Our Readers Respond...


Brazil’s Ethanol Solution


To the editor:


The article is replete with technical information about Brazil’s ethanol program but its premise that the introduction of ethanol resulted in breaking the dependence on foreign oil is wrong. When ethanol was introduced in the late 1970s Brazil was processing about one million barrels per day of imported crude oil. The introduction
of ethanol reduced the demand of gasoline but did nothing to reduce Brazil’s need for aviation gasoline, kerosene, jet fuels, diesel fuels, lubricants, petrochemical feedstocks, asphalts and other miscellaneous petroleum products. To reduce the demand for foreign crude oil the Brazilian government undertook a major investment program in onshore and off shore exploration and major finds of domestic crude oil has enabled to Brazil to become self-sufficient as their crude processing increased to two million BPD of domestic crude today.

The Brazilian model of increased domestic exploration and drilling should be followed by the United States as it was successful in replacing foreign oil, ethanol was not the answer.

E. Patrick Mosman
Pleasantville

The writer was employed by an American oil company and worked in Brazil 1980- 1983 as Manager of Resarch, Development and Technical Service, and was very involved with the ethanol program and the planned biodiesel program.

Reader Takes New Rochelle Mayor Bramson to Task


Dear Editor:

The crisis is over! Thanks to County Legislator James Maisano, Greg Pryce who for years landscaped the property in question, and the almost 300 city residents of New Rochelle who signed petitions, the one-half acre strip of land on Flandreau Avenue will not be sold to developers!

I am not a Johnny Come Lately to this neighborhood having lived here for several decades, probably longer than any other resident. It consists of well kept, ethnically diverse one family homes: A model neighborhood in many respects and one that the City of New Rochelle should be duly proud of. Instead, City Council led by Mayor
Bramson’s tie-breaking vote, was ready to renege on a deal made with Westchester County to purchase this small plot of land for the City of New Rochellle for $1. The proposed plan was to sell it to a developer to erect several structures on it. Such a plan is laughable and would have been very much out of scale in this well-established neighborhood.


My property is .77 acres and other home owner plots are of comparable size. But right prevailed, no thanks to Noam Bramson who was willing to sell us down the river to County Government. This is not the first time that New Rochelle’s mayor has sided with developers instead of with his own constituents. I actually spoke directly to him by telephone about this issue. It is developers like Louis Cappelli that have, with Mr. Bramson’s compliance, conspired to change the very character of our city with skyscrapers requiring additional infrastructure, more police and fire manpower, as well as additional fire equipment to provide an adequate level of safety.

When it comes to development, bigger is not always better, especially when it entails construction that lowers our quality of life with excessive street construction, higher school taxes to accommodate students residing in new skyscraper apartments, as well as other additional city expenditures to service the many residential structures now being erected.

Many people now believe that New Rochelle with its rapid de-velopment is beginning to look like the Bronx. Let’s not denigrate our city long known as Queen City of the Sound. Instead let’s put a moratorium on high
density development. For his allowing developers ready access to our city, Mayor Bramson should have received only fat lumps of coal in his Christmas stocking.

June Carletti Sambol,
New Rochelle


More on Westchester’s “Dysfunctional” Matrimonial Court

To the Editor:


I recently started reading your publication and am not surprised at all with the info printed in your article, page 5 of Dec 14th issues nor with the article page 3 of Jan 4th issue. I long have suspected this on my own. It was
confirmed by an attorney whom I consulted with 3 years ago who stated that given who my attorney was, my ex’s attorney and the judge; there was no chance that I would have ever gotten a fair settlement.

In my case, I had been abused and eventually ended up having back surgery. I have 2 children whom suffer from post traumatic stress from the physical and emotional abuse that they have endured in addition to neglect. Yet, they are still made to see their father, whom they don’t want to see.

Isn’t it interesting that all the child abuse cases have been dropped against my ex? In one instance, my child was violently shaken by his father causing neck trauma, causing him to be medicated for anxiety and eventually resulting in my then 8 year old to become suicidal requiring further medication.

CPS dropped all charges against my ex, saying the shaking incident didn’t happen but charged me for not taking my child to the pediatrican quickly enough ( less than 24 hours after returning from his dad’s)( not to mention I’m a pediatric nurse...so I was evaluating my child til he could be seen). so I was charged for not taking my child to the Dr. for an injury that never happened???????

My children and I are being held hostage by my ex and the NY courts. I have a learning impaired child, one who’s suicidal and after 3 months of returning to work fulltime as I needed health care coverage and my alimony is soon to run out... I lost my job because I needed so much time off to take my children to appts with specialists and therapists. Yet I’m not allowed to relocate to my home state where I could significantly cut my cost of living expenses, I have a network of family and friends ( we have no one here). Did I mention, I’m disabled from doing the work I was trained to do?

As soon as the divorce papers were signed, my ex stopped going to therapy re: the children; and in 18
months time missed 32 out of 39 weekday visits and 1/3 of his over night visits. My ex’s family whom all live
within an hour away almost never see the children. My ex is in arrears to me for thousands of $ for therapy visits for the children. I didn’t get a COLA clause in my divorce and inspite of the rising costs of everything from milk to gas and heating oil....I’ve had to make due, going deeper in debt. I had to sell our home ( I got 1/2 of the house). My ex stole monetary yearly gift funds from our children and cheated the children and me out of a portion of a million$ stock portfolio that I didn’t know about( I knew about the account but didn’t know it was worth 5 times more than the amount I knew about) that contained some of his paychecks, childrens’ money, wedding gift
monies, gifted monies to me, etc. He recently purchased a $1.1 million dollar townhouse, drives a new
car and still abuses and neglects the children.

All of these things were ignored by the courts, including my ex’s repeated comment to me, “ I’ll do whatever it takes to make your life as miserable as possible and to make you suffer as much as possible!” I am guilty only of being a good wife and mother. The children are always well cared for and their needs met to 100+%, I always had a home cooked meal on the table waiting for my ex on the table. I ran the house( that he never allowed
me to buy furniture or decorate) and the family fiances. He worked in the city and only watched TV and went running at home. ( We now know that he has significant psychological problems....court ignored those too).

I am currently faced with no job, a learning disabled child, a suicidal child, myself disabled, my alimony running out and no local support network. My ex rushed the divorce through the courts so that it was signed just 3 months short of the 10 year mark for me being able to file against his social security! My ex with his new townhouse,new car and a six figure income and a six figure stock portfolio annual income and the benifactor of his families’ wills. Did I mention he comes from a very wealthy family......

oh yes, he’s also an attorney! I’m not looking for a free ride but the children are suffering.... I thought NY wants
“what’s in the best interest of the children”......doesn’t appear so to me! I agree, the corruption needs to end and a major overhaul is long overdue.

Paula
So.Salem

Vicki Mayfield Article Rings True

Dear Editor:


I have read the article in The Westchester Guardian about the Mount Vernon Public Library (Reading is Fundamental, Even in Mount Vernon, Mayor Davis, Jan. 4) and I want to say it is so true to what was said.

I have lived in Mount Vernon for the past five years and I work at the Library and see what goes on. It is sad and I feel that my prayers have been answered that someone is finally seeing what I have been seeing for the past five years.

I can understand why most people don’t say anything because things happen and they can’t afford to lose what they are making; I seen that in action as well. But I made it my choice to make a difference and to speak anyhow.

I have seen much of the wrong that is being displayed and it is unfair to the children of this city. As a matter of fact we are being left behind in a scene of trying to help the children of this city. I am more than happy to be a part of this group, Concerned Patrons of the Mount Vernon Public Library, and give my suggestions where I can’t apply to a place of learning.

I am grateful to have met Vicki Mayfield and I have read almost all of her articles in The Westchester Guardian which I find to be uplifting and encouraging to push others to go forth in this world. Again an article which is more than overdue, but I feel my prayers have been answered. Thanks, Vicki!

Concerned Worker of MVPL


Vicki Mayfield is Right on the Money

Dear Editor:


You article was right on the money about what is going on at the Mount Vernon Public Library. I’m glad that you have attended those meetings to see first-hand how the Director and the Board are doing at the library. The Board, for one, never questions Mr. Lee and I have not seen one Board Member in the Library since they came aboard.

The Board are supposed to be monitors of the Library and protect the Patrons of Mount Vernon from poor and non-concerned leadership. However, they have not done anything to make the situation better at the Library. It would be wise and forthcoming if the Board would come to speak with staff on a one-on-one basis and discover that the leadership of Mr. Lee over the number of years he has been here has run this Library to the ground and has caused it to be shut on a number of occasions because of his management.

It’s about time someone such as yourself has made the public aware of how this Library is heading into the hole. Thank you for your insight and I am with you in your desire to make the Mount Vernon Public Library a good library once again.

Concerned Resident


In Our Opinion...

Chief Longworth: Another Pirro Henchman Flees

The citizens of Westchester, and particularly the Village of Dobbs Ferry, are surely planning the celebrations that will accompany the upcoming retirement of Police Chief George Longworth, a coward who lacked the moral fiber and courage to stand up to a tyrannical DA bent on prosecuting a New York City Transit Police Officer whose justifiable killing of a bat-wielding assailant saved his father’s life. For this George Longworth has earned the contempt and disrespect of police officers everywhere.

Longworth, only 45, was quoted last week in The Journal News saying, “It’s the right time in my life to make a change, and the right time for the department also, with a lull in activity, no major open cases, no litigation pending.” The reality is, George Longworth can’t wait to get off the hot-seat. His statement that it’s the right time for the department, the Dobbs Ferry Police Department, is, patently untrue, given the fact that several witnesses have now come forward to contradict the Department’s recent claims regarding the use of recording devices
during the collection of witness statements over the years, most notably in the horrifically handled investigation of the Richard DiGuglielmo case.

Worse yet, a number of witnesses, to the DiGuglielmo/Campbell tragedy, have charged, in sworn depositions, that their original statements to detectives from the Dobbs Ferry Police Department, in which they had stated
that Officer DiGuglielmo’s shooting of Charles Campbell was in “self defense,” were gone over, and gone over, by the detectives until they altered their accounts to conform with “what the police wanted them to say.”

Longworth’s handling of the DiGuglielmo case is not the only instance in which his department, under his direction, engaged in wrongful, and Unconstitutional behavior, working hand-in-hand with corrupt ADA’s under the control of Jeanine Pirro, whose self-promotional, unlawful tactics have been increasingly coming to light. There are far too many questions that have begun to surface now that Pirro’s Reign of Terror has ended, questions involving the Nowicki and DeRosario cases, and the official and private activities of certain detectives formerly with the Dobbs Ferry Police Department.

Appellate Courts, federal investigators, and the public at large, are increasingly coming to the realization that law enforcement in Westchester, for a dozen years under Pirro, routinely violated the Constitutional Rights of innocent citizens, enlisting, and getting, the cooperation of police departments under the control of unscrupulous, unprincipled, cowards such as George Longworth.

However, with her demise and fall from power, Pirro has left many of her coconspirators, police chiefs and assistant DA’s, alike, high and dry, and very worried about the inevitable exposure of their unlawful activities in her behalf. George Longworth is clearly one such individual, beating a hasty retreat, much like former ADA George Bolen, who rushed into retirement just days before Jeffrey Deskovic emerged from prison, after 16 years of hard time served for the rape and murder of a 15-year-old Peekskill High schoolmate that Police Lt. Eugene Tumolo, now Peekskill Police Chief, and George Bolen, knew very well he had not committed.

Robert Taggart, former Yonkers Police Commissioner, also made the sudden decision, just a couple of months ago, that it was time to step down, just six days after The Westchester Guardian exposed the mishandled, and unpunished, case of a 72-year-old mother and her 49-year-old daughter who had been the victims of Yonkers Police brutality. And, make no mistake about it, there will be many more unexpected retirements by top-level assistant district attorneys, and high ranking police as the truth about law enforcement in Westchester, particularly under Jeanine Pirro, continues to rear its ugly head.