North Castle Archives - Inside Chappaqua and Inside Armonk: The Magazines for New and North Castle

Visitors to Armonk’s Fol de Rol Found a Myriad of Activities to Enjoy

June 13, 2017 by Inside Press

By Amanda Kraus

The distant thumping of music can be heard from the parking lot of beautiful Wampus Brook Park. As you approach, the constant beat gives way to the familiar melody of a popular song flowing from the fair’s DJ booth. As you make your way towards the lights, fun, and people, the comforting smell of buttery popcorn fills your nose, drawing you in even further. It is at the 43rd annual Armonk Lions Club Fol de Rol that I find myself walking through crowds of people: babies, children, adults, and grandparents, all enjoying the myriad of activities that you can find at the fair.

While parking, admission, and many activities are free, the Fol de Rol is the Armonk Lions Club sole fundraiser for community service projects and charitable causes; it’s motto is “we serve,” as Linda Trummer-Napolitano, the fair organizer, writes, “All Lions Clubs belong to the International Lions and all raise funds for various community organizations to meet the needs of others in times of hardship or disaster.” The fair features over nine carnival rides, which require tickets or rides bracelets that can be purchased at the ticket booth.

There are also different events, such as “the ‘Clydsedale’ type horses on Friday night, antique cars on view for Saturday morning; there are racing pings in the rides area that will be performing on Saturday and Sunday; on Saturday, the DYNAMO Dogs from Maryland are performing–these rescue dogs have been trained to do an amazing variety of tricks and have performed all over the country,” says Trummer-Napolitano. The fair has over 60 craft and food vendors, ranging from Greek cuisine to your typical carnival hot dogs; there is also a face painter, a henna tattoo artist, and a body glitter artist. Other than a DJ, the fair hosts many local artists performing in a wide variety of genres: jazz, 80s rock, pop, and acoustic folk–on Sunday the middle school band performed at noon.

I asked Trummer-Napolitano what her favorite activity at the fair is, to which she replied, “I love to go watch the crowds and shop at the various craft vendors booths; we have a lot of local food vendors from the Hudson Valley, such as an olive oil vendor and a maple syrup vendor, and there are some really creative jewelry vendors coming this year.”

There is something for everyone every year at the Fol de Rol. Regardless of age, you are guaranteed to have a good time. Admission was free too! Best of all, you can make a difference and support your community by enjoying the rides and local vendors. See you next year!

Inside Press summer intern Amanda Kraus is a rising junior at Tulane University studying English, Philosophy, and Psychology.

A Catering Option, too, at Armonk’s La Mer Seafood

June 3, 2017 by Stacey Pfeffer

Ed Wechsler, owner, La Mer Seafood, also actively caters for diffferent events.

Almost three decades ago, Ed Wechsler opened La Mer Seafood on Main Street in Armonk. At the time he was 22-years-old, already armed with a wealth of experience from working in top epicurean stores in surrounding towns. Back then, he focused mostly on fish but as lifestyles changed and consumer demand for organic foods skyrocketed, La Mer Seafood evolved and today it offers full service catering and mostly wild caught organic, locally-sourced fish.

Being in business for so long, Wechsler knows his customers and his fish. While Inside Armonk was in the Cape Cod nautically-inspired store, a customer walked in for lunch and asked for “the usual.” A few minutes later, he walked out with a homemade soup and lobster roll featuring fresh Maine lobster caught daily.

The store focuses on offering healthful and wholesomely prepared dishes. Wechsler believes fish works best with herbs and he avoids using butter, salt, flour and wheat. He can offer suggestions on how to prepare the fish and if you are a reluctant chef, his team can provide a homemade rub, marinade or dipping sauce to ensure a succulent dinner. “As in any five star establishment, our recipes are our own. We’ve been perfecting them for almost 30 years!”

With summer approaching, Wechsler and his team are at the ready preparing clambakes, lobster bakes and elegant hors d’ouvres, buffets and barbeques for pool parties, graduation celebrations and even weddings. Wechsler prides himself on choosing only the most friendly and courteous staff for set up, serving and preparing the food and clean up. In the past few years, La Mer Seafood has expanded its catering services and he now is busy year round with holiday parties and corporate catering events.

“We do a lot of cocktail parties, office parties communions and Bar Mitzvahs mostly in people’s homes. We supply the staff, the rentals, bartenders and everything is prepared from scratch and as healthful as possible.” La Mer Seafood also has partnerships with area caterers by providing seafood for En Vious Events and Culinary Angels, among other endeavors.

In addition to lunch and dinner specials, the “take and bake” option is also very popular with customers these days who are short on time. The staff will season the fish for you, place it in a small tin and then all the customer has to do is bake it in the oven. Wechsler is all about making the customer’s life easy and provides one-stop shopping with breads and other produce available at the store to round out a complete dinner.

It’s no coincidence that Wechsler is known as a “fishmonger extraordinaire.” He has intimate knowledge of every fish that is sold in his store. The fish is bought at the Fulton Fish Market (now located at Hunts Point in the Bronx) and his buyers get there early to get the very best selection. He is also a veritable wealth of nutrition information on virtually every fish in his store.

Wechsler prides himself on knowing where it was caught and how it was caught (wild versus farmed). He knows about fish farming techniques, mercury counts and use of pesticides in farmed products. Fish that is farmed outside of the US, Canada or Central America has different safety regulations and is often laden with pesticides and antibiotics. That’s why Wechsler prefers wild caught, and if he is going to purchase farmed fish, he prefers to buy organic.

Besides knowing his fish backwards and forwards, he knows his customers very well too. Being a mainstay of downtown Armonk for almost 30 years, he has a good rapport with many of his customers. “It’s not uncommon for someone to walk in and say I’ll have the same thing I had last week or my son wants to try something new what would you suggest and I already know her son doesn’t like salmon so I can come up with suggestions. I’m like the local bartender.”

Visit www.lamerseafood.net

43rd annual Armonk Lion’s Club Fol de Rol at Wampus Brook Park: June 10 & 11

June 1, 2017 by Inside Press

Looking for a great way to spend the weekend? Come to the 43^rd annual Armonk Lion’s Club Fol de Rol at Wampus Brook Park the weekend of June 10 and 11^th. The fair starts Thursday night, June 8^th with a DJ, rides and food in the Wampus Brook school yard. This country fair features over 60 craft vendors, food, rides, carnival games, entertainment, animals, music, face painting and much more! On the weekend, there will be agility dog shows, featuring the Jersey Disc Devil, as well as racing pigs! There will be live music and lots of other entertainment for the whole family.

The Armonk Lions Club is a volunteer service organization that runs the fair as its only fundraiser. All money raised is used to support local community organizations, community projects and to help people in need by donating to organizations like Guiding Eyes for the Blind and Meals on Wheels. The club also sponsors a scholarship for two deserving seniors from Byram Hills High School.

Admission is free! Tickets are sold for the rides. Come for the food, come for the fun and come to support the Armonk Lions Club.

Hours are 6 PM to 10 PM, June 8^th and June 9^th; 11 AM to 10 PM June 10th and 11 AM to 5 PM on June 12^th. The Fol de Rol is located in Wampus Brook Park, at Maple Avenue and Bedford Road in Armonk, NY. Visit us at www.armonklions.org or go the Armonk Lions Fol de Rol and crafts festival facebook page for more information.

Buchwald’s Election Law Update Benefits North Castle in Upcoming Special Election

May 16, 2017 by Inside Press

The Town of North Castle is one of the first beneficiaries of a new law passed by State Assemblyman David Buchwald (D-Westchester) that reduces the cost of holding special town elections. Back in 2014, North Castle held a special election, triggered by a voter-initiated petition, at a cost of nearly $50,000. Part of the reason for the high town cost of these special elections across New York State was a requirement that the town pay for two to four member voter registration boards in each and every election district in the town. In North Castle, which has eleven election districts, the state law therefore mandated hiring at least twenty-two temporary workers. Assemblyman Buchwald won unanimous legislative support for changing the law to allow one or more boards of registration to serve this function for the entire town, as the town board finds fit to carry out this task.

At the time of passing the bill, which with the signature of Governor Andrew Cuomo became Chapter 372 of the Laws of 2015, Assemblyman Buchwald didn’t know which towns would first save money. However, it turns out that North Castle is having another special election this upcoming Tuesday, May 23. This one will allow voters to decide whether the local receiver of taxes should be elected or appointed. The new law enabled North Castle to consolidate voter registration efforts into three locations in town, one in each of the hamlets comprising the town, Armonk, Banksville and North White Plains. The upcoming election will cost the town thousands of dollars less than the special election held in North Castle just three years ago as a result of this change.

“I am pleased that the change in state election law I initiated not only started with a special election in North Castle, but also sees North Castle become one of the first towns to benefit,” said Assemblyman David Buchwald. “Thanks to this new law, North Castle residents will make their voices heard on May 23 with the knowledge this election is costing local property taxpayers less than before.”

“When it comes to mandate relief, Assemblyman David Buchwald walks the walk.” said North Castle Town Supervisor Michael Schiliro. “This change in state election law is saving our taxpayers real money while maintaining the ability for people to vote in town special elections. I applaud the Assemblyman’s continuing efforts to work with our town to find meaningful solutions to unfunded mandates. We have a real partner in Assemblyman Buchwald and I know that his is fighting for us in Albany.”

Assemblyman Buchwald’s 2015 legislation was endorsed by the Association of Towns of the State of New York. The Association represents over 900 town governments. “Before this legislation, towns assumed great expense to be able to hold special elections within their borders,” said the Association’s Executive Director, Gerry Geist. “The Association of Towns is thrilled to see a town be able to offer more residents the opportunity to exercise their voices in special elections at less cost to taxpayers, truly putting a positive twist on the phrase ‘doing more with less’ that we hear so often these days. This legislation is a win-win for towns and New Yorkers everywhere, and the Association of Towns is proud to have worked on this legislation with Assemblymember Buchwald.”

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Westchester County Airport: A Hidden Jewel For Air Travelers In The Region

October 21, 2016 by Stacey Pfeffer

Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino; Lt Col Joseph Wooley, Civil Air Patrol; Peter Scherrer, Westchester County Airport at a rededication ceremony this past July for the Lockheed T-33 jet, known as the “T-Bird” after the WWII plane was restored for a year. Photos Courtesy of the Office of the Westchester County Executive.

It’s another busy morning at Westchester County Airport. On the runway, a JetBlue flight is about to take off to Orlando with several young Westchester families en route to Disney. Another runway has a handful of business travelers coming in on a United flight from Chicago. Meanwhile a Westchester-based CEO is boarding his corporate jet for a meeting in Rochester.

Opened in 1945, Westchester County Airport operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and currently has six airlines offering flights, serving approximately 1.75 million passengers a year. The airport’s code, HPN, actually stands for Harrison, Purchase and North Castle, not White Plains Airport, as many people mistakenly believe, because the airport’s footprint is owned by all three towns. The airport employs 1,300 workers full-time and brings in an estimated $735 million to the region, according to a 2010 analysis.

The main terminal at Westchester County Airport.

The airport first began commercial flights in 1948 and the National Guard maintained a base at the airport from 1952 to 1983. In 2005, the airport began to offer discount flights to several key destinations for the first time.

With residential properties surrounding the airport, the county works hard at limiting noise and other environmental hazards.

A Westchester County Airport Advisory Board meets monthly and the board discusses topics such as noise/odor complaints with meetings open to the public. The board consists of eleven members appointed by the County Executive with representatives from the surrounding areas and aviation specialists. Residents can track flights and complain about any noise issues via www.airport.westchester.gov under the flight tracking tab. The County and Board have also been instrumental in capping terminal use to 480 passengers per hour to limit the impact on surrounding communities.

“The Westchester County Airport serves a very important purpose for the residents and businesses not only in North Castle but in the surrounding region,” notes Michael Schiliro, the Town Supervisor of North Castle. “In April, the North Castle Town Board adopted a Resolution requesting that North Castle be considered an Interested Agency for the proposed legislation modifying the Terminal Use Agreement. It is important to strike a balance between sustaining the level of service expected by the users of the airport while addressing the environmental, traffic, and noise impacts of North Castle residents. We intend to be an active participant in the process.”

“I think when people hear the words development or expansion they confuse construction with that,” notes Richard Conrad, an Advisory Board member from North Castle who is also the CEO and Owner of GP Aviation, a company that operates and sells business jets. For example, the airport recently built a separate building on the right hand side of the terminal for baggage screening to make it safer and efficient for all passengers. “The airport really is a jewel of Westchester, offering accessibility, ease of entry/egress from the airport and civilized travel with fewer crowds than other nearby airports. The county and [County Executive Rob] Astorino are huge proponents of it and are constantly looking for ways to improve the airport experience for everybody.”

Samantha Shinnick, an Armonk resident, uses the airport frequently and likes that “it’s a small airport with pretty good service (except when it snows). They run the operations smoothly based on security lines, etc.” However, she wishes there were more reasonable taxi services available and would like Uber to be allowed on-site.

There are several fixed-base operators (FBOs) at the airport such as Million Air and Signature Flight Support and these operators offer the convenience of driving right up to your plane and having staff handle your baggage. “It’s just another level of civilized travel,” comments Conrad.

In addition, Conrad notes that the airport is a “mecca for business aviation,” bringing in millions of dollars to the area.

Stacey Pfeffer lives with her husband and three young children in Chappaqua. She has written for New York Family Magazine, Kveller.com, Westchester Parents and Inside Chappaqua. She has flown to Florida several times via Westchester County Airport.