This Won't Hurt A Bit! For the last several months, the media's been hyping the swine flu, more accurately referred to as H1N1. My friends have received conflicting advice from their doctors on whether to get the shot, and even if you wanted to get the shot, it's not easy to find. That could change now that the federal government announced a major roll out of the vaccine across the country. Young children, Seniors and pregnant women are encouraged to get the shot. Are you going to get in line for a H1N1 flu shot? Vote in this week's poll.

The Yankees Win! The Yankees Win!

Larchmont in the News My Essentials, the health and beauty store on Addision Street is featured in Westchester Magazine. http://tinyurl.com/ybamg3l

Look Both Ways A man crossing the Boston Post Road in Larchmont on Sunday evening was struck by a woman driver. The woman was charged with driving with ability impaired. The man remains hospitalized. http://tinyurl.com/yddwdko

The Mayor Weighs In Mayor Feld's comments on last night's election results. http://tinyurl.com/y9r6ynh

Let's Make a Deal!

Today I went to the Equinox to work out and ended up feeling like a game show contestant. Upon my arrival, I was greeted and asked if I'd like to participate in a game for discounts and fabulous prizes. The only catch-- you have to "earn" your prize. I chose suitcase #9; an opportunity to earn a 10% to 2o% discount at the Equinox store if I could hold the plank for at least 30 seconds or a maximum of 60 seconds. I was grateful it wasn't push ups, but holding the plank for 60 seconds isn't as easy as it sounds either. Nevertheless, I persevered and made it to 60 seconds, sparing myself any humiliation. I have to say, it's an interesting promotion. Not only do they give you incentives to utilize their services, but they also get to access your level of fitness. Very clever.

Perk Up! Hard to score a ticket to tonight's potentially historic Yankee game unless you're Kate Hudson or a member of Congress. According to today's Wall Street Journal (sorry for the lack of a link, but WSJ is paid access only), Major League Baseball keeps a stash of tickets specifically for lawmakers who purchase them at face value. Try finding anything at face value on Stub Hub...not happening. 15 members of Congress purchased 75 tickets for tonight's game. Must be nice. Perhaps if we stopped letting them have their own healthcare plan and all of these perks, we'd see a little more humility and less arrogance.

Miracles Do Happen

How encouraging to see people use their vote to demonstrate their dissatisfaction and vote for change. Congrats to new County Executive Rob Astorino. Let's hope the voters' anti-incumbent mood makes its way through Albany and Washington, D.C.

Make a Deposit You can recycle water bottles for 5 cents.

Back to the Bronx

You know you wanted to win in the new Yankee Stadium anyway.

Larchmont in the News Sardegna Restaurant received a "Good" rating from the New York Times food critic. http://tinyurl.com/yc98mzu

Don't Forget!

Tomorrow is Election Day. Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. If you have no idea who is running this year, download a Voter Guide from the Westchester County League of Women Voters. http://watpa.org/lwv/VoterGuide09.pdf

A Giant Cause Danny Clark and his fellow NY Giants came out tonight to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House of NYC. Needless to say, they were more interested in discussing the World Series than their play over the past three weeks. Lets hope things turn around for them soon.

Mad Men For my fellow Mad Men fans, what's up with Bets?!

Welcome to the 'Hood One observant reader discovered a new business in Larchmont. Just Play Westchester is located on Palmer Avenue in the old "Paws on Palmer" store. Just Play Westchester provides pediatric occupational therapy for both one-on-one therapy and therapeutic groups. Learn more about them here: http://justplaywestchester.com/.

Put Down that Blackberry Today New York's "no texting while driving" law went into effect. The maximum fine is $150. I hope the law is more effective than the "no cellphone while driving" law that gets completely ignored. Today I watched a woman parallel park on Chatsworth Avenue while talking and holding onto a cellphone. Now that takes a certain level of talent!

Halloween Hangover

Too many sweetarts and tootsie rolls and a pile of candy still on your kitchen table. Are you really going to eat it all? Consider donating some of it to the Midnight Run. A donation box is located at St. Augustine's Church today. Donations will also be accepted on Wednesday.

UPDATE: I just heard that SweetTeez is also collecting leftover Halloween candy. They intend to put the candy in gift bags and distribute them at the local food pantry during Thanksgiving. You can donate leftover candy until November 6th.

Run!

Best of luck to the 44 Larchmonters running in tomorrow's NYC Marathon. http://tinyurl.com/yefnqun

Mr. Strasser Todd Strasser, a Larchmont author of young adult books, is featured in today's Journal News. When he's not writing, Todd likes to hang out at the Harbor House Coffee Shop. http://tinyurl.com/yl7bdkr

Budget Issue This just in from local parents. I apologize for the length, but they thought it was an important issue in which to engage other parents. Mamaroneck Schools October 30, 2009

MAMARONECK UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT 1000 W. Boston Post Road * Tel: 914-220-3005 Mamaroneck, NY 10543 * Fax: 914-220-3010 DR. PAUL R. FRIED Superintendent of Schools October 30, 2009 Dear Parents: I want to share a letter sent today from our Board of Education to Assemblyman George Latimer (below) and Senator Suzi Oppenheimer in light of Governor Paterson's recent proposal to implement drastic mid-year budget cuts in statewide school aid - a plan that would take away a half-million dollars from the Mamaroneck School District budget this year. The letter is attached for your reference. As you can see, we've asked our legislators to do what they can to help ensure that these devastating cuts do not happen. Cutting a half-million dollars from our current budget would have a harmful impact on the programs we offer your children. The 2009-2010 budget was painstakingly dwindled down to what we knew our community could afford. Any further cuts now, two months into the school year, would be difficult to manage and cause significant disruption in many areas. As it is, we've been concerned about the planning for next year's budget. With so many State-mandated and contractual costs, this coming budget season will undoubtedly be the most challenging ever. We urge you to stay on top of legislative issues that affect public education, and even more specifically, your children, and help join the battle to maintain our state aid by contacting our legislators directly. If everybody plays a role, we hopefully can make a difference. CONTACT: Suzi Oppenheimer (518) 455-2031 oppenhei@senate.state.ny.us George Latimer (518) 455-4897 latimerg@assembly.state.ny.us The New York State School Boards Association (NYSSBA)'s website is a good source for information on updated legislative developments; just go on www.nysssba.org and select Advocacy and Legislation; then go to Advocacy Alert and Legislation Action Center. Additionally, in the next several days, we will add a Legislative Action/Issues section to our own website to provide you with important information. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Sincerely, Dr. Paul R. Fried Superintendent of Schools MAMARONECK UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT 1000 W. Boston Post Road · Tel 914 220-3007 Mamaroneck, NY 10543· Fax 914 220-3010 BOARD OF EDUCATION October 30, 2009 Assemblyman George Latimer Legislative Office Building 820 Albany, NY 12248 Dear Assemblyman Latimer: Two weeks ago, Governor Paterson unveiled a proposal that calls for a $686 million mid-year cut in statewide school aid. The proposal would have a staggering fiscal impact on the Lower Hudson region, including Mamaroneck Schools, which would be forced to cut $481,103 from the current budget we labored over and reduced so significantly last spring. As we believe you know from our previous conversations, our 2009-10 budget is extraordinarily tight. After making considerable reductions to every non-instructional area of our budget, we were still forced to eliminate 34 positions, including 17 teaching positions and a key assistant superintendent position, in order to keep the budget increase to a level that our already overburdened community could support - a 3.23% budget-to-budget increase. While we tried our best to preserve programs, in the end, class sizes across the district were raised, and reductions impacted instructional technology, classroom supplies, professional development, athletics, music, extracurricular activities, class trips and much more. There is no more room to cut without reducing programming further. Without question, mid-year state aid reductions will further hurt our students. School districts like ours have only one primary source of funding - property taxes - and we are legally unable to raise additional funds at the last minute. We need to be able to plan for both revenue receipts and expenses in an orderly manner. Besides the mandated and contractual costs that comprise over 90% of our budget, another item that is outside our control and unpredictable - tax certioraris - continues to plague our district. In 2008-09, we paid $1.8MM in tax certioraris (far more than we had budgeted) and were forced to reduce expenses in order to cover the cost. This situation is likely to reoccur. It impacts us in two ways: it is an expense we are legally required to cover, and it reduces assessed valuation, increasing the burden on each property taxpayer, in our case, primarily homeowners. At the same time that we face these unpredictable costs, school districts are allowed to have only limited reserves for emergency purposes such as unexpected tax certiorari payments and emergency capital work (many of our 1,000,000+ square feet of buildings are over 100 years old), and it is critical that these reserves be available for such emergencies. If we were to deplete our reserves, our credit rating would decline, thereby increasing school district borrowing costs and raising local taxes. And, without reserves, when faced with emergencies (which inevitably occur each year), we would have to take on high-cost, short-term debt. Further, we anticipate 2009-10 to be a far more challenging budget year than last year, with the state mandated pensions alone potentially causing a 3+ % budget-to-budget increase. (An average 60% increase in ERS has already been announced and a similar increase is expected for TRS, which we estimate could cost Larchmont-Mamaroneck taxpayers an additional $3-3.5MM.) This is in addition to contractual salary and benefit increases which will be well in excess of current inflation. Current reserves will also most likely be needed to reduce the impact of mandated and contractual increases in the 2010-2011 budget. We view the Governor's Deficit Reduction Plan as a short-term fix that will create long-term problems for so many districts, and Mamaroneck is no exception. Any solution to the State's financial woes must thoughtfully consider the legal and fiscal constraints that our schools are forced to operate under, and our limited ability to make fiscal adjustments - particularly midyear. We simply cannot solve this fiscal mess at the expense of our children. We hope you will join us in this battle to maintain our state aid! Sincerely, Mamaroneck Board of Education Linnet Tse, President Rick Marsico, Vice President Harriet Barish Janet Buchbinder Anant Nambiar Robin Nichinsky Nancy Pierson

Trick or Treat II For you Trick or Treaters getting an early start tomorrow, make sure that Lorilyn's is on your list. They'll be handing out treats until closing time at 6 p.m.

Susie Says For you "Curb Your Enthusiasm" fans, there is a Larchmont connection. The mom of Susie Essman, who plays Susie Greene on the show, lives here in Larchmont. Susie has a new book out entitled, "What Would Susie Say." Her mom is mentioned in the book several times. http://tinyurl.com/ye5zws2

New Identity Natural Identity closed their store at the corner of Palmer & East Avenues. Fear not customers. They merged with Palmer Hair Studio across the street. Nevertheless, it is disappointing to see yet another empty storefront in Larchmont.

Don't Forget I hate those dark 5 o'clock evenings, but I do look forward to an extra hour of sleep. Don't forget to turn the clocks back on Sunday, November 1st.

Where Have All the Flowers Gone? New Yorker writer Alec Wilkinson discusses his new book The Protest Singer at the Larchmont Temple on November 4th at 4 p.m. The book is about folk singer Pete Seeger. This event is sponsored by Friends of the Larchmont Library.