Community Corner

Eagle Scouts, Busted Parking Meters: What's Up on Patch Boards

A look a reader musing from Westchester, Rockland and Putnam.

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Mahopac High School 2013 graduates are off to a great start, with scholarships and acceptance to many of the nations most prestigious and competitive colleges and universities, including Bard, Boston, Columbia, Emory, Fordham, George Washington, Harvard, James Madison, Notre Dame, Penn, Princeton, RIT, Syracuse, SUNY Stony Brook, SUNY Geneseo, SUNY Binghamton and CUNY John Jay.  Two graduates were accepted to the US Air Force Academy; 11 enlisted in the armed forces.  

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Troop 97 of New City Eagle Scout Court of Honor

Clarkstown Supervisor Alex Gromack, an Eagle Scout, was honored to attend the Eagle Scout Court of Honor for three New City residents from Troop 97 on June 29, 2013. 

For their Eagle Scout projects William Cuddy constructed a garden at Link Elementary School, Michael Kezner's created an herb garden at Little Tor Elementary School, and Perry Thomson repaired a dilapidated chicken coop and constructed a set of wheelchair accessible garden beds at Jawonio in New City.

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Broken Meters Deter Business Patrons

For over eighteen years, I have been a patron of many of the small businesses that make up Tarrytown.  The metered parking situation was never ideal, but the quality of the local businesses made up for that.  However, the parking situation is now coming to a point where it is dissuading me from shopping and dining at the village’s local establishments.           

It seems that recently Tarrytown has a plethora of broken meters, and that the current policy is to ticket cars that are at broken meters.  The last three times I was in Tarrytown I found a broken meter where I parked; today, I had to park at four different meters till I found one that was unbroken.  In addition to the completely broken meters, there are also a number of meters that will only accept one or two coins and then “shut down,” so that it is impossible to add quarters to get the needed time.  Quite frankly, I can’t afford the time it takes to find several parking spaces and then get out of the car to check if the meter works.  To have this many broken meters, and then tell drivers to simply “park elsewhere” is ridiculous when we all know how hard it is to get a metered parking space in Tarrytown.  

I enjoy supporting businesses where the owner and I know each other, where the workers know my unique needs, and where there is camaraderie and caring that extends beyond the shops and into the community.  That’s what you have here at Tarrytown, and I hope that this parking problem won’t continue and therefore force me and others to spend our dollars elsewhere.

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Lack of transparency in Pleasantville


To the Board, and Ms. Fox-Alter,

The recent events leading to Dawn Bartz's resignation continue to be an enormous source of frustration to the community. As we have limited knowledge of what actually transpired, it's difficult to understand how to proceed.  Some people have said to me that the board and Ms. Fox-Alter have the best interests of the school as their sole underlying driving force, and therefore we should trust all of you.  That if any of us had been in your shoes, and knew what you know, that we would have come to the same decision in asking for Ms Bartz's resignation.  It would be comforting to know that this is the case.

However, another group of people are telling me that what led to Ms. Bartz resignation was an anonymous letter from a handful of teachers.  That you never followed up, interviewed those teachers (if in fact you knew who they were) nor interviewed any other teachers to see what the general view of Ms. Bartz's tenure was thus far.  That you didn't solicit community input, and that you made a quick decision based on very vague charges.  

Only you know the truth.  But let me say this.  If the latter is true, if this entire fiasco was precipitated by an anonymous letter, that a handful of disgruntled teachers somehow manipulated you into taking the rash move of demanding Ms. Bartz's resignation or subjecting her to dismissal, then I firmly believe that you all should submit your own resignations.  

It would then have been you who have broken the public trust, you who have acted inappropriately, and you who have created this debacle in the school system that may take years to mend.  

While I understand that you are bound by certain confidentiality agreements not to disclose the details of this episode, if you choose to remain in your positions, it will be up to you to figure out how you can gain back the trust of the community while still adhering to secrecy.  I'm not going to demand your resignation, none of us have enough information to be in that position.  But look in the mirror, and decide if you've done the right thing, if you've acted honorably, in good faith, and looked into the situation thoroughly enough to arrive where we are today.

Sincerely, Jeff Kerper


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