09/29/07 - Port Chester Republican’s Do Not Support Supervisor Wanna Be

Port Chester Republican’s Do Not Support Supervisor Wanna Be Joe Carvin

In 2004, Joe Carvin applied to be the Port Chester Village Manager who would replace Richard “Fritz” Falanka. Joe Carvin should have been able to scoop up the job with ease.

Carvin was a Republican and Republican Mayor Gerald Logan and Six other Republican Trustees governed Port Chester. Also, Carvin was active in local politics and had strong political connections with all of the Republican Movers And Shakers. The other candidates lacked such strong connectons.

Carvin has a Harvard Degree in Public Administration and the other job candidates did not have the same prestigious degree. Plus, Carvin lived less than a mile from Port Chester and would be easily available for a village emergency, the other candidates lived very far away.

However, in 2005, Mayor Gerald Logan, Deputy Mayor Dan Colangelo, Trustee Bob Sorensen, Trustee Ken Manning, Trustee Pete Ciccone and Trustee Cicatelli decided not to hire Joe Carvin.

All Of These Main Stream Port Chester Republicans Unanimously Rejected The Hotheaded and Opportunistic Joe Carvin And His Harvard Degree.

They chose Bill Williams who did not have the local political connections or the Harvard Degree that Carvin can’t stop bragging about. Bill Williams even lived far away and might have trouble quickly responding to emergencies in Port Chester.

Why no City, Town, Village or Hamlet in America has has ever hired Joe Carvin and his fancy Harvard Degree in Public Administration to be their Manager or Administrator?

What Made Logan, Colangelo, Sorensen, Manning, Ciccione and Cicatelli not support and hire their fellow Republican Joe Carvin?

Archive 2007 January 16 Port Chester News Wire

Eye On Port Chester

Just Do It

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The Canceled Library Meeting Will Now Be Held On January 23rd.

The Port Chester And Rye Book Board Of Trustees will sit down with the Port Chester Public Library Board headed by Kathleen Giofree.

Hopefully, NYU Professor Allen Zerkin will still moderate the meeting.

Supposedly, Professor Zerkin is an expert at governmental conflict resolution.

The last meeting was cancelled, because Mayor Logan ssays he forgot to look at his calendar, and he latter discovered he had some kind of conflict.

Many residents want to know what was more important than our library.

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Sorry Bart, But The Supreme .....

Court Won't Hear Eminent Domain Case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to consider a property rights case involving a redevelopment project in New York state where businessmen are fighting local government efforts to take their land.

The businessmen say the village of Port Chester, N.Y., filed a condemnation petition to acquire their property the day after the businessmen rejected what they said was a demand by the project developer for $800,000.

The developer allegedly was demanding the money or a 50 percent interest in the businessmen's own project to put a CVS Pharmacy on the site.

(Via: Associated Press)

Archive 2007 January 15 Port Chester News Wire

Eye On Port Chester

Surprise, Surprise !!!!

Logan Screws Up Library Meeting

The January 17th meeting that was set up to to help the Village Of Port Chester Board Of Trustees , The Village Of Rye Brook Board Of Trustees and the Port Chester Public Library has been cancelled by Mayor Gerald Logan.

The meeting was to be held at the Senior Citizens on Grace Church Street.

Mayor Gerald Logan had ssome lame excuse that he forgot to look at his calendar and he did not realize that he had something more important to do.

The Meeting should of went ahead with out Mayor Gerald Logan. The Deputy Mayor and the other five members of the Port Chester Board Of Trustees would have done a fine job with out Mayor Gerald Logan.

Actually, with Logan gone maybe something might actually get done.

Many folks around town have been saying that maybe Mayor Gerald Logan is delaying the meeting in order to help his family members who are heavily involveed in the Port Chester Library.

Bruno & Kathleen Giofree will be away in February.

And nothing can be agreeded to if the Library President (Kathleen) and its attorney (Bruno) are not there.

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Warning Dead Links

Shame On The Poughkeepsie Journal, Mid-Hudson News & The Journal Snooze For litering the internet with broken links.

Hispanic advocates push bill to revamp local elections
Jan 15, 2007 Poughkeepsie Journal
... has no need for district elections, he said. Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a suit against Port Chester, a Westchester County village of about 28,000, half of it Hispanic. The suit alleges that the village, which has a seven-member ...

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State lawmaker, community leaders unveil plan to protect minority voting rights
Jan 15, 2007 Mid-Hudson News
... a statue of Dr. King in White Plains. "The federal lawsuit filed last month against the Westchester Village of Port Chester to ensure the voting rights of the thousands of Hispanics residing there has promoted state lawmakers, civil rights advocates ...

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Youths preach King's legacy to congregation
“I, for one, will build on Dr. King's legacy. I will study and get an education.”
Moments before she was to address her church's congregation, Naomi Lambert had a confession to make.

"... holiday today in his name. Interfaith services were held in Bedford Hills at Antioch Baptist Church and in Port Chester at All Souls Parish. Colonial Terrace Caterers in Cortlandt, meanwhile, was the site of a Continuing the Dream dinner. "Bringing ... "

via The Journal News

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Former pharmacy now a pizza place
“We're trying to provide good Italian food.”
A pizza program and the village's ... via The Journal News

Archive 2007 January 13 Port Chester News Wire

Eye On Port Chester

Library And Villages Gear Up For Meeting On January 17th

A big meeting about the future of the Port Chester Public Library will occur in a few days.

The Port Chester & Rye Brook village boards and the Port Chester Public Library Board will meet at the new Port Chester Senior Center.

When Rye Brook and Port Chester got into a dispute about the funding of the library, Rye Brook contracted with Pace University to do a study of its library options for a fee of $20,000.

Port Chester Trustees Dan Brakewood and Dennis Pilla hoped the study woul be completed before the Januarry 17th joint meeting.

However, Mayor Lawrence Rand now says results of the study should be availablle at the end of this month. It is crazy that Rand and the Rye Brook Board of Trustees is wasting $20,000 for this study.

Almost, everyone in Rye Brook and Port Chester knows that the residents of Rye Brook are getting a hell of a deal.

Port Chester Public Library will soon be sending their request for funding to both Rye Brook and Port Chester.

Hopefully every thing will be worked out at the January 17th Meeting.

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Dead Links

The Journal Snooze continues to drop dead links all over the internet

Port Chester GOP selects slate

“I don't owe anyone anything, and I feel that both Domenick and Ariel are the best candidates that have announced so far”

PORT CHESTER - Republican Trustee Domenick Cicatelli plans to run for mayor in the March election in a bid to succeed longtime Mayor Gerald Logan, who is retiring.

via Journal News

Archive 2007 January 11 Port Chester News Wire

Eye On Port Chester

Let's solve the year old Port Chester Library Funding Problem once and for all.

Let's hope that Mayor Gerald Logan and the entire Port Chester Board Of Trustees are in attendance for the Library Meeting on January 17th. Port Chester Board attendance has been disgraceful lately.

Port Chester will need a full board there in order to solve the library funding problem.

Port Chester and Rye Book both have to decide what they are going to do.

Rye Brook has a very, very good deal. If the want to walk away and spend more money then let them waste their citizen's tax dollars.

Either we’re going to have a library with Rye Brook or we’re not.

If not, then we have to roll up our sleaves and fix the Port Chester Library.

First lets get rid of Bruno and Kathleen Giofree and then lets start spending the 3 million dollars the library has to start fixing up the place.

No one in Port Chester can truely say that they think that Mayor Gerald Logan will go against his realitives the Giofrees.

Rye Brook has insisted that part of the negotiation was the library name change.

As part of any funding agreement, Rye Brook had asked that the name of the library be changed to the Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library, which is major problem with many long time library patrons.

Many is Port Chester feel that a name change shouldn’t be part of these negotiations.

However, these people need to undderstand that the library has repeatedly changed its name over the years.

Ask Goldie Soloman about the Peck Library.

Rye Brook says that it is willing to increase its percentage of funding from the 30% to 35 % it currently gives in exchangge for the name change.

This is not enough

If Rye Brook wants 50% of the name, then they need to pay 50% of the bill..

Port Chester Trustee Robert Sorensen has worked very hard on the library funding and name change issues.

Port Chester Trustee Dan Brakewood has had innovative ideas about the possibility of a library district.

Maybe Mayor Gerald Logan and his Giofree relations should step a side and let Soreensen and Brakewood hammer out a deal with Rye Brook.

The meeting on January 17th will be moderated By NYU Professor Allen Zerkin. Lets hope Professor Zerkin knows the issues and can get this year old library funding problem solved.

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Even More On Didden, CVS, G And S, Logan & The Board Of Trustees

This is really starting to get old

Top Court to Hear New Eminent Domain Case

In another legal test of eminent domain, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether a private company can demand payment in exchange for not seizing property.

via Realtormag.com

Archive 2007 January 9 Port Chester News Wire

Even More About Didden, G And S, Logan and The Board Of Trustees

This is starting to get boring.



Kelo-Property Rights Update: An Awful Case May Get Heard by the Supremes

Filed under: Economy, Taxes & Government — TBlumer @ 7:39 am

This second item (HT Russell’s Rhetoric) is difficult for me to present without violating the site’s PG-13 standard, but here it is:

Bart Didden wanted to put a CVS pharmacy on his property in Port Chester, N.Y. He even obtained approvals from the local planning board.

But because a portion of the CVS site was in a blighted redevelopment zone, Mr. Didden was told that planning board approval wasn’t enough. He’d have to reach an understanding with a private company that had been selected by Port Chester officials to control all construction inside the renewal zone.

The developer, Gregg Wasser of G&S Port Chester, told Didden he’d have to pay $800,000 or give G&S a 50 percent stake in the CVS business. If Didden refused, Mr. Wasser said, he would have Port Chester condemn and seize his property and instead of a CVS he’d put a Walgreens drugstore on the site.

Didden refused. The next day, the Village of Port Chester began legal proceedings to seize Didden’s land by eminent domain.

Lawyers for Didden took the matter to federal court. They even went to the FBI - all to no avail. Now they are asking the US Supreme Court to examine whether a private company can demand payment in exchange for refraining to seize private property in an urban renewal zone.

Property rights activists are hoping that a majority of the justices view Didden’s case as an opportunity to clarify a portion of the high court’s controversial decision in its last big eminent domain case, Kelo v. New London. In that June 2005 opinion, the court ruled 5-to-4 that local governments could seize private property and turn it over to a private developer when the action was part of an economic development project of benefit to the public.

So the bad news is that this is the kind of overarching tyranny those who opposed the Kelo ruling feared. The good news is that it could be reviewed by the Supreme Court, which, with the arrival of two new justices since the infamous June 2005 ruling, might decide to rule in a sweeping fashion, perhaps overturning Kelo. Another piece of good news is that the Institute for Justice is involved

[via BizzyBlog.com]

Archive 2007 January 8 Port Chester News Wire

The Blogs Are Still Going On About Didden & Logan

Extortion in Port ChesterFoundation for Economic EducationPosted: January 8th, 2007

by Thomas L. KnappAuthor: Sheldon Richman

“The least appreciated form of tyranny in the United States goes by the names ‘redevelopment’ and ‘government-business partnership.’ While everyone knows about the threat of development-oriented eminent domain, thanks to the 2005 Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. New London, local tyranny goes much deeper than the ‘mere’ taking of property in order to give it to another private party. A case out of Port Chester, N.Y., illustrates the danger.” (01/05/07)

http://www.fee.org/in_brief/default.asp?id=1018

( via ISIL Channels )

Archive Port Chester News Wire December 28

Eye On Port Chester

Aldo "The Patronage Boy" Vitagliano

Crashes Voting Rights Defence Fund Meeting

Mayor Gerald Logan, Deputy Mayor Dominick Cicatelli and the other Republican Board of Trustee members have repeatedly given Aldo "The Patronage Boy" Vitagliano patronage asignment after patronage asignment. Aldo "The Patronage Boy"Vitagliano has always given to the Republican party and the Republican party has always returned the favor.

Unfortunately, Aldo "The Patronage Boy" Vitagliano is not allways the most qualified person for the job. Mayor Logan really screwed up by appointing "The Patronage Boy" as the lawyer for the impartial voting rights commission.

Port Chester will pay dearly, because of "The Patronage Boy's" involvement.

Aldo "The Patronage Boy" Vitagliano, attorney for the Port Chester Voting Rights Commission crashed the Voting Rights Defence Fund Meeting.

"The Patronage Boy" was told by Law Proffessor Randollph McLaughlin that is inappropriate to attend the Voting Rights Defence Fund Meeting.

However, "The Patronage Boy" demanded that he was allowed to attend the meeting.

McLaughlin eventually allowed the disruptive "Patronage Boy" to stay eventhough the meeting was geared to the Hispanic Citizens of Port Chester.

Law Professor Randolph McLaughlin spoke about the legal issues surrounding the Department of Justice voting rights lawsuit.

Many citizens of Port Chester were speculating that "The Patronage Boy" was only crashing the Voting Rights Defence Fund Meeting inorder to run up the legal bill that the single family homeowners of Port Chester will eventually have to pay.

The meeting was organized by Cesar Ruiz.

Aldo was bragging that he changed the agenda of the meeting by crashing in uninvited.

The residents of Port Chester hope that Aldo's actions will not be used against the Village in the up comming trial. Aldo has already been quoted saying stupid things like Congress should exempt Port Chester from the Voting Rights Law.

Aldo made comments that he was trying to prevent the group from soliciting participants in a lawsuit.

Aldo "The Patronage Boy's" decision tocrash the meeting at this stage of the lawsuit is not wise or helpful to the Village Of Port Chester.

The only thing Aldo "The Patronage Boy" Vitagliano did was to saddle the single family homeowners of Port Chester with additional attorney’s fees.

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Residents invited to join Port Chester voting rights lawsuit
PORT CHESTER - Two attorneys will meet tonight with village residents to discuss possible legal strategies in a federal voting rights lawsuit against the village.[via Journal News]

Archive Port Chester News Wire 2006 September 22 -30

District says a bad story failed a good high school

By Jeff Benzak

The Port Chester-Rye Union Free School District defended its record following a newspaper article that board members and administrators deemed misleading.

The article, which appeared in the Sept. 13 Journal News, mentioned that Port Chester High School was listed by the state Education Department as “requiring academic progress.” The article ran under the front-page headline “9 Westchester schools cited as substandard.”
Dominic Bencivenga, president of the school board, did not dispute the facts... [more]

Former city cop has a new beat: PCHS

[Video]

By Jeff Benzak
Richard Pepe stood in a dark grey suit in the main hallway of Port Chester High School Wednesday afternoon. The final bell (they’re electronic these days) chimed at 2:48 p.m., and the hallway buzzed with teenage angst and energy. It was busy, frantic, colorful and loud. It was, as Pepe noted, like Times Square.
Pepe is the new security... [more]

Village wants to hear from residents on electoral redistricting plans

By Jananne Abel

In a letter received in April, the U.S. Department of Justice has threatened the Village of Port Chester with a lawsuit claiming that the voting rights of Hispanics have been violated by the at-large voting system currently in place. Despite the large percentage of Hispanics in the village, none have ever been elected to public office. In order to avoid a lawsuit, the Department of Justice has proposed three electoral redistricting plans... [more]

Women cook tomato sauce the old-fashioned way

By Jeff Benzak

Rosa Dilfico and Antonetta Pennella stood side by side in a garage on Clinton Street in Port Chester recently. They wore floral-patterned aprons and clutched in their hands giant wooden spoons three feet long. With those spoons they churned industrial- sized pots filled with steaming red tomatoes.

The metal pots were heated by fuel from small propane tanks... [more]

Archives Port Chester News Wire 2006 September 15 - 21

Tiff over benefits pits Dems vs. Republicans

[Video]

Village board approves part-time officials’ contribution to benefits, does away with lifetime perks

By Jananne Abel

The Republicans and Democrats on the Port Chester Board of Trustees continued their battle over benefits last week, and it may not be over yet.
At last Tuesday’s village board meeting, Mayor Gerald Logan introduced a proposal whereby elected and part-time appointed officials would begin paying 25% of the cost of their medical, dental, vision and term life insurance benefits... [more]

British bobbies, Port Chester cops realize they’re ‘not too different'

By Jeff Benzak

No, you haven’t gone crazy. Yes, that was a British bobby patrolling Port Chester’s streets.
Five English police officers were in Port Chester Wednesday as part of a delegation that earlier in the week attended a 9/11 ceremony in New York City. The bobbies were seen around the village wearing their distinctive pointy blue hats.... [more]

Archive Port Chester News Wire 2006 August 16-31

Soundness of bulkhead, maintenance of promenade among concerns

By Jananne Abel

Bricks are sinking in the riverfront promenade that surrounds the Costco parking lot in downtown Port Chester. Is this something that can be easily repaired or a sign of structural damage below? That’s something the village must determine through further investigation and then figure out what to do about it.
[more]