White Plains CitizeNetReporter - Short Council Passes Taxi Increases, BID Assessment, Sloan, Bar Part

The "short" Common Council met Wednesday at 8 AM to hold a second vote on the ordinances they heard Wednesday evening, passing them all, including a taxi increase, and a new ceiling on the BID Assessment (hiking the BID budget to $500,000).

The 10-month controversy over adding a patio bar at the back of the Thirsty Turtle and Kelly's Pub establishments, broke down just when the Council thought they were about to approve the patio permit.

As detailed in WPCNR Tuesday, the Common Council reconvened to hear and pass the ordinances they heard for the first time Monday evening. William King, Benjamin Boykin, Rita Malmud and Tom Roach were on hand with Mayor Delfino promptly at 8 AM to do a few minutes business so they thought.

They passed the ordinances, including a taxi cab fare increase.

Pending official notice from Taxi Commission Director, Daniel Hickey (the same Daniel Hickey who is Acting Commissioner of Public Safety), WPCNR reports that the increase and changes in fares agreed to by the Council at last month's work session were:

1.A $1.00 surcharge for exclusive use of a cab.

2. A 50-cent surcharge on dispatched calls. (Where cabbie is dispatched to one point to go to another point in the city.)

3. He is shrinking Zone 3 so that it stops at Maple Avenue, rather than Bryant Avenue as it does now.

Zone 4 would be extended North to Maple Avenue and Bloomingdale Road to the new supermarket (Stop N Shop). This Hickey feels will provide cabbies with more revenue on trips out to The Westchester and Westchester Avenue. This, Hickey says, is to counter cabbie complaints that trips to Zone 4 take longer because of the heavier traffic in the Central Business District (Zone 3).

4. Flat fees would be increased 50 cents a trip in Zones 2,3, and 4. (From the Trans Center to Bryant Avenue, which comprise 50% of all cab calls.)

5. Flat fees would be raised 25 cents a trip in Zones 1,5,6, and 7. (Zone 1 is the North Broadway Woodcrest Heights area; Zone 5, South of Ridgeway to Sammis Lane; Zone 7, South of Sammis Lane.)

6. He is calling for a $10 Safety Inspection Fee twice a year. (Currently there is no fee.) Police inspect the cabs in June and December.

There is no word yet from the Taxi Commissioner on when the fare increase would take effect, though February 1st would be a likely date.

The council also agreed to raise the White Plains Downtown Business Improvement District assessment allowance (the BID budget) to rise to $500,000, though on an "as-needed" basis.

Tri-Kelly/Thristy Turtle and Sloan-Bar owner negotiations over parking and patio bar break down.

The council was also prepared to grant the Thirsty Turtle and its sister establishment on East Post Road a terrace bar for 52 more patrons. However, the council encountered a breakdown in negotiations at the last moment. Tri-Kelly's Pub/Thirsty Turtle, and Stephen Sloan, the owner of the Sloan-Bar Building across the street, could not come to agreement on Sloan-Bar parking lot usage by the patrons of the two bars, over the question of liability.

In thirty minutes of trading charges, it became apparent to the Council that the two parties were very apart. The council, after executive session with their corporation Counsel, Edward Dunphy, decided they could not vote the approval of the Turtle patio bar until the two parties settled their differences.

The Council tabled the issue until the work session of January 24. We learned the ability to establish a patio bar would go with the property in perpetuity.

Steve Sloan said he could not agree to any use of his parking lot unless Mike Kelly, the owner of TriKelly's and the Thirsty Turtle agreed to insuring Mr. Sloan against any liability for incidents occuring on the Sloan Bar parking lot. Kelly's is negotiating to use the Sloan Bar lot for its patrons, who have allegedly been using the lot illegally, leaving assorted bottles and trash.

Past Experience Haunts Sloan

Sloan told WPCNR he had lost $65,000 in legal fees a number of years ago when after buying a marina, he was sued as the result of a boat accident that took place under previous ownership. To defend himself he had to pay the legal fees during the course of that suit involving the other company.

Sloan said he was very concerned about the possibility of bar patron incidents happening in his parking lot, involving him in liability, and until Kelly agreed to cover him for any liability by putting him on Kelly's policy, the agreement was off.


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