White Plains CitizeNetReporter - Grassroots Vigilantes: Councilman, Octogenarian Cut County’s Grass.

WPCNR HIGH NOON HERALD MAIL. By John F. Bailey. August 22, 2002:Two White Plains citizens disturbed about the overgrown medians on county roads around town took Guy D’Antona’s lawnmower and an historic scythe in hands and made the North Street median safer for drivers making turns Thursday evening, mowing down grass that approached a foot high.

RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE TAKE ON THE NORTH STREET MEDIAN JUNGLE: Councilman William King, left, and Jack Harrington, right, trim the grass on the overgrown median-divider strip on Westchester County-maintained North Street Wednesday evening below White Plains High School. The two were caught taking median maintenance into their own hands last night at sunset.
Photo by WPCNR

White Plains Common Councilman William King, long a critic of Westchester County maintenance of its public lands, and 83 year-old Jack Harrington, President of the White Plains Historical Society, in sultry evening heat, took their personal time to do what county public works do only once a month, according to a county spokesman: trim and maintain grass on the medians on county roads in the city.

CHAIN GANG: Harrington, right, said Thursday morning he was okay after about an hour and forty-five minutes of mowing down the high chaparral of North Street. “We had to stop at dusk,” he said, because it was getting dangerous because cars couldn’t see the pair. He said he is used to yard work, since he and his Historical Society volunteers maintain the shrubs and plantings at the Purdy House, Washington’s Headquarters on Chatterton Hill.
Photo by WPCNR

He said they had a clean-up there recently, “taking an awful lot of stuff out,” noting that the city cuts the grass for the property only.

Mr. King said he and Harrington, also of the White Plains Beautification Foundation which plants and maintains the gardens on the medians around the city, were tired of how the North Street gateway to the city was is not being maintained by the Westchester County Department of Public Works.

“Mamaroneck Avenue doesn’t look like this,” King said showing the mini-prairie he and Harrington were harvesting.

Thursday, Harrington reported that he and King were going to come back in a few weeks to take care of the median again.

White Plains: Not Our Job. County: We Mow Once A Month.

A spokeswoman for the White Plains Department of Public Works said that Westchester County is responsible for maintaining the grass on North Street and other county roads in the city.

The Westchester County Department of Communications reported that the County Department of Public Works cuts the North Street median once a month.

It is not the first time Councilman King has dramatized lack of a commitment to maintenance on the part of Westchester County towards its own property located in the city. King sponsored a clean up of the highly littered Silver Lake waterfront property last spring.

HOW DID THEY DO? The North Street Median between Havilands Lane and Robin Hood Road, trimmed by Councilman King and Mr. Harrington as it looked Thursday morning. The pair plan to come back to cut the median between Havilands Lane and Ridgeway on North Street in a few weeks.
Photo by WPCNR

WPCNR observed Thursday morning that the median extending from Robin Hood Road up North Street between the YWCA and the high school was freshly cut, with grass droppings left on top of the freshly mowed median.

The Westchester County Department of Communications said the County had scheduled a crew to cut North Street Thursday. However, the crew did not proceed down North Street to cut the rest of the median from Havilands Lane to Ridgeway.

STILL TO COME: The condition of the North Street median between Ridgeway and Havilands Lane Thursday morning. On the median are unruly stalks of weed, litter, and high grass getting higher.
Photo by WPCNR

WPCNR was expecting a call from John Hsu of the County Department of Public Works for more insight on what medians the county maintains and how often.


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