The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

The Inside Press

What Adventure Means

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AndrewFor people like myself who love exploring the outdoors but not enough to brave the cold and rain, this spring has felt especially frustrating sometimes. Each time it appears that winter has finally left, the thermometer drops, and, once again, I find that I’m stuck inside. So I was especially excited to accept an invite to the Westmoreland Sanctuary for a chance to walk around some of the 640 acres of woods and interview the facility’s director.

A stroll through the woods may not be too big an adventure, but it’s a start, and Westmoreland is the subject of one of many adventure-themed articles in our June issue of Inside Armonk. For some, like Armonk dad Danny Tateo, who was the Road Runners Club Runner of the Year, adventure might mean embracing a new passion and pushing yourself to your limits. If you’re someone like Jack Kiernan, a local Eagle Scout candidate who helped build beds for 100 Armonk shelter dogs, adventure may mean using your skills and your time to help others. If you’re Ruth Reichl, it can mean ignoring your doubts and diving into the beginning of a multi-faceted culinary career. For Todd Shapera, regular walks through the Rockefeller Preserve can be an adventure with no special goal at all other than to find balance in a busy life.

annWe highlight these stories as well as others, including profiles on Hudson Stage Company plus different business spotlights on those who make shopping local such a great success. This issue’s cover story profiles Assemblyman David Buchwald, whose district includes North Castle. My article, following a two-hour interview with the assemblyman in his Mount Kisco district office, focuses on Buchwald’s political background, his legislation targeting corrupt officials, his family, and his position on current issues like the $15 minimum wage. The profile doesn’t cover every aspect of Buchwald’s background and record, as no single article can.

If I can make readers feel like they know their elected official a little bit better, then I believe I’ve accomplished something valuable.

I hope readers will approach this summer with an adventurous spirit and take advantage of all Armonk and the surrounding communities have to offer. This issue contains just a few of many possibilities.

A Mid-Year Review Can Pay Off At Year End

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Scott Kahan
Scott Kahan
By Scott Kahan

Today, many people find themselves inundated by a constant stream of financial news. Yet, does all this “information age” data really help you manage your finances any better than in the past? The truth often is that the “old-fashioned” practices, such as periodic financial reviews, lead to greater success in the long run. As the year reaches its midpoint, why not spend a few hours reviewing your finances? The changes you make today could yield positive results in increased savings. Here are some important items to cover:

  • Analyze your cash flow. If you have any excess cash flow each month, start saving it. If you have a short fall, identify where you can cut back, rather than adding on more debt.
  • Develop a plan for your goals. Identify your goals and objectives. In other words, put together a road map of where you want to go. Then you can begin to figure out how to get there./li>
  • Boost your retirement savings. Pensions and Social Security probably will not provide sufficient income to maintain your existing lifestyle when you retire. Maximize your contributions to retirement accounts.
  • Review your portfolio. Review your asset allocation to make sure you are invested properly to reach your goals. Are you not taking enough risk, or too much risk? Are some of your holdings underperforming? Now is a good time to review and make needed changes.
  • Manage unexpected risks. As you undoubtedly know, life can sometimes throw you a “curve ball.” Without warning, a disability or untimely death can cause financial hardship for your family. Adequate insurance is an important foundation for your financial plan—it offers the protection you need to help cover potential risks and liabilities.

A mid-year review can help bring focus to your overall financial picture. A qualified Certified Financial Planner Professional can help ensure your financial affairs are consistent with your current and long-term goals and objectives. By tracking your progress with periodic reviews you will be in a better position to realize your future goals.

Scott M. Kahan, is a Certified Financial Planner® professional and President of Financial Asset Management Corporation, a fee-only wealth management firm located at 26 South Greeley Avenue in Chappaqua. Call Scott Kahan at 914-238-8900.

Broadway Talent in Armonk at Hudson Stage

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Hudson Stage Company co-founders Olivia Sklar (left), Denise Bessette (center) and Dan Foster (right) on the set of their Spring 2016 production of Animals Out Of Paper.
Hudson Stage Company co-founders Olivia Sklar (left), Denise Bessette (center) and Dan Foster (right) on the set of their Spring 2016 production of Animals Out Of Paper.

By Brian Donnelly

The curtain goes up, the lights shine and 180 voices go silent as the play begins.

On stage actors and actresses bring their experience working on Broadway, television or both to the Hudson Stage Company in Armonk. Backstage, area high school students play interns, supporting the show with set changes, lighting and cues.

Those teenage stage hands include Horace Greeley junior Brian Blume, 17, who helps set up and breakdown the sets and moves props and furniture in between scenes.

“It was like a Broadway play but on a smaller stage,” the aspiring actor said, just one week into the spring production of Animals Out of Paper. “I’ve been to a lot of plays and I’ve memorized a lot of plays… and to see that type of talent on such a small stage is shocking.”

Founded in 1999 by Westchester residents Olivia Sklar, Dan Foster, and Denise Bessette, Hudson Stage Company is a non-profit professional theater that has built its reputation on Broadway-caliber performances right in your backyard.

“The audiences are always saying this is as good as Broadway or off-Broadway for a lot less money, free parking and the babysitter is on a shorter clock,” said Bessette, a Cortlandt resident and actress who has performed in theater, television and film. She has appeared in episodes of Seinfeld, Law and Order and Law and Order SVU.

Since its inception 17 years ago, the company’s backyard has changed from Croton to Briarcliff to Pace University, and now to Armonk. After its latest move in 2014, it is in residence at the North Castle Public Library’s Whippoorwill Hall Theater. Each year it stages two productions, in addition to several staged readings of new works. One of the reading slots is dedicated to area high school students, who perform their own original one-act plays.

“It’s so important to build a young audience, and theater is thriving at the high schools in Westchester,” Bessette said.

Students can pay $15 at the door for any show which still has tickets available, and Bessette said she hopes kids take advantage.

Blume, of Chappaqua, said not many of his friends are into theater, but that he hopes having Hudson Stage Company nearby will change that.

“I would encourage it because I need more help; as much help as I can get,” said the stage hand, who has gotten to meet and learn from the Broadway talent that is regularly a part of Hudson Stage productions. “I’m moving walls.”

Armonk Chamber of Commerce President Neal Schwartz said his brother-in-law came from Manhattan to see a show at Hudson Stage Company, a trip “I doubt he would’ve made previously.”

“Armonk is already known for its art and some local theater,” he said, referencing The Armonk Players, a community theater group, and The Small Town Theatre Company. “The Hudson Stage Company enhances what is already available in Armonk and strengthens Armonk as a destination for the Arts.”

Like Bessette, Foster pursued theater and, after a stint on the popular soap opera All My Children, got his break in the Broadway show City of Angels. He then switched his focus to directing, which he did both regionally and internationally in London and Australia. Now, he directs many of Hudson Stage’s productions.

“What’s been heartening is that I would say probably well over 50 percent of the people that come through the door now are people we don’t know, which is a great thing,” Foster, a Croton resident, said. “So, yes it’s been a wonderful move for us.”

Both Foster and Sklar worked on ABC soap operas in the 1980s and, in fact, worked just one block apart in Manhattan, but never met until they both had moved to Westchester. Sklar met Foster’s wife in a park in Croton in 1998. Within the same year Sklar also met Bessette at a gym after overhearing her talking about her hopes to start a theater. The three met for coffee at the Black Cow in Croton and put their plan into motion.

“You’re not going to get a Neil Simon or Guys and Dolls out of us,” Sklar said. “We try to present things to the Westchester audiences that are new to them, if not brand new.”

Hudson Stage’s production in fall 2015 of Outside Mullingar was one of the first to follow the Broadway debut of the show by John Patrick Shanley.

“I really felt like great alchemy happened,” Foster said. “It was the right cast, the right physical production, the right design. And it seemed to strike the right kind of nerve with the audience because we sold out just about every performance. It was also the kind of play that we like to do: slightly off beat, well written, challenging to the audience. That was a big one.”

This fall, they will stage the American premiere of You Will Remember Me, a French-Canadian play by Francois Archambault. The play has had success both in French and in English.

“I knew I was going to be directing in the fall and I’m always looking for new plays or plays that haven’t been done,” Foster said. “So, I tend to look at what they’re doing in England or Australia, or Canada.

It’s a very unique and challenging and funny play about a man with dementia. It’s kind of a new take on the subject.”

While the show has yet to be cast, Foster, Bessette and Sklar know they’ll have one member of the current production back – Blume.

“I’m really happy to be a part of it,” he said, looking forward to working on a third production with Hudson Stage. “Even though I’m backstage and I haven’t seen it in the full production, just from looking outside my wing or the side of the stage I’m on, I know the backstory and I know the lines.”

On July 31, Hudson Stage Company will hold its annual benefit. It typically involves a performance featuring Broadway talent. General admission tickets for all plays are $35 and students and senior tickets are $30.

Visit www.hudsonstage.com or call 914-271-2811 for more information.

In Memoriam – Gerry Golub Larger than Life

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jerry golubBy Deborah Raider Notis

When Gerry Golub and his family moved to Chappaqua from New Jersey in 1971, they wanted a bigger house, a great school district, and a bucolic suburban town not too far from Golub’s job as an accountant in Manhattan. Golub never imagined that he would become such an integral part of the town he chose to call home.

Golub, who passed away on the 9th of October in 2015, was a fixture in Chappaqua. “After he died, I received so many letters, thanking him for everything he did for people,” says Bonnie Golub, the love of his life and his wife of more than 54 years. He was an active volunteer who served as Fire Commissioner between 2009 and 2014, as a member of the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals, and as a pollster for the Board of Elections. More significantly, he was known throughout town by his friends and loved ones as a class act with a great sense of humor.

Golub grew up on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn, attending Yeshiva of Flatbush and Stuyvesant High School. He came from a family of modest means and was always determined to achieve financial security. He graduated from Brooklyn College with a degree in accounting and worked as a CPA for 50 years. He started his own firm, Goldstein Golub Kessler & Co, and became Managing Partner of the firm. When he sold his firm to American Express in 1998, the first transaction for the sale of an accounting firm into a large corporation, Golub served as Chaiman of American Express Tax and Business Services. From 1994 through 2000, and then again in 2003, Golub was on the elite list of Accounting Today’s “100 Most Influential People in the Accounting Profession.”

While he was an innovative and dedicated businessman, Golub’s true passion was his family, starting with his wife Bonnie, whom he met at a school fair at Brooklyn College. Golub and Bonnie were engaged nine months after their first date, married seven months later, and graduated from college as a married couple. They have three children, Kenny, Laurie, and Alli. Yet, he was most proud of his six grandchildren, upon whom he doted endlessly. “He always said that grandchildren are the best part of having kids,” muses his wife. “He was larger than life,” notes Bonnie. She says that Golub did everything to excess and had a great sense of style and was a genuine “clothes horse” with a tie collection of more than 450 ties with matching hankies.

Gerry Golub with his wife Bonnie (second from left) and their family
Gerry Golub with his wife Bonnie (second from left) and their family

“Gerry had a separate wardrobe for every outing, a golf wardrobe, a dressy wardrobe, an everyday wardrobe,” says Bonnie. But he was most proud of his Harley wardrobe, which he acquired over the past 15 years when he bought his beloved Road King. “After forbidding his kids to ever ride a motorcycle, he went out and bought a Harley,” laughs Bonnie.

According to his wife, Golub had a great interest in machines and anything that moved. He was extremely interested in cars, and he was always up on the latest information about them. If you wanted to buy a car, he was happy to negotiate the deal and always knew the ins and outs of every purchase.

Bonnie, who clearly misses her husband every day, says that he was passionate about life and constantly looking toward new and exciting experiences. “I was surprised that he never took flying lessons.” It is clear that he was exceptionally happy on the ground in Chappaqua surrounded by his close-knit community and loving family.

Deborah Raider Notis is a freelance writer and co-owner of gamechanger, LLC gamechangernow.com, a free referral service connecting Westchester families to highly qualified, competitively priced academic, athletic, music, and art instructors. In addition to writing multiple articles for the Inside Press, Deborah’s writing can also be found on suburbanmisfitmom.com.

A Boy Scout is Man’s Best Friend’s Best Friend

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Boy Scouts Kyle and Ryan construct PVC frames.
Boy Scouts Kyle and Ryan construct PVC frames.

Article and Photos By David Streich

Jack Kiernan, a 15-year-old Boy Scout from Troop One Mount Kisco (T1MK) came up with a brainstorm idea for his Eagle Scout Service Project, and that idea has literally gone to the dogs.

It was Jack’s idea and plan to construct 100 elevated nylon dog beds to be donated to local animal shelters, including Adopt-a-Dog in Armonk and the SPCA of Westchester in Briarcliff Manor.

Boy Scout Clever adds a nylon sheet.
Boy Scout Clever adds a nylon sheet.

An Eagle Scout Service Project says a lot about the scout who embarks on his journey; it is a reflection of the scout as a youth leader. Jack has been a scout for nine of his 15 years, but he has grown up around four-legged friends his entire life. His first family pet was a pup named Lucky, who was adopted from an animal shelter. Buster soon followed, and then came Zelda, an adopted German Shepard. Jack instinctively knew that his service project would involve helping animals in shelters, and improve the quality of life for dogs awaiting adoption.

Online research led him to develop the ambitious project of constructing 100 elevated dog beds using PVC pipe and 1000 denier nylon. He chose nylon because it is very easily washable. Jack raised almost $2,000 from members of the community and a pancake breakfast fundraiser to pay for supplies.

Cub Scout Rocky learns how to use power tools properly.
Cub Scout Rocky learns how to use power tools properly.

Beds like these sell for more than $100 retail but Jack was able to build them for under $15 each by obtaining materials at good prices from generous local suppliers and by ordering in bulk. Even with several different size constructions, there was almost no scrap material because Jack planned very carefully. After all, Jack was following the Boy Scout motto: Be Prepared. The rest of the funds went towards tools and food to feed the volunteer troops.

One of the rules of an Eagle Scout Service Project is that a scout cannot do it alone. It is a requirement for the young man to give leadership to others. Jack was able to recruit more than 45 volunteers from the community–of all ages and abilities, including Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts and Venture Scouts, as well as their siblings and families–who worked more than 200 hours over three weekends to complete the task.

Boy Scout Jack Kiernan delivers 100 dog beds to local animal shelters.
Boy Scout Jack Kiernan delivers 100 dog beds to local animal shelters.

Jack was very proud and humbled to be able to deliver and donate the 100 dog beds to the shelters a few weeks ago. “Animal shelters have very limited financial resources,” Jack noted. “Some of the benefits that a dog bed offers include insulating a dog from the floor in both the winter and summer, and these beds help to cushion joints and bones, especially for older, arthritic, or overweight dogs. Also very importantly, shelters that offer dog beds can provide a dog with its own private space and sense of security.”

There are a few more steps that Jack Kiernan needs to take in order to become a full-fledged Eagle Scout, but for now, as a Life Scout, there is a patch on his uniform that features the symbol of a heart. According to the Boy Scouts of America organization, historically, the heart was a symbol of health and fitness, but it also represents the spirit of caring and giving that is behind the Eagle Scout service project. Service to other people is what Scouting is really all about. And in Jack’s case, the others whom he served just so happen to be man’s best friend.

Great job, Jack, and thank you for your vision!

David Streich is the proud father of Boy Scout Clever and Cub Scout Rocket, both of whom volunteered for Jack’s project and helped build five dog beds.