RyeCity REVIEW THE
December 8, 2017 | Vol. 5, Number 49 | www.ryecityreview.com
Fox pleads guilty in M’Ville student’s death By FRANCO FINO Staff Writer
Jessica Mullins, founder of Found Herbal Apothecary, an new alternative medicine store in Bronxville, is providing customers with natural, plantbased medicines and suggestions on how to improve their lifestyle and, in turn, their overall health. For story, see page 6. Photo/Taylor Brown
Dems say county budget leaves $100M in expense gap By JAMES PERO Staff Writer Ahead of a looming budget deadline, Westchester’s Democratic lawmakers are warning of monumental gaps in a 2018 tentative budget that could total more than $100 million. According to statements this week, among the top concerns are $30 million in budgeted revenue to privatize the county’s airport as well as $40 million in retroactive raises contingent on pending contract negotiations between the county and the Civil Service Employees Association, CSEA, Westchester’s biggest
labor union. Without those items budgeted for, county Legislator Catherine Parker, a Rye Democrat, said that the county may be in rough financial shape for its upcoming budget, and as a result, portend large tax increases. “The Astorino administration’s final budget would leave us with a roughly 18 percent tax increase due to years of a fiscal shell game,” Parker said in a statement. “I’m not going to raise your taxes 18 percent, but I want you to understand what I have been saying for years—there was no real way to keep the tax levy flat over eight years, and still provide meaningful service.”
Since taking office in 2010, Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, a Republican, has never raised the tax levy; a fact often touted throughout his tenure. Democrats have criticized the budget for relying on $30 million in projected revenue included as a part of a prospective deal to privatize the county’s airport. A potential deal seeks to reclassify the airport under a Federal Aviation Administration-run program that allows participants to transition their publicly owned airports into the private sector and then use subsequent revenue toward an operating budget. Last year, after what was
shaping up to be a dead-end deal, lawmakers voted to include $15 million in projected revenue derived from the airport’s planned privatization. An original $130 million, 40-year agreement, which was sent down to legislators on Nov. 3 2016, would have given the investment firm Oaktree Management the exclusive bid for the project, but the plan was ultimately derailed by Democrats who accused the deal of skirting proper request for proposals process. Since then, the deal has gone through a formal bidding process that, on Nov. 9, resulted in the BUDGET continued on page 7
The Rye woman responsible for running over and killing a Manhattanville College student last year has pleaded guilty, and has been sentenced to six months in jail as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors. According to the Westchester County District Attorney’s office, Emma Fox, 25, pleaded guilty to second-degree vehicular manslaughter, a felony, and one count of driving while intoxicated, a misdemeanor, for the drunken-driving incident that killed Robby Schartner, 21. Fox originally faced up to seven years in state prison, but is now expected to be sentenced on Feb. 7, 2018, to serve six months in Westchester County jail in Valhalla and 4.5 years of probation. Fox has been out on bail since Nov. 10, 2016. Last year, Schartner, of Fishkill, was walking along Westchester Avenue, returning to campus from a night out in downtown White Plains, before Fox struck and killed him with her car, a 2012 Nissan Sentra. Fox was traveling eastbound at around 5 a.m. when the incident occurred. Court documents state that Fox told a White Plains police officer that she was returning to her home in Rye and then “took her eyes off the road to glance at her GPS for directions and felt her vehicle strike an unknown object.”
According to the county district attorney’s office, Fox drove approximately onehalf of a mile before stopping her car on the right shoulder of Westchester Avenue near Meadowbrook Road. A passing motorist notified police after witnessing Fox’s car had sustained substantial damage to her windshield. When police arrived, Schartner was found unconscious on the shoulder of Westchester Avenue near the entrance to eastbound Interstate 287, and was pronounced dead at the scene. Testing at the time of her arrest revealed that Fox’s blood alcohol content was 0.21; the legal limit in New York is 0.08. Her sentencing comes while Donna Juliette Ann Hall’s— Schartner’s mother—wrongful death lawsuit against Fox and The Pub, the bar in Rye where she allegedly consumed alcohol for hours, is still pending. As a result of Schartner’s death, Manhattanville College modified its shuttle bus service hours soon after to make its final return to campus around 3:30 a.m. after picking up students from downtown White Plains. Those hours were reinstated for Friday and Saturday late nights after being discontinued in the previous year. At the time of incident, late night shuttle bus hours from downtown White Plains to Manhattanville College were not available. CONTACT: franco@hometwn.com
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