White Plains and Valhalla region

For anyone interested, here is the full statement White Plains Mayor Adam Bradley made at City Hall tonight soon after his wife filed a domestic abuse complaint against him:

“Earlier today, I was arraigned in WP City Court based on a complaint my wife filed against me. I feel compelled to come out here tonight to let the citizens of White Plains know what happened in the past 12 hours.

This is a deeply personal matter and something that happened within my family. I am not going to discuss these charges in detail, other than to say that I am innocent and I will contest the charges.

But, I have to set the record straight. I did not in any way mistreat my wife. There have been problems in my marriage for some time and I have made many efforts to deal with that.

At this time, my thoughts are with my family and our two beautiful daughters. I will not take this opportunity to publicly argue with my wife in a manner that would expose our children to it.

This unfortunate matter will in no way affect my commitment to the important work I am doing for this great city.

As an attorney with many years of experience as a law guardian representing children, I deeply believe that protecting our children is my first and paramount obligation. Thank you all for coming and I hope you will all respect my family’s privacy at this time.”

Irvington’s Alexis Martins (22) recovers a rebound from Kennedy’s Allison Santini (54) in the third period at the girls class B semi-finals at the Westchester County Center in White Plains Feb. 28, 2010. Irvington won 57-42. ( Ricky Flores / The Journal News )

The final countdown is here! Tomorrow marks the start of our week-long “Unofficial Mayor” contest. Play every day Monday through Friday and you could win a mini laptop computer, a chance to guest blog here for three months, and a profile in our Sunday Express. Play any day and you could win a digital camera.

Most importantly, this contest is your chance to boast about, and show off your knowledge about your community. Don’t be afraid…this isn’t a test and there are no right or wrong answers.

Get the rules and details here so you’re prepared. See you back here tomorrow!

Things got back underway in the Section 1 basketball championships at the Westchester County Center following a winter storm that hit the Lower Hudson Valley last Thursday that post-poned today’s Valhalla’s Class C semi-final game against Haldane.

Valhalla’s Lauren Yazzetta reaches for a rebound against Haldane’s Kristen DesMarais. Haldane went on to defeat Valhalla 31-22, advancing to the Class C championship on Tuesday, March 2 at 4 p.m. against No. 2 seed North Salem. To see a gallery of photos from this game, click here.

Nobody likes to think about Monday just when the weekend’s starting, but you should if you want to enter the Express “Unofficial Mayor” contest. Here’s the deal: You’re not an elected official, but you’re the one who knows every important place, person and issue in your community; the person newcomers and neighbors go to when they have a question.

We’re going to give you the chance to show how much you know about your community by holding the Express “Unofficial Mayor” Contest, here on this blog from March 1 to 5.

This isn’t a quiz. There are no right or wrong answers. But we will be challenging you to answer questions that show how connected you are to your hometown.

The Grand Prize winner will receive a mini laptop computer, a profile published in a Sunday Express, and the chance to be a guest blogger here for three months. Two Second Prize winners will receive a digital camera.

We’ll post one question here each day from March 1 to 5, and give you two hours to post your response. The more fully-informed your answers, the better your chances of winning the Grand Prize!

We’re going to hold this contest three more times during the year, then ask you to vote on the ultimate “Unofficial Mayor” from among our Grand Prize winners — so enter now!

My wife shot this image of a “snow family” late this afternoon in front of 119 S. Broadway in White Plains.

The home is between Carhart and Maple avenues.

I took shots of a “snow couple” on Greenridge Avenue on Feb. 11 and posted them to this site, after the last snowstorm. I also got shots of Chuck Hill building a smaller snowman with his two grandsons nearby.

The South Broadway builders, like the creators of my couple, weren’t around to get in the photo.

Talking about a snow storm with White Plains DPW Commissioner Joseph “Bud” Nicoletti is like talking to the quarterback of a football team about the Superbowl.

His eyes light up, and you can hear the excitement in his voice as he discusses the best ways to attack snow, sleet or freezing rain and the pros and cons of sand, rock salt and liquid de-icers.

Nicoletti and his crews pulled an all-nighter last night and were still going at it today, methodically plowing the city’s 150 miles of road and spreading about 1,500 tons of salt. This has been one of the toughest storms in years, and Nicoletti spent much of his time pulling stuck plows out of the ice with the winch of his 22-year-old jeep.

“The guys are pretty tired, but I think we’re finally finished with the worst of it,” he said a little while ago. “The problem with this storm was that the worst of it lasted a really long time. We’ve been plowing the major roads almost continuously, and now we’ve hit the smaller roads in the residential areas at least two or three times.”

He said efforts were somewhat hampered by cars illegally parked overnight on some roads and by the large numbers of fallen trees, branches and wires throughout the city.

This motorist had clear sailing on Bryant Avenue because the White Plains Department of Public Works had just pushed that downed tree in the background back from the roadway.

The tree, which had come down during the storm, had already been cut back so traffic could get by, but a city police cruiser stayed on the scene, marking the hazard, until a DPW truck and front-end loader pushed it back toward the New York Presbyterian Hospital property about noon today.

It came down right across from the Bryant Gardens apartment complex.

Mount Pleasant has declared a state of emergency and banned traffic on local roads except for emergency vehicles as the storm continues to dump snow across the Lower Hudson Valley.

With more than 50 downed trees and 30 closed roads in Greenburgh, Supervisor Paul Feiner has declared a state of emergency in Greenburgh. Town Hall will not be open to the public today. The Greenburgh  Public Library and Theodore D. Young Community Center will also be closed.

As of this morning, portions of these town roads are closed due to the storm:
-Benedict Road near the Westchester County Center
-Roxbury Road
-Fort Hill Road near Ardsley Road
-Underhill Road near Sundale Place
-South Road near Jefferson Place
-Pomander Drive near the Sprain
-Wayside Drive
-Longfellow Street near Stevenson  Avenue
-Prospect Street
-Woods End Lane near Hartsdale Avenue
-Overhill Road off 9A
-Mountain Road in Irvington
-Sprain Road
-Ridge Road near Barnaby Lane and West Hartsdale
-Bradley Road
-Bowbell Road
-Essex Place
-Taxter Road
-Old Tarrytown Road near Kensico Road
-Larchmont Street near Chester Street
-Bayberry Road in Elmsford
-Westminister Road
-Jackson Avenue near the Sprain – Lawrence Avenue near Payne Street
-Poe Street
-High Point Road near Fourt Hill Road
-Dobbs Ferry Road near Stadium Road

Con Ed has advised customers to report outages to 1-800-752-6633.