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CityREVIEW NewRochelle April 29, 2016 | Vol. 4, Number 9 | www.cityreviewnr.com
Officials speak out with Playland vote days away By JAMES PERO Staff Writer
Let There be Lights! The Historic Hudson Valley is gearing up for its third annual LIGHTSCAPES show, an interactive exhibition that combines light, sound, video, art and history at the Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-on-Hudson. For story, see page 6. Photo courtesy hudsonvalley.org
Westchester nonprofits feeling effects of county budget cuts By JAMES PERO Staff Writer Months after the passage of the 2016 Westchester County budget that solidified significant cuts to nonprofit organizations across the county, some organizations—including those that provide crucial public services—are already feeling the pinch. According to Laura Schwartz,
the executive director of April’s Child, an organization that provides social services to abuseprone children and families across the county, her organization has been among the hardest hit. “We’re feeling the pain right now,” she said. “We’ve lost a lot of money.” Schwartz said that the recent cuts to her organization have been the largest slash in governmental funding she’s seen
in her 23-year tenure at April’s Child, headquartered in White Plains. The entirety of a previous $204,000 social services contract between April’s Child and the county, she explained, has completely disappeared. The results have been substantial reductions in both the organization’s full-time staff and the breadth of services it’s able to provide to county residents, she said.
According to Schwartz, since the cuts were made, April’s Child has been forced to lay off three of its four full-time staff members. And now, with the executive director being the only full-time staffer, the organization employs three part-time staffers in their place. “The impact, financially to the agency, was mitigated by budget continued on page 8
As the clock ticks down, Westchester County legislators and other elected officials continue to draw hard stances against an agreement between the management company Standard Amusements and the county that would cede control of Rye Playland. On Thursday, April 21, county Legislator Catherine Parker, a Rye Democrat who has been critical of the latest agreement with Standard, revealed that she will be voting against the deal if it remains unchanged by its May 2 deadline. While her peers have also relayed their skepticism, Parker said that some officials—particularly Republican legislators— have felt pressure from administration officials of Republican County Executive Rob Astorino, who initially announced a deal with Standard in 2015, to vote in favor of the agreement. “I’m certainly talking to my colleagues to get them to see this for the nonsense that it is,” she said, adding that she was reticent to forecast how the vote may unfold to the Review. County Democrats have also indicated that, despite the deal’s flaws, an up or down vote is imminent. “It’s not an ideal agreement, but then again we’re not in an ideal situation,” said county
Legislator Mary Jane Shimsky, a Hastings-on-Hudson Democrat. “The park was let go for too long; the buildings are in bad shape; the rides are in bad shape…. If things stand the way they are right now, I will be voting for [Standard].” Among Parker’s chief concerns with the agreement, however, is a hefty $32 million in county-funded capital projects, which she fears would put a heavy burden on taxpayers, but also what she characterizes as a concerning profit-sharing arrangement. “When I asked Standard during the [parks] committee meeting what the estimate for their profit would be during those first 10 years [of the agreement], their answer couldn’t have been clearer,” said Parker in a released statement. “They don’t expect to see a profit.” Astorino’s administration, however, has continued to assert that the deal is a wise one for both taxpayers and the future of Playland. “The public-private partnership agreement with Standard Amusements will invest into the park about $30 million in private money by Standard Amusements, and is the best opportunity to save Playland,” said Ned McCormack, communications director for the Astorino administration. Currently, the agreement as it playland continued on page 9
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