Citizens of North Castele Unite!

This article appeared in www.allaboutarmonk.com on April 29, 2009.

Citizens of North Castle Rise
By Michelle Boyle

Last night, a group of over 70 North Castle residents attended a political gathering. Local citizens were invited by real estate developer Michael Fareri to meet for a discussion at the American Legion Hall on Bedford Road.

Listed on the agenda as “Citizens of North Castle”, Resident Kerry Lutz opened the meeting with concern of the direction the town is heading. He emphasized our local government should be “more with less” while seeking enhanced productivity from our town employees.

Mr. Lutz explained that the group is looking to form a non-partisan committee of citizens, affiliated with neither major party. The intent would be to serve the Town and alter the direction by running for the three seats up for election of two of the Councilmen and also the Town Supervisor, whose incumbent terms expire at the end of this year.

He further proposed that positions be served pro bono with no pay, nor any benefits.

Mr. Lutz suggested, “Candidates will be chosen that reflect our values and pledge to respect the taxpayers dollars as their own.”

Although objections were made to Mr. Lutz’s position on the no compensation, because that might discourage young people from running, who need to support themselves, and therefore the candidacies would be more likely well-to-do and/or retired residents.

A town resident for 32 years, Michael Fareri, spoke about his view of the purported deteriorating condition of the town. He expressed concern over the increase of the town budget over the past seven years without comparable increases in our gross assessable property base.

Clearly this group has hit a raw nerve. Councilman Weaver was in quiet attendance and Supervisor Berman had her representative present. Hopefully this meeting will be a topic of conversation between them for some time to come.

Big Brother is Watching Your Garbage

The following article appeared the Journal News on April 26, 2009.

N. Castle cracks down on recycle scofflaws

By Elizabeth Ganga

NORTH CASTLE - Some homeowners pulled into their driveways last week and were confronted with an unusual sight: garbage left where they had put it out in the morning.

Brightly colored stickers saying "Oops!" gave them a clue what they did wrong. They had failed to separate garbage and recyclables, triggering the "refusal to collect" penalty in the town and county recycling law.

After months of warning letters and tracking of violators, last week the town and its garbage contractors, Suburban Carting, began leaving cans and bags of mixed garbage and recyclables where they found them. It is one of the escalating steps in an enforcement crackdown aimed at keeping recyclables out of the landfill and the incinerator.

"If you leave somebody's household garbage, they're not going to be happy, and they have to learn you don't mix your recycling and your garbage," said Councilwoman Rebecca Kittredge, as she followed the Suburban truck on Wednesday around the streets south of Byram Lake. Kittredge jotted down who got a sticker so they could be sent warning letters explaining the recycling law.

Kittredge and Suburban's recycling coordinator, Diane Chickering, have been tracking the households that consistently mix recycling with the garbage and, if they don't fall into line, the next step is fines starting at $100.

While other towns have used the oops stickers and sometimes leave garbage, North Castle's effort to bring residents in line is the most comprehensive that county officials are aware of, said Louis Vetrone, the deputy commissioner for solid waste for Westchester's Department of Environmental Facilities.

North Castle's crackdown is an outgrowth of a county enforcement effort that started early last year with the distribution of 120,000 oops stickers and seminars to train haulers, large businesses and towns in the 1992 law. The county also began issuing warnings and tickets to large violators, most often businesses, and sometimes waste haulers. About 200 notices of violation were issued last year and 125 so far this year, Vetrone said. The amount of recyclables has increased 17 percent since the enforcement began, he said.

"Virtually all the municipalities have bought into this," Vetrone said.

The effort also dovetailed with the town's attempts to raise its recycling rate, including forming a recycling committee and increasing the number of recycling containers downtown. Suburban, faced with the potential for fines, approached the town about leaving garbage on the curb, and the town decided a graduated education effort was needed.

Evelyn Bauer of Byram Lake Road was one resident who got a sticker last week for a piece or two of paper in her bag of cans and bottles. Since the beginning of the year, the town has been picking up cans and bottles and paper and cardboard on alternating weeks to save money.

Bauer said she doesn't mind pulling out recyclables but did prefer once a week pickup of everything, finding holding onto cans and bottles for two weeks less sanitary. Now, after hauling her cans back up to her house, she will have four weeks worth for the next collection day.

"I guess it teaches us a lesson," said Bauer, a volunteer at the Byram Hills High School College and Career Center

Yes Ms. Bauer, it certainly does teach us a lesson, about our town board. They cut recycling pick ups to every other week. Then they can't understand why residents don't want their garages to look like refuse transfer stations. So having no other creative ideas, Supervisor Berman orders a crack down on frustrated residents. Its reasons like this that have Berman's approval rating in the ditch, along the road repairs not taking place.

North Castle Considers Hiring Town Administrator

The following article appeared in The Journal News on March 23, 2009.

NORTH CASTLE - To address the increasing complexity of town government and the need for expertise in labor relations, state regulations and many other areas, the town is considering hiring an administrator to take over the day-to-day duties of the supervisor.

With an administrator in charge of overseeing the nuts and bolts of managing the town, the supervisor and Town Board would be freed up to spend more time on policy and long-term planning. The towns of New Castle and Mamaroneck have administrators, while villages and many cities have managers or administrators.

A task force has unanimously recommended the creation of the administrator position as soon as possible, arguing in a report to the Town Board that the complexity of financial and regulatory aspects of town governance require the expertise of an administrator. The difficulties created by the economic situation makes the change particularly timely, the task force said

The Town Board will discuss the idea in the coming months.

Supervisor Reese Berman proposed the creation of the task force in the middle of last year and said she thinks hiring an administrator is a good idea.

"One, it offers stability," she said. "Two, it removes some of the political pressures from the day to day running of the town."

Berman has also been impressed with the knowledge other towns' administrators have brought to regional policy meetings. And making the supervisor's job part time would allow working people to take on the job, she said.

Funding is a key issue, Berman said.

With major cuts in the town budget this year, leading to some layoffs, it is a difficult time to start new initiatives. The Town Board will have to decide whether to hire an administrator immediately or wait until the position can be funded in a future budget.

If the position is created, Berman has offered to decrease her salary, now $117,266, by about $70,000 to bring it in line with other towns that have an administrator. The deputy supervisor's salary may also decrease.

Administrators generally make between $115,000 and $185,000, according to the task force report. In New Castle the administrator makes $169,223 and the supervisor makes $32,865.

The administrator could potentially save the town money that would make up part of the salary by taking over parts of contracted duties, such as labor negotiations.

Administrators are different from town managers in that they don't have the power to hire and fire. That stays with the Town Board.

New Castle also has a deputy administrator but the task force doesn't recommend adding that position.

Armonk resident Kerry Lutz, a lawyer who has been critical of Berman and her ability to lead the town as revenues shrink, said he would support hiring an administrator if the person can be kept out of town politics. He would like someone in the job who has run a business and who can deal with labor contracts he thinks have grown out of control.

"Something's got to be done," he said. "We can't be going in a business-as-usual environment."

So now the truth comes out. The committee has stated what the rest of us have long known or suspected, Supervisor Berman has never been up to the task of running the town. The economic collapse has just made the situation all the more obvious.

Leave to Reese to Waste More Taxpayer Dollars

The following appeared in January 25, 2009 Journal News

North Castle looks to split cost on buying Dubos open space

By Elizabeth Ganga
The Journal News • January 25, 2009

NORTH CASTLE - With Mount Kisco in contract to buy the Dubos property overlooking Byram Lake, what's left in the long saga to keep the 30 acres as open space is to divide up the $475,000 purchase price among the interested entities.

The Westchester Land Trust has committed up to $15,000 in seed money. North Castle Supervisor Reese Berman has said the town will likely split the rest with Mount Kisco. The North Castle Town Board will have a public hearing on spending the money from its open space fund at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The purchase price is low because the parcel, on Baldwin Road, is essentially undevelopable. The current owner, the Rene Dubos Center for Human Environments, attempted to sell the land to developer Michael Cappelli, who wanted to build luxury homes on it, for $1.2 million. But the sale was blocked when the state attorney general objected. The attorney general, who oversees charities, convinced a state judge in White Plains that the sale would have violated the intent of the donations used to purchase the property in 1979. The Eugene and Agnes Meyer Foundation and the DeWitt Wallace Fund donated $275,000 to the Dubos Center to purchase the land and keep it natural. The center had wanted to build an environmental education center nearby but it never happened. Instead, the center hoped to sell the land to pay its debt.

The state Supreme Court will also have to review the sale to Mount Kisco and North Castle.

Way to go Reese. If Mount Kisco wants to pay $475,000 on land that the Court has already rule cannot be developed, let them. Why should North Castle pay a cent? The Attorney General blocked this sale and the price is low because the property cannot be built on. Reese just can't stand the idea of having all that conservation money in the bank burning a hole in her pocket and has to do something with it.

North Castle Board Not Up To The Task

The following letter appeared in the January 22, 2009 Journal News.

The current North Castle Town Board is completely unable to deal effectively with the global financial collapse and its effect upon the local economy. Now is the time to be confronting issues that greatly inflate the cost of government, such as retiree health benefits, wasteful highway spending, inefficient town practices and all around governmental inefficiencies.

However, Supervisor Reese Berman and her control group are victims of the status quo. She refuses to cut any retiree health benefits, even those wrongly given out, opting instead to lay off a cop. She refuses to re-examine the cost of the Town Board members' salary, health and pension benefits, opting instead to increase taxes. It is quite obvious that her prior experience as a school librarian has not prepared her for the fiscal challenges that now confront our nation and our town.

Kerry H. Lutz

Armonk

Mr. Lutz is spot on. Berman has no background to be dealing with multi-million dollar financial issues, especially during these perilous times.

New Garage Proposed For Westchester Airport

The following article appear in The Journal News on January 5, 2009.

Company proposes passenger parking garage just outside Westchester airport

Elizabeth Ganga
The Journal News

NORTH CASTLE - An aircraft parts exporting company with its headquarters next to the Westchester County Airport wants to build a parking garage just outside the airport boundary for passengers who can't find a place to park at the airport.

The president of Aerotech World Trade Corp., Jan Endresen, could not be reached last week but North Castle officials who have gotten some details said he wants to build a garage for several hundred cars on New King Street just outside the northern edge of the airport in the town of North Castle. Travelers would be able to drop off their cars with valet parkers and take a shuttle the short distance to the terminal.

"They're trying to make it as efficient as possible," said North Castle Councilman Bill Weaver, the president of another airport company, Westair, which fuels, parks and stores airplanes.

Aerotech World Trade Corp. will present its plans to the North Castle Town Board, Planning Board and Conservation Board on Jan. 12.

If completed, the garage could be a boon to travelers, who struggle to find parking at the airport, but it could stir up neighbors' concerns that more parking will mean more flights and more noise. Opponents of airport expansion fought to limit the size of the 1,100-car airport garage before it opened in 1994 and to contain the size of the terminal.

"I think that whoever came up with that plan is stepping into a lot of doo doo there," said Leonard Altizio, a founder of the Westchester Aviation Association who lives in West Harrison, of Aerotech's plans.

Neighboring towns and homeowners associations will pressure Aerotech and the town of North Castle to scuttle the proposal, he said. More parking wouldn't be a good thing, he said, and could upset the balance between commercial and private aircraft.

Another tool used to limit the airport's size is an agreement between Westchester County, which owns the airport, and the commercial airlines to cap commercial flights to four every 30 minutes with a total of 240 passengers. But with AirTran and Jet Blue flying to Florida from Westchester, the airport has become more popular with vacationers, who stay longer and tie up parking.

The number of passengers has grown significantly since 2006. The estimated number of commercial airline passengers for 2008 was 1.8 million, up from 1.6 million in 2007 and about 1 million in 2006. The county created a several-hundred-space emergency overflow lot but for the last few years has focused on getting travelers to leave their cars at home. It began an advertising campaign, started a bus service from White Plains and created a cell-phone lot for people picking up passengers.

"When they built the original parking structure, it didn't even meet the needs of the terminal capacity agreement," said Deputy County Executive Larry Schwartz, referring to the limits on commercial flights. A new garage will not increase the number of flights, he said.

Despite the problems, the county has no plans to build more parking, he said.

"We've been relatively successful in educating the traveling public in leaving their cars at home," Schwartz said.

It's not clear whether a garage will draw more people to the airport or simply cause passengers to drive rather than getting dropped off. The impact on traffic is also not clear since there may be fewer trips if people take their own cars instead of relying on others to drive them, resulting in two trips. But some people may stop taking public transportation and shift back to driving.

This is exactly the type of development that North Castle can use. It won't require any more school, police or fire resources, will result in hundreds of thousands more in tax dollars and will not result in one more air traveler. There is currently a severe shortage of parking space at the county airport. As a result, many people are forced to get dropped off by friends, relatives or taxis. Construction of an additional garage would increase parking capacity and town and school taxes. This is exactly the type of project that Berman should push through the planning process. The town needs the money and the traveling public needs the parking. Hopefully she will have the good sense to do so.

NYC DEP Buys Old Bowling Alley

The following story appeared in the Journal News on December 29, 2008.

NORTH CASTLE - The hulking old bowling alley that has marred the view from Route 22 for years will be torn down within six months now that New York City has purchased the property from local developer Michael Fareri.

Later, if plans pan out, a wetland restoration will be attempted on the almost 7-acre property off Old Route 22. The property, formerly Armonk Bowl, is part of the drainage area of the Kensico Reservoir, which holds drinking water from upstate on its way to millions of households in Westchester and New York City, and the city Department of Environmental Protection is buying up land to protect the water quality.

We're quite sure that Supervisor Berman is rejoicing over this "Victory." However, did the town really win? It lost an ideal site for a new supermarket and millions in tax revenue. Time will tell.