Winners
Elizabeth Perelstein. The president of White Plains-based School Choice International Incorporated, an educational consulting company, Perelstein was chosen as one of Fortune’s 10 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs for 2010. Perelstein represented Westchester at the Most Powerful Women summit held by Fortune in October, alongside nine other honorees and 400 of the world’s influential women leaders.
Briarcliff Manor’s SPCA. The SPCA of Briarcliff Manor rescued nearly 70 dogs by adopting them from a high-kill shelter based in Mississippi. All of the dogs were scheduled to be killed by the shelter.
LOSERS
Rye residents. A panel of coyote experts convened by the Westchester County Parks Department to review the continuing issue reached a conclusion, as expressed by one panelist: “Coyotes are here to stay.” As wildlife biologist Kevin Clarke explained, “They breed really fast. The only strategy that has worked was shooting them with guns from helicopters. I don’t think anyone around here wants that.”
Michael Mitchell. For the past nine years, in order to collect about $900 a month in Social Security payments, the Yonkers resident posed as his long-deceased brother. His pretense was discovered when he testified in a separate police investigation into rigged promotional contests at Empire City in which he continued the charade, was found out, and charged with perjury.
Bronxville residents. Metro-North disputes the village’s findings from a study it conducted that the disruptive levels of noise and vibration coming from the train tracks at Metro-North’s Bronxville station exceed federally set limits. The village must now spend thousands more for a follow-up study to buttress its claims.
Westchester County residents. Westchester not only has the highest property taxes of any county in the nation again this year, but results from the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey also reveal that New York (along with Connecticut and Texas) has the largest income gap between rich and poor of any state—and that Westchester has an even greater income disparity than the average for the state.
