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T7'3 1103=\- ji. i r< ~> r> CHAFf'AQUA 195 3 GREELEY CHAFT'AQUA LIBRARY AVE NY 1051 Balk Hate Mailiag Permit No. 4 Carrier Sorted Chappaqua. N.Y. 18514 Chappaqua Journal VOLUME 1, Nos. 18 & 19 Serving the Town of New Castle Chappaqua, N.Y., Thursday, Dec. 25,1980 & Jan. 1,1981 25 Cents A Copy, $10.00 A Year 4 million budget adopted by Town Board expenses up 10 percent-taxes up by 10.8 Four year-old Bonnie Johnson hands Gloi Phan a birthday present at his first Birthday party, Thursday, Dec. 18, held at the Johnson's home. The Vietnamese refugee explained that birthday's are not celebrated in his country, but he said he enjoyed the American custom. ' Photo by V. Baltay by Marianne Acito The New Castle Town Board unanimously passed a $4,348,010 budget at a 50-minute meeting Saturday morning, Dec. 20, when the only spectator was a Chap paqua Journal reporter. This budget will increase the tax rate by 10.8 percent to $3.78 per $1,000 of assessed property valuation, up 37 cents over last year's adjusted rate. Preliminary budget figures released earlier this month set the tax increase at 9.7 percent, a decrease from the tentative estimated raise of 13.5 percent released in early November. Between the December 2 public hearing on the budget and Satur day's meeting, an overall in crease of $25,258 was added to the general fund appropriations, raising the tax rate the additional 1.1 percent. The total budget rose 10 per cent from last year's $4,050,737, but taxes are rising 10.8 percent as a result of smaller increase in anticipated non-tax revenues, and lower year-end fund balan ces. Smoke detectors Additions to the preliminary budget include $300 for smoke detectors for Town Hall. One Town Hall employee admitted that since the Stouffers fire the town has been more cautious. $25,000 has been added to the budget for court costs and please turn to page 3 Permanent Housing Agency told to enforce advantages for seniors Vietnamese piloted 90 to safety celebrates Christmas, birthday at 35 by Marianne Acito Gioi Phan had his first birthday party Thursday afternoon, Dec. 18—at the age of 35. After escaping from Viet Nam and spending eight months in refugee camps In Thailand and Indonesia, Mr. Phan, his wife, Bich Lien and two-year-old son, Hoang arrived in New York on Dec. 2, sponsored by the First Congregational Church of Chappaqua. Mr. Phan explained that birthdays are not celebrated m Viet Nam. In fact, Mrs. Phan does not even know when her birthday is. Christmas, however, is a spe cial time in Viet Nam, and the Phans said they enjoyed going to New York City to see the lights and tree at Rockefeller Center with Mary Ann Johnson, who held the birthday party at her Old Mill Road home. What impressed them more than the Christmas festivities in the city, said the Phans, were the tall buildings. \They never stopped CSS Refuse Co. wants permission to service all of New Castle The CSS Refuse Company has asked permission to serve all of New Castle and will discuss the proposal at the next Town Board meeting on Monday, Jan. 13. The Ossining firm would be the only hauler licensed to serve the entire town. \The reason for splitting it up into license areas was to be sure that each of the four haulers gets some dense and some sparse areas,\ Town Clerk Janette Hunter explained, when the request was received ,on Monday, Dec. 15. Board member Patrice Mahon said that a town-wide hauler would advertise only in the more densly-populated areas, which are easier to cover. \But we can notify everyone through the town newsletter,\ Supervisor Charles Banks, Jr. responded. Seniors outside the CSS area had been frying to get this service, so they could take advantage of its special $8.50 monthly senior citizens' rate. \We could ask where the requests are coming from, so we would not have to let them try to handle the whole town,\ suggested the Town At torney, Lawrence Dittelman. \But if they prove that they can handle the entire area, why hot let them try?\ Supervisor Banks replied. He explained that CSS wanted to serve all of New Castle before being licensed in August, and that he had advised it to wait until it was sure it had enough equip ment. The firm will be asked to please turn to page 2 craning their necks,\ said Mrs. Johnson. Gioi Phan, who operated a motorcycle repair service in Viet Nam between 1975-1980, said his experience as a quar termaster and signalman in the Vietmanese Navy for 11 years is what enabled him to engineer his family's escape from Viet Nam. During the war, from 1969-1972, he and six other members of the Vietnamese Navy were chosen to work with the United States Airborne Cavalry. They did intelligence work, planting transmitters along the Cambo dian border to monitor the Viet Cong's border activities. From 1972 until 1975, Mr. Phan was in command of a Vietnamese swift boat. During the war, he was never wounded. Said Mrs. John son, \He's tough.\ Piloted escape Yet it seemes hard to imagine the soft-spoken Mr. Phan pilot ing a boat with 90 refugees from Viet Nam to Thailand. But in March of 1980, he left from a please turn to page 3 by Jackie Friedlander \You can't legislate econom ics,\ warned Deputy Supervisor Lois Mitchell, at the Tuesday, Dec. 16 New Castle Town Board work session. \We can be sure that a senior buys an apartment, but we can't be sure that he will live in it,\ rather than passing it up, at a profit r to\ \people who can. afford private homes but prefer condominiums because they don't want to cut the grass!\ Nevertheless, the other trus tees are determined to try - by creating a Permanent Housing Agency, to enforce the prefer ence provided for senior citizens, handicapped people and low-to- moderate residents, under the October, 1979 Multi-Family Housing Policy ordinance. The Agency will include the three members of the current year-old Temporary Housing Advisory Committee. The ordinance resulted from the 1977 New York State Supreme Court decision, requir ing the town to allow multi- family housing. It offers inducements to provide apart ments for these groups, includ ing \density incentives,\ please turn to page 8 des- Town Board Report Curfews and starting times for construction noises hammered out 7:30 a.m. weekdays, and 9 a.m. weekends, were designated as starting times permitted for con struction work that can be heard outside a building in which it is taking place, at the Monday Dec. 15 New Castle Town Board meeting. Eight o'clock is the deadline every night, for building activity, including \tree removal and other site preparation.'' The first draft of the ordinance had called for an 8 a.m. limit but Supervisor Charles Banks, Jr. explained that Charles Hatcher and other contractors had poin- Zoners deny Slockbower bid to convert garage into second home Bah...humbug! Christmas greens grabbed Bah, humbug! New Castle Planning Board Member Ellen Wales can't put the Christmas lights on her out door pine tree again this year, because it was chopped down and taken away. She discovered the stump at 7:30 a.m. Saturday, Recember 13 in the yard near her driveway on Barns Rd., Millwood, and later told a Plan ning board colleague, \I guess someone took it home for a Christmas tree.\ Lights were stolen from the Holiday Tree which overlooks the duck pond at the Quaker and please turn to page 5 Twenty-four neighbors turned out for the public hearing on Shelagh Slockbower's application to amend a 1963 resolution restric ting her four-acre property to a single-family house. She came before the Zoning Board on Wed nesday, Dec. 17 seeking per mission to use a barn-garage on the property as an apartment for her son. Her request was unanimously denied. Board Chairman Gabriel Rosenfeld told the audience, \This is not a simple matter. I guess that's why so many of you are here.\ He said the Board had received \ten to twelve\ letters just last week pertaining to the application. Since November, the Board has received 16 letters concerning Mrs. Slockbower's application: eleven favored it. Mrs. Slock bower's four-acre property is a \keyhole lot,\ with the only ac cess a 50-foot wide strip off Devoe Rd. In 1963, when Mary Van Praag Necarsulmer subdivided her property, selling the lot to Herbert F. Molz, both buyer and seller signed a covenant with the owners of neighboring property, George and Marjory Hawkins, and Richard and Mary Ray, to restrict the use of the 50-foot wide strip \except as a means of ingress and egress from one single family residence, wUh ap ted out that 7:30 was the union starting time. \The weekend is when people really want peace and quite,\ the Supervisor added, \And 9 a.m. is when the weekend day really begins.\ Deputy Supervisor Lois Mit chell insisted, \I can't see any reason why construction should be allowed on Sunday at all,\ but Board member Erik Nicolaysen responded, \People who work on their own homes often can't do it any other time.\ Town Attorney Lawrence Dit telman agreed that there was no legal reason preventing different limits on different days. The Zoning Board of Appeals was empowered to grant varian ces, and Mr Nicolaysen argued that exemptions should also be specified for emergencies, such as hurricane warnings. But then every contractor would say he had an emergency every time he was going to lose money by missing a deadline,\ Supervisor Banks said. What about lawnmowers? \Most of our complaints are not about buzz saws, but lawn- mowers, and they are not covered by this law,\ objected Board member Thomas McCann. The Supervisor pointed out, \It can't cover everything.\ Other kinds of noise control would require \enforcement tec hniques beyond our abilities,\ please turn to page 2 please turn to page 2
