Northern Westchester

See a video slideshow from visual journalist Seth Harrison as children shuck corn at the Bedford Road School in Pleasantville, part of a PTA-sponsored nutrition program.

The Village of Briarcliff Manor and the Briarcliff Manor Fire Department are inviting the community to a celebration tomorrow of the newly rebuilt Scarborough firehouse.

Greetings and dedication by officials will be at  6 p.m., and the celebration, which includes a barbecue, will be from 3 to 8 p.m. The firehouse is at 591 Scarborough Road. At left is a shot of the new building in July when it was just completed and it was put back on-line.

A $1.3 million project that took one year to complete, it consisted of totally rebuilding the 1970-era structure.   At 3,603 square feet it is now double in size and  has a meeting room, 14-foot high garage bays and expanded parking.

Aaron Jake Perl, 10, secured first place among 188 contestants at the Jarden Westchester Kid Triathlon (ages 7-10) last weekend in Rye.

While the Columbus Elementary School student competed in the 75-yard swim, 2-mile bike, and 1-mile run, his father, Mitch, 53, participated in the adult triathlon the following day.

Aaron, who was born with a congenital short femur and underwent a painful leg-lengthening surgery at age 6 teamed up with his father to benefit the Pleasantville Volunteer Amulance Corps.

The duo raised $1,600 for the organization.

Photo Credit: Mitch Perl

The Chappaqua School Board has posted the latest letter it has given to the New Castle Town Board on the proposed Chappaqua Crossing development at the former Reader’s Digest property. The letter outlines several questions the board wants answered as it develops its response to the latest plans for 199 housing units. The letter is available here.

A story on the New Castle Town Board meeting this week on the development is available here.

North Salem High School has announced that five students were named Commended Students in the 2011 National Merit Scholarship Program. The announcement is below.

COMMENDED STUDENTS

IN THE

2011 NATIONAL MERIT SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM

North Salem, NY September 30, 2010

The principal, Dr. Patricia Cyganovich, of North Salem High School, announced today that Mr. Ethan Bassin, Mr. James C Batchelder, Mr. Michael C. Loftus, Mr. David Mossman and Mr. Ryan J. Osleeb have been named Commended Students in the 2011 National Merit® Scholarship Program. A Letter of Commendation from the school and National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), which conducts the program, were presented by the principal to these scholastically talented seniors.

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The League of Women Voters of New Castle will sponsor a candidates night on Tuesday, Oct. 5 at 7 p.m. in the Chappaqua Library Theater, 195 South Greeley Ave., Chappaqua.

Candidates from two contested races have been invited: in New York State Senate District 37 Republican Bob Cohen is challenging Democrat Suzi Oppenheimer and in New York State Assembly District 89 Democrat Thomas M. Roach Jr. is challenging Republican Robert Castelli.

The audience will be invited to ask questions of the candidates.

Bronwyn Bruder, John Cross, Cristina Tome, and Nicole Gerosa, kindergartners at the Bedford Rd. Elementary School in Pleasantville, shuck corn in the school cafeteria today. Photo by Seth Harrison

Children in all grades shucked corn as part of a PTA-sponsored nutrition program in which students at the school are introduced to a different vegetable or fruit each month. After the corn was shucked, the cafeteria staff was to cook the corn and serve it to the kids during lunch tomorrow. Look for photos in an upcoming edition of the Northern Westchester Express. Also, check back at Lohud.com for an audio slideshow. View more photos of corn shucking at the Bedford. Rd. School.

Sharon Rowley, a mother of six who lives in Bedford Corners, is one of 15 women who have been chosen to take part in a new citizen journalism program called iVoices on iVillage.

The program is a partnership between NBC Local Media and iVillage, an on-line content-driven community for women, according to an announcement about the new program.

iVoices on iVillage provides the citizen journalists with an opportunity to to be heard on women-centric topics that matter to them and their communities, according to the announcement.

Rowley, who runs the blog www.momof6.com, will write about how she manages an active household. Her blog includes a post that Rowley wrote about being selected as an iVoices on iVillage correspondent.

Rowley and the other women were selected during a nationwide competition that drew more than 500 submissions, according to the announcement.

Their reports will be available on the iVillage website — www.ivillage.com.

If you think these faces below are hard to turn away from,  then the SPCA Puppy Adoption Extravaganza should be on your calendar for this weekend.

The SPCA of Westchester is hosting a major adoption day Saturday and Sunday to find homes for 100 puppies that were rescued from high-kill shelters in the south and arrived at the shelter last Sunday.

Applications are available online and proposective adoptive families should fill these out in advance and bring with them to the shelter. The event is from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

And there will be cats and kittens for adoption as well.

The SPCA is at 590 North State Road, Briarcliff Manor.

The Croton Watershed Clean Water Coalition, Inc, will screen the film “Gasland” on Oct. 5 at the Jacob Burns Film Center to raise awareness about the environmental consequences associated with high-volume, horizontal hydraulic fracture drilling, or “fracking.”

Here are the details from the coalition:

In partnership with the Westchester Community Foundation and the Jacob Burns Film Center, the Croton Watershed Clean Water Coalition* announces a special screening of the film, “Gasland,” followed by a panel discussion and reception at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, NY on Tuesday, October 5, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.

This event is the official kick-off to the New York Gasland Education Project which will be made available, free of charge, to grassroots organizations and concerned citizens in early December. The purpose of this education project is to reach out and inform interested parties and local governments about the environmental consequences associated with high-volume, horizontal hydraulic fracture drilling, or “fracking.” This controversial gas extraction process threatens the sustainability of the region’s biodiversity as well as clean, affordable drinking water for over 11 million individuals in New York State.

Winner of the Sundance Film Festival’s U.S. Documentary Special Jury Prize, “Gasland” documents the consequences of high volume fracking and chronicles the illnesses, animal deaths, toxic waste, disastrous explosions and regulatory missteps that have resulted from the drilling process.
Featured speakers following the film include Dr. Jannette Barth, an economist who has written about the economics of fracking, Nadia Steinzor, the Regional Marcellus Organizer for Earthworks Oil and Gas Accountability Project, and a resident who lives in the heart of the drilling devastation in Pennsylvania. A question and answer period will be part of the discussion panel. Attendees will have the chance to talk personally with speakers at a reception after the panel discussion. Members of the NYS senate and assembly and county legislators will also be in attendance.

A short moratorium on hydrofracking (“fracking”) until May 15, 2011 was passed overwhelmingly by the NY senate but your help is needed to insist that the NY assembly bring it to the floor where the votes exist to pass it this session before the November election. When this happens, the governor has already said he will sign it.

NYSDEC is now finalizing its draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement to regulate the permitting application process for fracking in NYS. NYSDEC has also released a draft NYS Strategic Plan for State Forest Management containing its intent to hydrofrack with horizontal drilling in NY state forests and extract millions of gallons of our finite supply of fresh water to then contaminate it forever with chemicals used for fracking, a process that also causes serious air pollution and can ruin health, soil, sustainable industries & property values from withdrawn mortgages.

Attend this event to learn about facts and actions to take! For tickets, contact Suzannah Glidden, 914-234-6470 Monday-Wednesday, 914-485-1052 Thursday-Friday.