My Rye

Durland Hearing on June 12th

In a March story (Rye to Scouts: Go Pitch a Tent), we wrote about how the City is abdicating its responsibility by not taking action to preserve the Durland Scout Center for future generations of Rye children. Take a look at this public notice posted by the developer on the Durland property--it is about 50 yards from the main entrance where one might look for these things. The notice mentions a City planning commission hearing on June 12th. No planning commission agenda has been posted by the City as of press time.

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Rye Friends Meeting House

On Milton Road, close to the Rye City marina and at the mouth of Milton Harbor and Blind Brook, is the Rye Friends Meeting House. The wooden chapel and bell tower has been in continuously used for worship for over 100 years.

According the the sign at the site, the Meeting House has Quaker beginnings and was built in 1835. The founder of Quakerism, George Fox, landed in Rye in 1678.

The Meeting House and 1.12 acre was purchased by the City in 2002 with $150,000 provided through the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and the state Clean Water, Clean Air Bond Act (sounds like a bargain). From the 2002 announcement:

"the new Sound access project will provide a direct connection to the coast and will preserve land within the coastal floodplain, coastal wetlands and riparian habitat. 

The property will be dedicated as parkland. Following the acquisition, the City plans to design and construct a pedestrian trailway along the waterfront connecting the purchased parcel to the existing marina park. Additional improvements will include signage and landscaping to increase views of the sound."

We could use some more of that "land preservation within the coastal floodplain" right about now. Nice move in 2002.

Someone does need to get this Meeting House a nice new coat of Benjamin Moore.

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(Above) The Rye Friends Meeting House property extends down to the mouth of Blind Brook as it empties into Milton Harbor and the Long Island Sound. It is the Blind Brook that severely flooded on March 2nd and again on April 15th causing over $80 million in damage across the City of Rye.

Rye Golf Club Pool is Cooking 15,000 Burgers/Day. Kinda...

It was only 70 days ago when we were sledding at Rye Golf Club. This Memorial Day weekend marked the opening of the Rye Golf Club pool for the 2007 season. The thundershowers promised by the local weather forecasters never materialized and instead mother nature delivered 80 degree temperatures to kick-off the summer.

Swimmers may have noticed less of an "edge" when they took their first dive of the season. Losing that edge and heating the pool early in the season is running members $1,500/day in propane. That is a LOT of propane. How much?

I can fill my barbecue tank up at Brewer's for about $20.

I can conservatively cook 200 burgers on a tank.

For $1,500, I can fill my propane tank 75 times and cook 15,000 burgers--one for every Rye resident.

Every Day. But it is BYOB. and B (burger). That would be one heck of a "family fun day"...

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(Above) Rye Golf Club Pool with Whitby Castle in the background. Photographed May 26, 2007.

Free Mulch for Rye Gardeners

For all Rye gardeners, don't forget the city of Rye offers free mulch at Disbrow Park. This beats buying the "it will take me 10 minutes to find someone to help me" and the "it is out of stock" mulch from our not so helpful Portchester Home Depot.

Alas, there is always a hitch: Disbrow is open limited hours for mulch lovers. Call ahead to make sure they have some fresh ground organic goodness before you prep the minivan for the trip...

$192,000 of Ice Cream

Rye's Mario Gabelli is known to pay himself a cool $40 million a year in compensation, but what about the super cool ice cream impresario Dionisio? Don't know this bell ringing, truck driving, ice cream serving cash machine? Then I guess your kids don't play Rye youth soccer at the recreation fields at Midland on Saturdays.

By 9:30am and lasting all day long, there is a line in front of this caloric cash machine, with Dionisio pulling down cool cash for a panoply of various creams--Choco Taco to Screwballs to Jumbo Jetstars to Giant Sandwiches (not so giant) and the venerable Chocolate Eclair--from adults and children alike.

How much cool cash? Let's annualize Dionisio's creamy cash swirl and maybe you'll drop that midtown hedge fund commute:

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20 transactions/hour at $5/per (look at the line, skeptics...) = $100

8 hours = $800

1 week (working 5 days) = $4,000

1 month = $16,000

Leave 4 weeks vacation, and our ice cream king is cooling off with an all cash, have truck will travel, super cool $192,000 business.

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STOP Sign Policy Headed for City Council June 13th

I spoke with Assistant City Manager Scott Pickup today to get an update on Rye's STOP sign policy. While the four way STOP sign was installed at Bradford and Florence on April 3rd, the policy, designed to create a STOP sign request process for all Rye citizens, is still in draft form.

Pickup reported the Traffic & Transportation Committee did not have comments at its meeting this past Thursday. He is in the process of rolling comments from Bradford Park,  Councilman Andy Ball and Mayor Steve Otis into the draft. The city expects to circulate the draft prior to the June 13 City Council meeting so it can be put to a vote on the 13th. MyRye.com will post the revised policy as soon as we receive it. The current draft STOP sign policy was penned by Police Commissioner William Connors.