Storm Wrap-Up from Rye PD Commish Connors

 

(PHOTO: Tree down on Osborn Road.)

There is still more clean-up work to be done, but here is a storm wrap-up report provided to MyRye.com from Rye PD Commish Connors:

The following is a summary of the rain/wind storm that impacted our area during the weekend of March 13 – 14, 2010:

Original forecast: rain beginning Friday, March 12th, and continuing through the weekend with high winds (30 to 40 MPH with gusts up to 50 MPH on the coast). Total rainfall of 2 to 4 inches, possibly heavier in some locations; minor to moderate tidal flooding due to winds; possible urban and small stream flooding.

• Locally, the storm intensified on Saturday morning, with heavy rain and increasingly high wind.
• Moderate coastal flooding occurred during the Saturday night high tide resulting in evacuation of the shore clubs. American Yacht Club, Shenorock Shore Club, and Milton Road in the vicinity of Hewlett Avenue flooded, as did some of the coastal roadways, such as Kirby Lane , Manursing Way , and Pine Island Road . Milton Harbor House at 720 Milton Road had roadway and basement flooding. The waters receded as the tide ebbed.
• There were no issues caused by rainfall. Although a weather station at Rye Beach reported 2.67 inches of rain during the two days, the Blind Brook watershed never approached flooding potential, and the Bowman Avenue spillway remained below measurable levels for most of the event. However, winds were severe, causing extensive damage to trees and wires resulting in power outages.
• Con Edison reported that this storm resulted in 187,000 outages system wide, and 79,000 in Westchester . As of Monday afternoon, 56,000 remained without power. The total far exceeds the damage caused by Hurricane Gloria in 1985, which resulted in 110,515 outages.
• In Rye , we estimate that approximately half of the City was without power at peak, and numerous roads were closed. Major outages effected portions of Milton Road; Forest Avenue; Rye Gardens; Maple Avenue; Central Avenue and vicinity; Maple Avenue; The Ives; Glendale Road; the vicinity of Evergreen Avenue/Grandview Avenue/Hillside Road; Rye High School; and Resurrection, Rye Presbyterian, and Rye Methodist churches. Restoration efforts were initially delayed because the high winds prevented repair crews from working on overhead lines.

As of Monday, March 15, 2010, most of the City was restored, with the following exceptions:

The following areas are without power:

• Evergreen Avenue/Grandview Avenue
• Maple Avenue to Glendale Road , including the Ives and Greenwood Union Cemetery – partially restored, crew on scene.

The following roads are closed:

• Locust Avenue, Summit Avenue to North Street , periodic closures of one lane, repairs in progress.
• Holly Lane, repairs in progress.
• Scattered small outages remain; they can be viewed on Con Ed’s website.
• Rye City Schools were closed on Monday, March 15th.

Although Con Ed correctly estimated a multi-day restoration effort, restoration of power in our area has proceeded remarkably well and is continuing.

During the forty-eight hour period beginning at midnight on Saturday, March 13th and ending at midnight on Sunday, March 14th the Police Department recorded 184 calls for service, 148 of which were apparently storm related. Department of Public Works staff worked around the clock, and coordinated tree removal efforts with Con Edison.

Comments

[AboveAvg.Citizen]

Avg.Citizen,

Consider it done.....NAIVE!

No the Commissioner is not from here, he's a NYC guy and the former Council & City Manager/Managers were warned about what they were getting!

Including the officers closing their eyes & looking the other way, there are probably several reasons for this drop, all which begin at the top......CONNORS!

There has been a considerable increase in enforcement since the 1st of the year. It is obvious the PD is listening and realizing they were wrong.

Other than history not repeating itself, I don't really care about past statistics, we should all be for today & tomorrow and that is where we need to put our energy!

As for the Rye Town Park issue, what they really want to say and can't is that they don't like African Americans & Latinos in their neighborhood!

A SPADE IS A SPADE!

[Average Citizen]

Of course the drop in summonses looks bad, but it needs more analysis (as I have stated before).

Call me naive, but I don't understand why the top administrator of a police dept would not want his officers to issue summonses. Could it be a monetary issue? Rye does not receive the majority of the fines from "movers," so is it possible that the decision was made to not go after drivers aggressively, and concentrate resources elsewhere? Connors isn't from Rye (is he?) so it's not like he is protecting friends. I also can't see the City Council telling the PC to back off of summons activity.

And it's not like we could say that more and more people are obeying the V&T laws. I could understand a drop in Seatbelt violations, but cell phone usage is like shooting fish in a barrel. If anything, I would expect numbers to remain somewhat constant for most categories.

I guess my thoughts are there must be a (valid) reason why the number has decreased. We can’t just look at an Excel spreadsheet and say “Look! The police are not doing their job!” I think we need to look at activity in surrounding communities. Is Rye the only municipality with similar results? Are we at an acceptable place in the ‘bell curve?’ Was there a greater push in earlier years to be aggressive, but then it was determined that it wasn’t impacting driving habits? Again, I do not have the answers – just a lot of questions. Good luck to those sifting thru the detail. Just keep an open mind and do the correct research. I’m sure we’ll get some answers as to why the drop in numbers.

Now if someone could just convince The Real Housewives of Rye to unbunch their panties and stop whining about parking at Rye Town Park…I can’t believe that the Mayor is totally on board with that issue…

[Robert Zahm]

Ted,
I haven't had the "pleasure" yet of seeing the Commissioner's attempt to explain the dramatic drop in citations, but will look for it. If what's there is a year-to-year comparison, of course it will look there was no great change BECAUSE THE SITUATION HAD ALREADY DETERIORATED FROM 2006. But I give the city council member enough credit to recognize that and to ask drive a real discussion of what's changed, why, and if where we are is acceptable to the community.

Note that the numbers you site are already available through earlier posts on myRye.

[tedc]

Malfeasance clean up is one of my specialties in the corporate world “real deal” – why not put it to work for the benefit of my hometown – especially when I personally get a tax cert ambush just like the city did to The Osborn? But more on this later. Let’s talk about senior police department mismanagement.

The old saw is that statistics don’t lie, so liars use statistics. I promised readers before that I would strip out Commissioner Conner’s massage therapy of the annual violation summaries so that more accurate patterns would emerge.

Mr. Connors conveniently left out the summonses for inspections, registrations and equipment violations to apparently make it appear that the actual numbers didn't go down that much. The percentage stayed the same (-43%) but there were actually 1,585 less summonses 2006 vs. 2009.

When you compare 2004 vs. 2009 the numbers are staggering as far as the decreases in summons activity. The overall is 2,608 less summonses. A 54% decrease.

A 51% decrease in Red light summonses. (Only 92 issued in all of 2009).

A 63% decrease in Stop Sign summonses. (Only 24 issued in ALL of 2009).

A 58% decrease in speeding summonses. (Only 300+ issued in ALL of 2009 and that's with a dedicated Radar Enforcement Officer)

A 62% decrease in alcohol and drug related summonses.

A 63% decrease in seat belt summonses issued.

A 64% decrease in Cell Phone summonses issued.

Who is responsible for this? Mr. Connors loved touting the numbers and taking responsibility when they were on the increase.

I’m sending Jay the Excel sheet containing the revised numbers and graphs. Anyone who would like a copy just post you’re real name and email to this string and I’ll click it through to you. The RPD rank and file deserve a better leadership than what we’ve got.

[The real deal]

"I think the commissioner is a stark managerial failure who should be replaced."

tedc,

Ever think about moving to Conn? Saw another poster claim you sued the city. Is that true?

[tedc]

Kim – Update - Georgia Power rolled into Rye at around 6:45 PM tonight and headed down to Playland Amusement Park near Long Island Sound to park. Please tell the crews we’re very happy they’re here

[tedc]

Kim we look forward to showing your husband and his crew some warm Yankee hospitality. The local Con Ed guys up here are great but boy are they tired. When he gets to Rye he should get directions to Dock Deli down on Milton Point off of Milton Road so he and the guys know where to get good food, reasonably priced and have a large parking lot for their trucks right outside. They open early and serve thru lunch. In town there is Poppy’s Café which is also great but street parking is a little trickier. Hats off to Georgia!

[Kim Jones]

I am from Gainesville, GA, my husband and his crew of 7-8 men are on their way to Rye from Georgia Power. Take care of our guys and we wish you the best in your clean-up and restoration of your power service.

[tedc]

I think the RPD rank and file did their usual great job. I think the commissioner is a stark managerial failure who should be replaced. More on this later as I get thru his massaging of the annual violation statistics and post some alternative and more accurate comparisons.

[honest citizen]

I think the Commissioner and the entire Police Department did a great job under terrible circumstances. We should all be grateful for the wonderful men in blue that serve Rye.