Goodbye to the Geese at Library Pond
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The geese will soon be gone from library pond. Aggressive geese have been leaving droppings on walking paths, parks, open areas and playgrounds and threatening residents who walk near their nests. Now the Village has made an agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture for an "integrated wildlife management program" to get rid of the geese. They will be "humanely euthanized" and "processed for human consumption."
To prevent more geese from hatching, Canadian goose nests and eggs will be treated with corn oil. The program will run from March through September at a cost to the Village of $5,054. The resolution to do away with the geese was passed at the January 8, 2013 meeting of the Scarsdale Board of Trustees.
Also at the meeting, Mayor Miriam Flisser made the following comments:
1) Emergency Notifications: All residents received a letter in their annual Recycling/Trash Pick-up Schedule Mailer, sent in the past few weeks. The mailer explains how the Village Emergency Notification System works, and recommends that residents go to Scarsdale.com, the Village Website, and click on the BlackBoard Connect Logo for instructions in adding more email, text and telephone numbers, including cell phones, to be used for information calls from the Village. The Village already has your home telephone number, but if the telephones are not working, it's best to have another point of contact, such as a work number, for our use.
Some residents reported to me that they hung up on my voice on Robo calls that I made during the recent Hurricane disaster, because since it was election time, they assumed that the calls concerned getting out the vote. Please be assured that the Village Board of Trustees set strict policy for the Emergency Notification System when it was initiated, in 2011. It is to be used for important Village notices such as dangerous situations, never for other matters.
2) I'd like to remind the residents that the Village Wide Revaluation of all properties is entering a second phase, and Tyler Technologies, our contractor for this process, has scheduled a meeting to present this phase, the distribution of property data mailers to all homeowners, on Wednesday, Jan 16 @ 7:30 PM in Rutherford Hall.
Please join us at this important presentation.
3) I'd also like to mention the Village Board's deliberation on the amendments to the regulations concerning
Permanent Emergency Generators, a topic that we have been working on since 2011. Tonight we have scheduled Public Hearings on Zoning and Noise, and we invite residents to present their opinions on this matter.
In addition, there have been 4 Public Hearings held at the Planning Board, and an additional Law Committee meeting with public comments presented in December. The Law Committee will meet on Monday Jan 14 at 6:30 PM to continue to work on these amendments, and I am hoping to have a resolution to be presented to the Village Board for final approval at our meeting on January 22, 2013.
Photo courtesy: © Yuan Zhang
Winterfest --The Party of the Year
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The Scarsdale Forum will host its fifth annual membership party, Winterfest, on Saturday, January 26th at the Scarsdale Woman's Club, 37 Drake Road from 7 to 11 p.m. One of the highlights of the evening will be a beer tasting of 13 varieties of beer brewed for the year 2013 by Bruce Wells. The following will be available for the tasting:
- Sorghum Hoppy Lager
- Wee Heavy Irish Ale
- Extra Hoppy VIP Pale Ale
- West Coast Red
- Cluster Lager
- American Ale
- White House Honey Ale
- Black IPA
- Presidential Honey Porter
- Hop Bomb IPA
- California Common Black
- German Lager
- Three Year Old Barleywine
Members of the Scarsdale Forum and their guests look forward to an evening of lively conversation and friendship to chase away the winter weather blues. Delicious dishes from local food vendors will be served. Member pianists and Angelo DiLoreto of the Manhattan School of Music will set the mood as guests stroll though the beautiful Scarsdale Woman's Club. Later in the evening, dessert will be served in the large dining room featuring the home baked goods of member bakers and village bakeries.
There will be additional entertainment in the small dining room and the library of the Club. A wine tasting hosted by Vintology and a food demonstration by Ellen Cohen and Jill Staffin of the Pampered Chef will provide inspiration for the next dinner party and ample opportunities for shopping! The Forum will receive fifteen percent of all sales that evening.
Members and their guests will receive a benefit journal that will include the history of the Forum written by our Village Historian and Forum Board member, Eric Rothschild. Commercial ads and personal messages can be purchased through the Journal Committee.
Admission is $25 per person and limited to members and their guests. Due to the popularity of this event, advance reservations are encouraged. Please RSVP by Monday, January 21st.
Advanced reservations, membership renewal and joining the Forum for the first time can be done online at: www.scarsdaleforum.com or by mailing a check to Scarsdale Forum Inc., 24 East Parkway, P.O. Box 86, Scarsdale, NY 10583. For additional information regarding the event or to purchase an ad in the journal, please contact the Forum office at 914-723-2829 or [email protected].
School Officials Meet with Police to Review School Security
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Scarsdale Police met with Scarsdale School District administrators on Monday 12-17 to review school safety plans and protocols, including lockdown and lockout procedures. According to Lt. Thomas Altizio, police will step up their efforts to monitor the Scarsdale Schools, saying, "The Scarsdale Police Department will continue periodic patrols of all school grounds to enhance law enforcement visibility and presence and police officers will continue the random walk-through visitation programs established in certain schools."
School Superintendent McGill also emailed district parents and said that safety protocols would be reviewed and that doors to the elementary schools would be locked when they should be. Visitors will only be admitted after they have been identified on a camera.
Other security measures are in place:
- The High School had already scheduled a "lockdown drill for the spring, as well as a related rapid response drill involving a police tactical force.... lockdowns involve students and teachers; rapid response drills take place after school and involve police and sometimes teachers.... a series of transportation/evacuation drills had already been scheduled for the spring."
- Randomly scheduled police visits are already made to the Middle and High Schools. In January, police will extend these "meet and greets" to the elementary schools.
- The District Safety Team will meet after the New Year to consider existing practices and ways they might reasonably strengthen them. They "will involve the police and parent leadership in this process.... and use the services of a security consulting firm."
However, McGill cautions that, "Schools across the country can lock their doors and put guards in the halls, but until this nation takes gun control seriously and until we address the scourge of mental illness a lot more effectively than we do today, more tragedies will occur. " He encourages parents to do what they can to advocate for gun control legislation.
New Playground Opens in Davis Park
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The Arthur Manor Neighborhood Association celebrated the official opening of a new playground at Davis Park on Friday December 29th. This new playground is the result of collaboration between volunteers of the community and the Village of Scarsdale. A small group of volunteers from the Arthur Manor Neighborhood Association collected comments and feedback from the community about what they wanted to see in the park redesign. They visited parks all around Westchester to get ideas. The result includes old favorites, such as swings and bridges, along with new monkey bars and a mini train! It is great for young visitors and includes something for grade school children as well.
Here are pictures of the ceremony and the new playground supplied by Felicia Block of the Arthur Manor Neighborhood Association.
New Sanctuary to be Dedicated at Kol Ami
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The Hanukah lights will burn with a very powerful and special glow at Congregation Kol Ami this year as the synagogue, located in White Plains, celebrates the completion of its newly renovated sanctuary. The sanctuary will be dedicated at a Shabbat service on the seventh night of Hanukah, Friday, December 14th at 6:15 pm.
"We are incredibly excited about the re-visioning of our new sanctuary. This marks a great day in the history of our dynamic congregation, where we will worship in a magnificent newly renovated space" said Andrea Seiden of Scarsdale, the chairperson of the capital campaign.
"Our goal was to provide a warm, welcoming and functional environment that respects our past and embraces our future. We
succeeded in creating a worship space that is both visually and spiritually beautiful." Said Shira Milgrom, Co-Rabbi of Kol Ami with Rabbi Tom Wiener.
The sanctuary has a number of innovative and state-of-the-art features. The soaring 30-foot ceiling gives the space an open, modern and expansive feel. The Bimah or platform area was lowered for more inclusive and embracing services which will also accommodate members and guests with special needs. The side windows were replaced with a clear curtain wall of glass to connect the outside and the inside.
The stained glass windows from the original sanctuary on Sterling Avenue in White Plains have been included in the design blending the history of the old and new. Of great use are the 300 movable chairs, which allow for flexibility so that configurations can change depending on the programs, practices and life cycle events of that day.
Kol Ami's capital campaign, called "L'dor Va'Dor" , means from generation to generation. It has raised over 4 million dollars. The sanctuary was the first phase of a project to modernize the Kol Ami campus and infrastructure. The firm of Levin/Brown & Associates, Inc. of Owings Mills, Maryland was retained as architects for the project. The construction company for the project was Kohl Construction Group who have extensive experience in religious projects in the tri-state area. Maura Smolover of Arts in Architecture was commissioned to design the Torah Ark and the Ner Tamid, the most sacred aspect of the sanctuary space.
Congregation Kol Ami, has been serving the area reform Jewish community since 1923. The congregation, which has grown to over 800 families, offers a unique blend of Jewish worship with an array of programs both spiritually uplifting and educational. The main building includes not only the new sanctuary but also cross-functional spaces for meetings and receptions; a nursery school and a Hebrew school. There is an alternate sanctuary, the Schulman Chapel in the Woods as well.
"I am deeply proud and thrilled to be a member of Congregation Kol Ami. This new sanctuary space will enhance all aspects of our current Temple life and for the future generations to come," said David Lee of Scarsdale.
For more information, please contact Janet Hershey, Director of Membership and Development at Congregation Kol Ami at 914.949-4717 ext. 115 or email janethershey@nykolami.
(Photo Credit: Mariela Melamed)
