harrison review 1-2-2015

December 26, 2014 & January 2, 2015 | Vol. 2, Number 51 | www.harrisonreview.com

Harrison REVIEWTHE

AvalonBay

project

presented

to public

Uproar

overpermit

proposal

Churchplan draws

controversy

HBOseries filmed in Harrison

2014THE YEARIN REVIEW

2 • The harrison review • December 26, 2014 & January 2, 2015

December 26, 2014 & January 2, 2015 • The harrison review • 3

By PhiL noBiLe

After a process dating back almost a decade, a unanimous Town Council formally adopted the Town/Village of Harrison Comprehensive Plan at its final meeting of 2013, adding up-dates and additions to the town’s original 1988 master plan.

The update, which began in late 2004, focuses on three points: Resolving planning is-sues from the original docu-ment, identifying and resolv-ing new issues, and incorporat-ing any new town projects into the master plan.

The plan, which was com-piled by consulting firm BFJ Planning, as a whole features extensive statistics on town size and features and is defined as a “guide to Harrison’s deci-sion makers on major planning issues and their solutions.”

“Basically it takes us into the 21st century,” Harrison Mayor Ron Belmont, a Republican, said. “Places like downtown, Westchester Avenue need face-lifts and we have to do new, in-novative things.”

Town adopts Master Plan updateThe mayor envisions the

comprehensive plan as a guid-ing document to potential de-velopers looking into building in Harrison.

According to the section of the plan titled First-Priority Items, the town is hoping to begin redevelopment of the Metro-North property located along Halstead Avenue, known for many years in the town as the MTA Project.

The plan calls for develop-ing the 3.3-acre train station property Metro-North owns into a second street with a wall of stores and mixed-use facili-ties, akin to the main streets in neighboring districts, and new housing. Agreements between all involved parties are pend-ing, according to Belmont, who refused to comment fur-ther on the project or specific parties involved.

The MTA project is one as-pect of the plan’s consistent theme of downtown revitaliza-tion. Calling for the promo-tion of Halstead Avenue as the main street in the downtown business district, the update

makes mention of new design to encourage new develop-ment, such as renovating build-ings, a streetscape, sidewalks and landscaping throughout the town.

Also under the list of rec-ommendations for the down-town district is to improve road safety at Harrison’s main intersections, improve accessi-bility for people with disabili-ties at stores and on streets and implementing possible parking fees to cover transportation up-dates and costs.

The Platinum Mile district along Westchester Avenue in Purchase also has a list of po-tential projects for development outlined in the master plan in “the area bounded by I-287, I-684 and the Hutchinson River Parkway,” such as housing, re-tail-use or improved vehicle or pedestrian access.

“We’re going to wait for some developers to come in with some good ideas,” Belmont said. “Perhaps assist-ed living. Right now, we have a good fitness center and medi-cal stuff going on up there.

We’re open for business, we want to be given a proposal.”

Town resident Robert Porto voiced his disapproval of the update at the Dec. 19 meeting. He said “people are making fun of Harrison” as the decision to adopt the update was made.

“The problems are numer-ous, but the general idea is that the plan does not try to pre-serve any open space,” Porto said. “I love Harrison and, al-though I would prefer to be sit-ting at home, I am compelled to fight for my town.”

Before the update was ap-proved for adoption by the Town Council, the board ap-proved a recommendation to accept a negative declaration under the State Environment Quality Review, or SEQR. New York State law requires all projects or activities pro-posed by a municipality must undergo an environmental impact assessment. A nega-tive declaration is described as having no “significant adverse environmental impacts,” ac-cording to the Department of Environmental Conservation.

Porto opposed the passing of a negative declaration, call-ing it ridiculous.

“I believe that the value of our town is in keeping its small town feel as much as possible,” Porto, a lifelong Harrison resi-dent, said. “I see the current board as developers and feel they are giving away our town to the highest bidder.”

Republican councilmen Ste-p hen Malfitano and Joseph Cann ella deflected Porto’s com-ments by describing the plan as a living, active document that is a “major improvement” over the

previous 1988 version. Cannella admitted that the environmental factors were a concern, but that Porto was ultimately wrong.

“A negative declaration was absolutely appropriate,” Cannella said. “I think that, given the nature of what this is, it’s a good analysis of where we are and what needs to be looked at. Someone looking for per-fection in a master plan, where each issue is resolved, is close to impossible.”

Originally published 1/3/2014

A rendering taken from the Master Plan update enacted by the Town Council at the end of 2013. The map highlights proposed areas of development and renovation, such as a portion of the Platinum Mile district along Westchester Avenue in Purchase. Rendering courtesy Town of Harrison


By PhiL noBiLe

As a local church plans to change its temporary temple into a permanent home, citi-zens from the abutting neigh-borhoods voiced concerns about the potential project due to expansions and additions planned.

After 17 years of holding services in rented space at the School of the Holy Child while looking for an established home, the Trinity Presbyterian Church has decided to make its residency in the area perma-nent after significant expan-sions to a nearby property on Anderson Hill Road.

“We’ve explored a myriad of options and locations in the Sound Shore area but none have proven suitable,” Craig Chapman, senior associate pas-tor at Trinity, said. “We finally concluded that building our own church is the best option.”

Expanding on a 6.5-acre site, the church will use an original 6,800-square-foot Tudor home and construct a 19,200-square-foot addition. The new addition will repli-cate the older portion of the property and home in style and feel, according to render-ings for the project.

“By adaptively reusing an existing home and designing a new addition in keeping with the architectural style of the residence, we are able to cre-ate a plan that accommodates our needs while minimizing new development,” Chapman said. “Our plan is to maintain that facility and to improve it, to keep it in character with the neighborhood.”

Less than 5 percent of the property’s acreage will be oc-cupied by the addition, accord-ing to the church, and a new driveway will be built to the east of the property along with

A rendering of the Trinity Presbyterian Church shows a proposed 19,200-square-foot expansion to the existing church’s property off of Anderson Hill Road in Purchase. Rendering courtesy Trinity Presbyterian Church

Town mourns death of high school student130 parking spaces.

It is a potential increase in Anderson Hill Road traffic that has some local residents concerned.

Some residents from Morn ingside at Purchase, a private neighborhood across from the planned Trinity church site, voiced their opposition at the town’s Jan. 28 Planning Board meeting, citing traffic increasing as a possibility, according to Trinity Presbyterian spoke-sperson Geoff Thompson.

“[Rev. Chapman] did a per-sonal outreach to the residents of Morningside as well as our other adjacent neighbors,” Thompson said. “We’re very conscious of the community that we will be in and under-stand it’s very much a part of the public approval process.”

The church says that traffic will not be affected, citing that only during Sunday services do an average of 200 parishio-ners go to Trinity Presbyterian; during the week, the property would be used “lightly.”

“We were not surprised to hear the concerns raised,” Thompson said. “It will be

one of the major elements of the environmental stud-ies we will be doing. We are confident we can address the traffic issues satisfacto-rily. We will demonstrate it to the board and hopefully to the satisfaction of the neighbors.”

More than a decade ago, the church purchased a lot at 530 Anderson Hill Road. After re-alizing the space wasn’t suffi-cient to their needs, the church attempted to sell the property over the years. It wasn’t un-til last year when the adjacent 526 Anderson Hill Road Tudor home went up for sale that they decided to invest in both the lots and envision a facility of their own.

According to Thompson, the church will await all vo-cal and written concerns from the community and the plan-ning board, and proceed to put together an environmental impact study, traffic study and other research needed within the coming months.

When asked for comment, Planning Board Chairman Thomas Heaslip declined. The next board meeting is Feb. 25.


By MiKe sMiTh

Harrison is reeling this week after another tragic death hit the community hard.

Harrison High School ju-nior Andrew Gurgitano, 16, died in his home on Saturday, Nov. 8, after suffering what the Westchester County Medi-cal Examiner’s Office has de-termined to be a rare spontane-ous stroke.

On Saturday and Sunday, Harrison High School again opened its doors to a commu-nity that has twice been hit by tragic deaths in the last two weeks. Social workers, grief counselors, administrators, teachers and coaches were all on hand to offer support to the student body.

“We were there on Saturday and Sunday if the kids wanted to come in,” said Varsity Base-ball coach Marco DiRuocco, who coached Gurgitano last year. “It was a place they could come together and talk with their peers and friends alike, it provided some comfort, a safe place, someone to talk to.”

According to DiRuocco, the well-liked Gurgitano had a true passion for baseball. As a sophomore, Gurgitano shined on the mound, and earned the right to start Harri-son’s sectional playoff game against Tappan Zee. In addi-tion to his on-field achieve-ments, DiRuocco said Gurgi-tano served as an inspiration to teammates through the force of his enthusiasm for the game.

“We had a number of sophomores come out for the varsity team, but he really im-pressed us overall,” the coach

Church plan draws controversy

said. “He had such a positive attitude. He was always work-ing on his game. He really came into his own and I was looking forward to getting the chance to work with him for the next two years.”

The Harrison community’s quick response to the tragedy is a testament to the impact that Andrew had on the lives of his classmates, said DiRuoc-co. On Monday, a Gofundme page hoping to raise $15,000 to help the Gurgitano family with funeral costs was set up. By Tuesday morning, the page had raised $57,760.

According to a Monday up-date on the website, all excess funds will be used towards creating a scholarship fund in Andrew’s name.

On Thursday, Nov. 13, the baseball team will take part

in a candlelight vigil at Har-rison High School to support the Gurgitano family. The fol-lowing day, on Nov. 14, Har-rison’s soccer team will hold a charity game to raise money for the family of junior varsity player Joseph Lopez, whose mother, Reyda LaMadrid, 47 was killed by a drunk driver on Nov. 3.

DiRuocco added that the baseball team will also look for a way to honor Gurgitano’s legacy when the spring season starts up.

“We definitely want to do something, there’s just so much going on right now,” said the head coach. “We met with the team on Monday [Nov. 10], and I think we needed it, we needed each other. There’s really no way to prepare for something like this.”


Harrison junior Andrew Gurgitano, 16, died on Saturday after suffering a sudden stroke. Harrison High School opened its doors to the community over the weekend to help students and teachers work through the grieving process. Photo courtesy gofundme.com

M E D I A G R O U P

HAPPY NEW YEAR! FROM


Originaly published 7/11/2014

Police surveillance underwayBy PhiL noBiLe

While mass surveillance measures and privacy rights continue to be a contentious issue across the country, the Town of Harrison recently ap-proved multiple new automat-ic license plate readers to be placed throughout town, begin-ning a surveillance project that has been years in the works.

Part of the “town surveil-lance project” by the Harri-son Police Department, the 14 new systems will be placed on poles or mounts throughout Harrison, West Harrison and Purchase with the purpose of instantly and accurately read-ing all license plates. Harrison Police Chief Anthony Marrac-cini said ever-changing tech-nology has led to the project, and the readers, and systems like them, can help solve ac-tive and potential crimes.

“As technology advances and policing becomes more sophisticated, it’s common to have license plate readers in communities and throughout the county,” Marraccini said. “When we experience crimi-nal activity where we have no leads or physical evidence, these devices can be instru-mental in helping us solve crimes that would normally go unsolved.”

Approved unanimously by the all-Republican Town Coun-cil at its June 19 meeting, the sys-tems will cost almost $200,000 which was requested in the 2012 Police Surveillance System Capital Budget and bonded for, with the police department re-searching and deciding which technology to purchase at that time, according to Comptroller Maureen MacKenzie.

The devices were purchased from Major Police Supply, which serves as an emergency equipment distributor for the multinational conglomerate 3M.

Automatic license plate read-er systems take images of ve-hicles and, using optical charac-ter recognition, scan the license plates into a database to pair them against previously known plates. The license plates in the system include known offenders or suspended licenses.

With the department al-ready having up to 10 mobile license plate reader systems on Harrison police vehicles,

according to Marraccini, the total number of readers comes to 24, which is significant-ly higher than neighboring municipalities.

New Rochelle, a city which has a population more than double Harrison’s at 78,315 according to 2012 United States Census Bureau num-bers, has two license plate readers in total, according to Lt. George Marshall, the traf-fic unit commanding officer for the New Rochelle Police Department. The department has 158 total active officers.

The Town of Harrison’s population is 27,785 according to the 2012 Census, and there are currently 60 active officers on the Harrison police force.

On the smaller end of the spectrum, the City of Rye with a population of 15,855 based on 2012 Census numbers has used one license plate reader “for a number of years,” ac-cording to Rye Police Lt. Scott Craig. The City of Rye’s police force consists of 36 officers.

When asked about the dif-ference in readers, Marraccini said it was unfair to compare in population size when tak-ing into account the thruways and interstates surrounding Harrison’s boundaries.

“I’m not sure the amount of readers can be determined by population alone. Harrison has more than 100 miles of roadway; we are by every ma-jor highway that goes through the county,” he said. “It’s not about population. It’s about covering your community the best way you can through criminal apprehension or de-terring crime.”

But not everyone is as gung-ho on the topic of license plate readers as Harrison officials.

The American Civil Liber-ties Union—a national privacy rights advocacy group head-quartered in New York City—has shown vehement disap-proval of the systems and has raised caution at their wide-spread implementation and popularity over the past decade. More than 71 percent of police departments across the nation now implement some sort of license plate reader system in their daily operations, accord-ing to a 2012 study by the Po-lice Executive Research Forum.

Because of the encompass-ing and passive nature of the

readers, the organization has argued the systems are “radi-cally transforming the con-sequences of leaving home to pursue private life,” and “tracking people’s location constitutes a significant inva-sion of privacy,” the group’s website states.

Daniel Berger, director of the lower Hudson Valley chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the read-ers and technology like them can be an extremely valuable tool for law enforcement, but allow for haphazard data col-lection en masse and potential misuse and abuse.

“The problem arises when they’re used in an indiscrimi-nate matter without appro-priate policy controls put in place,” Berger said. “The kind of information recorded would allow law enforcement to learn things about people’s religious beliefs, if they attended pro-tests and about interpersonal connections.”

According to Berger, all other municipalities in West-chester that use similar systems have databases that transfer the information to the county, lead-ing to a county-wide collection of motorists. Berger argued that, in turn, this could lead to a state-wide collection of innocent mo-torists and, eventually, a national database of innocent citizens and their travels as a result.

“You’d eventually have a national database recording ev-eryone’s movements, and you could go back years and track where everyone has been trav-elling regardless if you had any reason to suspect if they were doing anything wrong,” he said.

Without the system set up, Marraccini was unable to say whether or not the data col-lected would be capped and deleted after a certain period of time or indefinitely held by the police department, and where exactly the readers would be mounted throughout town.

The police chief also denied any intention of putting the in-formation into a county-wide system, but said that any law enforcement agency that need-ed assistance during a criminal investigation “we would nor-mally share information with.”

The chief added, “Our inter-est isn’t in average citizens or people who are not involved in criminal activity. Our interest

Harrison police detective writes second novelBy Chris eBerharT

A retired Harrison police detective turned thriller novel-ist is back with the sequel to his award-winning book “In a Small Town.”

Marc Di Giacomo, 39, a longtime Harrison resident who joined the town’s police department in 1997 and be-came detective in 2007, based the Small Town series—“In a Small Town,” the sequel “Back in Town” and, eventually, a third book, “Last in Town”—on his experiences as a detec-tive and used his knowledge of Harrison to create Hutchville, N.Y., a near carbon copy of the Westchester town.

Di Giacomo said he always had a passion for writing, and, after he retired in 2011, he be-gan writing his memoir about his career as a Harrison police officer, which turned into “In a Small Town.”

“All of my work experience has given me an advantage with regard to not only the law and police tactics, but also to a variety of different encoun-ters with people,” Di Giacomo said. “It is these experiences that find their way into the sto-rylines of my book.”

Di Giacomo said his second novel will pick up where the first one left off.

At the end of Di Giacomo’s first book, apprehension sets in after Leonard Kepler moves

to Hutchville from Manhattan and rapes a woman by the train tracks. The protagonist, Det. Matt Longo, learns the identity of the person who shot him in the novel’s first scene from FBI special agent Cynthia Shyler, and a romance between the two characters develops.

Di Giacomo didn’t want to give away too many details about his second book, but he promised an action-packed first chapter like his previous novel and gave a brief over-view of the sequel.

“Crime is on the rise in Hutchville, and a new char-acter emerges into the mix, which causes some concern for members within the Hutch-ville Police Department,” Di Giacomo said.

He self-published his books through Amazon’s Kindle Di-rect Publishing, and the print version of the book is pub-

The Town of Harrison recently approved the purchase of 14 automatic license plate reader systems amidst surveillance and privacy concerns across the country. The systems are similar to the three mounted automatic license plate readers shown above in Compton, Calif. Photo courtesy Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department

is in solving crime, deterring crime and cost savings when it comes to investigative hours.”

As for the remainder of the town surveillance project, Marraccini said the depart-ment was looking into poten-

tial video recording systems to be placed throughout town to make a “cohesive information-al gathering system that will assist in solving crimes and criminal apprehension.”

The chief did not speculate

as to when a system would be possibly purchased or implemented.

Calls to Harrison Mayor Ron Belmont were not returned as of press time.-With reporting by Taylor Khan

Marc Di Giacomo

Originaly published 7/18/2014 lished through CreateSpace.“Self-publishing has really

changed the publishing land-scape, especially with the ex-plosion of e-books. No longer does an author have to face an uphill battle on being discov-ered,” Di Giacomo said.

But the challenge of self-publishing and being an in-dependent author is mar-keting, according to Di Giacomo.

“Getting the word out on your own is no easy task,” he said. “For me as a first-time author, I think I did a great job especially after hiring bookbub.com, which allows authors and publishers to of-fer deep discounts on their books and it’s emailed out to over a million subscribers.”

Di Giacomo said “In a Small Town” has been down-loaded as an ebook more than 75,000 times since its re-lease in November 2012, and he has become an Amazon best selling author. His de-but novel also won the 2013 Orangeberry Book Expo Hall of Fame award for best thriller.

He now lives in South Salem, N.Y., with his wife Dina and his three sons. He’s currently working on the third and final book in the Town series and is working on creating an audio book for “In a Small Town” and screen adaptations for “In a Small Town” and “Back in Town.”


By KaTie hoos

A local animal rescue orga-nization is opening its first-ev-er facility to help dogs and cats find “furever” homes.

Pet Rescue of Larchmont, a non-profit animal rescue or-ganization that places animals in foster care and facilitates adoption, will soon call a facil-ity at the former Westchester Shore Humane Society, lo-cated at 7 Harrison Ave., in Harrison home.

The organization has never had a home base until now.

“After 32 years of finding homes for cats and dogs, the prospect of a home for Pet Rescue is wonderful,” Sue Kamell, founder and presi-dent of Pet Rescue, said. “It’s amazing what love can do.”

Founded in 1982, Pet Rescue began after Kamell and a group of workers who volunteered at a no-kill animal shelter were unhappy with the shelter’s conditions and wanted to pro-vide a better environment for the animals. Rather than keep the adoptable animals inside a run or a cage in a shelter, Pet Rescue operates as a network of more than 80 volunteers who open their homes to fos-tering animals. The animals in Pet Rescue are all foster home-based and are adopted from those homes, not a shelter.

The organization also pro-vides necessary veterinary care and runs a spay and neuter pro-gram to help control the popu-lation of stray dogs and cats.

Since its founding, Pet Rescue has rescued more than 15,000 animals and typically

Pet organization gets local roots

rescues around 600 dogs and 200 cats per year.

The new Harrison facility, which will officially open on July 13 with a grand opening ceremony, will provide more space for the organization’s spay and neuter program as well as veterinary treatment, storage and meeting space for volunteers, an indoor area to conduct dog training and temporary housing for cats and dogs that are waiting to be placed in foster homes.

“The new facility is go-ing to be a little bit of every-thing,” Lisa Zappia, a member of the Pet Rescue Board of Directors, said. “Our dogs and cats are foster home-based and will remain that way; how-ever, we will use the space for dogs waiting for foster homes as kind of a halfway house and for socialization and training in one place. For the cats, it will be the same concept. When we take on a new cat, we don’t always have

the available foster home right away. And for the elderly cats and the cats who are deemed not adoptable, they can live out their lives there.”

But the former Westchester Shore Humane Society facil-ity, which was handed over to Pet Rescue last October, came with a great deal of needed re-pairs and required extensive renovations to bring the facil-ity to working order.

The Westchester Shore Hu-mane Society operated out of the 80-year-old building until its closure in 2013 following years of disrepair and legal issues. In 2012, the state Su-preme Court ruled the shelter’s former Board of Directors be removed due to the buiding’s unsanitary conditions and vi-olations to the nonprofit law. The court gave control of the shelter to a group of 14 shelter volunteers. The new Board of Directors, led by Eric Lobel, worked to rid the facility of its accumulated debt of more than

$20,000 in back taxes and be-gan renovating the once-con-demned building, but ran out of funds to operate the shelter.

The Humane Society closed its doors in June 2013 due to financial challenges and had to quickly relocate all of the re-maining animals to the SPCA of Westchester and other local organizations, including Pet Rescue. Pet Rescue took be-tween 12 to 14 cats and two dogs when the shelter closed, all of which have been adopted or placed in foster homes.

According to Zappia, after the Humane Society closed its doors, its Board of Directors approached Pet Rescue about possibly taking over the facil-ity and Pet Rescue jumped at the opportunity.

“We had been looking for years for a facility of our own, so we used our savings for that to do the renovations,” she said.

Faced with the challenge of renovating the facility, Pet Rescue began by completely gutting parts of the building to prepare for its summer open-ing. The renovations include gutting the dog run area for the animals to exercise and rebuild-ing 22 new dog runs, replacing the wall underneath the dogs runs—which had structural damage—constructing a new roof over the dog runs, install-ing new plumbing, heating, air conditioning and a boiler, lay-ing new electrical wires, con-structing a food prep room for the animals and adding an in-house veterinary clinic.

Zappia did not know the ex-act cost for all the renovations but estimates the cost at “sev-eral hundreds of thousands of

Pet rescueGrand oPeninG

Sunday, July 132 p.m. to 6 p.m.7 Harrison Ave.

Harrison

dollars” which Pet Rescue had originally intended to spend on purchasing a property for their own facility.

While much of the major work has been completed or is near completion, Zappia said this is just phase one of a three-phase project that will take years to complete. Currently, Pet Rescue is look-ing to fundraise to repair the fencing around the facility and the driveway into the facility and will fundraise for other improvements in the future.

With some dogs already in the new facility and cats com-ing in the upcoming weeks, Pet Rescue will welcome the community to the new space at its grand opening event. Visitors can take a behind-the-scenes tour of the facility and meet animals eligible for adoption.

“We want to be a commu-nity place where people want to come and adopt locally,” Zappia said. “We’ve never had our own place, so it will be nice to invite the public to the new space. And of course we want to continue our mission of rescuing animals.”

Harrison Mayor Ron Bel-mont could not be reached for comment as of press time.

After Pet Rescue took over this Harrison facility in October, it began renovating the space, including building a new wall that was declared structurally unsound.

The Harrison Avenue facility was once occupied by the Westchester Shore Humane Society, but was closed in June 2013 due to financial challenges. Photos courtesy ny-petrescue.org

Pet Rescue spent hundreds of thousands of dollars renovating the facility. It gutted the old dog runs and enclosures and built 22 new runs and indoor enclosures.


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HarrisonTHE

REVIEW



By PhiL noBiLe

As the Harrison Police De-partment continues to enjoy steady salary, staff and equip-ment increases, the department further widens its gap from nearby municipalities in terms of spending and manpower, and continues to ignore a local law dating back to 2002 regarding the town’s top salary.

In the final moments of the last 2013 Town Council meet-ing, following a lengthy private to the public executive ses-sion teetering on three hours, the council passed an initially redacted police chief stipend, salary increases and addition-al hires for the town’s Law Enforcement Department. The decisions, passed unanimously by the five-member, all-Repub-lican Town Council, continue a trend of steady increases that has some town residents and critics of the current adminis-tration concerned.

To that extent, and thanks to plenty of allotted overtime hours, one Harrison police of-ficer exceeded $200,000 in pay and another neared it in 2013.

Danny Grant, a sergeant, and William Currow, a detective, made $211,980 and $197,222 in 2013 respectively, accord-ing to numbers obtained by the Harrison Review through a Freedom of Information Law request for police overtime fig-ures. Their base salaries were $111,034 and $105,291.

Initially, police overtime was budgeted at $500,000 for 2013, but the numbers more than doubled projections, eclipsing $1.2 million by year’s end. In 2014, $600,000 is budgeted for overtime.

Comparable municipalities in terms of population, such as the Town of Mamaroneck and Eastchester, spent approxi-mately $423,000 and $99,000 on police overtime respectively in 2013.

Harrison Mayor Ron Bel-mont, a Republican, said nu-merous police investigations on the department’s end were the reasons behind the higher-than-budgeted overtime amounts for the town.

“We have had some really heavy-duty investigations while I’ve been here, and had some real bad people in town

Police pay, stipend scrutinized

A controversial police chief stipend made its way back to the Town Council for approval at the end of 2013, bringing renewed criticism and concern over police expenditures as a whole. File photo

and we’ve done our best to get rid of them,” he said. “There have been investigations we’ve solved that other communities threw their hands in the air and said ‘it’s not going to happen.”

Belmont referred to the Nov. 12, 2013 arrest of three gypsy contract scammers who trav-eled the country for a decade scamming people out of ser-vices for more than $1 million.

Citing 2012’s Hurricane Sandy and emergency situa-tions, Harrison Police Chief Anthony Marraccini said that his department displays exem-plary effort for the community which requires the high over-time hours.

“If an officer is working and we are actively engaged in criminal investigations, I be-lieve the overtime is justified,” Marraccini said. “The Harrison Police Department prides itself in going above and beyond to assist the residents of this com-munity. Unfortunately, it comes with a price tag.”

Along with overtime budgets, Harrison’s Police Department also has a higher number of to-tal personnel when compared to similar municipalities in the area. The total number of employees in Harrison’s Police Department is 74, including 10 civilian workers. Harrison’s population, according to 2012 United States Census Bureau numbers, is 27,785.

In the Town of Mamaroneck, which has the closest popula-tion to Harrison’s at 29,156, according to 2010 census numbers, there are 39 total po-lice department personnel. In Eastchester, there are 50 total police personnel for a town population of 32,363.

“They have a very demand-ing job that can be dangerous, which has to be recognized, but it still has to be in the context of what is being paid in neighbor-ing municipalities and what the town can afford,” Joan Walsh, a former Democratic Harrison

mayor said.Total police salaries are just

under $6.3 million, accounting for almost a third of total town salaries this year, which total more than $19 million, accord-ing to the town’s adopted bud-get for 2014.

The Town of Mamaroneck is budgeting to spend $4.5 mil-lion on its police salaries and Eastchester $5.2 million based on the municipalities’ respec-tive 2014 budgets.

Mayor Belmont, however, said Harrison and its police en-deavors are “incomparable” to that of other communities due to unique aspects of the town.

“Our community cannot be compared to other communi-ties,” he said. “The other com-munities that we are sometimes compared to have our square mileage, but don’t have three or four major highways going through town, train station and a corporate sector [Westchester Avenue] that we have, which is second-to-none for a town of our size.”

Chief Marraccini described the police department as “un-derstaffed,” hoping to reach 70 to 74 officers in the future.

“There are many more things and many more investigations that we need to be doing here,” Marraccini said. “In Harrison, we take policing very seriously, and we take helping our resi-dents very seriously.”

But beyond officer pay, the pay of the town’s top cop has also been the topic of much de-bate receiving some criticism, and actually violating town code. According to the code, the mayor’s salary must be fixed at a rate of at least $1 more than any other town employee. The law, enacted under the admin-istration of former Republican mayor and current town coun-cilman Stephen Malfitano, has been ignored since 2011, when the police chief’s salary first eclipsed the mayor’s by more than $700.

Belmont, when asked why the town currently wasn’t fol-lowing the law, said “Joan Walsh did not follow it and nor will I.” He said the law would probably get changed pend-ing referral to the town’s Law Department.

Town Attorney Frank Alle-gretti, who was in place when the law was enacted, said the 2002 Town Council was of the mind-set that the supervisor should be the highest-paid official at the time. According to Allegretti, any change in policy the current council would have to enact.

“You’re talking about a tech-nical violation,” Allegretti said when asked about possible re-percussions. “The current su-pervisor, at the least, is looking to save the taxpayers money by not demanding the provision be enforced and not demanding the salary he is entitled to.”

The police chief’s salary is ex-pected to rise to $168,568 while the mayor’s is slated to remain at the current rate of $155,376, according to the town budget, further dividing the gap between the two position’s pay. The salary and the stipend for the chief puts Marraccini more than $25,000

higher in pay than Belmont.The mayor’s salary has re-

mained relatively steady since 2008 when Walsh began her term as mayor. The salary of the police chief, however, has grown by almost $20,000 from that point, and has increased $40,000 since 2004, not in-cluding an additional stipend recently awarded to Maraccini.

Initial criticism of police expenditures came as a result of the stipend and it being im-posed and redacted swiftly. Originally, the Town Council passed an $18,000 stipend on Aug. 1, 2013 for the police chief for the purpose of fulfill-ing additional duties for a va-cant police captain position. Since Marraccini, a former cap-tain, was appointed in March 2010, his position has remained unfulfilled.

But, the stipend was then reinstated in the amount of $12,000 at the tail end of the Dec. 17, 2013 council meeting, the final meeting of the calen-dar year.

Walsh, who was defeated by Belmont for a second straight time in the 2013 election, spoke out against the stipend when it

was originally enacted in August 2013, and questioned whether the department was seeking to fill the captain position.

“I don’t think it’s neces-sary,” Walsh said. “I think that [Marraccini] should be satisfied with his salary and not always seeking to improve it.”

Belmont said the August sti-pend wasn’t appropriate tim-ing and rescinded it less than a month later. Belmont said the end of 2013 was the right time instead, declining further expla-nation as to why conditions had changed.

According to Belmont, the amount the town’s department is being paid and spending is appropriate, and important to the Harrison way of life.

“People choose to live here because they know it’s a safe community, it’s where people want to raise their children and be comfortable, and se-niors want to stay here and feel comfortable,” Belmont said. “It’s not like New York City when you call and don’t know when or if they’ll show up. Here you call and they’re there in minutes, and that’s what people want.”



HBO series filmed in HarrisonBy Chris eBerharT

Last week, the Town of Har-rison played host to a filming session for the upcoming HBO drama series “The Leftovers,” which is headlined by writer Damon Lindelof in his first re-turn to TV since he co-created the hit television show “Lost.”

A scene from “The Left-overs,” which is based on the 2011 bestselling book by Tom Perotta, was filmed on Friday, March 14 at the Harrison po-lice station at 650 North St., but producer Nan Bernstein said more filming days in Har-rison could be coming.

The book takes place in a small town three years after the mysterious disappearance of 140 million people during a rapture-like event. Those left behind are trying to put their lives back together.

The book follows one fam-ily in particular—the Garvey family—who didn’t lose any family members in the rapture but has fallen apart in its after-math. The father, Kevin Gar-vey, played by Justin Theroux, watches his children change and his wife join a cult called “The Guilty Remnant.”

The scene that takes place in Harrison, Bernstein said, is dur-

ing wintertime and the mayor of the fictional town of Mapleton, played by Amanda Warren, is released from prison and travel-ing on a bus to the northeast.

The northeast bus stop was filmed in the New Rochelle bus terminal at 1 Station Plaza.

Bernstein said “The Left-overs” will feature an ongoing tug of war between the mayor and police over how the town should be run after the rapture-like event.

The $40 million HBO dra-ma series will make other stops in Westchester County, includ-ing Mt. Vernon, Hastings and Nyack in addition to Harrison and New Rochelle before its summer release.

In addition to Lindelof’s re-

turn, the television series will also include actors Liv Tyler and Amy Brenneman, along with producer and director Peter Berg.

Bernstein said each area of Westchester County was cho-sen for specific places in the fictional community.

“Certain locations were need-ed for certain scenes,” Bernstein said. “We needed dry cleaners with rotating racks so we’re in Hastings. In Harrison, we needed the police stations and houses there. In New Rochelle, we needed the bus stop. And the town we are showing is a fake town, it can be made up of a whole different number of towns.”

In return for hosting the film session at the Harrison police

station, the town’s police de-partment will receive a donation from Warner Brothers, which is paying for the HBO series, but Bernstein said she didn’t want to release the amount.

According to a letter from Harrison Police Chief Anthony Marraccini to the Town Coun-cil asking it to approve the

filming, the donation will be “earmarked for use at the dis-cretion of the chief of police.”

In addition to the donation, Bernstein said the crews are encouraged to shop locally to support the municipalities’ economy to balance the incon-veniences of having cameras and crews in the streets.

We really make it worth-while for the local host com-munity by shopping locally,” Bernstein said. “So when we take the crew out to pizza, we’ll eat at a place in Harrison and spend $500 on pizza.”

The filming was approved by the council during its March 6 meeting.

Filming for the upcoming HBO drama series “The Leftovers” took place at the Harrison Police Station. Photos/Bobby Begun

Christmas decorations were scattered around Harrison’s police department for the filming of the HBO series “The Leftovers,” which takes place during the holiday season.

On March 14, film crews set-up their equipment in front of Harrison’s police department for “The Leftovers” filming.

Cameras for the “The Leftovers” fill Harrrison Police Chief Anthony Marracini’s parking space.


By aLina surieL

After many years of vacancy, plans to develop the old movie theater on Harrison Avenue are now finally in the works.

Representatives of the de-veloping company, Verco Prop-erties, located in the Village of Mamaroneck, were at a recent Harrison Town Planning Board meeting to discuss their plans for the 227 Harrison Ave. site, which they are naming the Harrison Playhouse. Verco, a company owned by John and Chris Verni, intends to turn the old theater into a mixed use property, with 42 luxury apartments above commercial spaces on the street level. The vintage look of the commer-cial spaces on the street will be restored as Verco is plan-ning to refurbish the facade of the building to resemble the original design.

On the phone with the Re-view, John Verni spoke to how his project will fit into the gen-eral trend of development in the downtown Harrison area.

“It’s transit-oriented devel-opment; it compliments every-thing going on in downtown Harrison,” said Verni, an un-successful candidate for county legislator last year. “Being half a block from the train, we’re thinking it’s the perfect project.”

One of the issues that still needs to be resolved is the el-evation of the entire structure in relation to the surrounding area.

A study commissioned by Verco Properties found that there are other buildings in the downtown Harrison area which are at least as tall as the proposed height of their building, but board members

The old movie theater on Harrison Avenue, pictured, will be remodeled in the coming year into a mixed-use building with luxury apartments on the upper levels, if a new proposal is approved by the town. Photo/Alina Suriel

Project proposed for old theaterwere quick to note that at six stories, Harrison Playhouse would violate the town’s zon-ing code, which mandates no more than four stories in the business district.

The developers maintained that the extra two stories are an economic necessity to recoup their investment of the prop-erty while building a structure which would keep the vintage facade of the building, com-ply with regulations on how far the structure must be from the street and provide the nec-essary parking. If they were to build the project with only four stories, they would lose 14 to 17 units, revenue need-ed to cover the cost of build-ing two levels of underground parking to service both resi-dents and shoppers in the com-mercial properties.

In order to decide whether or not the structure would be sent through to the Harrison zoning board, the board asked for renderings of the proposal from street level as well as ren-derings of the elevation level of the structure without the obstruction of the surrounding buildings.

Although the look and style of the Harrison Playhouse will pay homage to the theater’s past, there are also some excit-ing new technologies featured in the proposal. The luxury apartments will be utilizing a form of eco-conscious de-sign which will ultimately de-crease energy needed to heat and cool the units. According to the project’s architect, Ste-phen Tilly, this will be done by sealing the apartments and installing individual mechani-cal temperature regulation systems in each. By doing

this, Tilly is able to cut down on inefficiencies created by having a traditional building-wide boiler system.

In a phone interview this week, Tilly described how environmentally friendly the project is compared to similar developments.

“We like to think we’re on the cutting edge, and it’s get-ting more and more common around the country,” he said. “Building codes are starting to improve. It’s not common practice right now, but common practice is getting better and better. This will certainly be better than common practice.”

Councilman Joe Cannella, a Republican, did not comment on the specifics of the Verco proposal, but did offer insight into issues affecting develop-ment of the downtown area.

“Everything needs to be looked at, and we are sensitive to height issues and density issues in general,” said Can-nella. “Our streets are narrow, and we’re concerned about traffic...The question is the details, and what’s good for the community.”

According to Tilly, the team first started looking at the site with interests to develop it as far back as 2006. Tilly said that if all the proposals pass, the project would ideally break ground sometime in 2015 and require around 18 months of construction.

Verco Properties and Tilly were also jointly responsible for the revitalization of an-other local vacant structure in 2010, renovating the Mama-roneck Metro-North train sta-tion into what is now the New American cuisine restaurant, Club Car.

Originally published 10/3/2014 Originally published 11/21/2014

Police shut down tri-state burglary ring

By aLina surieL

It’s not so great to be in Harrison if you’re a criminal.

Harrison police busted members of a seven-member burglary ring with suspected ties to over 25 burglaries in the tri-state area after apprehend-ing two of the alleged thieves following a heist in nearby Fairfield, Conn.

According to the Harrison Police Department, a two-month crime spree attributed to the group began to unravel when Angelo Carzoglio, of Broome Street in New York City, and Rafael Sanchez, of W. 143 St. in Harlem, were ap-prehended on the Hutchinson River Parkway on Oct. 21 af-ter allegedly fleeing from their latest home burglary. The two men had a stolen safe and a pillowcase containing jewelry swiped from Fairfield in their possession when they were detained.

Surveillance, which police had already taken of Carzoglio, revealed he had been burglar-izing homes throughout New York and Connecticut with San-chez and an additional member of the ring, Marie Nikgjonaj of Valentine Avenue in the Bronx.

Officers arrested Nikgjonaj following the arrest of Carzo-glio and Sanchez.

Police investigation on the group began after a home in the Purchase Estates cul-de-sac in the Purchase area of Harrison was found burglar-ized on Sept. 22. Video evi-dence obtained after this inci-dent and license plate reading technology used by Harrison police triggered what would be a two-month joint inves-tigation which saw Harrison law enforcement working with the Westchester County District Attorney’s Organized Crime Division and the Spe-cial Investigation Squad of Bergen County, N. J., to inves-tigate this incident’s connec-tion to burglaries committed throughout Westchester and Putnam counties, Long Island and Connecticut.

Harrison Police Chief An-thony Marraccini was proud of his department’s involve-ment in catching such prolific criminals.

“What a premier case this

Manhattan Diamond district merchant David Tadjijev, pictured, is named by Harrison police as the a of a seven-member burglary ring which targeted communities from Putnam County to Long Island. Photo courtesy Harrison police

was,” Marraccini said. “It’s re-ally a service to our commu-nity and other communities.”

According to Harrison po-lice, the group broke into af-fluent homes while they ap-peared to be unoccupied in the early hours of the morning. The suspects would then make their way into the master bed-rooms of these residences to steal jewelry, safes and other property, which they would transport out of the house in pillowcases also stolen from the victims.

The burglars would dispose of the stolen merchandise by selling it at a premium to Da-vid Tadjijev, the operator of a jewelry business in New York City’s diamond district. Tadji-jev was later revealed to be the primary organizer and master-mind behind the group, rent-ing out cars for the burglars to use which would eventually be traced back to him with license plate readers, most notably in the theft which started the investigation in Purchase Estates.

The group is also believed to have stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars in jewel-ry from a home in the Forest Lake area of West Harrison, and may have connections to a burglary in Wendover in Rye last December.

While authorities were in the process of investigating

the burglaries committed in Westchester, they uncovered a second arm of the organized crime group operating out of Bergen County who had also supplied Tadjijev with stolen jewels. Jamelle Singletary, Lawal Erskine and Jamaal Sermon, all of Teaneck, N.J., were arrested on Thursday, Nov. 6 after Harrison police were informed by the Bergen County Prosecutor’s office that the three had planned to meet the diamond dealer at his apartment in Astoria, Queens, for payment in exchange for handing off merchandise sto-len from two burglaries in their home state. Singletary and Erskine went ahead into Tadjijev’s apartment, while Sermon waited for them inside their vehicle. It was then that Harrison police proceeded to arrest all four of the men.

According to Harrison po-lice, Carzoglio, Sanchez and Nikgjonaj are currently being held in Westchester County Jail after having been charged with possession of stolen property.

Tadjijev, Singletary, Erskine and Sermon are at the same facility with charges of being fugitive from justice warrants, and are awaiting extradition to New Jersey. Additional charges are expected to be filed as the investigation is still ongoing.


By PhiL noBiLe

The New York City Football Club, a Major League Soccer affiliate which was set to train at Manhattanville College in Purchase, is taking their ball and going home.

Despite getting approval from Harrison’s land use boards and penning a deal with the Pur-chase area college, a lawsuit from three Purchase residents and the Purchase Environmen-tal Protective Association—a non-profit located in Purchase that monitors development pro-posals in the area—has effec-tively stopped the project in its tracks with the club pulling out of the deal on May 29.

The project, which called for more than $10 million in reno-vations to the college’s gym-nasium and the construction of two new regulation-sized fields, would have been donated in perpetuity when the club’s con-tract with the college ended in late 2019.

“It is unfortunate that a small group of very well re-sourced citizens chose to pur-sue this action against the col-lege,” Jon Strauss, president of Manhattanville College, said. “Had this partnership come to fruition, it would have pro-vided much needed capital improvements, important aca-demic and internship opportu-nities, and invaluable publicity to the college.”

At the April 22 Planning


MLS club backs outBoard meeting, a 4-2 majority vote approving the project was met with heavy criticism from members of the community as well as Michael Tokarz, presi-dent of PEPA, who vowed that the project “wouldn’t stand” and threatened lawsuits against the club, college and town. Residents cited possible noise and traffic issues in the com-munity as causes for concern.

Holding true to his word, Tokarz and PEPA filed a lawsuit with the New York State Supreme Court on May 7, seeking a reversal of the Planning Board’s approv-als and a temporary restrain-ing order to halt construction from proceeding on the proj-ect. Although a judge refused to grant the restraining order on May 7, the case was set to go before the judge again on June 25.

Because the possibility of litigation could have lasted lon-ger than a year, and because the team needs to be ready for play by early 2015, the New York City Football Club has aban-doned the plan altogether.

The club, which initially told the Review in April it was looking forward to “being great neighbors” and a part of the community, expressed disap-pointment with the outcome of its plans.

“Over the past several months, New York City Football Club has engaged in a transpar-ent, community-driven pro-cess required by the [Harrison]

Planning Board,” Risa Heller, a spokesperson for the club, said. “We are disappointed that this group has worked to overturn the actions of the town appoint-ed board, and that it has caused Manhattanville College to be denied this substantial improve-ment to their campus.”

From the beginning of the process, the club stressed it sought temporary training fa-cilities while searching for a permanent stadium and home in New York City. The Planning Board agreed to a term of five years, adding a mandatory re-view would be required after that period.

Along with training, the club planned to host its youth farm team and summer soccer camps at the college, which the college president cited as a missed op-portunity that could have ben-efited all of Westchester.

“The planned New York City Football Club academy teams and summer soccer camps would have been a great ben-efit to the youth of Purchase and Westchester County,” Strauss said. “Our student body and local youth have lost a tremen-dous opportunity here.”

The club’s inaugural season, which will begin in summer 2015, will be held at Yankee Stadium as it continues its search for a permanent home.

When asked for comment, PEPA Executive Director Anne Gold declined, saying “PEPA does not comment on matters in litigation.”

A plan to renovate Manhattanville College’s gymnasium and build two new soccer fields for MLS’ New York City Football Club has been axed after a local nonprofit filed a lawsuit in state Supreme Court. Photo courtesy Town of Harrison

By John Brandi

Emotions ran high at the Dec. 4 Harrison Town Council meeting over a proposed resi-dential parking system, due to what both residents and coun-cilmembers charge was a dis-semination of misinformation and misunderstandings.

About 60 residents flocked to the municipal building on Heineman Place, mostly to air their grievances over un-certainties regarding the pro-posed local law, which in-cluded questions about a fee for the permit, visitor parking and the number of spaces al-lowed for non-residents in the system’s boundary.

As it was proposed, the local law for a residential parking system would allow residents to obtain a parking permit to park on residential streets that bisect both sides of the Metro-North Harrison train station. The streets with-in the boundary were previ-ously determined by New York State in the mid-1990s, and the town board said at the public hearing that it can’t be changed unless it receives state approval.

According to a draft of the law, the residential streets iden-tified have been inundated with non-resident vehicles thus creat-ing “traffic hazards, congestion and air and noise pollution.”

The confusion began when residents thought they would have to pay a cost for the per-mit. However, the board wanted to make it clear, at the hearing, they wouldn’t propose a fee if the local law, proposed as Chapter 193 in the town code, moves forward.

The language in the draft, which hasn’t been updated and remains visible on the town’s website, has fee language in it, as of press time.

Village Attorney Jonathan Kraut admitted there was “fee language” in front of the board, but that those types of words would be stricken from the next draft. Still, the board has main-tained that the stipulation of no fee was always in place and was made public.

However, when a public hearing of the draft of the law was set for Nov. 6, some in the community immediately took


Uproar over permit proposaloffense, such as resident Robert Porto, who still maintains that the “law should be dead.”

At the Nov. 6 town board meeting, Porto mentioned the inclusion of a fee three times yet was not told otherwise by any member on the Town Council.

Councilman Joseph Cannel-la, a Republican, said he wasn’t sure when the announcement of no fee was made public, but said Mayor Ron Belmont, a Republican, had been an-swering such inquires in emails. Therefore, the council-man said he believes the provi-sion of no fee was “reasonably well known.”

Karen Moro, of Danner Av-enue, said the only way she found out more information about the local law and subse-quent public hearing was from Porto’s mailing to her home. She said finding out that way, through a neighbor, was a “lit-tle underhanded” of the board.

“This is not a Mickey Mou-se issue,” Moro said. “How about notification from the mail. We had to find out from our citizens.”

Moro said she’d like to see a permit system where workers, like plumbers and electricians, are considered and to have a system similar to handicap rearview mirror signs that cor-respond to residents, visitors and workers.

The town board also did not make any mention of the park-ing permit system at the subse-quent Nov. 19 meeting, to clear up any confusion.

Still, Cannella said that he believes some of the miscom-munication “was in part” due to the draft of the local law being “delivered to the board late.”

According to Councilman Stephen Malfitano, a Republi-can, the board receives a pack-et, with all the agenda items and associated supplemental mate-rial, before each meeting. He said the only goal was to set a public hearing during the Nov. 6 meeting, leaving no plans for an in-depth look at the pro-posed legislation.

Still, Cannella said the town board’s intention with the law was to put residents first.

“It was only intended to help people, [for] parking in front of their house without harass-ment,” he said.

However, Cannella made it clear that fee language will be stricken and residents will be safeguarded against a future fee from a different board, if the law moves forward.

Malfitano said the parking permit system wasn’t “meant to raise revenues” and was “only intended to aid and assist the community.”

“Suffice to say, it occurs to me, some of it had to do with a misperception,” Malfitano said of the atmosphere of the public hearing. “Others were there to listen and learn.”

However, Malfitano said with the issue of a fee, that there could have been a better “PR job” of dispersing accu-rate information on the part of the town. He said the mayor and the clerk’s office may send something out to counter Por-to’s mailing.

Susan Storms, a resident of Harrison Avenue, which is out-side the boundary of the park-ing system, said she was con-cerned that commuters would start to park on her street to avoid enforcement. She said it was “bizarre” that residents had no knowledge of the law and said it would be “good com-munity relations” if the town board was more transparent on the issue.

Residents also found fault with the length of time visi-tors could park, such as fam-ily members and babysitters, without having to move their vehicles. Also, residents took issue with the 20 percent of spots reserved for commuters, which is mandated by the state. The Town Council said they were unable to tinker with that provision as state law trumps town law.

The idea of a residential parking permit system has been “percolating” for years, after the state passed a boundary for where the town could en-force it, according to Malfitano. However, efforts to pass it kept stalling.

If Chapter 193 passes, Can-nella said he would like to see its affect and then bring it to West Harrison, which cur-rently doesn’t have a boundary in place and would need the state’s legislative approval for the adoption of one.

Calls to Belmont were not returned as of press time.


berg said. “This is a real crime and a tragedy. As the library’s Board of Trustees, we have an obligation to oppose any action the Purchase Community House takes against this jewel of the community.”

The community house’s di-rector, Jim Kelly, denied the claims from Goldberg and the library officials outright. He said the Board of Directors for the Purchase Community House has yet to make a spe-cific decision regarding the li-brary’s future.

“Our board has not yet made that final decision,” he said. “We commend the library and they’ve done a great job over the years, which makes this a tough conversation.”

Kelly, who has been the director of the community house for more than 15 years, said that the board has been in talks with the Purchase Free Library since December about possibly removing the library from the premises, citing se-curity concerns.

In a April 22, 2014, statement to the community, the Purchase Community House cited the li-brary as an “incompatible ten-ant” at the location due to the inability to “restrict entry or re-move a visitor from its leased premises” due to the library be-ing a public entity.

However, Kelly did not cite a specific instance of a security issue.

When asked about imple-menting a security guard instead of removing the library altogeth-er, Kelly said it was discussed “at length” by the community house board, but ultimately does not solve the potential problems.

“While having a security guard on-site would be benefi-

cial, this raises other concerns and does not address the fun-damental issue that the library cannot deny access to a public patron who wants to ‘hang out’ at the library,” Kelly said.

Library officials remain puz-zled as to why removal is being considered when circulation, transactions and total number of patrons have steadily in-creased over the past few years, according to numbers provid-ed by Purchase Free Library Administrator Linda Smith.

“When you think about li-braries in danger of closing, more than likely there is a lack of public funds or lack of com-munity support. This isn’t true with us,” Goldberg said. “We’re in the [town] budget, we’re very modest and we carefully attend to our finances, and we’re think-ing this is an arbitrary decision by the community house.”

According to Kelly, the li-brary’s performance and duties have nothing to do with remov-ing the library, and the master plan for the community house’s future is not related to the cur-rent dilemma.

The library, which has five part-time employees, is now mobilizing.

More than 400 signatures have been garnered online and on paper for a petition to keep the library afloat, according to Goldberg, who added the po-tential loss of the library violates the spirit and intent of the com-munity house according to the house’s creed of “fostering fel-lowship among Purchase resi-dents” and “wholesome activi-ties, which unite the neighbor-hood in loyalty.”

“Once the library is gone, [the Purchase community] won’t be getting it back,” Goldberg said.

By PhiL noBiLe

Despite a rise in total circu-lation numbers and a tradition spanning more than 80 years in Purchase, the community’s li-brary is facing possible removal from its premises, spawning a movement to keep the library put.

The Purchase Free Library, a tenant inside the Purchase Community House—a com-munity building that offers rec-reational activities—on the cor-ner of Anderson Hill Road and Purchase Street since 1928, is facing the possibility of leav-ing the historic location for good. According to Martha Goldberg, the president of the Purchase Free Library’s Board of Trustees, the community house has put them on a month-to-month lease since the begin-ning of the year, and the vision for the community house’s fu-ture does not include the com-munity library.

“We never thought for a mo-ment we could lose our space at the community house,” Goldberg said. “Our little library is one of the few educational hubs in the area. It has always been a fixture of Purchase.”

According to Goldberg, who has been the president of the library’s board for more than five years, the library normally renews its lease yearly with the community house. At the be-ginning of this year, though, the library was only give a monthly lease by the Purchase Community House and told it would be given “adequate no-tice” if it has to move out.

The Board of Directors for the Purchase Community House told concerned mem-bers of the library that a mas-ter plan had been in the works for the community house’s fu-ture to redesign interior and exterior aspects of the build-ing. Goldberg, other board members and employees of the library soon found out the Purchase Free Library was not included in the plans and, ac-cording to Goldberg, a vote will be held at the community house board’s May meeting that could ultimately oust them from the building.

“Several of our board mem-bers were told ‘it’s basically a done deal’ by the director of the community house,” Gold-

Purchase library may close

Members of the Purchase community have mobilized to support the library, including circulating a petition that has garnered more than 400 signatures from concerned residents, according to the library’s board president, Martha Goldberg. Photo courtesy Purchase Free Library


Former NFL exec named top citizen

By aLina surieL

Frank Cuce has lived in Harrison all his life, and he’s not going anywhere.

Many in the close knit sub-urban community can say the same, but Cuce—a former executive with the NFL and recent honoree as Harrison’s 2014 Citizen of the Year—is no ordinary Harrisonite.

Although he has encoun-tered many famous faces in the 32 years he spent as a senior manager in the larg-est and most visible profes-sional sports league, he never stopped thinking of how his position could be beneficial to those in his hometown. He was always on the lookout for NFL tickets or memorabilia to anonymously donate as foot-ball program incentives or for town raffles.

“The minute I got that job, because of what Harrison meant to me and did for me, I was going to do whatever I could to give back to this com-munity,” Cuce, 59, said. “Over the course of those three de-cades when I was in that busi-ness, whenever I got a request from the town, whether it was for a donation of hats, shirts, tickets, whatever, I always worked with the league to get something for the Town of Harrison.”

Cuce was born and raised in Harrison and as a boy lived on Calvert Street—next to Ma Riis Park, which he says was named after a former neighbor. His first job was picking up garbage for the Harrison De-partment of Public Works dur-ing summers while attending Harrison High School and later on, while studying sports com-munications at Ithaca College.

His football executive ca-reer effectively started in Har-rison in the mid 1970’s when he placed a resume in the mail-box of another town resident, former NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, every day for almost three months. Cuce’s dream job began when Rozelle finally reached out to him to schedule an interview and ask him to stop leaving resumes on his doorstep.

Once hired, Cuce, who now lives on Mathews Street, worked his way up, from an

entry level job in the mail-room to his eventual position as a senior manager. In that time, he achieved a level of success which would make any Harrison resident proud to call him their neighbor. He coordinated a preseason game dubbed the Ameri-can Bowl, in London, in 1989, between the Cleveland Browns and Philadelphia Eagles, managed all areas of NFL charities and also engi-neered the NFL’s conversion from Kodachrome film to VHS video tape.

Harrison Mayor Ron Bel-mont, a Republican, is quite familiar with Cuce from the 25 years he spent as supervi-sor of the Recreation Depart-ment accepting the multititude of Cuce’s donations to recre-ational programs.

“I think that Frank [Cuce] being chosen is a well deserved honor and it’s well overdue,” said the mayor. “Now he’s re-tired, he can sit back and ap-preciate the benefits of being chosen citizen of the year.”

Although Cuce retired from the NFL in 2009, he is by no means content.

Having previously volun-teered with the Harrison High School football program dur-ing the summers, in 2010 Cuce was hired as an assistant coach. He was on board for the team’s success that year, which in-cluded a trip for the Huskies to the state finals in Syracuse.

No longer an assistant coach, Cuce recently began a new po-

sition with the school district as its equipment manager for its sports teams.

Stewart Hanson, director of physical education, health and athletics for the Harrison Central School District, has only worked with Cuce in the year since he has been hired as equipment manager, but that brief period of time was enough for him to see Cuce’s impact.

“He is a vital link to the ef-ficiency of this department,” Hanson said. “He brings a wealth of experience from working for the NFL, and is a welcome addition to this department filling a niche in which we were in need of someone with his skill set to take over.”

Dominic Zanot, the new high school football coach, got to know Cuce during his time as an assistant coach with the program in 2010. Zanot said he is thankful for Cuce be-cause of how dedicated he is to helping out the team.

“He’s always there,” Zanot said. “He’s not really an of-ficial coach but he says ‘any-time you need anything, give me a call.’ He always picks up and he never says no.”

For Cuce, he is humbled by all the recognition.

“Harrison is a giving, car-ing community with a number of very well deserving peo-ple: first responders, veterans, etc.,” he said. “Those are the real citizens of the year every day. To be considered among that population is an honor.”

Harrison resident Frank Cuce was just named the town’s Citizen of the Year and will serve as grand marshall in this year’s “It’s great to live in Harrison” parade on Columbus Day, Monday, Oct. 13. Photo/Alina Suriel



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Originally published 5/23/2014 Originally published 12/5/2014

By PhiL noBiLe

Citing a slew of new vio-lations against town code, Harrison officials issued a hotly-disputed granite quarry in West Harrison a stop work order, shutting down all opera-tions indefinitely.

The stop work order, issued by Building Inspector Robert FitzSimmons on May 14, cites 16 code violations by the Lake Street Quarry, including a lack of explicit permits or approval for the delivery of fill, excess waste, legal fencing and for offices on the premises.

The decision to issue a stop work order against the con-tentious quarry comes at the tail end of revived criticism against the town and the quar-ry by the quarry’s neighbors.

Since March, neighbors of the quarry have appeared at Town Council meetings to voice their concerns to May-or Ron Belmont and council members, all Republicans, with complaints ranging from quality of life issues to po-tential health hazards from an abundance of dust coming from the rock quarry.

Residents have now seen the quarry effectively shut down after months of repeated criticisms.

When asked if residents’ criticism led to the new stop work order, Town Attorney Frank Allegretti declined com-ment and referred questions to FitzSimmons, who was un-available as of press time.

Belmont became agitated

Quarry hit with new stop work order

A local quarry in West Harrison with significant legal troubles over the past five years was forced to cease all operations indefinitely after a stop work order issued by the town last week. Photo/Phil Nobile

at the May 15 Town Council meeting when quarry neighbor Glenn Daher voiced his con-cerns to the board regarding potential health hazards, with Daher saying he had no idea what was in the extensive dust and debris himself and other neighbors have dealt with.

“I really don’t want to dis-cuss the situation you want to discuss,” Belmont said. “It’s in the courts now and there’s nothing left to discuss. It’s tak-ing its due course right now.”

Jimmi Pritchard, the Harri-son Democratic chairwoman, criticized the mayor and his administration’s handling of the situation, telling Belmont the process has been “too slow.”

“I understand that you say this thing is taking its course, but the course has been thrown off-base a little bit,” Pritchard said. “This board and the courts need to do something about this, because it’s not right. It continues at the expense of the health and the well-being of Harrison citizens.”

Legal issues and hefty con-cerns from abutting neighbors have surrounded the quarry’s operations for more than five years.

In 2009, a stop work order was issued against Lake Street Quarry president Lawrence Barrego’s business after com-plaints from neighbors about late-night equipment usage, halting all excavation and op-eration of heavy machinery on the property due to a lack of required permits. But the 2009 stop work order did not close

down Barrego’s facility entire-ly, leaving the quarry neighbors to continue to voice concerns about the operation, which the town recently issued new viola-tions for while also stopping all business activity on site.

Barrego argued the compa-ny was grandfathered in, that it pre-dated the town code which was adopted in 1923, and was therefore exempt from it. However, the Town Council felt otherwise, citing a lack of sufficient evidence to prove the quarry president’s claims.

The matter was set to re-appear in town court the day after the quarry’s operations were halted on May 15, but due to an absent attorney on the quarry’s end, the matter was delayed.

Barrego appeared in court without his attorney, Michael Sirignano, leaving Allegretti and presiding Judge Marc Lust without room to move the case forward.

“To opt out this way was not the right thing to do,” Lust said in regards to not showing up in court but giving a letter for Barrego to give to the court instead. “[Sirignano] should have made sure he got approv-al from the court first.”

The delay was the second time Sirignano did not show up to town court; the first absence was formally excused. The most recent absence was not.

The case between Barrego’s quarry and the town is set to reappear in town court on June 12. Sirignano could not be reached as of press time.

By John Brandi

The transit-oriented de-velopment known as Ava-lon Harrison, written into the town’s 2013 master plan, was presented to residents at a Nov. 19 Town Council meeting, after confidentiality agreements pre-vented town officials from even mentioning its details in the past.

Representatives of the proj-ect revealed site details for the interior and exterior of the site, based on preliminary designs, that will run parallel, on a near-ly 3.3-acre plot, to the Harri-son Metro-North train station. The MTA voted in favor of entering into a joint develop-ment agreement back in Oc-tober with the town and Ava-lon Bay that had the MTA sell the parcel for an undisclosed amount. The project calls for the construction of three, four-story mixed-use buildings and two pedestrian plazas that will include 143 units.

Mayor Ron Belmont, a Re-publican, said the project is long overdue, as it has been in the developmental stage since at least the mid-90’s.

“It’s going to be great and a real renaissance for the down-town [area],” Belmont said.

Mark Weingarten, an attor-ney from White Plains-based DelBello Donnellan Wein-garten Wise & Wiederkehr, LLP representing Avalon, said the project will get Harrison “moving forward in the years to come” and that Avalon is the type of company that actu-ally comes in and stays around to manage the properties that it constructs. Weingarten said the target demographic for the complex is “young profession-als and empty nesters.”

Additional information presented at the public meet-ing provided specifics of the proposal. The buildings will consist of 80 one-bedroom units and 63 two-bedroom units. Grant Jaber, Avalon Bay development director, said there are more one bed-room units to cater to the un-der-35 crowd that will use the downtown area.

The apartments are said to be 1,000 square-feet on average and are designed to be “luxury brand” with hard-wood floors, stone and gran-

Representatives for the Avalon Bay transit-oriented development proposed for downtown Harrison presented design and specifics of the project at a November Town Council meeting. Photo courtesy Avalon Bay

Avalon Bay project presented to public

ite countertops and stainless steel appliances designed around a café-style dining model, according to Jaber. Ceilings will be approxi-mately nine feet tall and units will have customized closets, Jaber said.

Residents will also have ac-cess to nearly 5,000 square-feet of amenities in their building which include a large fitness center, a lounge and a lobby.

On the ground level, 27,000 square-feet of retail is planned along the streetscape on Hal-stead Avenue which is de-signed, according to Jaber, to “activate both sides of the street.” Restaurants, a coffee shop, “convenient retail” and a small grocer are planned for the ground-floor space.

“We hope it revitilizes the downtown and that there’s more parking for commuters and more retail [space],” Jaber said.

Although the design stage is still being finalized, Jaber said the renderings seek to match the character of the downtown with the goal to break up the visual element of the building by using “lots of glass, awnings and light fix-tures” and to make the Har-rison clock, the iconic time piece of the town currently in front of the train station, a per-manent feature. Jaber said the company is working closely with a streetscape designer for this effect.

As for parking, the Review previously reported Avalon would construct underground and rear, street-level parking spots on both ends of the de-velopment. The total number of spots are expected to be 747.

A further breakdown in-

cludes an underground and “invisible” parking garage on the development’s east end with 568 spots, 475 parking spaces of which would be re-served for train commuters, 40 spaces for retail customers and 53 spaces for residents. On the development’s west end, there will be 52 surface level spaces behind the building for cus-tomers using the retail compo-nents of the development and 126 spaces below ground for residents, which will remain invisible to pedestrians.

Jaber said, the pedestrian pla-zas, which are expected to be 60 feet wide, will link Halstead Av-enue to the train platform.

Weingarten said the devel-opment will bring in $750,000 in tax revenue for the town, will require limited munici-pal services and generate few school-aged children. On the matter of schools, the attorney said about 55 percent of the $750,000 goes to the district. The development will create 40 permanent jobs and about 50 short-term construction jobs. However, Weingarten said the project will increase pedestrian foot traffic on the streetscape.

Jaber said the immediate next step is to officially submit the plans to the Town Coun-cil by the beginning of next year. Representatives said they believe it will be a 28-month timeframe to complete the project, from acquiring build-ing permits to the final con-struction phase.

Harrison Comptroller Mau-reen MacKenzie and Council-man Joe Cannella could not be reached for comment as of press time.

14 • The harrison review • December 26, 2014 & January 2, 2015 SPORTS

Huskies reach semisBy MiKe sMiTh

Harrison may be known as a football town but, as the last few weeks have shown, Huskies supporters will always turn out to cheer on a winner.

On Feb. 19, in front of a packed home gym, Harrison’s basketball team clawed its way to the biggest win in the pro-gram’s history with a 60-56 win over Somers. The win earned Harrison a chance to play in the Class A semifinals at the County Center, uncharted terri-tory for the Huskies’ squad.

A back-and-forth game saw both teams wrestle for control until Harrison’s Matt Stein hit a three-pointer with 1:10 left on the clock that all but sealed the deal for the Huskies, send-ing them to the County Center.

Stein, who finished with a team-high 15 points on the night, said the shot was no dif-ferent than the thousands of threes he has hoisted during practices.

“It just felt like any other shot,” the senior said. “The impact, it didn’t really hit me right then, I kind of don’t re-member what happened.”

That three-pointer was one of Harrison’s 11 on the night, as the Huskies squared off

with a Somers team that had its own thee-point specialists in Matt Moros and Connor Cousins, as well as a 6-foot-9 big man in Max Parks.

Coby Lefkowitz was right behind Stein with 14 points on the night, and Harrison forced a whopping 16 Somers’ turnovers.

“Offensively, we played re-ally good but we struggled against their defense,” head coach Gary Chiarella said. “When their defense is that tough, it’s good when you’re shooting that well.”

Harrison’s players have ex-ecuted a balanced offensive at-tack all season long, something Lefkowitz attributes to the fact that the team has played togeth-er for so long–even before tak-ing the court as varsity players.

“There was a point in the year where we were having five players reach double dig-its, and that’s unheard of at this level,” Lefkowitz said. “If one of our guys is having an off night, someone is going to step up and we go 12 deep.”

If the five athletes on the court weren’t enough, said the Harrison players, the Huskies’ sixth man was also in force on Wednesday as the gymna-sium was packed to the rafters with fans donning the maroon and white.

“I can’t remember the last time they’ve had to pull out all four bleachers,” Stein said.

“I’m surprised because it’s February break and so many of our friends were either on vacation or had other commit-ments,” Lefkowitz said. “But it was great to have so much support from the fans.”

Harrison will be tested on Feb. 26 when the team heads to the County Center to take on top-seeded Eastchester in the Class A semifinals after press time. The Eagles are coming off a 19-point win over Byram Hills and were the top-rated Class A team from wire-to-wire this winter.

“We know they’re number one for a reason,” Lefkowitz said. “We just have to be dis-ciplined and keep it close until the end of the game.”

Against an up-tempo team like Eastchester, Chiarella said, keeping composure will be key for the Huskies.

“They like to press, run and shoot the ball quickly,” he said. “We just have to make sure we can get the rebounds and play some defense.”

Coby Lefkowitz puts up a shot against Somer’s 6-foot-9 Max Perkins. Lefkowitz finished with 14 points.

Nick Esposito drives to the hole on Feb. 19. The Huskies are headed to their first County Center semifinal appearance. Photos/Bobby Begun

Nick Esposito goes up for a layup against Somers in the Class A quarterfinals. Harrison’s win allows the team to advance to a semifinal game with Eastchester.

Matt Stein takes a jumper in the lane against Somers on Feb. 19. Stein scored 15 points for the Huskies and hit a late three-pointer to seal the win for Harrison.


December 26, 2014 & January 2, 2015 • The harrison review • 15SPORTS

Sports aids healing processBy MiKe sMiTh

The Harrison athletic com-munity banded together last week to support two families devastated by recent tragedy. With a candlelight vigil on Thursday, Nov. 13 and char-ity soccer game the following day, Harrison High School students helped to reaffirm the healing power of sports and its ability to bring people together in times of need.

Twice over the last two weeks, Harrison’s community has had reason to grieve.

On Nov. 3, resident Reyda LaMadrid, 47, a mother of three, was killed in the early morning hours when her ve-hicle was struck by a drunk driver traveling the wrong way on South Lexington Avenue in White Plains. Five days later, on Nov. 8, the community was hit hard again when 16-year-old Harrison High School ju-nior Andrew Gurgitano died suddenly in his sleep.

Given the ties that both families had to Harrison’s Athletic Department—Gurgi-tano pitched on the Huskies’ varsity baseball team while LaMadrid’s son, Joseph Lopez is a member of the JV soccer team—it seemed only natural

to turn to the world of sports to make sense of the losses.

On Friday, Nov. 14, the Harrison soccer program held its annual Maroon and White scrimmage with the two sides comprised of players from the JV and Varsity squads. This year, all funds raised by the $5 admission tickets and the con-cessions being sold were given directly to the Lopez family to help defray the costs of medi-cal bills and the funeral.

According to varsity coach

Matt Pringle, the idea to turn the annual scrimmage into a fundraiser seemed like an ob-vious decision.

“Right when we heard, the wheels started turning,” said Pringle. “We started thinking about how we could help Joe, how we could support the fam-ily, and it just seemed like the perfect way to do that.”

The previous night, stu-dents, faculty and residents took to the high school base-ball field to take part in a can-

Harrison baseball, softball and volleyball athletes crowd around the pitcher’s mound on Nov. 13. Speakers offered words of comfort to Andrew Gurgitano’s friends and family. Photos/Bobby Begun

On Nov. 13, a candlelight vigil was held on Harrison’s baseball field in memory of Andrew Gurgitano. Gurgitano, 16, died suddenly on Nov. 8.

dlelight vigil in remembrance of Gurgitano that was hosted by the Huskies’ baseball, soft-ball and volleyball teams. As onlookers gathered around the infield, those who knew Gurgi-tano best offered their memo-ries on the pitcher’s mound where the southpaw hurler starred for the Harrison team last spring.

Dean McCarthy, Gurgitano’s classmate and teammate, said that as the community struggled

to cope with the loss, they should find comfort in the way the town rallied together in a time of crisis.

“The only positive thing I can personally take away from this situation is the unity,” Mc-Carthy said. “There has been so much love between the stu-dent body and the whole Har-rison community that brings so much warmth to his family’s hearts, it just shows us how strong we are when we stay to-gether as a family.”

Two Harrison soccer players meet on the pitch during a Nov. 14 scrimmage to raise money for the family of JV player Joseph Lopez. On Nov. 3, Lopez’s mother, Reyda LaMadrid, was killed by an alleged drunk driver.

The flag at McGillicuddy Stadium flies at half-mast during a moment of silence prior to a Nov. 14 soccer game. Photos/Mike Smith


16 • The harrison review • December 26, 2014 & January 2, 2015 SPORTS

Rye tops HarrisonBy MiKe sMiTh

With an appearance in the Class A finals and a Section I passing record to his name, Rye senior Andrew Livingston had accomplished a lot in his three years under center for the Garnets. But coming into 2014, there was one thing that Liv-ingston hadn’t managed to do; lead his team to a victory over the Harrison Huskies at home.

On Sept. 13, however, Liv-ingston and the Garnets were able to best the Huskies at Nugent Stadium, winning the 84th installment of “The Game” 24-13.

Rye has now won nine of the last 10 meetings between the two schools, Harrison’s last win coming in 2012 against another Livingston-led team.

“This was definitely some-thing we wanted to do for our home fans,” said Livingston after Saturday’s win.” Espe-cially since they beat us here my sophomore year.”

Livingston threw for 161 yards and ran for 79 yards and

a score against the Huskies, proving that the senior signal caller can get it done with his legs as well as his arm.

“I knew coming into the preseason that I might be run-ning the ball a little more,” said Livingston. “So I was ready to get a lot more carries this year.”

Senior running back Cartier Johnson added two scores of his own on the day, and Liv-ingston was able to spread the ball around against the Hus-

kies defense, who came into the game looking to bottle up the quarterback’s favorite tar-get in Tim DeGraw.

“We knew this year that teams would be looking to lock [DeGraw] up,” said Liv-ingston. “But our other guys really stepped up and we’ve got guys like [Brett] Egan and [Drew] Abate who I think people will have to watch out for.”

The Garnets jumped out to a 14-0 lead against Harrison,

but Harrison battled back late in the second quarter, utiliz-ing a punishing rushing attack to march down the field and find the end zone on a Rashan Gilmore touchdown. After Christian LoDolce recovered a Garnet fumble in the second half, Huskies’ QB Joe Nan-narriello hit Zach Evans for Harrison’s second score to cut Rye’s lead to 17-13.

It would be as close as the Huskies would come, howev-er, as another Rye score would seal the deal.

With the win, Rye improved to 2-0 on the season. The Hus-kies—who showed much im-provement this week—are still searching for their first win. Harrison will travel to Somers to take on the defending Class A champs on Sept. 19, while Rye will look to stay unbeaten against Sleepy Hollow the fol-lowing day.

“I think this win shows that we can grind it out, that we’re tough,” said Livingston after the game. “We’re going to look to build on this.

Michael Dragone sheds a tackle on Sept. 13. Dragone and the Huskies were able to move the ball on the ground against Rye.

Rashan Gilmore fights for the extra yard against Rye. Photos/Bobby BegunRye quarterback Andrew Livingston carries the ball against the Huskies. Livingston threw for 161 yards and rushed for 79.

Cartier Johnson comes around the corner against Harrison on Sept. 13. Johnson ran for two touchdowns against the Huskies.


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