouraged to try out for the show after one of the producers spotted her at Los Angeles International Airport while buying a candy bar. She later auditioned in Orlando, Fla., and went on to win a $100,000 Cover Girl contract, a deal with Elite Model Management and a cover spread in the July issue of Seventeen magazine.
She has since become a spokeswoman for Right Fit, a jeans line sold at the affordable clothing chain Fashion Bug.
Thompson, who began modeling locally at age 16 in print ads, now resides on the Upper East Side in Manhattan.
While shuttling between the East Coast and Los Angeles every week, Thompson said she often misses her family and down-home cooking.
“Mashed potatoes, biscuits and gravy, chicken and dumplings,” she said with a laugh. “I even got my family to ship me a 6-pound bag of Bisquick.”
Industry boutique owner Barb Jacobowitz also succumbed to Thompson’s Southern charm.
“She’s so sweet,” Jacobowitz said. “She’s a doll. So down-to-earth.”
The boutique, which opened in May, carries everything from Seven for All Man Kind and Hudson jeans to casual wear by Velvet and Junk Food.
Village resident Dave Osborn took his two daughters and their friend to meet the top model and praised her for becoming a role model for girls.
“The average model looks like she is about to drop from starvation,” he said, “which is not a healthy ideal.”
Rachel Birnbaum of Dobbs Ferry visited the boutique with her mom and friends.
“She was really friendly,” the 12-year-old said after getting Thompson’s autograph. “She is comfortable in her own skin.”
Reach Stacy A. Anderson at sanderso1@lohud.com or 914-694-5080.

http://www.lohud.com/article/20081116/NEWS02/811160334

By Stacy A. Anderson
The Journal News
November 1, 2008

GREENBURGH – With plans to cut town services and staff in almost every department, Supervisor Paul Feiner released his tentative spending proposal for 2009 this week.
If approved, the $61.8 million budget that serves unincorporated Greenburgh would increase the tax rate about 7.7 percent. A $14.8 million proposal for the budget serving unincorporated Greenburgh and the six villages calls for an increase of about 9.6 percent.
A property owner in one of the villages would pay about $6.08 more, or $69.45 next year in town taxes. The bulk of their municipal services, and taxes, are paid to the village government.
A property owner in the unincorporated area, which receives services from the town, would pay about $170.68 more, or $2,363.39 for their tax bill.
Both increases are based on a home assessed at $15,000.
“In these economic times, people need predictably and stability and I think it’s really important to have a single-digit increase,” Feiner said. “We treated this budget like a real crisis, like a depression.”
The town faced unavoidable expenses such as health insurance costs that will increase by an estimated $1 million next year, he said. The town will ask all employees to contribute to health costs when they renegotiate their labor contracts.
In addition, Feiner said the New York Power Authority has advised the town that utility costs will increase by about a third. He will respond by seeking to reduce utility consumption by 10 percent.
The town has lost revenue from a decrease in state financial assistance, a drop in interest income rates from 5 percent to 2 percent, and a loss of $600,000 in mortgage tax revenue.
The single-digit tax increase, which comes after last year’s tax hike of slightly more than 21 percent, was achieved by drastically scaling back town services and staff across several departments:
- The Sanitation Department will eliminate noncurbside pickup of garbage and eliminate five positions to save more than $300,000 in salaries and in benefits.
- Parks and Recreation will reduce spending by at least $300,000 in the unincorporated area by cutting three full-time jobs, reducing part-time and seasonal staff, cutting pool and tennis hours and canceling special events and programs such as the Massaro Park Adult Summer Basketball League, Movies in the Parks and Breakfast With Santa.
- The Police Department will eliminate six officer positions and reduce overtime.
- Data Processing will cut $20,000 in spending by using fewer consultants and decreasing hardware purchases.
- The Planning Department will eliminate the deputy commissioner position and cut overall expenses by 13 percent.
- The Tax Office will reduce spending by 3 percent by cutting conference and seminar expenses and reduce part-time hours during noncollection months.
- The Theodore D. Young Community Center will reduce spending by at least 7 percent through the elimination of full- and part-time positions, and cutting costs for supplies, furniture and equipment.
The Town Board used recommendations from the Citizens Management and Budget Review Committee created earlier this year to help create the budget.
The committee proposed a 17 percent tax increase in a report submitted in April, while the town comptroller predicted a tax hike of more than 20 percent.
Bob Bernstein, an Edgemont resident, said he found the budget troubling.
“This is a tax increase that has been designed for these incumbents to run on, and its going to bite us in the rear in 2010,” he said. “It’s an election year budget. It doesn’t really address the big problems.”
Bernstein said the town made important cuts and he applauded the single-digit tax increase, but the town still has duplicate services in Parks and Recreation and the Young center.
He cited a day camp, senior program, special events and swimming staff for both departments.
Bernstein said next year’s budget will be offset by a surplus of cash from positions that were not filled this year, revenue from a property sale of $750,000 and almost $3 million that was to have gone for courthouse expansion.
Bernstein and the Edgemont Community Council will talk with the Town Board about the budget at the council’s next meeting Monday at Edgemont Junior/Senior High School at 8 p.m.
The tentative budget is available under on the “Documents & Forms” section of the town’s Web site: www.greenburghny.com.
The budget must be approved by Dec. 20.
Reach Stacy A. Anderson at sanderso1@lohud.com or 914-694-5080.

http://www.lohud.com/article/20081101/NEWS02/811010406

By Stacy A. Anderson
The Journal News
October 24, 2008

GREENBURGH – The Town Board and other Westchester officials criticized a state policy that allows nontaxpaying residents to receive rebate checks as part of a school tax-relief program.
Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner and board members Kevin Morgan and Sonja Brown opposed the management of rebates that are part of the state’s School Tax Assessment Relief, or STAR, program during a news conference at Town Hall yesterday.
More than 1,900 Greenburgh residents who do not pay school taxes received almost $1.7 million in state rebates this year, according to the town assessor’s office.
Rebate checks ranged from about $251 to $1,497 for property owners in the town’s school districts.
The officials said that instead of giving a rebate check to people who pay no school taxes, the state could use the funds more efficiently by increasing the rebates for people who pay taxes.
Feiner said some people who do not pay school taxes are receiving rebates that are more than their total tax bill.
“I don’t have a problem with the state paying people to live in the community because they have other expenses like gas, food, utilities,” he said. “But the purpose of the STAR rebate was to help people with their school taxes.
“When you have a program geared toward school taxes, the money would go further if they gave it to people who pay school taxes.”
The Town Board members were joined by Yorktown Councilman Nicholas Bianco and county Legislator Thomas Abinanti, D-Greenburgh, who also favor the state program but question the allocation and administration of the rebates.
“It’s a significant problem with a good program,” said Abinanti, a Greenburgh resident. “It could be used for better purposes. Education money is not being spent on education. It’s not being spent on schools.”
Bianco said the current allocation of money works more like a stimulus than a rebate for schools.
“We want money to stay within the education system,” he said.
The politicians said the state should create a system to track residents who are eligible to receive the rebates.
Geoff Gloack, spokesman for the state’s Office of Real Property Services, said the state rebates are not necessarily directly correlated to funding for schools.
“The STAR rebate was formed to provide people with direct property tax relief at that time when they are paying their school taxes,” Gloack said. “There are taxpayers who are receiving rebates who don’t pay school taxes.”
The state agency collects information from more than 900 local assessors before submitting the data to the Department of Taxation and Finance, which issues the rebate checks.
Gloack said property owners who don’t pay school taxes are most likely seniors, veterans or low-income residents who are receiving other exemptions.
“It’s ultimately a decision of the Legislature if they want to stop sending rebates to people,” he said. “It’s a matter of tax policy and a decision made by the Legislature and governor.”
Gloack added that Gov. David Paterson and the state’s Commission on Property Tax Relief have said the program should be examined to see if relief is being directed to those who need it the most.
The state Legislature’s STAR program has two components: a school property tax rebate program and a partial property tax exemption from school taxes, which is based on age and income.
Reach Stacy A. Anderson at sanderso1@lohud.com or 914-694-5080.

http://www.lohud.com/article/20081024/NEWS02/810240363/1216/NEWS0204

By Stacy A. Anderson
The Journal News
October 16, 2008

ABOARD THE HALF MOON
Students from the Masters School left behind their laptops, iPods, cell phones and other techie gadgets for a week to experience a simpler life from four centuries ago.
The seventh-graders from the Dobbs Ferry private school were recreating part of Henry Hudson’s voyage to discover a shorter route for spice trade that traveled along the river that now bears his name.
Capt. Chip Reynolds said the voyage follows the 1609 route of Hudson’s Half Moon, the first European vessel to document its trip along the Hudson River.
“They get on like little children and grow before your eyes,” Reynolds said. “They get a sense of responsibility. Within a few hours, they are steering the ship. It’s fascinating to see them, and that’s what this is about.”
Since boarding the ship Friday in Catskill, N.Y., the 12 students have participated in educational programs and served as crew interns.
Bennett Saltzman, 12, of Dobbs Ferry took more than 40 samples of water for his project on salinity, or salt levels. After completing his chores, Bennett liked to climb the ship’s rigging to the crow’s nest, more than 50 feet above the weather deck.
“The views are so astounding,” he said.
His project partner, Jonathan Eatroff of Scarsdale, said the voyage taught him how to travel in different weather conditions, such as sailing with the tide instead of against the wind.
“It’s challenging and fun,” Jonathan said.
Their travels took them from Kingston to Beacon, farther downriver to Haverstraw Bay and the Palisades. They anchored Monday night in Gravesend Bay off Brooklyn and are expected to arrive today at the Yonkers riverfront.
The six-day voyage concludes at Yonkers’ City Pier, where the Half Moon will be open for two weeks to schools and the public for tours. Its arrival will be a preview of next year’s events to kick off the state’s Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial, or 400th anniversary of Hudson’s discovery of the river. Other students from the Masters School will serve as a shore party.
While on the water, each Masters student completed a research project that entailed collecting data, creating graphs or charts, proving a hypothesis and presenting it to the rest of the ship’s crew.
Peter Yergeau, 12, of Ossining used a sling psychrometer to test air temperatures for his project on relative humidity.
“We learn a lot because there are so few of us,” Peter said.
While Peter wouldn’t mind catching a TV show or two, he said he kept busy with schoolwork and ship duties.
“We’re having a ton of fun, so it doesn’t even matter,” he said. “It’s nice to see what they didn’t have and what we have today. It gives you a different feel for technology today.”
Reynolds, who has led re-enactments of the voyage for almost a decade, said the students relied on instruments used during Hudson’s time to collect information, including a lead line to measure the water’s depth and a quadrant to measure the altitude of the sun and moon.
Besides running the ship, Reynolds is director of the New Netherlands Museum in Albany, where the replica is anchored when not plying the waters.
Elliot Chase, a math teacher at the Masters School, chaperoned and assisted the students on the ship.
“It certainly hasn’t been dull,” Chase said, as students planned a way to lift him for their project on mechanical advantage. “It’s nice to see them get into it.”
In addition to completing their research, the students assisted the captain and adult crew with lookout, steering and standing anchor watch at night. They also performed maintenance duties, including the daily deck wash and cleaning the “head,” or bathroom, every hour.
Most of the students, including Natalie Millstein of Larchmont, raved over galley duty, helping the ship’s cook prepare meals, which ranged from quesadillas to chicken parmigiana.
“The galley is hands on and interactive,” Natalie said. “And the cook is really nice.”
Peter Hourigan, the middle school’s academic coordinator, said the trip builds on the yearlong Hudson River Project students complete in sixth grade. The trip also teaches the students about empathy and diversity, he said.
“It’s about confronting and challenging their expectations,” Hourigan said. “It’s important to understand what Hudson was about.”
As the voyage was coming to an end, the students already had developed some feeling of empathy and gratitude.
“We’ve learned so much valuable information,” Natalie said. “I feel so fortunate to be on this boat.”
The students were able to authentically replicate ship duties and Hudson’s research methods while surviving with minimal modern-day luxuries, including a flush toilet and the galley stove.
But Natalie was still longing for a nice hot bath.
“That’s probably the first thing I’ll do when I get home,” she said, a grin spreading across her face.
Reach Stacy A. Anderson at sanderso1@lohud.com or 914-694-5080.

http://www.lohud.com/article/2008810160447