WPCNR BATTLE HILL BLUES. From Battle Hill Association. May 2, 2008: BHA contacted a fellow resident of BH and asked for his assistance with the noise pollution of cabs/taxis honking their horns on our residential streets. They have been causing a quality of life issue on many of our streets honking their horns for their fares at all hours of the evening and early morning. The Police have been working with us on solving this issue. On April 18th our police were monitoring the situation and an arrest was made. Please review below article.
Quality of Life Issues and Concerns:
BHA contacted a fellow resident of BH and asked for his assistance with the noise pollution of cabs/taxis honking their horns on our residential streets. They have been causing a quality of life issue on many of our streets honking their horns for their fares at all hours of the evening and early morning. The Police have been working with us on solving this issue. On April 18th our police were monitoring the situation and an arrest was made. Please review below article.
BHA also contacted a fellow resident affiliated with the cab companies. He also agreed with these quality of life concerns. Mario contacted the cabs and advised the companies not to have drivers honk the horn in order to solve the noise pollution.
We thank you Mario for working collaboratively with us and we look forward to continued positive results.
Battle Hill residents had concerns regarding the intersection at Chase and Alexander Ave.
Thank you Mr.McConnell for bringing this safety issue to the forefront. Below is the response from Lt. Christopher:
- 4 WAY - Stop - at Chase and Alexander. An Enforcement Action plan was performed.
Periodic enforcement took place at the intersection and summonses were issued. During
this enforcement 300 vehicles passed through the intersection and 5 summonses were
issued to violators. Please feel free to pass this information on to the association
members. Thanks Lieutenant Kevin Christopher
45 Battle Ave: Burnt out home for over two years. Our board has been advocating for legislation/ resolution to have a time limit for these abandoned homes limited amount of time to either rebuild or renovated these unsafe and unsightly structures. We have heard your complaints and concerns. We strongly encourage you to ask the administration if we can look forward to any legislation regarding this on the May agenda of the common council meeting. www.cityofwhiteplains.com
We will have more updates next week from building dept. with our ongoing violations and concerns.
Wandering Shopping Carts --BHA has also asked for legislation that mimics Greenburg legislation to combat the shopping cart problems. The legislation will penalize the stores monetarily in combating this safety issue. Currently, our city DPW has been collecting them on our residential streets due to our locating them and only charges the stores a minimal amount $25.00 per cart only when the stores pick them up from the city dump.
24 Hour Bodegas -- We also have heard your complaints with regard to the bodegas on Battle Ave that remain open until sometimes midnight in our residential area. Many of you have asked why is Battle Hill different than the south end of town in which, Gedney Deli, Roosters, Rosedale Deli all close the business day at a reseasonable hour. BH has many 24hr stores at the foot of our hill within the commerical zone of both WP and Greenburg.
When we will we see resolution/legislation to solve this quality of life concern?
Chatterton Ave Playground: The fence is broken and children were using the broken pieces in unsafe play. The swings are broken and paint chipping from apparatus.
This playground was placed on the Capital Project Agenda last year for a new playground. This is the oldest playground in the city.
The city responded and stated the updates will take place immediately. We hope to see this redone in 2008.
So for you folks that live and utilize this park. Please let us know what type of repairs or activity you see in the next few days. Remember you are the eyes and ears for us all over our neighborhood.
Fines on Housing Violations -- This past week the common council and administration are having work sessions to discuss our city budget. As you are aware, BHA has been advocating for an increase in the building /housing code violations penalties for quite sometime.
In our communications with Assemblyman Adam Bradley this council and administration have not raised the fines to the ceiling in line with NY State. We have asked WHY?
Corporation Counsel (Mr. Ed. Dunphy Esq) stated the fines and restructuring of penalities have been on his desk for quite sometime. What is the delay? We know Tony Magnotta the building inspector, has been working on these issues. But according to the documentation and emails from all of you we are still having a serious issues of overcrowding and unsafe living conditions.
We are asking for the penalty increase as a revenue stream and to economically deter unscrupulous landlords for lack of maintenance, health and safety risks they put tenants, children and families at risk. These building and housing violations affect all our property values on the hill. Other municipalities in our county have raised the penalities significantly. (WPCNR notes that Damien Amadio, the Commissioner of Building reports that for the first time owners have agreed to make as part of their leases the right to inspect premises at any time, which Amadio described as a breakthrough and that the major landlords have agreed to conduct inspections for overcrowding.)
At this time the city administration is currently having work sessions regarding the city budget. Please read some updates from White Plains CNR.
Our next association meeting is May 15th 7:30pm in our community room, in the old school.
Guest speakers: Building Dept, Sanitation Dept
We hope to see you, and bring a friend/neighbor
Battle Hill Association
