(PICTURE: Rye City Hall by local artist Heather Patterson)
The city council's agenda for its meeting on Monday, August 6, 2012 is out.
There will be a regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Rye on this Monday, August 6, 2012, at 8:00 pm in the Council Room of City Hall (the meeting was originally scheduled for Wednesday the 8th). The meeting will be preceded by the Presentation of the 2013-2017 Capital Improvements Program beginning at 7:00 pm.
Office Hours of the Mayor by appointment by emailing dfrench@ryeny.gov.
Meetings are also aired on Cablevision Channel 75 and Verizon Channel 39. We'll also see you on the Internet (live and archive).
Let's check the batting order and highlights from the 21 agenda items.
- Two Alarm. Approval of the election of two new members to the Rye Fire Department.
- Smokey. Consideration to set a Public Hearing for September 12, 2012 to amend Chapter 98, “Fire Prevention” of the Code of the City of Rye by amending §98-4 “Board of Fire Wardens; Fire Inspector” regarding the Fire Inspector/Supervisor position for the Rye Fire Department.
- Doug's Details. Update on Bridge projects, Update on Forest Avenue Sharrows project, Legal update.
- Bonding. Continuation of Public Hearing to discuss potential capital projects to be included in a
November, 2012 Bond Referendum & Public Hearing to adopt bond resolutions for the November, 2012 Referendum for capital projects. - For Sale. Update and Discussion of the proposals for the property located at 1037 Boston Post Road: Purchase and Sale Agreement between the City of Rye and Lester’s of Rye, LLC for the right of first refusal; Broker agreement between the City of Rye and CBRE to market the property.
- Norma Rae. Resolution to approve a Memorandum of Agreement between the City of Rye and the Rye CSEA Local 1000 Clerical Unit.
- Open Mic. Residents may be heard who have matters to discuss that do not appear on the agenda. Always a crowd pleaser…
- Blue Code. Consideration of proposed revision of the Rules and Regulations of the City of Rye Police Department.
- Boo! Consideration of request for permission to close a section of Purchase Street for the 60th
annual celebration of the Halloween Window Painting Contest. - Rock On! Resolution to grant permission to the Rye Free Reading Room to hold a free public concert on the Village Green on Sunday, October 14, 2012 at 2 pm.
- Tape This One. Old Business. Discussion regarding Andrew Dapolite’s letter to the Board of Ethics
The next regular meeting of the City Council will be held on Wednesday, September 12, 2012 at 8:00 pm. A special meeting of the City Council will be held on Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 7:00 pm in the Mayor’s Conference Room. It is expected that the Council will adjourn into Executive Session to discuss litigation strategy. A special meeting of the City Council on proposed real estate matters will be held on Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 8:00 pm.
RYE’S HEN ISLAND “MOSQUITO FACTORY” OFFICIALLY BREEDING WEST NILE VIRUS
Early last week Westchester County officials informed the City of Rye that New York State Laboratory test results from larva drawn from the rainwater storage tanks on Rye’s Hen Island indicate high concentrations of West Nile Virus (WNV) carrying mosquitoes being hatched in Rye.
In fact, of 16 sites found county-wide as testing positive for WNV – fully 6 of those 16 are in Rye. Yet until this afternoon, no public acknowledgement of the presence of WNV has been made by Rye. Anyone surprised? Remember last year’s “coyotes don’t pose a real public danger?” Or how about – “The meeting was not recorded.”??
This is fresh gross governmental negligence where public health and safety is concerned.
But Hen Island is a SPECIAL CASE in Rye which has long protected its cottage homeowners from state and federal health and safety codes that it otherwise rigorously enforces on the Rye mainland just 450 feet away.
What Rye wants unacknowledged is that it still quietly permits Hen Island to store more than 33 thousand gallons of untreated stagnant rainwater collected from cottage rooftops for use inside cottages for showering and dishwashing. And unfortunately it is physically impossible to prevent natural contaminants (like egg laying mosquitoes) from entering these huge makeshift rain capture systems.
Hen Island is located at the mouths of Mamaroneck’s and Rye’s harbors and it is municipally regulated by Rye. Last month the Westchester County Health Department reported the first positive test results confirming WNV countywide were found in Mamaroneck.
For decades Rye has permitted the 34 cottage home’s on Hen Island to ignore state and federal health laws requiring residents to be connected to either potable municipal water sources (already available to the island) or to approved water wells they could drill.
Hen Island remains exempt from these regulations despite its shorelines being only 450 feet away from Rye’s wealthy Greenhaven section – where a single family home was recently listed for sale for $12.5 million dollars.
West Nile Virus can make a healthy adult very sick – and it can be a stone killer for old people and young children.
Heal The Harbor researched and broke this story. See their email release here –
http://bit.ly/N9uri0
Tuesday Afternoon:
Funny thing about liars – everybody wants to know who shot who until they find out. Then, if it’s someone in a position of power, the questioners all go silent. Wouldn’t want to take a risk would they? Might not get invited to another cocktail party – or get that special favor from a stacked crony board looking at something you want.
Everybody’s going to find out who told who what and when about our West Nile Virus blooms. These are not low level staff functionaries were talking about. These are senior public officials – some acting like adults and some not.
But what’s pretty sickening are the lengths some seem to be going to in order to make the message delivered last night is the issue – rather than planning and executing a pro-active clean-up of Rye’s infected larval swamps of collected stagnant rainwater on Hen Island and at Rye Nature Center.
Last night Ray Tartaglione said Hen Island should be CLOSED – shut down, as in immediately – until the 33,000+ gallons of West Nile Virus breeding tanks are emptied and trashed and water wells drilled or a municipal water supply hook up for the islands connected.
Remember, the shrinking leadership of this cottage owner group (Kuder Island Colony) has spent in the neighborhood of $475,000 fighting Ray’s numerous safety code challenges to date. So they’ve got tons of money when they want something and a water well drilled on each of the 3 islands should cost about $15K each.
Let’s fix the problem folks, not play politics and act like it’s not already upon us. That’s how we did the coyote problem, which came back to bite us quite literally.
New 11 minute video out yesterday. “Hen Island: Rye’s Mosquito Factory” – http://vimeo.com/47034186