Eastchester REVIEW THE
April 15, 2016 | Vol. 4, Number 16 | www.eastchesterreview.com
Eastchester headed toward 5-year deal for Scout Field
YET ANOTHER DEAL
By COREY STOCKTON Staff Writer
A revised agreement to hand over the operations of Rye Playland to Standard Amusements is set to slash $26 million in proposed county-funded projects, if approved. For story, see page 7. File photo
Nonprofits feeling effects of Westchester 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 orga-
nization employs three part-time staffers in their place. “The impact, financially to the agency, was mitigated by three people losing their jobs,” Schwartz added. “But you’re putting three people on unemployment who maybe can’t afford their rent.” More importantly, Schwartz said, some of the families that her organization services can no longer receive help as a result of the county’s budget sequestration; even despite restoration of 75 percent of the proposed cuts during last-minute budget deliberations. Since January, April’s Child has been forced to reduce the number of people in its care by about 90 adults and 170 children, Schwartz said, marking
an approximately 50 percent decrease in the overall number of clients it serves. But April’s Child hasn’t been the only organization feeling an impact. According to Joanna Straub, the executive director of Nonprofit Westchester, a coalition of nonprofits across Westchester County, others have borne similar burdens. “I touched base with a couple of the organizations that were affected by the cuts,” Straub told the Review. “All are still in operation, but those who suffered the most serious cuts have completely closed the affected programs, laid off staff and reduced staff hours.” BUDGET continued on page 7
Westchester County and the town of Eastchester have been renewing annual license agreements to jointly maintain and refurbish Scout Field since 2013, but now, Eastchester plans to claim long-term responsibility of the park. A vote to authorize Town Supervisor Anthony Colavita, a Republican, to execute an intermunicipal agreement, IMA, with the county to manage Scout Field on Midland Avenue in the village of Bronxville was unanimously passed during an Eastchester Town Council meeting held on Tuesday, April 5. “The field is in dire need of work,” Colavita said, “and this project is long overdue.” The IMA, which will cost the town a nominal fee, is another move toward overhauling the parks in Eastchester and its encompassing villages, which most recently included the reopening of Parkway Oval Field’s baseball diamond in Tuckahoe. Although the town had proposed a long-term deal for Scout Field at least twice before, the county did not sign the agreement, Colavita said. “The county attorney advised us that this time the agreement will go through right away,” he added, estimating that the deal should be executed by the end of April. The deal would put Eastchester in charge of maintenance of upper Scout Field in addition to the lower field, for which it is already responsible. The agreement tasks the county with installing water and irrigation systems, leveling
INSIDE
the field for safe play and laying new grass across the field. Eastchester, in turn, will pave the parking lot and driveway area, install fencing, and furnish the field with benches, bleachers, scoreboards, trash cans and similar items. Colavita said that Eastchester’s contributions would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The agreement does not include maintenance or renovations to the Boy Scouts cabin on the grounds of the field. The town will be accountable for field maintenance for five years and has the right to extend the deal for an additional five years. According to Colavita, the county has the right to terminate the agreement at any time. However, if the term is cut short, the county must prorate its fee. Eastchester and Bronxville will enter into a sub-IMA, which leaves the village responsible, in part, for field maintenance duties, including trash collection. Bronxville Mayor Mary Marvin, a Republican, called the agreement “a great collaboration between the county, the town and the village,” adding that the deal is an example of government working at its best. Colavita said he hopes the field will be playable by spring 2017. Next year, the Bronxville school district is expected to dig up its current athletic venue on the high school campus, Hayes Field, to lay subterranean plumbing as part of its flood mitigation plans. The project,
Westchester lawmakers target Islamophobia Story on page 3.
FIELD continued on page 9