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CityREVIEW NewRochelle December 9 & 16, 2016 | Vol. 4, Number 37 | www.cityreviewnr.com
SUNY Purchase seeks $125K for substance abuse By FRANCO FINO Staff Writer
Have a TASTE On Nov. 7, Cerebral Palsy of Westchester sponsored a food and wine tasting event at the Renaissance Westchester Hotel in West Harrison. The event featured more than 25 of the area’s top restaurants and beverage providers. For more, see page 6. Photo/Andrew Dapolite
Westchester County officials rally to ‘ban the barge’ By JAMES PERO Staff Writer Amidst allegations that the U.S. Coast Guard circumvented proper procedure in order to fasttrack approval of 43 additional commercial barge anchorages along the Hudson River, Westchester County officials and environmental watchdogs are calling for the agency to withdrawal its proposal. According to a statement by Pace University’s Environmental Policy Clinic, the proposal— which would speckle anchorages across the lower Hudson River shorelines, from Kingston
to Yonkers—skirted procedure in order to avoid scrutiny of its environmental impact. “This is one of the most egregious violations of public transparency and public trust I have seen in four decades working on Hudson River issues,” said John Cronin, a fellow at the Dyson College Institute for Sustainability and the Environment at Pace. The clinic’s chief concerns, according to Cronin, are the Coast Guard’s failure to complete any environmental surveys and failure to coordinate with mariners, environmental groups and residents of impacted areas, as per the Coast Guard’s own in-
teragency requirements. “Any projects like this, whether it’s a pipeline, or anchorages, or a power plant, or a proposed development,” Cronin said, “the first thing you’re supposed to look at is the worst possible negative impact. All of this information is completely absent.” Among the Westchester ports that would be affected by the proposal are Montrose Point in Cortlandt Manor, as well as a port in Yonkers that would see the addition of 16 new anchorages alone. While the U.S. Coast Guard has offered its plan to add additional anchorages—the largest
of which would be the Yonkers port, which would span more than 700 acres—as a means of increasing safety and thru traffic on the waterway, both county officials and environmental advocacy groups have cast doubt on the Coast Guard’s motives. “The point that’s being made is that this is needed for safety,” said Leah Rae, a spokeswoman for the environmental advocacy group, Riverkeeper. “We don’t feel they’ve made any rationale for that claim.” In a letter to the U.S. Coast Guard sent by the Maritime BARGE continued on page 7
SUNY Purchase has applied for state funding to establish a program aimed at preventing underage drinking and substance abuse on campus, college officials said. According to Betsy Aldredge, a spokeswoman for the college, the Purchase-located school is seeking state funding administered through the New York state Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services to implement a potential abuse prevention program, as part of a recent plan announced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, on Nov. 28. “In any way we can, we want to support students dealing with substance issues and, as a whole, support them academically and socially,” she said. As part of Cuomo’s $2.5 million initiative to fund SUNY and CUNY schools statewide, the state will award 20 colleges with $125,000 annually for five years to develop campus efforts to prevent drug and alcohol addiction. Further, the state is seeking to specifically grant the award to colleges aiming to curb prescription drug misuse and underage drinking. Cuomo’s initiative comes in wake of the tragic death of a 21-year-old Manhattanville College student. On Oct. 9, Robby Schartner was struck and killed by Emma Fox, of Rye, who was driving under the influence in the White Plains area.
“Time after time, we have seen the reckless behavior, and bad decisions with often life-altering consequences that come with underage drinking,” Cuomo said. “This funding will build on our progress to prevent senseless tragedies and equip students with vital knowledge to curb underage and binge drinking, and provide critical services to those at risk for addiction.” Aldredge told the Review that SUNY Purchase currently institutes an addiction help program through its wellness center, Wellness@Purchase. The program offers individual and group counseling for students seeking addiction recovery and help with stress management. The college also requires all first-year and transfer students to complete the interactive online AlcoholEdu and Haven programs, which assist schools in complying with the federal Department of Education General Administrative Regulations, a set of codes that establish administrative requirements for federal grants awarded to educational institutions. According to research conducted by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, alcohol is still the primary abused drug on college campuses across the country. The institution’s research estimates that more than 80 percent of college students drink alcohol nationwide. A recent study released by ABUSE continued on page 3
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