Rye City Review 2-20-2015

RyeCityTHE REVIEWFebruary 20, 2015 | Vol. 3, Number 7 | www.ryecityreview.com

DEER continued on page 5

CASPI continued on page 8

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Conservation, Parks and Rec-reation Department, which created the county’s deer man-agement program in 2008.

Baker said a bow-hunting program was implemented, among other places, in coun-ty parks such as Ward Pound Ridge in Northern Westches-ter, where the deer population decreased from about 65 deer per square mile in 2008 to less than 20 deer per square mile last year.

“The success is not just our program,” Baker said. “We view deer management as a regional issue, not just an is-sue of one municipality or one

location.”To date, the county’s deer

management program has only been implemented in ru-ral, county-owned parks up north, but the overpopulation of deer has become an issue for Southern Westchester mu-nicipalities in suburban and urban areas, such as Rye, Ma-maroneck and Harrison. In Rye, there was a car accident involving a deer as recently as last month along Boston Post Road, one of the city’s main thoroughfares.

Baker said “for sure” there will be a marshlands hunting program to address the issue

in Rye. Currently, he said, his staff is reviewing a density study to determine the popu-lation of deer in Rye and has been coordinating with Rye City Mayor Joe Sack, a Re-publican. Baker will be at-tending a deer summit sched-uled for Rye on Feb. 25.

Managing deer south of I-287, such as in the marsh-lands area of Rye, will require a different strategy, Baker said.

The program that’s already been established north of I-287 is consistent for five or seven days by 50 to 60 hunters.

County addressing deer overpopulation Reports surface in Caspi caseBy CHRIS EBERHART

Staff Writer

An overabundant deer pop-ulation doesn’t abide by mu-nicipal boundaries as they’re roaming about lower West-chester, so county officials are taking a top-down approach to addressing the issue by imple-menting a countywide plan that’s already been established within parks in the northern portions of the county.

“Regional deer manage-ment is important for any suc-cessful deer management pro-gram,” said John Baker, direc-tor of the Westchester County

By JACKSON CHENStaff Writer

A Feb. 9 trial date of a po-lice brutality lawsuit filed in 2007 against three Rye police officers has been delayed af-ter recently uncovered reports from 2004 indicate worry from within the department about one of the accused.

The $10 million civil rights lawsuit of then Rye High School senior Andrew Caspi was filed following an inci-dent of alleged police brutality on Dec. 12, 2004 that left the 17-year-old with a broken bone under his left eye, an injured collarbone and loosened teeth.

According to court docu-ments, Caspi was walking to-wards Rye Middle School to be picked up by his father, Ste-ven, when he was approached by police officer Anthony Ro-sace near the intersection of Boston Post Road and Parsons Street. Rosace, according to his written testimony of July 21, 2005, was responding to a report of a person swinging a large tree branch at traffic. Rosace, who was soon joined that night by officers Franco Compagnone and Michael An-fuso, added in the report that he smelled alcohol on Caspi’s breath.

It was during Caspi’s at-tempt to leave the immediate area, which supposedly caused a scuffle with Compagnone, the current police union presi-dent, that the officers stopped him and allegedly beat him unconscious.

Caspi was charged with as-sault in the third-degree, re-sisting arrest, obstruction of

justice and disorderly conduct, but the charges were ultimate-ly dismissed by Judge Peter Lane in Rye City Court. The charge of third-degree assault became a felony charge of second-degree assault because it involved a police officer, but a criminal case failed to go to trial because the 90-day limit was exceeded, according to Lane’s 2008 decision.

According to Caspi’s law-yers, the civil rights lawsuit had to be filed in 2007 while the criminal case was still pending. That lawsuit origi-nally listed the three officers alongside Police Lt. Joseph Verille, Police Commissioner William Connors, the Rye Po-lice Department and the city as defendants.

However, on Sept. 17, 2014, U.S. District Court Judge Cathy Siebel dismissed Caspi’s claims against the city and the police department, in-cluding Verille and Connors, because she felt there wasn’t proof that Rosace had a his-tory of abuse or that any of the municipal defendants had any knowledge of such history.

Now, eight years later, with the civil case set to finally go to trial this month, two reports, dating back to 2004, from then Rye Police Sgt. Alvin Ortiz have suddenly surfaced shed-ding light on the incident and, in particular, the disposition of Rosace.

As a result, the trial has since been postponed un-til April in light of the new evidence.

In one of the reports, dated Harrison firefighter A.J. Fusco does more than save lives. The fourth generation resident has cultivated his skills in the kitchen and created a cooking blog offering recipes and healthy eating tips to firefighters around the world. For story, see page 6. Photo courtesy A.J. Fusco

Cooking with fire

2 • THE RyE CITy REvIEw • February 20, 2015

February 20, 2015 • THE RyE CITy REvIEw • 3

Former mayor, medical advertiser diesBy JACKSON CHEN

Staff Writer

Former Rye City Mayor Warren Ross passed away early Monday morning in his Oakland Beach Avenue home. Ross, a longtime Democrat, was 88.

His wife, Lucille, said that Ross had always been in-terested in Democratic poli-tics throughout his life, but it wasn’t until after his profes-sional retirement that he final-ly ran for public office, eventu-ally serving as only Rye’s sec-ond Democratic mayor after a long lineage of Republicans.

Even before his mayoral tenure, Ross began his politi-cal career in Rye when he was elected to the City Council for one term from 1986 to 1989. Immediately following his term as a councilman, he was elected mayor serving from 1990 to the end of 1993.

It was after the persistence of Maurio Sax, then chairman of the city’s Democratic Com-mittee, that Ross finally decided to run for mayor. Sax said Ross caught his attention because of his work as an environmentalist and a community leader.

“He was very active in the community, particularly in the Osborn School,” said Sax, adding that Ross served a term as the president of the elemen-tary school’s parent teacher organization.

Known as a soft-spoken and low-key gentleman, Ross was praised by his colleagues in local government for his com-munity involvement, environ-mental concern and support of government transparency.

According to Sax, one of the first laws passed during Ross’ tenure as mayor was a tree preservation ordinance that was enacted in response to the heavy-handed removal of several trees in parts of Rye.

Beth Griffin Matthews, a Democrat who was elected to the council the same year as Ross, said that the former mayor will be remembered for his commitment to openness in government. Matthews said Ross frequently invited resi-dents to provide their input in the council’s decision-making process. During the 1980s, before the convenience of Ry-eTV and email lists, Ross set up a public notification sys-

tem in the form of a newslet-ter where residents would re-ceive alerts if any legislation or public hearings involved their neighborhood, according to Matthews.

“He was always open to having people address the council, hearing what was on people’s minds,” Matthews said. “He was very good at dif-fusing tension, particularly if there were strong feelings.”

Democratic state Assem-blyman Steve Otis, a former mayor who served three terms after Ross beginning in 1998, said he was an even-tempered, intelligent and thoughtful leader. Otis, who served on the city’s Conservation Commis-sion while Ross was mayor, said Ross was responsible for passing an environmental law that was the first of its kind in the state.

In 1991, Ross and the City Council passed a wetlands and watercourse protection law that assured that any activity involving the waters of Rye would meet city regulations.

“Warren [Ross] always treated everyone with re-spect and represented Rye in a manner that we could all be proud,” Otis said.

Outside of local govern-ment, Ross was a highly-ac-complished figure in the medi-cal marketing and advertising field. He was inducted into the

Medical Advertising Hall of Fame in 2001 for his accom-plishments within a medical advertising company he co-founded, Kallir Philips Ross, KPR, in 1962. While running the day-to-day operations of KPR, Ross was credited with Tylenol’s widespread success stemming from his advertis-ing campaign in 1964. While aspirin dominated the mar-ket at the time, Ross cleverly designed media and ads that focused on the undesirable or hazardous negatives of aspirin and promoted the alternative of acetaminophen, commonly known as Tylenol.

With a life packed full of achievements, Ross was also a dedicated member of the Unitarian Church in White Plains and authored an ac-count of how the Unitarian Universalist Association came to be in “The Premise and The Promise.”

Despite having so many responsibilities in his profes-sional life, Ross was a caring husband and devoted father and grandfather, according to members of his family.

Johanna, one of Ross’ daughters, said he was an un-failingly supportive father all throughout her life. “He want-ed to foster anything that I was passionate about,” she said. “He would research some-thing just so he could talk to

Unlike the rest of the photography headshots of former mayors in the Rye City Council chambers, Warren Ross’ memory lives on in City Hall with a hand-drawn portrait instead. Photo/Jackson Chen

me about it.” Early in her professional

life, Johanna received praise and support from Ross for her decision to leave a stable posi-tion at The Economist and be-come a kindergarten teacher. She added that later on in her life when she wanted to switch careers again, this time to be-come a herbalist, Ross was still supportive, despite some disapproval.

“He was the smartest person I ever knew,” said Catherine, another one of Ross’ daugh-

ter. “He was an old-fashioned intellectual…he always taught us to think critically.”

According to Catherine and her partner John, dinners at the Ross household would feel like graduate seminars at Yale. Catherine added that Ross always felt that educa-tion was a priority. The former mayor and his wife originally moved to Rye in 1965 for the schools.

Now 50 years since his first arrival in town, Ross has left a strong impression in the lives

of many. “He was the right mayor

for the job and was able to steer the community in a time where there were a number of concerns about open space and land use,” Griffins said. “I was really honored to have served with him.”

Ross is survived by his wife, his two daughters, his son-in-law, Bob Caser, and two grandchildren, Allison and Jason.

CONTACT: [email protected]


What’s going on...

Thursday, Feb. 26 at noon: Chinese New Year lunch at local restaurant arranged by SPRYE member Frank Woo. $20

The sing along that was supposed to be held on Sunday, Feb. 8 has been changed to Sun-day, Feb. 15, from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Please make sure you say that all those interested in attending must rsvp to 481-5706.

The mission of SPRYE is to enable adults who are 60 and older in the communities of Harrison, Port Chester, Rye and Rye Brook to live in their own homes as long as possi-ble while remaining actively engaged in the communities they love. We accomplish this by providing access to essential services, ameni-ties and neighborly assistance.

Rye Recreation“Dodge Ball Night”

Friday, Feb. 27 Grades 5 to 6 from 6 p.m.

to 7:30 p.m.Grades 7 to 8 from 7:30

p.m. to 9 p.m. Program site: Osborn School gym

The fee is $20 and pre-registration is required.

Join Rye Recreation staff for an awesome night of dodge ball. They will be playing and teaching several variations of this great game in-cluding team dodge ball, Dr. Dodge ball, Rescue ball and Bombardment. Don’t miss your chace to learn and play this classic game.

Space is limited.

Rye Historical Society

Saturday, April 25Time: 1 p.m.-2:30 p.m.

Annual GalaDetails TBA.Saturday, April 25Time: 1p.m.-2:30 p.m.

“Women lost to history”History luncheon with Allison Pataki. Women

lost to history will take place on Thursday, March 5. The Rye Historical Society will host its annual history luncheon from noon until 2:30 p.m. at the American Yacht Club located at 500 Stuyvesant Ave., in Rye. This year’s luncheon features a fas-cinating presentation by Pataki, author of the New York Times best-selling and critically-acclaimed historical novel “The Traitor’s Wife.” Pataki’s new novel, “The Accidental Empress,” tells the little-known love and life story of Empress Elisa-beth in the Habsburg Empire.

Luncheon tickets are $65 per person for so-ciety members: $70 for non-members. Reserva-tions can be made by calling the Rye Historical Society at 967-7588 or visiting ryehistory.org. Specialty boutique shopping will be available at 11:15 a.m. Lunch starts at noon and the presenta-tion will begin at 1:15 p.m. Vendors will re-open following lunch.

The Rye Historical Society office and its Square House Museum are located at 1 Pur-chase St. in Rye and are open Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more informa-tion, please call 967-7588 or visit the website at ryehistory.org.

Wainwright House events

A consumer’s guide to a green energy Efficient Home with Judy Martin, found-

er and principal of Green Home Consulting. A new topic each Friday through March 13. No topic on Feb. 20 due to a vacation week. Topic 3: Indoor air quality and low chemi-cal exposures – Friday, Feb. 27, 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., $10. Educate yourself on how to live green. Information at wainwright.org.

The Illuminated Heart: Sufi practices

For awakening with Sharifa Felicia Norton and Muinuddin Charles Smit; Saturday, Feb. 14 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. We will focus on inten-tion and the Sufi science of activating subtle dimensions of the heart. Practitioners will use breath and light, mystical relaxation and insight into ways of living most fully in our “natural state,” our true being. Ecstatic Sufi poetry and teaching stories will enrich this deep experience of the awakening of our hearts and the discov-ery of our soul’s true freedom and joy. $54 for members, $60 for non-members. Go online at wainwright.org.

Hypnosis weight-loss workshop with Janioce Matturro

The subconscious mind is the other part of the equation to successful weight loss and it ex-erts an even more powerful influence on your everyday weight loss efforts than the conscious

mind. Join our workshop to discover and expe-rience the power of your subconscious mind to achieve weight loss success. Complementary weight loss CD/MP3 included. Saturday, Feb. 21 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. $68 for members; $74 for non-members.

Author series: 1st lecture and book-signing

Live and let live: How multidimensional col-laboration heals ecosystems with Dr. Conroy and Ms. Basia Alexander. Learn how people can collaborate with all living beings to restore eco-logical health, foster dynamic balance and re-new hope for a livable world. Their Institute for Cooperative BioBalance leads the way to solve humanity’s challenge: thrive sustainability while in partnership with nature. Breakthroughs gal-vanize people to live healthy, secure, prosper-ous lives as enlightened stewards of earth. Sat-urday, Feb. 21. 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. $25 for members; $28 for non-members. Price includes book. Register at wainwright.org.

Blood supplies low

Since the beginning of the year, dozens of American Red Cross blood drives were can-celed due to inclement weather in parts of the country. In addition, widespread flu has kept some regular blood donors from donating. The Red Cross asks that healthy individuals help ensure a sufficient and diverse blood supply by giving blood.

Upcoming blood donation opportunities:

Rye:Feb. 28, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Rye YMCA,

21 Locust Ave.

Harrison:Feb. 26, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Harrison High

School, 255 Union Ave.

Westchester Jewish Adult EducationWarm your mind in the cold winter months,

by joining Westchester Jewish Adult Education for one or more of these exciting classes:

“History of Judaism in America”Five Thursday mornings beginning on Feb.

26, at the Temple Israel Center in White Plains.

The Book of Ruth and Song of SongsTwo Wednesday evenings beginning

March 18, at 800 Westchester Ave., 5th floor boardroom in Rye Brook.

“Jewish cooking: Passover dinner”Tuesday, March 10, at 10 a.m., private home

in Harrison. A program of the Westchester Jewish Council, provides exciting opportunities for lifelong learning.

For more information or registration, visit the Westchester Jewish Council online at waje.org, or call Alice Tenney, director, at 328-7001 ext. 704.

SPRYE events

Deadline for our What’s Going On section is every Thursday at 3 p.m. Though space is not guaranteed, we will do our best to accommodate your listing. Please send

all items to [email protected].

Children’s Program: Irish dancingCome see the O’Rourke Irish Dancers perform

at the Square House! Learn about the history and traditions behind Irish dance and costume. Re-freshments will be served. All ages welcome.

Saturday, Feb. 28Time: 1 p.m.-2 p.m.$15 per child; half of the proceeds will go to

the O’Rourke Irish Dance Foundation.

Children’s Program: Spring Vacation Workshops

Details TBA.Tuesday, March 31-Thursday, April 210 a.m.-12 p.m.Children’s ProgramDetails TBA.


But Baker said, in lower West-chester environments such as Rye, the hunting should be er-ratic and limited to one day a week so the deer don’t adapt to the hunting routines. Baker suggested using just two or three marksman bow hunters in those types of settings.

“In a southern park, the hunting would be very limited and the hunters would be very skilled, so you don’t have the issue of a wounded deer going into a surrounding neighbor-hood or surrounding streets,” Baker said.

Immuno-contraception pro-grams have also been a point of discussion as an alternative to hunting, but Baker said, be-cause of the high costs of the program, it’s not yet available to the county department over-seeing the deer issue.

Dan Lemons, chairman of the CUNY’s Animal Care & Use program who has been involved in the immuno-con-traception program for the past two years, said Hastings-on-Hudson is trying the im-muno-contraception program as an experiment because

DEER from page 1

the population of the vil-lage is too dense to hunt the deer. Lemons is a resident of Hastings-on-Hudson.

Lemons said, in addi-tion to immunizing does, the Hastings-on-Hudson immuno-contraception program is also looking at the metrics of what deer are doing and the acci-dents in the area.

“We may have immu-nized some does,” Lemons said, “but if we don’t budget those metrics after four or five years and don’t see changes in

accidents and vegetative dam-age, we are going to have to say this isn’t working.”

At the local levels, elected and appointed officials from the City of Rye, Village of Mamaroneck and Town of Harrison will meet in Rye City Hall on Feb. 25 to discuss options.

County Legislator Cath-erine Parker, a Rye Democrat, could not be reached for com-ment as of press time.


Westchester County is looking into establishing a deer management program similar to the one that’s been implemented in Northern Westchester, for places like Rye, Mamaroneck and Harrison.

On Feb. 25, a deer summit will be held at Rye City Hall, pictured. The summit will include officials from the City of Rye, Village of Mamaroneck, Town of Harrison and Westchester County, to discuss options to combat a growing deer population in the area. File photos

Publisher | Howard Sturmanext. 21, [email protected]

Editor-in-Chief | Christian Falconeext. 19, [email protected]

Sports Editor | Mike Smithext. 22, [email protected]

Reporter | Chris Eberhartext. 26, [email protected]

Reporter | Jackson Chenext. 23, [email protected]

Reporter | Marissa Pennext. 17, [email protected]

Editorial Assistant | Laura Romeroext. 25, [email protected]

Graphic Designer | Arthur Gedin

Graphic Designer | Jim Grasso

Advertising | Lindsay Sturmanext. 14, [email protected]

Advertising Coordinator | Marcia Schultzext. 27, [email protected]

Staff WritersJohn Brandi, Alina Suriel

Staff PhotographerBobby Begun

ContributorsPeter Lane, Rich Monetti,

Christopher Petrowski

ColumnistsJohn Carey, Laura Slack

Paul Bookbinder, Rye City Council

LettersThe community’s opinion matters.

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THE

REVIEWRyeCity


Firefighter fans kitchen flames

RECIPE:ROPA VIEJA

Serves 3 to 4 people

1 FLANK STEAK CUT UP INTO THIRDS

1 ONION, PEELED AND SLICED

2 GARLIC CLOVES, CHOPPED

3 BELL PEPPERS, STEMMED, SEEDED

AND SLICED BUNCH OF CILANTRO

RED WINE VINEGAR

LARGE CAN OF TOMATO SAUCE

SMALL CAN OF LOW SODIUM BEEF BROTH

CUMIN

SALT

PEPPER

OLIVE OIL

RICE, COOKED ACCORDING TO PACKAGE

Season steak with salt and pepper.In a large dutch oven or pot, heat a few “glugs” of olive oil

over medium-high heat.When the oil just starts to smoke, brown the steak in

batches on all sides and set aside on a plate. Add the on-ions to the pot, season with a pinch of salt. When onions are translucent add the peppers and garlic to the pot. When garlic just starts to brown, pour in a few splashes of red wine vinegar to deglaze the bottom of the pan, scraping any brown bits stuck to the bottom.

Add the tomato sauce to the pan and season with salt, pepper and cumin to taste.

Return the steak to the pan and just enough beef broth to cover. Cover the pot and simmer for 2 to 3 hours or until the steak is fork tender.

When the steak is done, remove to a bowl and shred. Return the steak back to the pot and simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes to thicken the sauce up a little.

Serve over rice and garnish with cilantro.

By AlINA SuRIElStaff Writer

Arthur Joseph Fusco is both a firefighter and an amateur chef.

Fusco has been one of Har-rison’s bravest since 2005, and is also the cook who stirs the pot behind forkandhoseco.com, a cooking website in which he shares his own reci-pes as well as recipes sent in by firefighters all over the world.

Fusco, 31, began crafting his art for cooking in the firehouse of Local 2245, located at 206 Harrison Ave. He said much of life in any fire company re-volves around the kitchen ta-ble. Fusco, a fourth generation Harrison resident, works two, 24-hour shifts, or tours, per week. The firefighters in his crew start each tour by talking together around their kitchen table, getting news on the pre-vious shift and sharing life tips such as how to build a house or change the oil on your car.

“I saw right away the im-portance of the kitchen table and then I realized the cama-raderie of when you cook to-gether.” Fusco said. “Every-one’s got their own skill.”

According to Fusco, it’s quite common for firefighters to cook together, so much so that, it has become part of the culture of their profession. He started his website as a blog to share his own recipes after realizing how much attention firefighters garner during joint trips to the supermarket to buy ingredients for their meals for the day. It has since expanded into a way

for him to connect with rescue workers in firehouses around the world. He received some of his earliest recipe submissions from his own friends who were also local firefighters, but some of the entries on his site today have come from as far away as Australia.

Fusco’s preference is bar-beque and anything with a rus-tic flavor and this style of cui-sine is prominently featured on Fusco’s site.

Since launching Instagram and Facebook profiles for Fork and Hose Co., he has enjoyed an unexpected explosion in ex-posure with 2,122 Instagram followers and 1,166 more on Facebook. Many of those in his audience are not just fire-fighters, but also civilians who want to eat like heroes.

“I think it’s a combination of people being curious and then a lot of people just want recipes that are firefighter ap-proved,” Fusco said.

Frank Tesoro, a Harrison firefighter in his 25th year on the job, has tasted Fusco’s cooking although they are not normally in the same crew. Tesoro, said he has noticed the younger firefighter constantly trying to improve his culi-nary skills since the beginning of his time in Local 2245, 10 years ago, and that he himself visits Fusco’s website to see which meals are featured.

“He has a desire to go a lit-tle bit farther than what the av-erage meal would be,” Tesoro said. “He’s quite creative.”

As part of Fusco’s outreach, he works with charitable orga-nizations aiming to improve awareness about the impor-tance of fitness in the firefight-

ing profession. Every Friday on his site, he posts workouts and exercise tips from 555 Firefighter Fitness, Inc., a non-profit founded to help reduce the amount of on-duty deaths in the fire service. The non-profit provides daily workouts geared towards the physical demands of firefighting, and, as part of its partnership with Fusco, every Monday, a fea-tured recipe from Fork and Hose Co., is shared on its Facebook page.

According to 555 Firefight-er Fitness, approximately 50 percent of firefighter fatali-ties are due to cardiac related injuries.

Rob Piparo, a lieutenant of the City of New Brunswick’s fire company and co-founder of the fitness organization, said that Fusco fit well with their overall mission because he is interested in spreading information without making a profit from what he does.

“That’s what this whole thing is about,” Piparo said, “sharing information with fire-fighters across the country.”


One of A.J. Fusco’s dishes, Ropa Vieja. Photo courtesy A.J. Fusco

A.J. Fusco uses his cooking website to connect with firefighters from as far away as Australia about healthy eating and recipe tips. Photo courtesy Don Dearborn

Fork and Hose Co., is a website that aims to provide information to firefighters interested in healthy eating and exercise tips. Photo courtesy A.J. Fusco

A.J. Fusco has been a Harrison firefighter since 2005, having learned his skills in the kitchen while in the firehouse. Photo courtesy Don Dearborn


Man found dead on train tracksMTA police are investigat-

ing a dead body found on the Metro-North railroad tracks in Rye on the morning of Feb.13.

According to the MTA, a 6:56 a.m. a New Haven Metro-North train out of Stamford, Conn., and headed for Grand Central terminal reported see-ing a deceased individual on the tracks at 7:23 a.m. while passing through the Locust Avenue area of Rye. The train’s conductor stopped the train and made a reverse move in order to be rerouted.

The body of an African-American male was located by MTA police, who are investigat-ing whether he was struck by a train. This week, the man was identified as William Joseph, 27, of Far Rockaway, N.Y.

As a result of the investiga-tion, one track, the inbound lo-cal, was closed to train traffic until 10:25 a.m., which caused delays of 20 to 30 minutes. Congestion on the main New Haven line also impacted the smaller New Canaan and Dan-bury branches, which are part of the New Haven line and run

adjacent to it.This incident came just two

weeks after six people were killed when a Metro-North Harlem line train headed to Chappaqua collided with an SUV on the tracks in Valhalla.

The Rye Police Department

has not been involved in the in-vestigation, according to Rye Lt. Scott Craig.

Aaron Donovan, an MTA spokesman, could not be reached for comment as of press time.-Reporting by Marissa Penn

A man was found dead on Friday, Feb. 13 on the train tracks in Rye. MTA police are investigating the incident. File photo

State to decide if county gets HUD fundingBy CHRIS EBERHART

Staff Writer

The fine print of last week’s agreement between the gover-nor and area congresswoman will force Westchester mu-nicipalities to prove they’re providing low-income hous-ing opportunities in order to receive previously lost federal funding.

On Feb. 9, New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Dem-ocrat, and U.S. Congresswom-an Nita Lowey, a Democrat, announced an agreement that would provide eligible West-chester municipalities with a portion of $23 million worth of federal funding that was lost as part of an ongoing feud be-tween the Westchester County executive and U.S. Depart-ment of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, over implementation of the 2009 affordable housing settlement.

As part of the agreement between Cuomo and Lowey, $3.3 million in 2015 commu-nity development block grant money from HUD, along with an additional $1.5 mil-lion in state programs, will be funneled through the state, rather than the county, which the federal funding typically is disbursed to, before being disbursed to 31 eligible West-chester municipalities identi-fied in the 2009 settlement.

But, according to two fed-eral analyses—the Huntington and Berenson reports, which determine if there is exclu-sionary zoning in a given area based on racial and socio-eon-omic factors, respectively—10 different municipalities have exclusionary zoning and are not in compliance with the na-tional Affordable Housing Act. Three of which were named in both reports.

Since the first report was released, the Town of Mama-roneck altered its zoning and was taken off the list of exclu-sionary zoning municipalities, and Ossining and Pound Ridge are close to doing the same.

Holly Leicht, a HUD regional

administrator, said there is lan-guage in the Cuomo/Lowey agreement that will preclude municipalities deemed as not being in compliance with the Affordable Housing Act from receiving federal grant money.

Instead of using the Hun-tington and Berenson reports as the standards, the state will determine if the munici-pality is in compliance on a case-by-case basis based on a set of state-imposed criteria. Leicht said the exact language of such criteria is still being fi-nalized between HUD and the governor’s office.

“It’s a small distinction but an important one,” Leicht said. “By doing it this way, the mu-nicipalities that are in compli-ance will receive their fund-ing and won’t be hurt by the municipalities that aren’t in compliance. And the ones that aren’t in compliance won’t be able to circumvent the Afford-able Housing law.”

During a phone press con-ference after the Feb. 9 an-nouncement, Westchester Co- unty Legislator John Testa, a Cortlandt Republican and mi-nority leader, was weary of the “fine print” of applying to these grants.

“For the funding you’re

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said the agreement between the governor and congresswoman does not preclude Westchester municipalities from being in compliance with the national Affordable Housing Act. File Photo

going to get, the devil is in the details as to what you’re going to be required to per-form or what you’re going to have to do to participate in the program,” Testa said at the time. “And we’re finding out with the settlement, the rug was pulled out from under our communities by added re-quirements that were not part of the settlement. And they are going to be a little gun shy about participating.”

Testa has followed the lead of Republican Westchester County Executive Rob Astori-no, who maintains his opinion that there is no exclusionary zoning in Westchester, despite the federal analyses that say otherwise.

The Astorino administra-tion submitted eight analyses of impediments, which in-cludes the county’s version of the Huntington and Berenson tests, but all have been rejected by HUD.

The analyses of impedi-ments is one of the conditions of the housing settlement that was agreed to by HUD and for-mer Democratic County Exec-utive Andy Spano, along with constructed 750 affordable housing units by the end of 2016 and a completed source of income legislation that bans discrimination against poten-tial rents and home buyers based on their source of in-come. The county is on pace to reach the threshold for num-ber of units built by the dead-line and has already completed source of income legislation.

The analysis of impedi-ments remains the holdup.

The disagreement between Astorino and HUD has led to the loss of federal grant mon-ey totaling $23 million for the years 2011 through 2014. Those funds are lost to West-chester County and won’t be returning.

The Cuomo/Lowey agree-ment is designed to fund the county with a total of almost $5 million for 2015.



How we remember our presidents

When I was a boy, we cel-ebrated President Lincoln’s birthday on Feb. 12, the actual date of his birth; and we cele-brated President Washington’s birthday on Feb. 22, his actual date of birth. Of the two dates, the 22nd was the one more likely to be taken off from school or work.

Nowadays, you hardly hear either of these two presidents’ names mentioned in con-nection with their birthdays. Washington and Lincoln are squeezed together in the ano-nymity of a new, artificial holi-day/shopping day called Presi-dents’ Day, which fell on Feb. 16 this year; not because some president was born then but, because, it makes for a long weekend. No names; no his-toric figures memorialized, just

big-box stores bursting with shoppers seeking bargains.

With the cold weather we have experienced this winter, we could do worse than to cel-ebrate our first president by re-calling the suffering of his still-loyal troops at Valley Forge. It was the winter of 1777-1778. What was left of the Continen-tal Army after defeats at the battles of Brandywine and Ger-mantown withdrew to 20 miles from British-occupied Phila-delphia. The crown might have been able to put an end to the American Revolution that same winter, but armies then did not like to fight in cold weather.

If you have visited Valley Forge, you have seen replicas of the unheated wooden huts the men built for their shel-ter. You must have wondered where any kind of rations were found for thousands of starving, shivering Ameri-cans. You may have seen a famous picture of Washington

kneeling alone in the snow to seek divine intervention.

Not until February 1778 was there a glimmer of out-side encouragement.

It was then that a crucial military leader from Europe arrived in camp. He was the Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, who trained and organized the discouraged troops and remolded them into a fighting force.

Perhaps the luster of Wash-ington’s real birthday could be at least partially restored by a gathering of citizens who would do a march through the cold for a mile or more, fol-lowed by hot chocolate and marshmallows. The day now called Presidents’ Day could be re-named more accurately as Shoppers’ Bargain Day, leaving the names of presidents Wash-ington and Lincoln untarnished by acquisitive desire.


LIU/Bronxville announces teacher residencyIn 2013, LIU Hudson, en-

compassing Long Island Uni-versity’s Rockland and West-chester campuses, collaborated with the Bronxville Union Free School District to offer a high-ly desirable teacher residency program.

This competitive program provides a limited number of paid, clinically rich and inten-sive experiences to aspiring teachers while they complete graduate work in education. Bridging the gap between theo-ry and practice, the residencies facilitate the transition of highly talented students from novice to full-fledged professional. At completion, they are able, with confidence, to take on the chal-lenges of the classroom and make a positive impact on their students.

Candidates presenting ap-propriate academic credentials

and prepared to commence M.S.Ed. coursework in summer or fall 2015, undergo a screen-ing process in order to gain ad-mission to the September 2015 Teacher Residency cohort. Ap-pointments are awarded on a competitive basis.

Accepted LIU Hudson master’s degree candidates are granted one to two-year ap-pointments comprising a com-bination of immersive, class-room-based experiences that capitalize on the student’s talents and meet profession-al, academic and individual needs.

Teaching residents benefit from:

• Mentoring, supervision and support by a university-based field advisor and a school-based cooperating teacher

• Practical application of con-cepts learned in the classroom

• Seminars providing numer-ous networking opportunities

• An insider’s perspective on school culture, philosophy and operation

• Career-readying, on-site experiences with teachers and administrators

• A résumé-building, paid position

Teacher residency program applicants can apply to LIU Hudson at http://liu.edu/Hud-son/Admissions/Apply and to the teacher residency pro-gram at http://liu.edu/Hudson/About/News-Events/Press-Releases/2015/February/Bronxville-Teacher-Residency.

Register at bronxvilleschool.org/elementary/ for an onsite information session on March 24 at 3:30 p.m., at Bronx-ville Elementary School 177 Pondfield Road in Bronxville. (Submitted)

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Dec. 16, 2004, Ortiz wrote, “PO Rosace has this long standing reputation among the community’s youth that he is a tough guy and some have even felt his wrath.”

Ortiz suggested in that same report that, Rosace should un-dergo a psychological exami-nation and added that there should be an investigation of the officer’s behavior and re-cord of injuries to people he has been in contact with.

“There should not be a cloud of suspicion hanging over the [department] every-time Rosace has contact with youngsters and some kid al-ways ends up in the E/R,” Or-tiz wrote. “This officer has got anger issues that are quite ap-parent to most people on this job but no one wants to talk about it.”

In contrast to the first un-covered report, a second one, dated Dec. 17, 2004, was writ-ten by Ortiz in a more profes-sional tone and didn’t indicate accusations towards Rosace or any of the other officers in questsion.

According to court docu-ments, Rye Police Lt. Robert Falk found the first report dat-ed Dec. 16, 2004, in a sealed envelope that was addressed to him and marked “personal and confidential.” The second report, dated Dec. 17, 2004, Falk also recently located in a manila envelope. The lieu-tenant added that he found the reports when he was moving offices within the police de-partment in December of last year. Falk said he was house-cleaning when he stumbled upon the Ortiz reports housed in a cardboard file box.

According to court docu-ments, while being deposed Falk told attorneys for both sides that in his 23 years in his previous office, several amounts of files had built up.

As a result of the new evi-dence, Caspi’s attorneys, James Timko and Christopher Weddle, have made a motion to drag the city and the po-lice department back into the lawsuit.

In a letter to U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, who is pre-siding over the case, Caspi’s attorneys said “the documents provide clear evidence that defendant Rosace had a his-tory of unnecessarily injuring youth, that no investigations

CASPI from page 1

The trial date for the police brutality case of Andrew Caspi, pictured, against three officers of the Rye Police Department was recently delayed after the discovery of reports from a sergeant in 2004. Caspi is seeking $10 million in his civil rights lawsuit after sustaining a broken bone under his eye, loose teeth and an injury to his collarbone in a 2004 incident with police. Photo courtesy Facebook

were conducted into those in-jures and that city defendants’ professed ignorance of any problems with defendant Ro-sace were false.”

In the discovery of these re-ports, the attorneys in the case felt it was necessary to de-pose Ortiz. The sergeant was never deposed since his re-ports hadn’t previously come to light.

Ortiz retired from the Rye police force in 2007 and moved to Florida, where he now works as a court officer in the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.

According to Rosace’s lawyer, Anthony Piscionere, Ortiz was deposed on Jan. 31 in Weston, Fla., by Caspi’s attorney, Timko, and Piscio-nere. Darius Chafizadeh, who is representing the city and Ortiz, and Brian Murphy, who is representing officer Anfuso, sat in on the proceeding. At-torney Andrew Quinn, who is representing Campagnone, phoned in to the deposition.

When asked about the de-position, Piscionere said, Ortiz regretted writing some por-tions of the letter.

“Sergeant Ortiz indicated that there are portions of what he wrote in there that were not completely accurate,” Piscio-nere said.

In that deposition, which was obtained by the Review, Ortiz said that the first supple-mentary report dated Dec. 16,

2004, was meant to only be received by Falk. The other re-port, dated one day later, was to serve as a supervisor’s ac-count of the incident involving Caspi and the three officers.

In his deposition, Ortiz said he didn’t see any punches or kicks aimed at Caspi from the officers when he arrived at the scene shortly after Caspi was stopped by the three officers.

When asked about the force the officers used on Caspi, Or-tiz said, “the force that I ob-served was the young man being restrained, handcuffed, walked to a police car and taken to headquarters, and from all appearances, it seemed like it was done the right way. It didn’t seem to me like anyone was in-tentionally assaulting him.”

However, during his depo-sition, Ortiz said he witnessed the three officers forcefully putting Caspi’s arms behind his back and that there was blood immediately after Caspi hit the ground during the ar-rest. Ortiz added that he called for emergency medical ser-vices because of the amount of blood on Caspi’s face during the arrest.

Ortiz said he wasn’t clear as to why Caspi was being arrested.

Ortiz also said of his Dec. 16, 2004, report, “I wrote it in such a way that if you’re look-ing at it ten years later and out of context you know, maybe I shouldn’t have written it that way.”

Ortiz added that as a super-visor, he was very annoyed about the incident and Rosace, but had not personally wit-nessed Rosace assaulting any-body in the past.

With Ortiz’s deposition now part of the case, Caspi’s lawyers are waiting for a deci-sion from the judge of whether the previous defendants will be re-entered into the lawsuit.

Rakoff has since postponed the trial until April 6.

Without the case having even reached the trial phase yet, the city has already spent close to $500,000 on legal and court fees, to date, according to documents obtained by the Review.

Chafizadeh, an attorney rep-resenting the city, declined comment.

Rye Mayor Joe Sack and Lt. Falk also declined comment.




Business Briefs

NYPA adds senior VP just as they would in a family setting. “We are thrilled to see this longstanding

dream of opening an intergenerational center in lower Westchester become a reality,” FSW’s president and CEO, Susan Wayne said. “This is a tremendous milestone not only for FSW, but for all the community members who can now take advantage of this unique programming.”

The Lanza Family Center for All Ages is named for Patricia Lanza who generously pro-vided a $1 million challenge grant that enabled FSW to embark on this project. Thanks to the enthusiastic response of many generous donors, FSW was able to meet this challenge, purchase a property in White Plains, and renovate the existing building to create a warm and inviting new center that will meet the needs of a diverse group of participants—older adults, young chil-dren and teens.

“We are so grateful to the donors who shared our vision and enabled us to reach this moment,” director of special projects who spearheaded FSW’s fundraising efforts, Lynn Green said. “We also appreciate the support we have received from the City of White Plains, which has enthusiastically welcomed us to the community.”

The building will be comprised of two wings, The Marjorie and Richard Dammann Youth Wing named after the founders of FSW and The Sperling Family Adult Wing. Programming at the center will include adult day services with caregiver support, early childhood education and a home base for FSW’s many youth devel-opment programs. Importantly, the center will include space where the diverse age groups can come together.

Participants will interact during planned in-tergenerational activities as well as through in-formal encounters throughout the day. Together, children, teens and older adults will enjoy gar-dening, sharing meals, singing songs, cooking side-by-side, and participating in special events that allow them to break down age barriers and form lasting impressions.

For more information about the Lanza Fam-ily Center for All Ages, or to make an appoint-ment to see the flagship facility, contact Lynn Halpern, director for communications and de-velopment outreach.

FSW was founded in 1954 and runs more than 50 social service and mental health pro-grams for all ages, including adoption, head/start/early head start, adult and youth residences and veterans outreach and support. Please visit fsw.org for more information.

Pelham Picture House announces new board officers

The Picture House Regional Film Center announced an anniversary, a change in board leadership and the naming of a new organiza-tion president following the meeting of the Ex-ecutive Committee of the Board on Feb. 9. The transition began with a unanimous vote for the new officers at the full meeting of the board in December and continued at a celebration later that month at the home of James Palmisciano, the new chair of the Board of Directors.

At the meeting, the outgoing board members and founders of the organization, Kathy Cor-

ton, Tom Peer and Ann Sorice, as well as Chair Emeritus John Calvel-li and longtime board members Thomas Can-ning and Dale Hisiger were toasted, applaud-ed and given director’s chairs emblazoned with their names and the Picture House logo.

“I am deeply honored to be stewarding this incredible organization into its second decade,” chair-elect Palmisciano said.

Palmisciano is the chairman and chief in-vestment officer of Gracie Asset Management. Brian Eccleston, newly elected treasurer for The Picture House, is northeast assurance managing partner at BDO U.S.A. Ellen Chandler was re-elected as board vice chair, as was Tracie Cohen as secretary. Laura deBuys, executive director of The Picture House since January 2014, was named president of the organization.

The Picture House will celebrate its 10th birthday as a nonprofit organization at events throughout the year and at The 10th, a festive mid-May birthday party for the organization honoring co-founder Ann Sorice.

Since 1921, The Picture House has served as a cultural center and community hub and is the oldest, continuously running movie theater in Westchester County. Today, after an extensive renovation and the addition of state of the art technology, The Picture House shows the best in new, independent and classic cinema and pro-vides students of all ages with the opportunity to learn about the art, science and business of film.

In a world where you can carry a movie screen in your pocket, The Picture House pre-serves the sense of community, wonder and engagement that has existed since the forma-tion of the first theaters. The Picture House is located at 175 Wolfs Lane in Pelham, thepic-turehouse.org, [email protected], via phone at 738-3161. The Picture House is a com-munity-based, mission-driven, nonprofit 501(c) (3) organization.

Westmed receives national recognition for cancer care

WESTMED Medical Group has been recognized by the Quality Oncology Practice Ini-tiative Certification Program, an affiliate of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. This is a three-year certification for outpatient hematology-oncology practices that meet the highest standards for quality cancer care.

“WESTMED is the only oncology prac-tice in Westchester County with QOPI Certification.“This means that WESTMED is in an elite group of outpatient oncology practices, signaling our strong commitment of quality to patients and to our referring physicians,” WEST-MED Oncologist Dr. Stuart Feldman said.

WESTMED voluntarily chose to participate in the QOPI certification process, which was designed by ASCO to measure the quality of care that oncology practices provide to their pa-tients. To become certified, medical practices are evaluated to determine whether they meet core standards in all areas of treatment, including treatment planning, staff training and education, chemotherapy orders and drug preparation, pa-tient consent and education, safe chemotherapy administration, monitoring and assessment of patient well-being.

ASCO is the world’s leading professional organization representing physicians who care for people with cancer. WESTMED Practice Parners is located at 2700 Westchester Ave., in-Purchase. Contact via phone at 681-5282 or go online at westmedpartners.com.

The next Business Briefs section will run in February. Please send any submis-

sion for our February edition to [email protected]. Each submission may

include one picture. If you have any ques-tions, email Editorial Assistant Laura

Romero at [email protected].

Kristine Pizzo, formerly an executive at Co-lumbia University, has joined the New York Power Authority, NYPA, as senior vice presi-dent of Human Resources.

Pizzo will oversee all employee benefits, programs, services and talent development at the Power Authority, which has 1,700 employ-ees in New York State, including 600 at its ad-ministrative headquarters in White Plains.

“We have a diverse mix of employees from the Canadian border to eastern Long Island and ensuring they all have the proper benefits and training is a complex task.” said NYPA president and CEO, Gil Quiniones said.

Pizzo, a resident of Eastchester, was pre-viously chief of administration at Columbia University where she led several key depart-ments including human resources, finance, marketing, communications and information technology. She had previously been the ex-ecutive vice president of human resources and chief administrative officer at the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

Pizzo has also worked in managerial roles in human resources at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the United States Olympic Committee, and was a judicial fellow at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

She has a bachelor’s degree from St. John’s University and a law degree from the Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law School at Touro College.

“NYPA has already established itself as a leader in the utility industry when it comes to providing a comprehensive array of benefits and programs for its employees,” Pizzo said. “I’m excited to build on that already robust foundation.”

NYPA is the nation’s largest state power or-ganization, with 16 generating facilities and more than 1,400 circuit-miles of transmission lines. Its low-cost power supports hundreds of thousands of jobs statewide while reducing costs for the public sector.

NYPA uses no tax money or state credit. It fi-nances its operations through the sale of bonds and revenues earned in large part through sales of electricity. NYPA has been designated as the lead entity via Executive Order 88 by Gov. An-drew M. Cuomo to form a central management and implementation plan to carry out his Build Smart N.Y. plan to reduce energy used by state facilities by 20 percent by 2020.

Family Services of Westchester opens Lanza Family Center

Family Services of Westchester, FSW, cel-ebrated the opening of the Lanza Family Center for All Ages in White Plains, on Tuesday, Feb. 24, with a ribbon cutting ceremony. The cen-ter, modeled after My Second Home, FSW’s award-winning Intergenerational program in Mt. Kisco, will bring children, teens and seniors together at one site to participate in programs, share experiences and benefit from one another,


Six ways to beat camp homesicknessFuture stars summer campsPreparing for campTips for campers (and Parents!)

Lifestyles of Westchester County/February 2015 VoL.16 No.111

INSIDE WESTCHESTER COUNTYINSID

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Six ways to beat camp homesickness

By MARI-JANE wIllIAMS

Worried about your child getting homesick at summer camp? There are ways to ease separation anxiety so it will be smooth sailing.

When Peg Smith went to sleepaway camp for the first time when she was about 10 years old, she was wracked with separation anxiety. Smith missed home so much that she was almost physically ill, and had to leave. When her friends came back full of sto-ries about their fun adventures, Smith immediately regretted bailing on the experience and felt like she had missed out on something really special.

So the following summer, she went back. She got home-sick again, but fought through it. Smith, who is now the CEO for the American Camp Association, is glad she did.

“Homesickness is natural,” Smith said. “But it’s not fatal.”

About 10 percent of chil-dren will experience separa-tion anxiety at sleepaway camp, Smith said. For about 6 percent of kids, the anxi-ety will be severe enough that camp staff will have to call their parents. It’s normal for kids to be afraid of the unknown and to miss home, Smith said. But if they can stick it out, they will not only have that camp experience, they will learn how to be more independent and work through problems.

“Staffs are trained around homesickness, how to spot

it and keep kids busy and engage them and make sure they’re informed about what’s going to happen,” Smith said, noting that sometimes a child’s anxiety stems from not knowing what to expect. Counselors are trained to notice when a child seems sad or quiet, and reach out to him, acknowledge the feel-ings and then distract him, Smith said.

“Once the child gets dis-tracted and busy, most of the time they are feeling okay,” Smith said. “That doesn’t mean they won’t feel the homesick-ness again, but they learn how to take care of it or at least re-alize that they’re not going to feel this way for very long.”

So if, in addition to the standard pre-camp lectures about changing underwear daily, eating at least some vegetables and wearing sun-screen, you find yourself talk-ing about the homesick blues, don’t despair. It’s normal and, most of the time, surmount-able. Here are suggestions on how to prevent or beat back separation anxiety when your child heads off to camp this summer.

Let the child help choose the camp. The most successful camp experiences are the ones where the child and parent se-lect the camp together, Smith said. If he feels as if he’s had some input and control in the decision, he’s more likely to want to stick it out.

Practice sleeping away. Have your child sleep over at

the home of a friend or rela-tive so that camp is not her first night away from home, Smith said.

Emphasize the positive. Talk about what a great op-portunity it will be to see and do new things, and make new friends, and tell your child you can’t wait to hear all about it, Smith said. In the course of the conversation, acknowledge that new things can be difficult at first, but that she’s good at learning new things. If she ex-presses concern about getting homesick, tell her the counsel-ors are there to help.

Take something from home. Have your child pack a fa-vorite stuffed animal or book, or a family picture that she can hold or look at if she gets lonely for home.

Keep the lid on your own anxiety. It’s fine to feel ner-vous or sad about your child going away to camp, Smith said, but don’t talk to the child about those feelings. Discuss them with your spouse or a friend, instead, so your child isn’t burdened with worrying about you being lonely while he is away.

Don’t plant seeds of doubt. Never, never tell your child that if she gets sad or upset or homesick he can call you and you will come get him, Smith said. That sends the subliminal message that you don’t expect him to have a good time. In-stead, talk to the camp coun-selor or director about what they will do if your child is homesick. (Submitted)


Future Stars Summer Camps

For more than 30 years, Future Stars has been provid-ing families in Westches-ter, Manhattan and Long Island with the finest, most comprehensive, specialty day camp programs in the New York Metropolitan area. The campsite they have chosen at SUNY Purchase College is exceptionally suited to meet the diverse requirements of the camp day. Their staff is com-prised of certified high school/college coaches and educators, all of whom are highly trained in their area of expertise.

In summer 2015, they will be operating weekly special-ized day camp programs for

ages 4 to16. Starting June 22, offerings include tennis, soccer, basketball, baseball, lacrosse, football, multi-sports, field hockey, horseback riding, swim, Rising Stars, children entering K to 1,, cheerleading, volleyball, circus arts, magic, softball, diving, S.T.E.M. Edu-cation and academic. Children will have supervised swim-ming every day (instructional swim for Rising Stars). Door to door transportation is available.

Their camp philosophy is to provide every camper with a fun, safe and disciplined environment in which they feel comfortable and secure. Through their limited enroll-

ment policy, they get to know all campers and address their individual needs. All of the programs are led by a highly trained team of professionals who are carefully chosen to ensure each camper’s safety, skill development and indi-vidual enjoyment. Kids ben-efit from concentrated drilling and personalized instruction designed to inspire individu-als to pursue excellence while having fun.

Play with confidence, en-thusiasm, and a genuine love of the game with Future Stars. For more information, call 273-8500 or visit fscamps.com. (Submitted)


Preparing for Camp: Tips for Campers (and Parents!)

By BROOKE CHElEy-KlEBE

I love those rare moments of parenthood when I am not preparing for the next thing. Most of the time as a par-ent, I feel as if my day is full of getting something ready. Small things like breakfast, sack lunches, and backpacks. Big things like preparing my children to become productive adults. Our job as a parent is to prep!

It’s spring, and summer camp is on the horizon. Here are some things that you can do to prepare your camper and yourself for camp.

CamperPlan several sleep overs.

Resist the urge to pack their bags for them or to check on them while there. If they have a phone, have them leave it at home. This is a good way to practice not having direct or constant contact.

Have them write a good ol’ letter to someone. You will thank me when you re-ceive a letter from camp!

Gear up physically. If you have purchased hiking boots, break them in with a long walk.

Especially for teenagers, have them take a mini-vaca-tion from their devices. A couple of hours or a weekend.

Have them write a state-ment for their social media pages. “Peace out Facebook, I won’t be sharing my day-by-days with you, I will be at camp.” Your teenager may not post that, but maybe some-

thing like it. Have them write down

their goals.Make a homesick plan:Homesickness isn’t en-

tirely bad. It’s great to love your home. It’s sometimes part of the process, and it’s a confidence booster when a camper gets through it.

Make a happy place plan and write it down. This is an amazing opportunity to learn a life skill. Today’s youth go to technology to escape, and studies show this increases their stress. Some ideas might be: taking 10 deep breaths, traveling to a happy place in your mind, packing a cer-tain stuffed animal, shooting hoops, or tossing a football. They are capable of this independence.

Your plan should NOT be, “Give it a couple of days and if you don’t like it, we will come get you.” This will set them up to give it a couple of days and knock the confi-dence right out of them.

Let your camper know what to expect with corre-spondence. You don’t need to write everyday, but let them know what to expect.

Yourself

You are giving your child an incredible gift. I cannot promise you that they won’t lose some socks, that they will love every meal or activity, and that they will adore every counselor. But you are prepar-ing them for college and be-yond; you are giving them the

freedom to gain confidence, independence, and leadership skills; and you are instilling in them that they can do it.

What do YOU want dur-ing their time at camp? Think about a vacation, time to orga-nize, time to have one-on-one time with your other children, or some “date nights” with your spouse or friends.

If you have apprehensions, work to resolve them. If you are worried that your camper is not going to know any-one, set up a pre-camp get-together. If you are worried about your camper’s medical needs, become friendly with the camp nurse. If you are anxious about their food aller-gies, talk to the camp’s head cook. Make a camper-sick plan for yourself. :) Make sure there is only excitement and optimism coming from you, and share your anxiety with another adult.

Pack self-addressed enve-lopes in their luggage.

Whether they are flying or driving, refrain from bawl-ing until they can’t see you. Take a deep breath, trust, and remind yourself that you are giving them an awesome gift.

Brooke Cheley-Klebe is the 4th generation to oper-ate Cheley Colorado Camps. She is the proud mom of three girls, Ellie, Kate, and Saman-tha, and loves being involved in the camp industry.

Photo courtesy of Cheley Colorado Camps, Estes Park, Colorado


Join a magical summer at Play Group Theatre

The Play Group Theatre has just entered its 20th year, and is celebrating five years in its beautiful home in downtown White Plains—a 20,000 square foot, fully air-conditioned state-of-the-art theatre complex, including two theatres, multiple re-hearsal studios, a scene shop and a costume shop. All that space is fully dedicated to children and teenagers and their pursuit of an authentic experience within the per-forming arts.

For young actors, The Play Group Theatre, PGT, offers the best in performing arts training and performance op-portunities. With a staff of 25 teaching artists, specializing in a variety of disciplines, PGT Summer Theatre pro-vides each student an immer-sive summer theatre experi-ence, guided by the principals of joyful collaboration and artistic integrity.

From Little Theatre, 4 to 6, to PGT Kids, 7 to 10, to the Young Actors Ensemble, 11 to 13, to Teen Conserva-tory, 14 to 18, to Design Tech Track, 12 to 17, and from a one-week Improv Workshop to the six-week MainStage cast, PGT Summer Theatre actors come together at a variety of stages in their cre-ative journey. No matter what brings you through PGT’s doors, what you will find there is an artistic haven—a creative home where you are chal-lenged to think creatively, to strive toward a higher level of artistry and to work within a group of dynamic, exception-al, emerging young artists in a collaborative environment.

PGT Summer Theatre is a conservatory style program, with half the day devoted to rehearsals, and half to a myriad of classes, including acting, dance, voice, Shake-speare, improv and more. A

trip to Broadway and a work-shop with Chicago City Lim-its are just some of the special events that round out the PGT summer experience. The PGT staff are professionals in the field and dedicated to providing a warm, nurturing, creatively charged, artistically challenging environment for every student.

At The Play Group The-atre, the focus is entirely on the love of the craft and the life lessons that are a natural result of a healthy and non-competitive creative process. The PGT staff sees the artists that students can become, while celebrating the children that they are and the result is great theatre for actors and audiences alike.

Join The Play Group The-atre for a magical summer.

For a sneak peek into a day at camp or for more informa-tion, go to playgroup.org or call 946-4433. (Submitted)


Summer fun at The Rye Arts Center

Keeping kids’ creativity flowing is key to summer fun. Look no further than The Rye Arts Center to find the perfect summer program or class for your child.

With a broad range of

weekly as well as summer long programs for kids ages four through teen and adults, The Rye Arts Center provides complete flexibility to keep a child of any age, ability and interest busy with creative

fun. Programs begin June 29 and can be combined for a half or full day, by the week, or multiple weeks to suit ev-eryone’s schedule. New this year is an early drop off op-tion starting at 8:30 a.m.

Also new is the center’s Makerspace classes which feature both high tech and high touch fun in designing, creating and making. Classes include: coding, Minecraft, 3-D design and printing, film-making, LittleBits, Makey-Makey, Scratch animation, circuitry, Arduino, electronics and creative building. Musical theater workshop weeks will feature opportunities to per-form stage favorites such as Willy Wonka and Frozen. For young teens, get some fresh air and learn the fine art of plein-air painting.

Rounding out The RAC’s summer offerings are tra-ditional fine arts including painting, drawing, cartooning, ceramics, digital photography, writers’ workshops, vocal pop workshops and music instruc-tion. For young artists ages 4 to 10, the RAC offers a three-hour creative arts immersion morning program.

The summer guide can be found online at ryeartscenter.org beginning Feb. 23. For questions, call 967-0700 or stop in at the Main Office lo-cated at 51 Milton Road, Rye. (Submitted)


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18 • THE RyE CITy REvIEw • February 20, 2015 SPORTS

not fill up the stat sheets but are no less integral to the suc-cess of the unit.

And when the show lacked that singular star, it was up to the cast to forge their own identities. Sometimes it took a few years of tinkering with the personnel, but when it started to “click” we sometimes got greatness; the crude, frat-boy years of the Sandler-Farley era or the women-driven cast of the early 2000s with Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Maya Ru-dolph. When that all comes to-

gether, it’s like watching those great Yankee teams of the late-1990s shift into playoff mode.

Over 40 years of program-ming, SNL has become as iconic a New York institution as just about any of our local sports teams. Online pundits even cover it as if it were, giv-ing weekly grades to cast mem-bers, making note of which es-tablished veteran seems stuck in a rut or which up-and-comer seems poised to make “the leap” to mega-stardom.

Perhaps nothing else in the

entertainment world gives us a closer approximation to the world of sport—a group work-ing in concert, on live televi-sion, to find something that works and constantly evolving to remain relevant.

That’s the beauty of SNL, and that’s the beauty of profes-sional sports.

It might not always be pret-ty, but there’s always some-thing going on.

Follow Mike on Twitter @LiveMike_Sports

When I was eight years old, I was convinced of two things: first, that I was going to pitch in the major leagues, and second, that I was going to spend my offseasons touring the country as the first-ever professional athlete/stand-up-comedian.

Neither one of these dreams may have come to pass, but I still love both sports and com-edy as much as I did when I was a youngster.

On Sunday night, I began to think about why these two pas-sions of mine never wavered.

On Feb. 15, “Saturday Night Live” celebrated its 40th anniversary with a star-studded gala that paid tribute to the show that has launched as many culturally significant characters and catchphrases as any other program I can recall.

As I sat there, watching with my roommate and com-

Saturday night specialmunicating with other friends via Twitter and Facebook, I was struck by something; ar-guments about the show—best skits, best hosts, best casts—weren’t all that dissimilar from sports arguments I’d had with the very same people.

In many ways, being a fan of SNL over the years has become akin to following a sports team. SNL, like a sports franchise, has had its ups and downs, its all-stars and its also-rans over the last four decades. And like sports, it invites debates about “which era is the best?”

There’s a common idiom that states that your favorites SNL-era is likely to be which-ever one you watched when you were in high school. Like-wise, sports fans are always quick to tell younger fans about the “good old days.” In the sports world, you can see this play out in countless ar-guments about the merits of Jordan vs. Lebron. With SNL fans, it’s about who manned

the update desk better, Dennis Miller or Kevin Nealon?

But what fascinated me about the sketch comedy show wasn’t so much the individual performers, but how each cast—or team—was constructed.

Like a sports team, many it-erations of the SNL cast were centered on a singular break-out star. Chevy Chase was “the guy” when the show first started and SNL became a ve-hicle for his stardom. In the 1980s, it was a young comedi-an named Eddie Murphy who took the reins and made the show his, firing fastballs ev-ery Saturday night like a prime Doc Gooden.

But, as in sports, a superstar can’t do it alone.

The great casts, even ones anchored by a breakout star, needed the glue guy, the guy who would do the dirty work. The rebounder, the straight man. Guys like Dan Akroyd, Phil Hartman and Jason Sude-kis all filled this role, the gritty Scott Brosius-types who might

On Feb. 15, Saturday Night Live celebrated its 40th anniversary with a television special. Sports Editor Mike Smith sees a lot of similarities between the long-running program and the world of sports. Photo courtesy NBC.com

Follow Mike Smith @LiveMike_Sports stats • recaps • commentary

Follow Mike Smith @ryecityreview for Mike’s live, in-game action updates

To CoVER loCal sPoRTs, you nEEd a

LIVE MIKE!

February 20, 2015 • THE RyE CITy REvIEw • 19SPORTS

Rye Athlete of the Week

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Forming an almost im-penetrable wall, goalie Nat Deen has been making saves left and right in leading the Garnet hockey team into sectionals. After advancing to the finals last season with Nat in goal, the Garnets are looking again to contend for a section title.

With a stellar goals-against-average of 2.63 per game and a save percentage of 91.6 percent, Nat is one of the leading net minders in all of Section I. Nat, a senior and one of the team’s captains, held highly-ranked Canton High School of Connecti-cut to just one goal. He was

named to the All-Tourna-ment Team at the Canton Tournament as well as at the Rivermen Winter Classic.

“Our captain has been a stone wall in net,” teammate Rocco Macri said. “He is al-ways making the big saves when we need him.”

Coach Peter Thomas concurred.

“Nat has been solid for us in net all year,” Thomas said. “The team feels confident that going into every game he gives us a chance to win, which is all you can ask of your goalie.”

Off the ice, Nat is an outstanding student as well as an active volunteer. He has participated in the Polar Plunge for Special Olympics,

Nat Deen

the New Orleans Mission Trip and food drives, among other activities. In addition, the hockey team as a whole has performed various com-munity service projects including raising money for cancer research. Nat is in the process of selecting a college.

Rye headed to semisAnother year means an-

other trip to the Westchester County Center for the Rye girls basketball team.

On Feb. 17, the Garnets bested Pearl River 54-42 to advance to the Class A semi-finals for the second straight year. With the win, they have earned the right to take on Peekskill on Feb. 26 for the chance to play in the Section I championship game.

After a closely-played first half, which saw the No. 4 seed Garnets hold onto a 30-24 lead over the Pirates, Rye came out strong in the second, opening up an 11-point lead thanks to some deft shooting from sophomore Katie Popp, who would finish with a team-high 17 points on the afternoon. Pearl River’s Emma Daly led all scorers with 20 points, but the Garnets also benefitted from big days by Taylor Mau-rer, who had 14 points and Ali Imam, who scored 10 points coming off the bench.

The Garnet defense also played well, holding Pearl River to just 18 second-half points.

Peekskill, Rye’s next op-ponent in the semifinal round, also had an impressive show-ing on Tuesday coming off a 64-55 win over Somers. The No. 2 seed got a great perfor-mance from standout Lanay Rodney, who had an 18-point

Katie Popp takes a foul shot during Rye’s first-round playoff game on Feb. 12. On Feb. 17, Popp led the Garnets with 17 points in a 54-42 win over Pearl River. Photos/Mike Smith

Holly Hunter comes down with a rebound against Byram Hills on Feb. 12. The Garnets beat both the Bobcats and Pearl River to advance to next week’s Class A semifinals against Peekskill.

outburst for the Red Devils. Somers’ Kayleh McGuire had 29 points in the loss.

On Sunday, March 1, the winner of the Rye-Peekskill showdown will face the win-ner of No. 1 Albertus Mag-nus—the preseason favorite to

win Class A—and an upstart No. 13 Tappan Zee team that has downed both Eastchester and Harrison so far.

Rye coach Dennis Hurlie could not be reached for com-ment as of press time. -Reporting by Mike Smith

Maddie Eck plays defense against Byram Hills.

20 • THE RyE CITy REvIEw • February 20, 2015 SPORTS

Garnets fall to HuskiesBy MIKE SMITHSports Editor

On Feb. 12, Rye’s basket-ball season came to an end with a 63-48 loss to rival Har-rison in the opening round of the Class A sectional play-offs. But although the Garnets might be done for the winter, their play late in the season gives fans hope for the future of the program.

Rye advanced to the first-round game with an out-bracket win over John Jay but couldn’t sustain that effort the next night against a physical Harrison team who dominat-ed the boards—and the sec-ond half—to move on to the quarterfinals.

Having already lost to Har-rison twice this year, the Gar-nets knew they were in for a tough playoff match up.

Harrison’s Joe Nannariello scored 18 points and contrib-uted 10 rebounds in the win,

back next winter with a strong class of younger players who made great strides this year.

Sophomore Charlie Nagle, who was named All-League this year, will be back, as will the team’s leading scorer George Kirby and center Mark Croughan.

“Our goal is to win as many games as we can but also to promote that sustainability by bringing up some younger kids like we did this year,” Aguilar said. “We won 10 games this year and we were a much dif-ferent team at the end of the season, and with the game experience those guys got, I think we made great strides as a program this year.”


while Justin Stagg added 15 of his own to help the Huskies advance.

“I think we came into the game believing that we could win,” Garnet coach John Agu-ilar said. “But they’re a very good team, they make you work hard and their guard play is extremely physical which presents some problems for us, especially coming off a game the night before.”

Another key factor in Har-rison’s win was the Huskies’ 37-20 advantage on the glass. According to Aguilar, howev-er, losing the physical battle to the Huskies has given the re-turning Garnets motivation for next season.

“You have to give Harri-son credit for how hard those guys work in the offseason to get stronger,” Aguilar said. “To my guys’ credit, the next day, my guys were texting me about how they were going to hit the weight room harder for next year so we can play with that same kind of physicality.”

The Garnets graduate a few key seniors, like Drew Abate and Andrew Livingston, whom Aguilar credits with keeping the team together through some initial growing pains this season, but will be

Mark Croughan puts back a rebound against the Indians. Krogan is one of several Garnets who gained a lot of experience this season.

Charlie Nagle drives to the hoop against John Jay on Feb. 11. The Garnets beat the Indians in the outbracket round to advance to the Class A first round. Photos/Bobby Begun

George Kirby makes a baseline move against the Huskies. Senior Andrew Livingston drives past a Harrison defender on Feb. 12. Harrison defeated the Garnets 63-48.

Rye City Review 2-20-2015

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