WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. August 22, 2007: Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors pledged tonight to replant the forest ripped out of the White Plains High School property adjacent Havilands Lane on the morning and afternoon of August 3. Michael Crino of 76 Havilands Lane told the CitizeNetReport tonight that the Superintendent said “At this point, there are no plans to put ball fields there,” and that the District was going to hire an environmental consultant to design a reforesting design to replace the natural buffer that protected the Havilands Lane residences from noise and views of the high school. No cost or budget for replacing the woods was available.
Aftermath, White Plains High School "woods" leveled to the ground. August 5, 2007
Crino said the district assured the residents they would get an opportunity to meet with the consultant, whom Crino said had not been hired yet, and give the consultant the residents’ ideas on what they would like to see in the gutted woods area.
Crino said the neighbors ideally would like to see an evergreen buffer and more “hardwoods” shown than was shown on a conceptual plan drawn up by Kaeyer, Garment & Davidson, the architects of the school district capital improvement projects that are ongoing.
Ostensibly, the woods were destroyed on the order of Michael Lynch, who had contracted with a firm to remove the woods to build a new softball field using fill from the excavations at the new Loucks Field. The School District said Lynch undertook this project on his own without authorization.
