Rye City Review 1-2-2015

RyeCityTHE REVIEWDecember 26, 2014 & January 2, 2015 | Vol. 3, Number 51 | www.ryecityreview.com

2014year in review

2 • THE RYE CITY REVIEW • December 26, 2014 & January 2, 2015

Originally published 1/10/2014

By LIZ BUTTON

Close to 200 friends, fam-ily members, political sup-porters and public officials filled the Rye City Council chambers and part of the hall on the morning of Jan. 5 to witness the inauguration of Republican Joe Sack as Rye City mayor.

Sack’s three “Rye United” running mates and new West-chester County Legislator Catherine Parker, a Democrat and former city councilwom-an, were also sworn-in at the ceremony.

Gray skies and freezing rain did nothing to dampen the spirits of those attending the ceremony, which was moved inside from its planned loca-tion on the steps of Rye City Hall due to the threatening forecast.

Former and sitting Rye judges administered the oaths of office to Sack and new-ly elected Councilwoman Kirstin Bucci, a Democrat, Republican Councilman Terry McCartney and re-elected in-cumbent Councilwoman Julie Killian, a Republican. All ex-pressed hope and optimism for the four-year term that lies ahead.

Sack succeeds his biggest adversary on the City Council, Republican Mayor Douglas

Sack steps in as mayor, sworn in before full house

French, who left office at the end of 2013 after a four-year term. French did not attend the inauguration.

As the administration pass-es from French to Sack, the city faces big changes. The new mayor, who leaves his po-sition as city councilman, was one of French’s most vocal opponents. Sack’s opinions on issues, policy and procedure often ran counter to French’s, and contentious City Council meetings exposed an apparent animosity between the two.

The 2013 election, in which Sack faced French’s deputy mayor, Councilman Peter Jovanovich, a Republican who ran as an independent, was viewed by some as a ref-erendum on French’s admin-

istration as Jovanovich was French’s close political ally.

In Sunday’s speech, Sack, who was sworn in by retired city Judge Peter Lane, de-scribed his excitement for “a fresh start,” one especially necessary after the city has been strained by controversy over the last few years, includ-ing a financial scandal at the Rye Golf Club uncovered in October 2012 that became a major campaign platform last fall.

“We will make mistakes,” Sack said. “And when we do, we will acknowledge our mis-steps, learn from them and en-deavor to fix them. And above all, we will tell the truth, with-out which there can be no credibility, which is the very

basis of our government.”Sack thanked his wife,

Kerri, for her support during the campaign, and his mother, who was also in attendance, for giving him a strong sense of right and wrong. He said he believes he has the quali-ties needed to be an effective mayor: “A thick skin, a sense of humor and a heavy dose of humility.”

Along with the ascen-dance of Sack and a new City Council, the county also gained a new legislator in Parker, who attended her first Board of Legislators meeting on Monday night in White Plains. Parker said she plans to bring all her energy to ad-dress constituents’ concerns that unite the county, whether that is the tax burden or envi-ronmental issues.

In addition to Rye, Parker’s legislative district includes the Town of Mamaroneck, Rye Town and portions of New Rochelle and Harrison.

Sack and Parker served together on the Rye City Council for six years; each had two years left on their terms when they won their most re-cent elections.

On Wednesday night, the new City Council, which currently consists of five members including the mayor, appointed Richard Mecca, a Republican district leader, and Richard Slack, the husband of school board

president Laura Slack, to fill out the seven-member roster.

The remaining holdover from the previous City Council is Republican Laura Brett, who served as master of ceremo-nies at the inauguration. Brett, who was elected in 2011, ex-pressed her excitement the council has a new year and a fresh start ahead of them.

“Each council has its own opportunity because the public wants us to succeed,” she said; the challenge is maintaining the public’s confidence once they have that support.

After Sack’s three young daughters, Katie, Allie and Marybeth, led the audience in reciting the Pledge of Alle-giance and Father Joseph Lim of Rye Resurrection Church gave the invocation, Sack, Parker and the three council members were sworn-in and each gave a brief speech.

In her remarks, Bucci, who was sworn in by Lane, said her objective in office will be to act as a “servant and not a ruler.”

McCartney, who was sworn in by Judge Richard Runes, took the platform with his wife Julia, sons Dan and Jack, and his three sisters, who flew in from Virginia for the occa-sion. McCartney said he ran because he wanted to make a difference and, after 14 years in Rye, has adopted the city as his own.

“I’m new to this. I’m go-

ing to do my very best,” McCartney, a Virginia trans-plant, said. “My wife grew up in Rye. It’s hard for a south-erner to say sometimes, but I’m a New Yorker and I’m a Rye guy.”

McCartney said what makes Rye great is the willingness of people to do their part to chip in to serve on school PTAs, government committees and the city’s many commissions and boards.

“There are hundreds of spots for people to chip in, and if you can’t carve out that time, come to a City Council meeting. We can’t do our job very well unless we know how you feel about these very im-portant issues,” McCartney said.

Killian, who has been on the council since 2012 after she was appointed to the seat and won a special election later that year to fill out the unexpired term of Republican Councilwoman Suzanna Keith, thanked her husband, Gary, and five children. She also praised Rye government.

“Rye is a terrific city. Our city government has faced much criticism, some of it de-served, but much of it not,” she said.

Killian, who was sworn-in by Rye Judge Joseph Latwin, said she has high hopes that the new council will take ad-vantage of the fresh opportu-nity they have been given.

Democratic County Legislator Catherine Parker, who replaced retiring Democrat Judy Myers, pledges her devotion to District 7 after being sworn in Jan. 5 at Rye City Hall.

New Mayor Joe Sack, a Republican, thanks his family and supporters after his Jan. 5 inauguration in Rye City Council Chambers. After a spirited campaign, Sack defeated outgoing Deputy Mayor Peter Jovanovich, a Republican, for the office last November. Photos/Bobby Begun

Re-elected Councilwoman Julie Killian, a Republican, is sworn in by Judge Joseph Latwin at Rye’s inauguration ceremony. Killian has sat on the council since 2012 after she was appointed to the seat of former Councilwoman Suzanna Keith.

Republican Councilman Terry McCartney, a transplanted Virginian, calls himself “a Rye guy” in his remarks at the Jan. 5 inauguration.

December 26, 2014 & January 2, 2015 • THE RYE CITY REVIEW • 3


Richard Mecca, left, a Republican, and Richard Slack, unaffiliated, were sworn in to the City Council as its new interim members on Jan. 8.File photos

City Council appoints Mecca, SlackBy LIZ BUTTON

New Republican Mayor Joe Sack, with City Council approval, appointed Richard Mecca and Richard Slack as his two new interim city coun-cilmen at the first meeting of the year on Jan. 8.

Mecca, a Republican district leader, and Slack, who is politi-cally unaffiliated, now fill the seats vacated by Sack and new county Legislator Catherine Parker. Both former councilper-sons left office with two years remaining on their terms.

“We were looking for the folks who we felt could best serve as part of the council team, regardless of political party affiliation,” said Sack, a Republican. “Our community wants and deserves problem solvers and consensus build-ers, not political partisans, and we once again feel fortunate to have put together the right mix of people.”

A Rye resident since 1980, Mecca, 59, currently serves as an electrical inspector for the City of White Plains as one of the only municipal electric inspectors east of the Hudson River, he said. He also owned Rye business Mecca Electric for years. Mecca, who was early on rumored to be a fa-vored choice among city Republicans, has been in-volved in Rye public life for 30 years; at this point in his life, he has a wealth of knowl-edge gained from his experi-ence in Rye that he would like to contribute, he said. He and his wife raised children who attended Rye City schools.

Until this January, Mecca was a member of the Rye Flood Advisory Committee and in the past he has been a member of the Planning Commission, the Board of Architectural Review, and for-mer Mayor Steve Otis’ Task Force on Master Planning.

Mecca is also a long-time member of the Rye Fire Department and has served as a captain in the patrol com-pany.

Sack said Mecca is a valu-able addition to the council as it is now comprised.

“On a council of attorneys and finance professionals, Mecca will bring a different and welcome perspective,” the

mayor said.Mecca agreed, since, as a

municipal employee of the city of White Plains, he has been on the other side of a city’s operations. He has seen up close how governing deci-sions affect the way a city is run and city employees can do their jobs, he said. Mecca is also familiar with state build-ing codes, he said, another plus when the council is deal-ing with building issues within the city.

Slack, an attorney, is a part-ner with the law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP in New York City and has expe-rience advising boards of di-rectors and representing major companies.

Slack, who, unlike Mecca, was not on the public radar as a possible choice, brings a deep connection to the Rye City School District; his wife is Board of Education President Laura Slack and the couple’s three children have attended Rye schools.

Slack, 53, is also currently a trustee of Rye’s school foun-dation and a former Rye Little League coach.

Slack said he hopes to bring to the City Council some of the energy and the integrity that his wife has brought to the Board of Education.

Slack, a resident since 1996, said he is spending his time getting up to speed on city is-sues, from the expired police union contract to the Rye Golf Club to flood mitigation.

“I thought there were a handful of important issues that the city was facing over the next six to twelve months and decided that I would like the opportunity to serve the community and tackle them,” Slack said.

Sack said Slack’s “keen mind” and “strong sense of right and wrong” were on dis-play when he went before the City Council in 2012 to urge them to look into a budding controversy in which an em-ployee of Rye TV alleged he had been told to lie to the pub-lic about whether or not a fire board meeting had been taped.

“These are exactly the qual-ities that we need on the coun-cil,” Sack said.

During this appointment process, Sack said the council probably considered a dozen different people, including some former public officials.

The two new appointees complete the seven-mem-ber council, which con-sists of Sack as mayor and his Rye United ticket mates Republican Terry McCartney, Democrat Kirstin Bucci and re-elected Councilwoman Julie Killian, a Republican.

Rounding out the coun-cil is sitting Republican Councilwoman Laura Brett, who has two years left on her term.

The city charter dictates that, if there is a vacancy in the office of mayor or councilp-erson, those council members still remaining in office must appoint someone by major-ity vote to fill that spot for the balance of the vacating party’s unexpired term.

The city has been through a council appointment process before.

In February 2012, former Mayor Douglas French, a Republican, had to fill the seat of former City Councilwoman Suzanna Keith, a Republican and his 2009 running mate, who was moving to Texas with her family.

The council appointed Killian

on June 13, 2012 and Killian ran in a special election in November for the right to fin-ish out the balance of Keith’s unexpired term.

Mecca and Slack, if they are interested in maintaining their seats, will have to do the same this fall.

At the time, there was some criticism within the commu-nity that the choice to appoint Killian had been long pre-de-termined by the mayor. After he was elected, Sack said his own appointment process would be different.

But early on, rumors swirled that city Republicans were united in support of

Mecca as the party’s choice for one of the two seats. The leak prompted concern from former Mayor French about an apparent lack of transpar-ency in Sack’s appointment process.

Prior to leaving office, Mayor French said that his administration went about ap-pointing a new council person the proper way: When it came to Killian’s appointment, his administration announced the opening to the public three months in advance and those interested in the seat gave speeches before the public.

“It is necessary for the pub-lic to know in advance who

[these new council members] are and their backgrounds, why they want to serve, and what they will do in office pri-or to being appointed,” French said. “Anything short of that is back room decision mak-ing that is not consistent with good governance.”

Sack said that, as he prom-ised to the public, the lead-up to the appointments of Mecca and Slack was a community process and that, although some Republican committee members brought suggestions to him, the committee did not have any formal role in the process. Sack said he never personally met with the group.

From Hometown Media Group


Originally published 1/24/2014 though sources close to Gold say neither she nor her legal counsel has received further information or evidence re-lated to the charges since then.

The resignation agreement, approved Jan. 17 by the Board of Education, becomes effec-tive on Jan. 31 and provides that, until that time, Gold will receive her regular salary and benefits. She will also receive health insurance coverage un-til April 30.

The resignation agreement also dictates that Gold, who said she does not want to com-ment on her resignation at this time when contacted by the Rye City Review, is not permit-ted to seek employment with the district in the future and that she agrees not to sue the district; likewise, the district agrees not to sue her. In the agreement, neither party ad-mits guilt or wrongdoing.

The agreement also stipu-lates that Gold’s personnel file be expunged.

Even though she no longer lives in Rye, former Osborn principal Clarita Zeppie has been following the case by keeping in touch with her friends in the city, including both teachers and parents. She said she is disappointed in Gold’s decision.

“I hope that her choice will not affect the chances of the other three to be reinstated,” she said.

District spokesperson Karina Stabile said the district choos-es not to comment on the res-ignation agreement. Beyond that, the district continues to stand by its statement that “[it] is actively trying to resolve the matter,” Stabile said.

Gold and the board entered into the agreement at this time, according to the settlement document, because “[both] parties are desirous of re-solving their differences and avoiding prolonged litigation” in order to circumvent “attor-neys’ fees and other expenses that will result from continued litigation.”

According to the Rye City School District policy hand-book, employees must give 30 days’ notice if they wish to resign, but the board may waive that requirement at its discretion. According to this policy, Gold had the choice of continuing to receive her full salary until 30 days before the end of the school year if she planned to resign. Gold chose to leave her position at the end of this month, an unexpected choice since that means she will be forgoing months of salary she could have received had she remained on the pay-roll.

While still being paid their regular salaries, the four teach-ers were reassigned to home in May and, that October, reas-signed again to a small room at the Rye School of Leadership to do various menial tasks.

Once charged, Gold was re-assigned back to her home.

In the past few weeks, con-cern about the district’s ex-penses have become a fore-most theme in public discus-sion, not just those incurred by continuing to pay the four teachers their regular salaries and paying thousands of dol-lars in legal fees, but by paying the salaries of the four leave-replacement teachers who took over in the classroom.

Suspended, charged teacher resigns

By LIZ BUTTON

One of the four elementa-ry school teachers suspended from their jobs in May 2013 has resigned from the Rye City School District follow-ing an eight-month suspension over allegations of “improper coaching” on state tests.

At a special Board of Education meeting on Friday, Jan. 17, the board approved a settlement between fourth-grade Milton School teacher Shannon Gold, the board and Superintendent Dr. Frank Alvarez. The meeting took place behind the closed doors of executive session in the dis-trict’s administrative offices located on Theall Road.

The four tenured teachers—Gold and Dana Coppola, who teaches third grade at Milton School, along with Gail Topol, a third-grade teacher, and Carin Mehler a fourth-grade teacher from Osborn School—were suspended from their classrooms last May when a parent alleged her child had been coached on one of the state tests.

In October 2013, the West-chester District Attorney’s of-fice, informed of the case in May, announced it would not file criminal charges against the teachers due to “insuf-ficient evidence.” The State Education Department was also informed of the allega-tions at the time, but has not responded.

The first and only teacher to be brought up on charges by the board so far, Gold was charged with at least 10 of-fenses in November 2013, al-

Milton School fourth-grade teacher Shannon Gold, one of the four elementary school teachers suspended in May 2013 after allegations of “improper coaching” on state tests that April, has resigned from the Rye City School District after an eight-month suspension. File photo

At the Board of Education’s Jan. 14 meeting, the four leave-replacement teachers’ salaries were approved for $34,000 for a second semester by a vote of 6 to 1, with board member Ed Fox opposing. For the first semes-ter, the four leave replacement teachers were paid $136,417 in total.

Since the beginning, all board members have publicly stood behind president and spokesperson Laura Slack, and Alvarez has presented a united front with the board. But at the Jan. 14 meeting, Fox be-came the first board member to speak out against the continua-tion of the episode and read a statement to the audience.

“The district has spent hun-dreds of thousands of dollars paying experienced teach-ers to essentially do nothing while, at the same time, pay-ing leave-replacement teach-ers tens of thousands of more dollars to cover their classes,” Fox said.

This is all at a time when the district’s budgeted expen-ditures exceed its revenues by more than $2 million, Fox said, so the district is spending money from reserves, which only worsens the budgeted deficit.

“In addition, the board has recently been advised that

the district has reached the budgeted allowance for legal counsel for the entire year and it is only January,” Fox said.

But according to the dis-trict, less than 11 percent of the district’s $216,000 budget line item for attorney fees has to do with the testing irregular-ity matter.

Adding the board’s estimat-ed amount of $23,760 in legal fees to the amount the board has authorized be paid for the leave-replacement teachers’ salaries for the year and the estimated total salary for the suspended teachers this school year—the district will spend at least three quarters of a mil-lion dollars from the time the teachers were suspended in May to the end of the 2013-2014 school year. This total of $750,000 or more does not include legal fees incurred from May—when the testing scandal broke—to September, which would be expenses in-cluded in the 2012-13 budget.

Retired Rye teacher of 30 years Shelley Karlen sent a letter to the Board of Education last week stat-ing her disappointment not just with the expenses, but with the actions of the board and their consequences for the teachers.

“Beyond the expense that

has been incurred, you have, unless this gets resolved with-out further retribution, de-stroyed the careers of four women,” Karlen wrote. “A resignation would be looked at with suspicion by any fu-ture educational employer; a change of career would carry questions as well.”

There are no winners in the situation, Karlen wrote, since teachers and others in the school community have expressed a loss of faith in the judgment of the board and the administration.

One of those teachers who has expressed a loss of faith in the system is Rye Teachers Association President Jaime Zung. The teachers’ union has remained notably silent through the eight months of the teachers’ ordeal. Zung, a science teacher at Rye High School, sent a letter to the board and the administra-tion on Jan. 14 clarifying the meaning behind the union’s choices.

“Do not mistake silence for apathy…The RTA stands behind these teachers and supports them 100 percent,” Zung’s letter said.

Topol and Coppola could not be reached for comment, as of press time. Mehler de-clined comment.


Almost a year after she and three other elementary school teachers were reassigned in May for alleged “improper coaching” during state tests, Osborn School fourth grade teacher Carin Mehler initiated legal action against six members of the current Board of Education, the board’s attorney Gus Mountanos, Superintendent Dr. Frank Alvarez, former Assistant Superintendent Dr. Mary Ann Evangelist, former board member Kendall Egan and Osborn School principal Angela Garcia. File photo

By LIZ BUTTON

Fourth grade Osborn School teacher Carin Mehler has filed suit against six of the seven members of the Rye City School District Board of Education, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Frank Alvarez and several members of the district’s administration and staff, becoming the first teach-er to take legal action against the district almost a year after she and three other district el-ementary school teachers were removed from their class-rooms for alleged “improper coaching” during state tests.

Mehler is also suing former board member Kendall Egan, former Assistant Superinten-dent for Curriculum Dr. Mary Ann Evangelist, Osborn School Principal Angela Garcia as well as the school board’s hired at-torney Gus Mountanos, seek-ing $1 million in compensa-tory damages and $1 million in punitive damages from the defendants.

No damages are being

Reassigned Osborn teacher files $2M lawsuitsought from the school dis-trict as a whole, according to Manhattan-based civil rights lawyer Arthur Schwartz, who Mehler retained after she and three others were reassigned in May 2013.

Schwartz said the school district violated Mehler’s rights under the due process clause of the 5th and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitu-tion, depriving her of her right to a job and of her reputation without due process of law.

The board’s response, dis-seminated on March 27 in the hours after the suit was filed, maintains Mehler’s claims that her civil rights have been violated are designed to coerce the board to ignore the testing allegations and return her to the classroom.

“While counsel for this plaintiff may be frustrated at the lack of resolution to date, we find it grossly irresponsible to have taken the extreme po-sition of filing an illogical and baseless claim,” the board’s statement read.

Mehler’s attorney alleges there

is coercion on the board’s part.Of the three other teachers

initially accused, the Board of Education has reached settle-ments with two of them, citing these agreements as evidence of progress in its March 27 statement.

Fourth grade Milton School teacher Shannon Gold re-signed in January, admitting no wrongdoing, while third-grade Osborn School teacher Gail Topol returned to the class-room in February. She also admitted no wrongdoing, but paid the district a $2,500 fine.

Schwartz claims school board attorney Mountanos has routinely employed coercion to try to get him, as Mehler’s counsel, to “make a propos-al” to resolve the situation, a directive that Schwartz, who also represents Dana Coppola, the other teacher who remains out of her classroom on re-assignment, takes to mean agreeing to a plea deal that will expedite the teachers’ re-turn to work.

Schwartz made his last “proposal” to get the teachers


back in the classroom with-out necessitating legal action in February, which was to let the teachers return to the classroom or face a lawsuit, but Mountanos rejected it out of hand.

Schwartz said the school district has pushed his client to the brink.

After 11 months, Mehler and Coppola have still not been charged with anything and the district has presented

no evidence.Ally of the teachers and for-

mer Osborn School principal Clarita Zeppie said, “There is only so much [Mehler] can be expected to take be-fore she takes an action. They have pushed her into it. It is a shame. I give her credit for waiting this long.”

All Mehler has ever wanted is to return to the classroom and teaching and continue doing what she loves, Zeppie said.

Schwartz said Coppola is considering her options and, over the next few weeks, he will file a motion for preliminary injunction, to which Coppola could attach her name.

Meanwhile, in a March 21 email addressed to the school board and Superintendent Al-varez prior to the suit being filed, Rye Teachers Association President Jaime Zung said it was becoming more and more difficult, after almost a year has gone by, for the union to contin-ue to remain silent as it contin-ues to believe, Mehler and Cop-pola have done nothing wrong.

Zung said it was difficult for teachers to offer support for the board’s agenda when asked by board president Laura Slack and vice president Katy Glassberg at the union’s last general meeting.

Within the next several weeks he and other members of the union will be forced to address the board at a public session, Zung said.

Board member Ed Fox, who has made public state-ments about the ordeal drag-ging on too long, is the only current school board member who is not being sued.


Publisher | Howard Sturmanext. 21, [email protected]

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Staff WritersJohn Brandi, Alina Suriel

Staff PhotographerBobby Begun

ContributorsPeter Lane, Rich Monetti,

Christopher Petrowski

ColumnistsJohn Carey, Emily Giove, Laura Slack

Paul Bookbinder, Rye City Council

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THE

REVIEWRyeCity RAC: Irving Harper’s legacy began here

By CHRIS EBERHART

For 40 years, not even Ir-ving Harper knew Irving Harper was an artistic genius.

Since the early 1960s, Harper created paper sculp-tures in the obscurity of his Greenhaven home on Brevoort Lane in the City of Rye to re-lieve stress of everyday life as a designer working in the legendary New York City of-fice of George Nelson, who is considered by many to be one of the founders of American modernism.

Because Harper didn’t want his works to leave his home, his art was largely unknown and unseen by the public until they were showcased for the first time in an exhibit at the Rye Arts Center, RAC, which was unveiled on Sept. 14.

“Irving [Harper] doesn’t consider himself an artist. To him, [the sculptures] were just a hobby to relieve stress,” said Helen Gates, executive direc-tor of the RAC. “[But] Irving [Harper] will be recognized

as an artistic genius when his works are out in the public more, and [the Rye Arts Cen-ter] will be the footnote in his-tory books as the place where Irving Harper’s legacy began.”

Harper, 98, still doesn’t consider himself an artist.

“Everyone throws around the word genius. I’m just a re-tired designer who does these sculptures to keep himself oc-cupied,” he told the Rye City Re-view during a Monday afternoon interview at his Rye home.

Sitting in his tattered re-

clining chair with a book in his lap and tape cassettes in a box to his side, Harper’s eyes panned his living room, and he seemed to catch every sculp-ture in sight.

There were sculptures on the table in the middle of the room; sculptures on a ledge that ran along the perimeter of the room; and sculptures hanging from the walls. His work could be seen on a ledge right inside the front door. There were works in the room behind him and up the stairs. In total, Harper said there were about 150 sculptures in his house.

Harper was quiet for a few moments before speaking.

“I’m here looking at [the sculptures], and they’ve just add-ed so much to my life,” he said.

But his work wasn’t dis-covered until 2001, when Mi-chael Maharam, chief execu-tive officer of the New York City-based textile company Maharam Fabric Corporation, met with Harper in his home and saw these sculptures that covered every surface of his dining and living rooms.

At the time, Maharam’s com-pany was working with Harp-er to ensure its re-editions of George Nelson’s textiles from the 20th century were authen-tic. Maharam visited Harper in his home and was astounded by Harper’s works that decorated his home, according to Sarah Sheth, Maharam’s director of communications.

Maharam’s visit to Harp-er’s home inspired a 192-page book about Harper’s works, titled “Irving Harper Works In Paper,” which contains 150 photographs, most of which were documented by D. James Dee, and an essay by Julie Lasky, who is now a deputy editor at the New York Times.

Sheth said Maharam want-ed to make the book to restore and record Harper’s works and share them with a broader au-dience. The book was pub-lished in 2012

Gates, of the Rye Arts Cen-ter, said Maharam and Harper had a “special connection,” and Maharam’s book was part of the Rye Arts Center’s discovery of Harper, which began in April 2013. Gates said the arts cen-ter was looking for pieces for a chairs exhibit, saw one of Harp-er’s works—the Marshmallow

sofa—in the book and wanted to display it during the exhibit.

“We visited [Harper’s] home thinking we would be seeing mid-century furniture, and our jaws dropped when we saw his treasures,” Gates said.

For the following year, the RAC and Harper kept in touch.

Gates said he visited the chair exhibit and felt comfort-able with the arts center so much, that he wanted to have his works displayed there.

“We were ecstatic,” Gates said. “He created these things almost like friends or personal

toys that gave him comfort, so he was reluctant [to have them leave his home] because they were private and each meant something to him. So this was a big thing.”

About a year and half later, Harper’s sculptures were show-cased in the 51 Milton Road arts facility.

“I didn’t want the attention, so I was reluctant,” Harper said about showcasing his sculp-tures in a public exhibit. “But I eventually welcomed it, and it was a great feeling to be discovered.”

Artist Irving Harper, 98, said he created about 150 paper sculptures over a 40-year period to relieve stress of everyday life as a designer working in the legendary George Nelson’s office in the 1960s.

The owl sculpture is a main attraction at Irving Harper’s exhibition at the Rye Arts Center.

Harper’s sculptures, which remain unnamed, cover most of the surfaces and wall space in his living and dining rooms. Photos/Bobby Begun

Harper’s works were never publically showcased until the Rye Arts Center displayed them in an exhibit that opened on Sept. 14.




Scott Pickup

By CHRISTIAN FALCONE

As the clock struck mid-night on Wednesday, time ran out for Scott Pickup.

Republican Mayor Joe Sack announced at Wednesday’s City Council meeting that the council had finalized a separa-tion agreement with Pickup, the city’s embattled manager.

The decision was autho-rized by a unanimous vote of six members of the Rye City Council. Republican Council-woman Laura Brett was not at the meeting.

The city manager’s resigna-tion went into effect at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, April 23, after press time.

Sack also announced for-mer City Manager Frank Culross had once again agreed to step in to the breach.

Culross will take over as in-terim city manager, an agree-ment that went into effect at the same time Pickup’s em-ployment contract expired. Culross’ contract will mim-ic the one he had in place in 2009, the last time he served in an interim role; it paid him an annual salary of $198,000.

Pickup did not attend Wednesday’s City Council meeting, nor was he in at-tendance at Tuesday night’s Rye Golf Club Commission meeting, fueling speculation his job status may have been in jeopardy. Word of his pos-sible termination began to spread throughout City Hall earlier this week. According to a source with knowledge of the situation, negotiations for Pickup’s departure between his attorney and the city had been in the works for some time.

Pickup’s resignation con-cludes a tenuous, near four-year stint as the city’s top administrative official. Over that time, Pickup was linked to some of the city’s biggest scandals. His legacy will like-ly be tied to the Rye Golf Club scandal, in which a former club manager allegedly stole

City Manager Pickup resigns

hundreds of thousands of dol-lars from the club.

Pickup signed-off on some of the fraudulent invoices.

The golf club swindle is considered the largest financial scandal in the city’s history.

Pickup’s critics speculated the nail in his coffin came last November after then Mayor Douglas French, a Republican, announced he would not seek re-election and Sack, a council-man at the time, was elected to the seat, defeating French ally and Pickup supporter, Deputy Mayor Peter Jovanovich.

Sack had been in constant battles with Pickup and the French administration dating back to late 2010.

The separation agreement allows Pickup to stay on board as a city employee until at least July 10, but no later than July 24, according to Sack. Pickup will also receive a lump sum payment of $59,000 and continue to collect on his regular salary of slightly less than $200,000 until his depar-ture date.

By keeping Pickup on board, the mayor said it would help with the transition pro-cess, but Pickup will immedi-ately lose his title of city man-ager to Culross and instead be recognized as assistant to the city manager.

This is not the first time Pickup and Culross have crossed paths.

Following the 2009 oust-ing of then City Manager Paul Shew, the City Council,

under the administration of Democratic Mayor Steve Otis, decided Pickup, then an as-sistant city manager, was not prepared to run the city’s day-to-day operations and passed him over, appointing Culross to replace Shew.

Culross stayed on for roughly a year before stepping aside for Pickup, who was promoted to the position by a new City Council led by newly elected Mayor French in a deal worked out prior to French’s election in 2009.

Sack said he did not want to entertain a process similar to the one in which the city engaged in during Shew’s re-moval. At that time, the City Council called a special meet-ing on St. Patrick’s Day night and invoked the city charter, suspending the city manager for 30 days with the intent of firing him.

As per the charter, a suspen-sion would have allowed for a public hearing if the city man-ager were to request one.

Sack was a councilman dur-ing Shew’s departure and was unsupportive of the decision to use the charter at the time.

“I think a lot of us saw that happen about five years ago with Mr. Shew,” Sack, who was away on business the night Shew was suspended from his managerial duties, said. “[And] I think there was a desire amongst parties to avoid that type of process again.”

Nonetheless, Sack said the time was right to make a change.

“I think we are ahead of the game,” the mayor said. “I think now is the appropriate time for Mr. Pickup and the city to part ways.”

Pickup was first hired by the city in 2005 as an assis-tant city manager. He grew up in the Midwest and gradu-ated from the University of Cincinnati. Prior to arriving in Rye, Pickup spent four years as a municipal manager in Germantown, Ohio.


Rye teen dies suddenly, investigation ongoingBy JOHN BRANDI

A Marist College student and resident of Rye died at Greenwich Hospital last Sat-urday night under circum-stances yet to be determined.

According to Rye Police, Peter Collins, 18, was at his home on Garden Drive when officers responded within four minutes of receiving a distress call that the teen was unre-sponsive. Police arrived at the residence at approximately 6 a.m. on the morning of July 26 to find Collins had no heart beat. Emergency medical ser-vices attempted to revive him before transporting him to Greenwich Hospital.

“The officers performed CPR [and] he was alive when taken to the hospital,” Rye City Police Commissioner William Pease said. “He passed away

while [there]. I don’t have any result as to why yet, but he passed several hours later.”

Collins was pronounced dead at around 7 p.m. The investigation into his death, headed by Det. Robert Chit-tenden, is ongoing.

Although rumors have been circulating drug use may have played a role in Collins’ death, police said there is no evidence of that at this point.

“[It’s] not visible or appar-ent of an overdose,” Rye Police Lt. Scott Craig said. “[There’s] no proof about that.”

The Connecticut Medical Examiner’s Office is handling the toxicology report, which is expected to take between four and six weeks.

Collins would have been a sophomore at Marist, a college located in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He was a 2013 graduate of Rye High School, where he played

varsity ice hockey.Rye City Schools Super-

intendent Dr. Frank Alvarez reacted to Collins’ death.

“We are deeply saddened to hear of this tragedy that in-volved a Rye High School alumnus and friend to many in the community,” Alvarez said. “On behalf of the district, I ex-tend our sincere condolences to the Collins family.”

This marks the second death in 2014 of a college student from Rye.

Michael Rath, a student at Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina, was found dead in January in his dorm room by friends.

A call to the investigator in that case, Thom Berry, was not returned as of press time.

Collins’ funeral was held at Resurrection Church on Wednes-day morning, after press time.-With reporting by Alina Suriel

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By LIZ BUTTON, CHRIS EBERHART and PHIL NOBILE

The chosen plan to ful-fill County Executive Rob Astorino’s quest to reinvigorate Playland, the Rye-based historic amusement park, has been the subject of scrutiny from some of the park’s neighbors after they discovered a Costco-sized field house is set to be built yards away from their homes.

The proposed multipurpose field house, the marque mon-eymaker in the grand reinven-tion plan, is not only slated for construction without consulta-tion of Playland’s neighbors, it also inexplicably jumped in size once Sustainable Playland Inc., the non-profit chosen to assume control of the park, was selected.

The field house has turned out to be the first issue of a series in which critics al-lege Sustainable Playland has failed to be transparent in detailing aspects of its plan. They say the non-profit and one of its for-profit subsid-iaries, Playland Sports LLC, have failed to directly address concerns over parking, flood-ing, quality of life and the final size of the field house, wheth-er those concerns have come from Rye residents or county officials.

“It’s all smoke and mir-rors and misdirection,” said 50-year Rye resident George

Neighbors: SPI plan not sustainable

Szczerba. “The only thing that’s missing is the N after SPI for spin because they’re spinning this thing their way.”

At some point between 2011–when SPI submit-ted its original proposal to Westchester County–and 2013, the size of the field house, which would be used for indoor soccer, lacrosse and other sports, jumped from 72,000 square feet to 95,000 square feet, but, after repeated inquiries, SPI spokesperson Geoff Thompson couldn’t specify when the plan changed further than to tell the Review it happened “sometime after the original proposal was sub-mitted.”

Thompson indicated that a year-round indoor sports fa-cility is, above all, necessary for the economic viability of Sustainable Playland’s entire plan and the amusement park’s continued operation.

According to Ken Ball, a resident of Adelaide Street and close neighbor to Playland, the current dimensions of the field house, which would stand 35 feet tall with a footprint of close to 100,000 square feet, could house two Boeing 747 jumbo jets, “with room to spare.”

“If the county needs such a facility, the logical place to build it would be on county property at the Westchester County Airport,” Ball said.

SPI, founded by Rye resi-dents Dhruv Narain and Peter Rukeyser in 2010, was created for the sole purpose of turning Playland into a year-round des-tination.

SPI’s plan would turn Playland into a facility divided into entertainment and recre-ational zones, including a field zone featuring the field house and two 60,000-square-foot outdoor playing fields. The plan also establishes a perma-nent home for the Westchester Children’s Museum and creates a water park aqua zone.

The group signed a letter of intent with the Republican county executive in October 2012. At that time, Playland Sports, a for-profit enterprise responsible for the operation of the field house, was one of numerous companies brought in by SPI, some new and some previously established, as business partners. SPI then signed an official asset man-agement agreement with the Astorino administration in July 2013. The agreement states the non-profit will pay the county a base fee of $4 million, followed by annual payments based on the park’s net operating revenue, which is estimated to be $1.2 mil-lion per year. These payments would go toward the county’s

existing $34 million debt on the amusement park.

Following the agreement with SPI, Astorino approved the non-profit’s Playland Improvement Plan, an 80-page document released online in September 2013 that further de-tailed SPI’s plans to redevelop the park. The plan’s release was the first time the revised size of the proposed field house was re-vealed to be 95,000 square feet instead of the original 72,000.

While the field house is cru-cial to SPI’s ability to hold up its financial end of the bargain, Thompson said it’s also some-thing the area needs.

“This is what the market de-mands,” he said. “It’s a major element of our plan, the only one that wasn’t weather de-pendable.”

A group of concerned Ryan Park neighbors launched a pe-tition that garnered 235 sig-natures against the proposed field house in October 2013 asking the county Board of Legislators to consider their concerns about potential flooding, noise, lights and parking: issues they believe will adversely affect their neighborhood, which abuts the amusement park, if the SPI field house is built as pro-

posed.In an attempt to appeal to

the concerns of the neighbors at a Dec. 11, 2013 public meet-ing in Rye, SPI answered pre-written questions from citi-zens, but the meeting was cut short without SPI answering questions not reviewed in ad-vance by the organization.

Parking in and around Playland, another example where numbers from SPI do not add up, has also been an issue for the Playland neigh-bors.

Because the field house is set to be placed where the cur-rent amusement park’s main parking lot sits, a number of spots would be removed as a result. According to West-chester County Parks Deputy Commissioner Peter Tartaglia, the number of parking spots in Playland’s main lot is 2,084.

SPI says there are 2,191 parking spots in the main lot, according to its improvement plan. Also in the plan is a park-ing map, which lists the main parking lot as having 1,317 spots after the construction of the field house—a 40 percent reduction in spaces in the main lot.

The reduction has neigh-bors worried about parking

overflow into Rye neighbor-hoods during the busy week-ends throughout the summer when the park hosts fireworks shows every Friday of the sea-son.

Playland Sports owner John Abate contends there won’t be traffic issues. He points to the results of an 800-page park-ing study, conducted in 2013 by John Meyer Consulting, a Westchester engineering firm. Multiple requests dur-ing November and December 2013 to Thompson from the Review for access to the parking study were never granted.

The parking study has since become available on the Rye City government website after its attorney, Kristen Wilson, wrote a letter to the county executive and the Board of Legislators on Dec. 4 request-ing the city be granted involve-ment in the approval process so Rye’s elected leaders can ensure SPI abides by the city’s local zoning and planning laws. Rye believes it has jurisdiction over such proposed construc-tion since the park sits within city limits.

The parking study, taken on the first weekend in August 2013, calculated the total at-

Playland’s main parking lot, located between the amusement park and a residential neighborhood in Rye, would lose 40 percent of its parking spaces after construction of a proposed 95,000-square-foot field house.

PLAYLAND?Sustainable


20092010

2011

Nov. 2009Rob Astorino wins county executive seat defeating longtime incumbent Andy Spano.

March 2010Rye City Playland Advisory Committee reactivated after years of inactivity. Councilwoman Catherine Parker designated liaison.

June 2010Rye City forms Playland Stategic Planning Committee to promote the interests of the community as the county looks to reinvent the amusement park.

July 2010Astorino sends out Playland RFP.

August 2010Westchester County Board of Legislators Chairman Ken Jenkins announces support of Astorino’s RFP.

Nov. 2010Rye residents Dhruv Narain and Peter Rukeyser create Sustainable Playland, Inc.

Jan. 10, 2011Rye’s Playland Strategic group holds public meeting to hear SPI plan, which includes 72,000 square foot field house.

March 2011Rye’s Playland Strategic group submits document of four guiding principles for potential Playland transformation including adherance to city’s land use laws.

March 10, 2011Astorino receives 12 proposals for Playland.

Sept. 22, 2011County’s appointed feasibility committee, which includes Rye Mayor Douglas French and County Legislator Judy Myers, releases final report identifying three proposals (SPI, Standard Amusements and Central Amusements) for consideration.

March 1, 2011Astorino appoints 19-member feasability committee to vet proposals based on the 5-E criteria: economics, environment, entertainment, experience and expectations.


tendance at the park hourly for two days. On the Friday of the study, peak percentage of attendees did not exceed 38 percent of all available spaces by 9 p.m. On Saturday of the study, peak percentage did not exceed 27 percent of all parking by 6 p.m. However, rain show-ers occurred on both days of the study, according to the weather history website wunderground.com, cancelling what would have been a high-traffic fire-works show that Friday.

A study was also done when the park was closed on a weekend in March 2013, but the results were never posted to the public.

Despite the incomplete re-sults of the parking study, Abate said the only time traffic issues may arise is during the park’s three busiest weekends, which are Independence Day, Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Mike Visci, a resident of nearby Redfield Street for 49 years, said doing two week-end studies is not enough time to consider a comprehensive parking plan.

“I know the traffic pattern, I know how backed up Playland Parkway gets,” Visci said, add-ing he often sees illegal parking on his street in addition to the congestion.

“We deal with [inconve-nience and annoyance due to Playland’s proximity] from May to September. We don’t want to have to deal with this from January to January,” Visci said.

One of the hallmarks of the Astorino administration has been attempting to find a so-lution to the financial burden tied to Playland, which county administration officials said runs a $3 million to $5 million deficit annually.

The decision to rethink the amusement park long-term had its roots in the 2009 campaign trail. Astorino, a county execu-tive candidate at the time, cam-paigned for change at the park and looked to follow through on that platform in 2010. Soon after, he solicited a request for proposals from businesses and organizations interested in managing and modernizing the

historic property.He would ultimately select

SPI as his preferred proposal.“We’d like to see Playland

continue from a debt situa-tion to one that breaks even or makes a profit and is an amuse-ment park that attracts families all year. Hopefully it gets done relatively soon working with the new [Board of Legislators] leadership,” Astorino said this week.

The plan awaits approv-al of the county Board of Legislators, which represents the final hurdle before the non-profit can begin to transform the park.

The Board of Legislators, according to an opinion draft-ed by County Attorney Robert Meehan, will have to approve any material changes to coun-ty property, capital improve-ments that include the field zone and other projects pro-posed by SPI.

Even though the Board of Legislators remained a Demo-cratic majority after the No-vember 2013 elections, a nine-member, bipartisan coalition

of seven Republicans and two Democrats—Mike Kaplow-itz of Yorktown and Virginia Perez of Yonkers—which was announced in December, has enabled the Astorino-friendly Republican minority to gain board control.

Before the last county Gov-ernment Operations Commit-tee meeting of 2013 on Dec. 17, Legislator Catherine Bor-gia, an Ossining Democrat and head of the committee, stated it requested an updated park-ing plan from SPI, which she said the board has been ask-ing for since October, as well as an updated marketing plan and financials from both SPI and the Astorino administra-tion. As of press time, Borgia and the committee have not received any of the requested information.

Before SPI’s plan was se-lected by Astorino, 11 other proposals were vetted by a cit-izens committee appointed by the county executive. Former Republican Rye City Mayor Douglas French, along with former county Legislator Judy Myers, a Larchmont Demo-crat whose district encom-passed Playland, were part of a 19-member group tasked with vetting the feasibility of each renovation proposal the coun-ty received in March 2011.

French, who left office at the end of 2013 after choos-ing not to seek re-election, admitted he did not make any special effort to publicize the fact that one of the three con-ceptual proposals identified by the committee included

a 72,000 square foot field house abutting a residential neighborhood.

He said the committee’s responsibility was not to re-view site plans, but to rate the submissions according to Astorino’s standards for the project’s evaluation: the five-E criteria—economics, environ-ment, entertainment, experi-ence and expectations.

In response to residents and neighbors who said they felt left out of the process by local officials, French said city of-ficials didn’t know about the field house’s change in size to 95,000 square feet until the subject was raised during Rye City Council meetings in October 2013, even though the change was first made public in September withn the Playland Improvement Plan.

“This should have raised flags with the elected officials,” said Mack Cunningham, a for-mer Rye City councilman who has taken up the charge of leading the effort to defeat the field house proposal. “Rather than putting out statements of overwhelming support in the community, they did not do their job. That’s my point; they should have raised this issue early on in the process.”

Not only did the members of the county’s citizens com-mittee with an interest in Rye fail to make the public aware of the scope of the field house, the Rye City Council voted unanimously in support of SPI’s plan in 2012.

“They’re playing this close to the vest, and for our City

Council to vote 7-0 twice with-out knowing what they’re vot-ing for, they sold us down the river,” Szczerba said.

Despite the concerns and requests presented to SPI and all involved parties, officials behind the project remain steadfast in touting the park’s consideration of residents and customers alike. Both Abate and Norm Gill, a partner of Pinnacle Indoor Sports, the consultant and operating part-ner for Playland Sports, said they have tried to implement an economically and logisti-cally viable plan that takes concerns from all sides into consideration.

“We would not be doing this if we thought that it would be inconvenient for custom-ers,” Gill said. “We need to make this a worthwhile busi-ness.”

That is exactly what many occupants of Rye’s Ryan Park neighborhood say they are afraid of: the county, SPI and, until recently, Rye City government are not invested in making sure the Playland reconstruction process is re-sponsive to Rye residents’ concerns and to what is in their best interest.

“How would you like to walk out of your front door and, less than 100 yards away, a giant Costco [sized build-ing] is staring you right in the face. [The field house] would be right out of my front door,” Szczerba said. “It’s a neigh-borhood killer. This thing doesn’t belong here.”

-With reporting by Ashley Helms

The corner of Sanford Street and Roosevelt Avenue is just one area in the Ryan Park Rye neighborhood that could be affected by the proposed field house. Residents from the neighborhood have spawned a movement against the field zone portion of Sustainable Playland’s plan. Photos/Andrew Dapolite2012

2013

2014

Aug. 2012Board of Legislators announces the hiring of an auditor to gauge Playland attendance and revenue.

Oct. 11, 2012SPI group signs letter of intent with the county, bringing along business partners like Playland Sports and Pinnacle Sports to manage parts of the park.

Nov. 2012Dhruv Narain resigns as chairman of SPI due to tax delinquency revelations.

Dec. 2012Rye City Council passes resolution in support of the county’s agreement with SPI.

Feb. 2013County approves over $12.5 million in bonding to repair Ice Casino and boardwalks after Hurricane Sandy.

April 4, 2013Astorino announces 10-year management agreement with SPI.

May 11, 2013Playland opens for season ahead of schedule with boardwalk repairs following Sandy.

July 23, 2013Astorino signs lease with children’s museum and formal asset management agreement with SPI. SPI has 30 days to provide Astorino with its Playland Improvement Plan.

Oct. 23, 2013Rye citizens from surrounding neighborhoods gather at Rye City Council meeting to protest 95,000 square foot field house.

Nov. 5, 2013Astorino defeats Noam Bramson earning another four-year term as county executive.

Dec. 11, 2013SPI holds meeting at Rye library to address resident concerns. Only written and reviewed questions were answered, which creates a tense evening.

Sept. 6, 2013SPI’s Playland Improvement Plan is submitted to the county administration.

Jan. 6, 2014Mike Kaplowitz, a Somers Democrat, elected as the new chairman of the Board of Legislators by a majority, bipartisan coalition.


The new science wing at Rye High School is still covered in workers and scaffolding the day before the start of the fall 2014 semester. Photo/Alina Suriel

Rye High sees the end of construction project

By ALINA SURIEL

Just in time for the start of the fall semester, construc-tion on the new science wing at Rye High School is finally coming to an end.

The majority of the project will be complete and ready for students to use for the first Monday of the semes-ter on Sept. 8, but contractors are working on the finishing touches including stonework on the facade of the building and minor internal details such as utility closets.

The two-story, 17,000-square-foot science wing includes 12 new science labs, two general instruction classrooms and a new parking area for teachers. There are also rows of brand new lockers built into the new science wing. The lock-ers will be reserved for senior students.

In addition to these external aspects of the nearly finished science wing, the newly-built structure has some new, mod-ernizing features. The space is equipped with wireless inter-net, Smartboards, and an im-proved air-conditioning sys-tem that also serves to filter air in the classrooms.

Smartboards, in particu-lar, are an important addition to the newest section of the high school. These interactive displays allow instructors to access the internet and other computer programs, enabling multi-platform illustration of the themes and lessons in each curriculum.

According to Rye High Sc- hool principal Patricia Taylor, Smartboards will be used in

classes to pull information from the Internet, download videos and save written work from in-dividual lessons for later use.

As part of the renovation, seven science classrooms that existed in the main school building were converted into nine general education class-rooms. General education class-rooms are different in that they do not need access to hands-on water, gas or electricity sup-plies. Instead, there are just chairs and desks for students and the teacher.

Rye City School District Superintendent Dr. Frank Al-varez was optimistic about the construction workers’ ability to push through in time for the first days of school.

“Construction is progress-ing at lightning speed in time for the opening of school,” Al-varez said. “We are in the pro-cess of ensuring that all areas are safe for student and staff occupancy.”

Taylor has been impressed with the progress, too.

“I am in awe of the magni-tude of work that continues to take place in preparation for our new science wing,” she said. “Our science and STEM instruction will be enhanced and supported by the new fac-ulty. I am excited to have the opportunity to welcome stu-dents, faculty and the commu-nity to our new building.”

STEM refers to a curricu-lum based on science, technol-ogy, engineering and math.

Taylor emphasized how badly the school needed the new facility. Previously, she said, students lacked many of the resources needed to com-plete many basic science ex-

periments, and instructors at the school often had to take it upon themselves to figure out ways to demonstrate lessons in the various scientific disci-plines offered at the school.

Before the renovation, when not all of the water faucets or sinks functioned properly, only a few students were able to participate in the day’s ac-tivity while the rest of the class observed.

The project broke ground in June 2013 with a $16.3 million dollar budget, paid for entirely through the passage of a bond. Although the science wing will be complete very close to its planned time, construction delays due to the severe winter weather set the schedule back a few weeks, according to Rye School Board president Laura Slack.

Even before work on the school began, there was an-other major delay when the original bond for $19 million did not pass due to resistance from the community.

“We’re grateful to the com-munity for seeing the need and providing the building for our students,” Slack said.

Before construction began on the science wing, there were portable classrooms in the space to accommodate Rye High School’s growing student population.

The Rye City School Dis-trict’s overall enrollment has ballooned by 18 percent in 10 years, going from 2,785 in the 2004-2005 school year to 3,359 this coming year. En-rollment at Rye High School alone has gone up to 1,023 students from 715 in that time, an increase of 31 percent.



By LIZ BUTTON

As the Rye Golf Club’s new permanent general manager, Jim Buonaiuto told the Rye City Review that he hopes to use his strong background in golf club operations and com-mitment to hospitality to bur-nish the club’s reputation and turn its fortunes around fol-lowing the years-long finan-cial scheme allegedly master-minded by the club’s previous manager, Scott Yandrasevich.

The 27-year-old Buonaiuto brings 10 years of golf club experience to the table, com-ing to Rye from his position as general manager of The Courses at Pelham Bay and Split Rock in the Bronx, a 36-hole spread which holds the title of biggest golf course in New York City.

Buonaiuto is expected to join Rye Golf Club on April 14.

Being young, Buonaiuto said, is not an issue when it comes to his potential for suc-cess in the city-run club’s top position. For him, this April would have been a decade of employment with American Golf Corp., a national golf club franchise that has placed him at different golf courses in various managerial positions since 2008, when he graduat-ed from St. John’s University in Queens.

“There are a couple of things I want to make it my priority to accomplish in the first 100 days,” he said.

Buonaiuto, who lives in Tuckahoe, said he plans on making himself a visible pres-ence to the staff and club mem-bers, and starting the club on the path toward more transpar-ent financial management in order to shuck off the legacy of member mistrust the former manager left behind. He said he will make it his standard practice to personally provide more frequent and detailed up-dates on financial and opera-tional matters to club members at Rye Golf Club Commission meetings, and to mandate that the commission present such information to the general pub-lic at City Council meetings, Buonaiuto said.

In his capacity as manag-er, Yandrasevich was not re-garded as a people person by many golf club members and

Jim Buonaiuto

New manager has eye for hospitality

staff. According to sources within the club, he was known to sometimes sequester him-self in his office for long pe-riods of time to the point of inaccessibility.

Rye’s new manager said that this mode of interaction runs completely counter to his managerial philosophy of hos-pitality above all.

“I really enjoy making sure members enjoy their day,” he said.

And, at the end of the day, while profitability and cash flow are paramount, the club won’t take in the desired rev-enue without providing an ex-ceptional member experience, Buonaiuto said.

After a lengthy search pro-cess, the city announced the hiring of Buonaiuto on March 20 to replace Yandrasevich, who is currently facing charg-es of defrauding members of hundreds of thousands of dollars in membership dues. Yandrasevich, who resigned in January 2013, deflated the club’s reputation by allegedly using shell companies he cre-ated to steal years’ worth of membership dues. The city has since submitted a claim to its insurance carrier for $2.1 mil-lion in the hopes of recover-ing losses city officials believe rightfully owed to the golf club as a result of the scandal.

Buonaiuto told the Review he is up to the task before him.

Golf commission chairman Mack Cunningham, said that during his interview, Buon-aiuto answered some very pointed questions relative to Yandrasevich’s notorious his-tory with the club. He is well aware of the gravity of the task he faces and the hopes and expectations of the members,

Cunningham said. “To him this is a career

opportunity. He wants to build the membership back up and turn the club back into what he really believes is a crown jewel that just needs some pol-ishing,” Cunningham, a for-mer city councilman, said. “I think the golf club is looking for someone new with creativ-ity and who has fresh eyes.”

Buonaiuto is also confident he can help restore the club’s financial fortunes.

In his previous positions, Buonaiuto has managed clubs with a much larger budget than Rye’s, which currently sits at $5.5 million. As general man-ager of the Bronx’s Pelham Bay and Split Rock club, he supervised 100 employees on a daily basis and helped in-crease revenue in non-tradi-tional ways, like by develop-ing a popular Oktoberfest cel-ebration and redeveloping the club’s operational plan for its traditional spring and summer club nights, which attract 700 to 1500 guests weekly.

When he is not managing golf courses, he is playing on them; he is an avid golfer and bowls with St. John’s Univer-sity competitive teams, he said.

To start his tenure off right, Buonaiuto said he has begun networking within the area and will work with the Westchester Business Council in addition to local chambers of commerce, rotary clubs, lions clubs, or anywhere local leaders of busi-ness congregate.

When it comes to other new business strategies to supple-ment membership, Buonaiuto said that the best way to boost membership is retention: the club has to first and foremost provide an excellent member experience.

“That, in turn, will result in members bringing guests or speaking highly of the club within their social or business area of life, which is the best way to advertise,” he said.

Prior to interviewing with Rye, Buonaiuto played a round of golf at the city club and abso-lutely loved the property, call-ing it “one of the most unique facilities in Westchester,” due to its incredible beauty and oceanside status.

Buonaiuto’s new position will pay $120,000 including benefits and health insurance.




By CHRIS EBERHART

Turns out it wasn’t sustain-able.

County Executive Rob Astorino’s chosen plan to re-furbish Playland is no more; the asset management agree-ment between he and Rye-based nonprofit Sustainable Playland, Inc., which was to turn over Playland’s operations to SPI, has been voided by mu-tual agreement after closed-door discussions between the Astorino administration and SPI over the past week.

The closed-door discus-sions were the reason for SPI’s absence from the June 10 Board of Legislators’ weekly review of SPI’s renovation plan, which is detailed in full in the group’s overall Playland Improvement Plan, or PIP.

The June 10 absence was SPI’s second consecutive from the review and came on the heels of its month-long hiatus from the process in April, dur-ing which SPI president Kim Morque said the nonprofit could not continue with its in-volvement in the legislators’ review process because of le-gal uncertainties over a juris-dictional battle between the City of Rye and the Astorino administration as well as Democratic county Legislator Ken Jenkins’ lawsuit challeng-ing the legality of the nonprof-it’s asset management agree-ment with the county.

SPI briefly returned to the review table prior to Wednesday’s announcement.

Lawsuits were a reason for SPI’s withdrawal, according to Ned McCormack, spokesper-son for Astorino.

“It became clear we couldn’t go forward like this,” McCormack said. “As a volun-teer citizens’ group, SPI doesn’t have the resources to sustain lawsuits, and the county is just in a better place to run the park.”

With SPI’s hands off the landmark Rye amusement park, the Playland Improve-ment Plan has been with-drawn, and SPI has been re-duced to a fundraising mecha-nism for Playland and West-chester County.

“Essentially, what Friends of Westchester Parks does for county parks is what SPI will do for Playland,” Jerry

SPI out; won’t run Playland

McKinstry, spokesman for SPI, said.

County Legislator Mary Jane Shimsky, a Hastings-on-Hudson Democrat who served on the board’s Democratic-majority subcommittee vetting the PIP, said SPI “has been as-signed a more appropriate role in Playland’s future.”

During the subcommittee’s review, Shimsky, along with other county legislators, has been critical of SPI for not providing information such as a parking overflow plan, re-vised financials with best and worst case projections, and signed contracts with partners.

With increasing scrutiny, there was growing sentiment in multiple precincts the subcom-mittee would vote the PIP down.

“My assumption is if a ven-dor wants the county’s busi-ness and they have data that would show they would be beneficial to the county, they would be willing to share it,” Shimsky said. “Since SPI hasn’t being forthcoming with any information, I’m left to as-sume that their plan can’t be proven to be beneficial.”

Shimsky said it has been clear for some time SPI lacked the expertise, the resources and desire to make a success of the county’s amusement park operation.

With SPI out as the park’s principle architect in its reno-vation, the county has turned to Dan Biederman, president of Biederman Redevelopment Ventures—which has redevel-oped areas such as Bryant Park in New York City—to come up with a plan for Playland to move forward and become a year-round destination.

Biederman was hired as a consultant by the Astorino administration for $20,000 per month. He will begin work in July and likely end in November, according to McCormack.

McCormack said the idea is still to turn Playland into a year-round destination, so Biederman and his team will be at Playland in the coming months to see what alterations can be done to accomplish that goal.

McCormack said Bieder-man will review the day-to-day operations of the amuse-ment park including factors that contribute to profit and loss, how well the county op-erates the park and the overall customer experience.

McCormack called this the “tactical part” of Biederman’s review.

“Then the more strategic part is: What are other things that don’t exist today that can help the future of the park?” McCormack said. “On one level, that could be sponsor-ships. On another level, it could be expanding the ac-tivities that are in the park be-yond just an amusement park to include concerts or bring back some variation of the fields. It’s a blank slate for [Biederman].”

The fields referenced by Mc- Cormack were part of SPI’s plan before it was with-drawn along with an accom-panying 82,500-square-foot field house.

The field house, which would’ve been built in the Playland parking lot in a flood zone that abuts a residen-tial Rye neighborhood, was the center of intense scrutiny

On Wednesday, Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, a Republican, announced Sustainable Playland, Inc. was withdrawing its plan to reinvent Playland. In its place, Astorino has hired consultant Dan Beiderman to review the amusement park’s operation and finances before providing recommendations on how best to utilize the property. File photo

and backlash from Playland’s neighbors.

County Legislator Catherine Parker, a Rye Democrat, said she doesn’t want to see a plan by Biederman that includes a field zone.

“I certainly hope Mr. Bie-derman does not resurrect the notion of a field house among his recommendations for Play-land,” Parker said. “The com-munity has shown that to be a non-starter. I encourage Mr. Biederman to avail himself of the plentiful opinions in Rye

and incorporate the concerns of our residents and others into his vision.”

Former Rye City Coun-cilman Mack Cunningham, who’s been a staunch oppo-nent of the field house and SPI’s renovation plan, said, “Short term, it’s good news that SPI is no longer running the show. But long term, we’ll have to see if the field house comes back.”

Still, SPI is sticking to its vision. In a statement re-leased by the nonprofit, SPI

president Kim Morque said, “SPI is proud of the vision it put forth for Playland Park. We remain committed to a restoration and preserva-tion plan that recognizes the park’s unique and historic characteristics. While SPI’s role is evolving, its vision and commitment has not changed. We will continue with our original mission of being a community-based or-ganization that partners with the county to enhance and re-store the park.”

and Pease was a Rye police sergeant, said he felt it was important to shore up and strengthen the sworn leader-ship of the department. He also felt it was appropriate to seek out someone who could not experience any conflicts of interest when it came to labor relations with the city.

“Basically, the command ranks in our police department are pretty thin. We’re a small department, and all members of the department, including Lt. Falk, are members of the bargaining unit,” Culross said. “It was important to have a person who is not a member of the bargaining unit, someone who would look at it from an overall perspective.”

Since Culross was appoint-ed interim city manager in April, replacing former City Manager Scott Pickup, the thinness of the police depart-ment’s ranks has only grown more pronounced.

After Lt. Jeffrey Reichert retired earlier this month, Falk became the only one of the department’s three lieutenants who was actually still at work. Reichert had been assisting Falk with additional commis-sioner duties, like payroll and other administrative tasks; both received a stipend for their added responsibilities.

Another high-ranking of-ficer, Lt. Joseph Verille, who had served as detective com-mander, has been out on dis-ability leave for the past two years, so the department’s supervisory management staff was essentially down to bare bones, with Falk acting as commissioner and patrol com-mander simultaneously.

“I was looking for a way to

By LIZ BUTTON

Interim City Manager Frank Culross has brought back for-mer Rye Police Commissioner Bill Pease to return to the role, replacing Lt. Robert Falk.

Culross announced Mon-day that effective June 23, Pease will leave retirement to take on the role of Rye’s “tran-sitional police commissioner.”

So far, Culross has not specified a probable length for what he called “this transition-al period in the City of Rye’s governmental administration.”

“We are not currently re-cruiting another commission-er, but I anticipate we will be looking for one at some point,” Culross said. “At this point, I am not actively looking for somebody a year from now or six months from now. Bill will be police commissioner for the immediate future.”

Pease, who served as Rye police commissioner from March 1993 to December 1999, will rejoin city staff at an annual salary of $147,144. Al-though it is unlikely Pease will remain Rye’s commissioner for the next 15 or 20 years, Culross said, at the same time, he should not be viewed as an interim placeholder, as Falk was meant to be.

Falk will continue on as commanding officer of the pa-trol division after he leaves his post as interim commissioner, in which he has worked in a dual capacity since William Connors resigned in January.

Connors served as Rye’s com-missioner beginning in 2001.

Culross, who met Pease when he became city man-ager for the first time in 1978

Pease named top copstrengthen that and bring some additional experience in,” Culross said. He said he was pleased when he learned Pease was available.

“Bill [Pease] is a person who clearly knows the Rye Police Department. He was a career police officer, and he served as our second perma-nent police commissioner,” Culross said. Anthony Schem-bri served as the city’s first po-lice commissioner.

Republican Mayor Joe Sack said appointing Pease for a fi-nite transitional period was a city manager decision, and not the province of the city council.

“I don’t really know much about Mr. Pease,” Sack said “But the city manager indicat-ed that this is who he wanted and needed to work with.”

Before Culross himself ap-pointed Pease as Rye’s com-missioner in 1993, Pease was a sworn member of the police department for more than 20 years prior to being appointed police commissioner.

After Pease retired in 1999, he worked from 2000 until 2012 as a director of secu-rity and safety services for a Florida property management company.

Pease, who now lives in Peekskill, has a masters de-gree in public administration from Pace University and a bachelor of science degree in criminal justice/behavioral sci- ences from the New York Institute of Technology. He is also a graduate of the FBI Na-tional Academy and several other public safety training programs.

Pease could not be reached for comment as of press time.


Yandrasevich pleads guilty

By CHRISTIAN FALCONE and CHRIS EBERHART

Scott Yandrasevich, the for-mer general manager of the Rye Golf Club, pleaded guilty in White Plains court on Nov. 6 to grand larceny and fal-sifying records; he will now serve one year in Westchester County jail.

Yandrasevich, 50, accepted the plea deal just days before he was set to stand trial in con-nection with allegations that he stole approximately $343,120 over a six-year period from members of the city-run golf club through several shell staff-ing companies, most notably RM Staffing, that he set up. The former general manager is also required to pay restitution to Rye for $271,120 of the money that he defrauded from the club and its members by his sentenc-ing, which is expected to be sometime in April 2015. If he cannot pay the money back in time, Yandrasevich will serve a longer sentence of one to three years in state prison but also still owe the money.

Kerry Lawrence, Yan-drasevich’s attorney, had been opposed to a plea bargain in the months leading up to the trial but said after his client pleaded guilty, “When faced with the potential consequenc-es of going to trial Mr. Yan-drasevich decided to resolve the case.

“Mr. Yandrasevich gave his heart and soul to Rye Golf Club while he was gen-eral manager, and his tire-less, outstanding, innovative work there brought the club to a standard it had never reached before. He is glad to put this episode behind him,” Lawrence said in a released statement to the media.

Yandrasevich was arrested after turning himself in to the Westchester County District Attorney’s office in November 2013 and was later arraigned on an indictment of 10 felony counts of falsifying records

and one felony count of grand larceny in the second degree. At his arraignment, he pleaded not guilty to all charges. Yan-drasevich was facing up to 15 years in state prison, if con-victed in a trial.

Yandrasevich’s guilty plea last week included just two of the 10 counts of falsifying records.

Mayor Joe Sack, a Repub-lican, said through the city’s investigation, they knew Yan-drasevich was guilty of stealing.

“So this is certainly vindica-tion for us,” Sack, who was a councilman when the golf club scandal first unfolded in the summer months of 2012, said. “The restitution amount is wel-come, but it’s only a portion of what he stole. We will continue to pursue all of our legal rem-edies including recovering on our insurance claim in order to be made while.”

While Rye waits to receive $271,120 from Yandrasevich, City Attorney Kristen Wilson said the city took out an insur-ance claim in August 2013 for $2.4 million and continues to await the insurance company’s review of that claim.

Lucian Chalfen, spokes-man for the district attor-


Scott Yandrasevich, the former manager of Rye Golf Club, pleaded guilty on Nov. 6 to grand larceny and falsifying records and will serve a year in Westchester County jail. Yandrasevich, who now lives in Danbury, Conn., is also ordered to pay approximately $271,000 in restitution to the City of Rye. File Photo

ney’s office, said the restitu-tion payment that DA’s office ordered has to be traced and proven beyond a reasonable doubt, which is why Yan-drasevich’s restitution to Rye is significantly lower than the city’s insurance claim. As for the difference between the initial $343,120 that the dis-trict attorney’s office claimed that Yandrasevich stole and the $271,120 he is ordered to repay, Chalfen said it is be-cause “it is unclear what ser-vices were rendered.”

In October 2012, Rye commissioned its own in-vestigation into the ques-tionable financial irregu-larities that had surfaced at the club. The investigation was completed in February 2013, and a report was issued claiming Scott Yandrasev-ich had stolen “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Yandrasevich used the mon-ey to purchase, among other things, two boats and a house for his mother in North Caro-lina, according to the report.

The report also implicated Yandrasevich’s wife, Anna, who acted as the “bookkeep-er” and “office manager” at RM Staffing. While in that capacity, Anna Yandrasevich received a salary from RM Staffing of nearly $175,000 between November 2009 and September 2012 as well as other payments total-ing $70,000. By May 2012, months prior to the scandal surfacing, Anna Yandrasevich was taking home biweekly checks of more than $4,000 from RM Staffing payroll.

However, Chalfen said, to his knowledge, Yandrasevich’s wife was not part of the district attorney’s probe.

Scott Yandrasevich, who was hired by the city to run the golf club back in 2002, resigned from his position with the club in January 2013 following an internal investigation by the city that exposed the financial scan-dal. He relocated his family to Danbury, Conn.

Follow us on Twitter@ryecityreview

By JOE SACK

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

That old bromide proved true once again as I leafed through the bound volume of the 1964 weekly editions of The Rye Chronicle—“Subscriptions $4.50 Per Year—Strictly In Advance.”

Tucked away in an over-looked corner of City Hall are stacks of the newspaper’s com-pilations from decades gone by. In search of background on the 50th anniversary of the dedication of the “new” City Hall, I recently pulled a book off the shelf. What I found was an interesting mix of fa-miliar themes and some great throw-backs.

Beginning the year, May-or H. Clay Johnson was sworn in for a second term, as was Councilman Frank L. Rich. John Carey and Thom-as Butler also took the oath as councilmen, the first time two Democrats were elected to Rye office. The 1964 city budget was adopted at $1.6 million, or $18.67 per $1,000 assessed value, an increase of 25 cents.

In his State of the County address, County Executive Edwin G. Michaelian ad-dressed the Playland issue: “Is the present amusement park concept desirable and should it be continued? Or, in the al-ternative, should some of the amusement rides, games of skill, etc., be discontinued and should emphasis be placed upon beaching, boating, ma-rine activities and a Kiddy Land?”

Later in January, the Rye Schools Superintendent, Dr. Joseph Grimes Jr., predicted that consolidation of the Rye and Rye Neck school districts was inevitable, only to be told the next month by School Board President Richard L. Morgan that this may not be desirable.

In February, a citizens’ ad-visory committee, chaired by George A. Birrell, recom-mended the purchase of the Ryewood Country Club, on certain conditions including that “the City of Rye maintain absolute control of the proper-ty and its use.” A $1.6 million bond resolution was passed by voters later in the year for ac-

The year in review: 1964

quisition of the club and con-struction of a pool.

March saw the resignation of Elizabeth Jean Brown as principal of Rye High School after 20 years, in connection with apparent disagreements with the Board of Educa-tion. This story remained in the news for many months, with Rye officials and resi-dents alternately disapprov-ing of or supporting the change. William W. Smith, who opposed the resignation, ran against incumbent Mr. Morgan based on this issue, and won the election.

Former Rye City Assessor Mathew D. Capri was found guilty by a Westchester jury in April of accepting bribes of $3,000 to lower assessments of three apartment buildings.

In May, a new $5,000 wing at Rye Recreation was dedi-cated to the late Rye Patrol-man Joe McDonald, a cross-ing guard for many years at the Osborn School.

The school district in June passed its budget of $2 mil-lion, with a tax rate of $25.60 per $1,000 of assessed valua-tion, an increase of $1.37 over the current rate.

The July 9 Chronicle reports the following pre-cursor to the police blotter: “Stanley North of 2 Maher Avenue [in Green-

wich] was spotted running down Harwood Place by 2 pa-trolmen in a police car. When the policemen charged him with intoxication, North al-legedly swung and hit Patrol-man Francis Seaman on the jaw. Handcuffs were placed on the struggling North, but he managed to bite Patrolman Thomas Feeley on the thigh before being subdued.”

Reported in the July 19 edi-tion: “Mayor H. Clay Johnson resolutely defended the action of the Planning Commission and City Council in rezoning the William Edgar John boat-yard property on Milton Har-bor for apartment house sites in a statement to the press. The Mayor denounced the opposi-tion presented by the Milton Point Association...”

Other headlines from the summer of 1964: “Supervi-sor Charges Water Rates In Rye Are Too High,” “Avon Products To Build $700,000 Warehouse In Rye,” “Holding Public Hearing On School Bus Transportation,” and “Consid-ering Rye As Terminus For Long Island Sound Bridge.”

In September it was re-ported that: “The combina-tion of perfect weather and a fine program attracted the

1964 continued on page 14

The front page of a 1964 edition of the Rye Chronicle. Photo courtesy Joe Sack



Smoke Shop to live on

By CHRIS EBERHART

TD’s Rye Smoke Shop own-er said his 90-year-old store on the corner of Purchase Street and Elm Place will live to fight another day after the Rye City Council voted 5 to 1 in favor of saving the local icon.

The City Council approved legislation that allows it to negotiate a special use per-mit with the building’s owner making an exception to a bank ban on Purchase Street. Coun-cilwoman Julie Killian, a Re-publican, was the lone dissent-ing vote, and Councilwoman Laura Brett, a Republican, abstained.

Killian said she wasn’t comfortable with making an exception for one landlord.

“I’ve thought a lot about this. I’ve been in Rye for 22 years, and I love the Smoke Shop…however I’m just not comfortable with this,” Killian said. “I just don’t feel it’s the role of City Council to get involved with a particular landlord.”

Hard economic times have threatened to close the Smoke Shop.

The building’s owner John Fareri, who purchased the building which includes three other businesses in 2008, said he couldn’t afford any lon-ger to carry the Smoke Shop at its current rent, which was significantly below market value, and would require it to pay a higher rent or risk lease termination. But Smoke Shop owner Tony D’Onofrio said he couldn’t afford the rent increase. The Smoke Shop is currently paying $48 per square foot, according to D’Onofrio, while the average price along Purchase Street is $50 to $55 per square foot.

Beginning earlier this year, Mayor Joe Sack, a Republi-can, and the Rye City Coun-cil brainstormed ideas to save the shop and ultimately came up with one that would allow an exception to a decade-old bank moratorium on Pur-chase Street. The morato-rium banning any new banks from opening in Rye’s cen-tral business district began in 2005 during former Demo-cratic Mayor Steve Otis’s ad-ministration because retailers

complained banks were rais-ing rents throughout Rye’s commercial hub. When the moratorium was put into ef-fect, nine banks existed in the downtown area.

But since that time, Wash-ington Mutual dissolved and the Bank of New York merged with Chase, leaving the down-town area with seven today.

As part of the new legisla-tion, a bank would operate on a portion of Fareri’s property, which currently consists of the Smoke Shop, Plush Blow and the former location of Sundae Funday. The bank would oc-cupy the Plush Blow site—which faces Purchase Street—and wrap around to the Elm Street side of the building to the vacant Sundae Fun-day location, leaving the cur-rent space carved out for the Smoke Shop. The bank would pay an above-market rent to supplement the Smoke Shop.

Opponents of the proposal, including members of the city’s Planning Commission, argued it would set a dangerous prec-edent of making exceptions to the law and negotiating with an individual landlord. Even some members of the City Council also raised questions and con-cerns they had about the pro-posed legislation, including too much authority for the city’s governing body.

But a majority of the City

Council voted in favor of the legislation, which allows the City Council to negotiate a special use permit. Sack added a sunset clause to the legisla-tion that would allow the law to expire if an application for a special permit is not received within three months.

After the vote, D’Onofrio told the Review he was pleased with the vote and “looks for-ward to the next step and the next several years in Rye.”

Lindsey Russell, who was part of a team that garnered 4,000-plus signatures on a peti-tion pressuring the City Coun-cil to save the Smoke Shop, said, “Like Tony [D’Onofrio], I’m happy to fight another day.

“Since I was five years old, really since I was able to walk downtown on my own, I’ve been visiting the Smoke Shop,” Russell said. “To me, the façade alone is an icon, and it’s a marker to know I’m home. It’s the heart of the small town, and it’s important to keep it alive.”

With the legislation having passed on Oct. 22, Fareri can now apply for a special use permit to then move forward with leasing the property to a bank. The permit will be ne-gotiated by the City Council in the coming months prior to being voted on.

Brett did not return calls for comment, as of press time.

On Oct. 22, the Rye City Council voted 5 to 1 in favor of legislation that would allow the council to negotiate a special use permit, paving the way for a bank to lease space on Purchase Street. The move was done in an effort to save the Smoke Shop. File photo

Before getting into strictly Rye events over the past year, I want to emphasize three for-eign affairs developments of great significance. The first is the rapid emergence of the Is-lamic State. The second is the decline of the Russian econo-my and of Putin’s prestige with the drop in oil prices. The third is the rapprochement between the United States and Cuba. But those subjects are not within my mandate in a year-end wrap-up.

Instead, I focus on events that have demanded my atten-tion in writing a 2014 weekly column. I will mention a few, in the order of their appearance in “A Rye Oldtimer.”

To start the year off, I wrote on Jan. 3 in support of having a Rye ombudsperson as in vari-ous governmental and business institutions. This would be an individual charged with exam-ining in detail ideas advocated by citizens and reporting to the council, which could then move directly to a decision-making stage.

On Jan. 10, I described the opportunities provided by Rye public access television. And on Jan. 17, I sounded the alarm about $40,000 promised by the City Council to a firm that ad-

A year in reviewmittedly does no actual recruit-ing for services in hiring a new police commissioner. Such ser-vices were not needed, since the selection was made from inside the police department, but still some of the $40,000 was said to have been paid out, and I would like to know who got it and why.

I digressed on Jan. 24, to recommend a book, “Those Angry Days,” by Lynne Ol-son, who takes us through the approach of the Second World War.

On Feb. 7, I was back to questioning the effectiveness of environmental protection in Rye.

On Feb.14, my column was headed, “Rest in Peace, Phil McGovern.” He served as both city assessor and city man-ager. I again questioned Rye’s agreement to pay the $40,000, when we paid nothing to iden-tify Phil, one of our most effec-tive managers.

On Feb. 21, my column was headed, “City Council’s re-sponsibility to protect.” Protec-tion is needed not only by resi-dents in time of emergency but also by all of us all the time, to safeguard City property, in the “comforting warmth of com-pliance with the rule of law.”

On March 14, I again questioned the effective-ness of Rye’s environmental protection.

Occasionally, I would branch out into broader questions, as

on March 21, when I posed the question “Is Crimea a new Sudetenland?” If you were not alive in the 1930s, like plenty of folks in Rye who were, then that question might not have resonated with you. The same might be said of my March 28 column, which also posed the question, “Does Putin’s Russia threaten us?”

On April 4, I reminisced a bit about the 1940s, conclud-ing with a tribute to George Herbert Walker Bush, who is one day younger than me and still jumps out of airplanes, as we saw on his most recent birthday.

On April 11, I went local, asking, “Which is worse, Bay Bridge [across the Sound] or [Playland] field house?”

In the April 25 issue, I took issue with an article in the American Legion Magazine and on May 2 sounded the alarm about “Port Chester’s massive project next door.” On May 16th, my title was, “Prayers at City Council meet-ings,” the issue having been raised in the U.S. Supreme Court.

On May 30th, I asked, “Are we ready for September storms?” Happily, that ques-tion did not need to be an-swered, since we were spared such storms this year. But the City Council must make ready for next September, and for any blizzard that might blow our way this winter.


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largest crowd in the city’s history to Rye Recreation Park on Labor Day. A gathering of more than 5,000 attend-ed the 18th annual William H. Balls Memorial Field Day, filling to capac-ity all of the eight separate areas in which 58 competitive events were contested.”

As the local political campaign sea-son got underway in October, compet-ing headlines read: “Unity Stressed At Opening of Republican Headquar-ters” and “Democratic Chairman Says Republicans Twist Facts.”

The results of the November elec-tions, from national to state to local were as follows: “Rye voters Tues-day elected Republican Robert Wer-ner, incumbent appointee, to the City Council over his Democratic oppo-nent, Allen Palmer...” “Republican voters strongly backed all of the par-ty’s candidates with the exception of the presidential race where they split their tickets, giving President John-son 4,283 votes to 3,184 for Senator Goldwater.” “Max Berking, Dem-ocrat-Liberal from Rye scored one of the biggest political upsets in the State Tuesday when he was elected

State Senator in the 30th district, the first Democrat to win a high legisla-tive office on the eastern side of West-chester County since 1912.”

The remainder of the year con-tained a focus on the lead up to the dedication of City Hall, thanks to former Mayor Morehead’s $500,000 generosity, on Dec. 10.

These are the highlights from the front pages. But some of the best stuff comes from the inside pages, including advertisements, wedding announcements and other miscella-neous postings. These pages provide rich mining for the interested local historian.

At some point, The Rye Chroni-cle trailed off, and The Rye City Re-view and others sprouted up in its place. Wouldn’t it be great if those publications donated historical bound volumes of their own papers to the City Hall archives? In today’s digital age, there’s something about a hard-covered book that lends a special heft and meaning and permanence to our past.

Wishing you a happy, healthy and prosperous 1965—and 2015.

Joe Sack is Mayor of the City of Rye.

1964 from page 12

December 26, 2014 & January 2, 2015 • THE RYE CITY REVIEW • 15SPORTSRye wins Class A titleBy MIKE SMITH

Rye made history more than once on Saturday night, as senior quarterback Andrew Livingston led the Garnets to an unprecedented Class A title and broke the all-time Section I passing record in a 35-14 win over Yorktown at Mahopac High School.

With the win, Rye became the first team in Section I his-tory to capture championships in three classes. Rye had pre-viously won section titles in Class C and Class B, but the Nov. 8 win marked the first time the Garnets have hoist-ed a sectional plaque since moving to Class A in 2009.

“This just shows how far we’ve come as a program, climbing up from Class C to Class B and now to Class A,” Livingston said after the game. “It’s special, and it shows just how good of a job our coaches do here.”

Livingston staked the Gar-nets to an insurmountable lead, throwing for 257 yards and three touchdowns in the game and rushing for another two scores in the

one-sided victory. His record-breaking pass

was a big one, as he hit his fa-vorite target, Tim DeGraw, for a 54-yard touchdown on the opening drive of the second half. That throw was enough to put him past Briarcliff’s Rob Higle on the Section I’s all-time passing leaders list.

“Tim and I have been play-ing together since the third grade, so to break the record with him was special,” Liv-ingston said.

“Records break themselves because our coaches have put us in a position to succeed,” added DeGraw, who had 183 receiving yards and three touchdowns on the day. “I’m just happy that it was in a spot that helped us win the game.”

Although Rye’s vaunted offense was able to light up the scoreboard against York-town, the Garnets also turned in a first-class defensive per-formance. Junior Chase Pratt, who was named the game’s most valuable lineman, said Rye came into the postseason with something to prove.

“I thought our defense got kind of a bad rap early in the year,” Pratt said. “We knew

that once we got into the play-offs, it was time to turn it up and our defense really came together.”

Pratt pointed out that al-though injuries derailed Rye’s title hopes in 2013, they have not been a problem so far for the Garnets, who came into this postseason much healthier than they did a year ago.

“In my mind, our best re-

turning defensive player is [senior lineman] Roger Pagan-elli, and he didn’t play a snap on defense until the playoffs,” said the junior. “So we felt that it was just about getting the right personnel in there to succeed.”

Rye will be back in Ma-hopac on Nov. 15 as they get set to tangle with Section IX champion Cornwall in the

first round of the state play-offs. Cornwall is currently undefeated and has a highly regarded quarterback in Jason Bailey, who, like Livingston, has passed for more than 2,000 yards this season.

“Tonight was a great night, a great win, especially to do it in our senior year,” said Livings-ton. “But we know that we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”

Drew Abate hauls in a pass against Yorktown on Nov. 8. Rye dominated the game on both sides of the ball to come away with a 35-14 victory and the section title.

Rye’s captains, left to right, Tim DeGraw, Andrew Livingston, Jimmy Timmings, Roger Paganelli, and Chase Pratt pose with the Class A championship plaque. Photos/Bobby Begun

Rye’s Andrew Livingston runs the ball against Yorktown on Saturday, Nov. 8. In the Class A Championship, Livingston threw for 257 yards and three scores, breaking the all-time Section I passing record in the process. The Rye Garnets celebrate their 35-14 win over Yorktown at Mahopac High School. Rye’s latest section title is their first since joining Class A.


16 • THE RYE CITY REVIEW • December 26, 2014 & January 2, 2015 SPORTS

Garnets take Class ABy MIKE SMITH

On May 31, the Rye Gar-nets won their first section title in 30 years with a thrilling 6-5 win over Lakeland at Provi-dent Bank Park.

For the Garnets, who won just six games in 2013, the victory was not only a mea-sure of how talented the ball club is, but also how hard they fought to reestablish them-selves as the premier squad in Class A.

Sophomore George Kirby was stellar in the win, earn-ing MVP honors with a seven-inning, 12-strikeout perfor-mance. Although the hurler came into the year without a varsity win on his record, he quickly established himself as a dependable big-game performer.

“I learned last year that I didn’t have to worry about him,” head coach Mike Bru-no said. “Sometimes you just have to trust your players, and Kirby wants the ball; he’s a competitor.”

Bruno’s decision to stay

with Kirby–even after the you- ngster’s pitch count rose and Rye saw a 6-2 lead nearly evap-orate–paid off in spades as he was able to settle down in the seventh inning, fanning three straight batters to end the game.

“He threw a lot of fastballs out there, and I understand about high pitch counts,” Bru-no said. “But he was throwing a lot of fastballs and only mix-ing in curves once in a while.”

Brendan Tripodi led the Garnets at the plate, going 3-for-3 on the day and scor-ing twice. Rye fell in an early hole, but scored three runs in the fourth inning and three more in the fifth to build up a lead that would survive the late Lakeland onslaught.

Bruno said he was im-pressed by his team’s ability to bounce back from its sub-.500 record in 2013. With Kir-

by and Jake Meyerson solidi-fying the rotation, the Garnets came out swinging this sea-son, eager to prove they were better than last year indicated.

“I can’t say enough about these guys, they went from 6 wins to 20 and a sectional title,” Bruno said. “It’s not about one individual person, it’s about everyone’s effort out there. I’m so proud of this team and the resiliency that they’ve shown.”

The Garnets will take on Section IX champ Wallkill on June 6 in the state regionals. Wallkill is led by ace Joe Pilli-terri, who finished with an 8-1 mark and a 0.87 ERA this sea-son. Pillaterri has racked up 87 strikeouts this year in just 62.1 innings of work.

“They’ve got a very good starting pitcher, he’s the quar-terback on the football team, and he’s a great athlete,” Bru-no said. “But we’ve got good starting pitching too. It’s go-ing to be a great game.”

To prepare for the state re-gional game, Rye has sched-uled a June 3 scrimmage with fellow section titlist Rye Neck.

“We’re going to get loose today, then head over to Rye Neck on Tuesday,” Bruno said on June 2. “Then we’re going to have some tough practices on Wednesday and Thursday to get ourselves ready.”

The Garnets mob pitcher George Kirby on the mound following a 6-5 win in the Class A finals on May 31. Kirby had 12 strikeouts on the day. Contributed photo

Tim DeGraw hits a double on May 22. Photo/Bobby Begun

Luke Meyerson throws a pitch during Rye’s first-round playoff game on May 22. Meyerson and the Garnets won 14 more games this year than they did in 2013. Photo/Bobby BegunThe Garnets pose with the Class A Sectional trophy on May 31. This is the Garnets first section title since 1984. Contributed photo


Rye City Review 1-2-2015

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