TWIW 22: May 26, 2026

In this episode:

• County Executive Ken Jenkins shares update on Westchester’s First Quarter Report.
• New Castle Town Supervisor Victoria Tipp joined to talk about what’s happening in New Castle. 
• Jenkins highlighted the County’s upcoming Pride Flag Raising Ceremony on Sunday, June 7. 
• Upcoming events at Westchester County Parks.

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Transcript

Intro 0:06

Welcome to This Week in Westchester, the podcast, your weekly audio briefing from Westchester County government. Each week, County Executive Ken Jenkins breaks down the decisions, investments, and initiatives shaping life across Westchester. Clear information, real progress. One place to stay informed. Now, here's This Week in Westchester.

Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins 0:28

Good afternoon. I'm Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins. Today is Tuesday, May 26, 2026. This is this week in Westchester, the briefing. You know, we're coming off of a holiday weekend, but we're really back to work here at Westchester County. And you know, I promise to be open and honest with you, so I wanted to let you know the first quarter report makes clear that Westchester County continues to face significant financial constraints, driven by rising costs and ongoing economic uncertainty. The increased expenses related to health care, which is over budgeted by $9.4 million, daycare subsidies, which are over budgeted by $6.4 million, and mandated services for children with special needs, which is nearly $2 million over budget, are placing additional pressure on the county's budget. So approximately $17 million projected shortfall for the year out of our $2.5 billion budget. At the same time, global instability, inflation, and uncertainty surrounding federal funding and future federal funding continues to create challenges not just for Westchester County, but for governments across the county and country. As we continue to navigate this difficult environment, we remain committed to managing taxpayer dollars responsibly, protecting critical county services, and making thoughtful strategic decisions that position Westchester County for its continued long-term stability. So I'm going to continue to keep you posted on this as more information comes in. Flipping to our municipal guest today, she is the town supervisor of Newcastle, Vicki Victorio Chip. So we're going to be joined by Supervisor Tip to talk about what's happening in Newcastle from infrastructure improvements, protecting the environment to housing, community priorities, and all the quality of life issues residents care about the most, and how about the town and the county are teaming up to get things done. With that, let's turn over to the supervisor, who chose not to cancel her parade yesterday, and she was right, as usual. Come on up, Supervisor Victoria Tim.

SPEAKER_03 3:22

Thank you so much, County Executive. It's great to be here. Hello. Hello, everybody. Good afternoon. First, I'd like to start by embarrassing our county executive by wishing him a very happy birthday. I hope you get to do some nice celebratory things later. I am honored to serve as the Newcastle Town Supervisor. I'm currently serving in my second term. I again want to thank County Executive Jenkins, who's been a dedicated partner to all of our municipalities. He's always there when we need his assistance. And in fact, uh we have a board meeting tonight where someone from the county will be briefing our board and community on the county sewer project going down our Joan Corwin way in our industrial center. County executive attends so many of our events and he's doing a fantastic job for our county from housing to public safety to education, infrastructure, and most of all, playland. I don't want to forget Playland and the Dragon Coaster. I know it's been a labor of love for you, County Executive. And I don't know who I'm happier for, the kids or you, and I think it's a tie. So we I appreciate this opportunity to speak about Newcastle. Um, like I said yesterday we held our Memorial Day parade. Um it's always a privilege to honor our fallen soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country and uh to honor those who continue to serve uh for this great nation. All of the uh municipalities around us were canceling, but I chose to hold on and was looking hour by hour, and we held our parade. Um so we were graced as always by our 42nd US president, William Jefferson Clinton. Unfortunately, Secretary Clinton could not be there today. We yesterday we missed her very much. But we had a good showing, and um we had a laying of the wreath ceremony, the parade, and a ceremony at Memorial Plaza where people spoke very eloquently. So I want to thank our community and everyone who participated, um, all of our electeds, um let's see, State Senator Pete Harcombe, Chris Burdick, Assemblyman Chris Burdick, and our legislator from the county Vidad Gashi. So thank you to all. We had a great time. Um we are in the town in the area of northern Westchester. We are exactly in the middle of the county. Newcastle was established in 1791. We are bordered in the north by Yorktown and Cortland. To the west, we've got the town of Ausning and village of Croton on Hudson. To the east, we have the village of Mount Kisco and the town of Bedford. And to the south, we have the town of Mount Pleasant and the town of Northcastle. Newcastle includes the hamlets of Chappaqua and Millwood, and it's got most of the Chappaqua Central School District. Part of the school district is actually in the town of Mount Pleasant. Uh we've got PO addresses and school districts in parts of Yorktown, Osining, Bedford, Byram Hills, and Pleasantville. So that's where we're situated. We span about 24 square miles, and we're home to approximately 18,000 residents. Most of our population are families. Most fall within the age range of 5 to 19 and 35 to 59. So basically, parents and children and youth make up 25% of our residents. So we're a family-friendly, community-minded community with a strong commitment to education. We appreciate our seniors. We have a very active senior center with daily services, meal deliveries, and robust programming of classes and workshops and social events. Our town is marked by a commitment to green spaces and land conservation. One of our defining features is that over 25% of our land is designated for parks and preserves. Our town recreation and park lands comprise 760 acres, and we have many more acres of state park and county park land. And additionally, we have 390 acres of private recreational lands. So we have hiking trails in many of our parks and preserves. If you come and visit, you might look some of them up. Those are Amsterdam Park, Burden Preserve, Gedney Arboretum, the Glazier, Pinecliffe, Pruin Sanctuary, Sunny Ridge, Warburg, Whipperwill, and part of Teetown. So we invite you to come over and hike our trails. On the recreation area, an update is we have a new playground at our Amsterdam Park, which was just installed. We've had recent renovations of a carriage house and installation of bathrooms and a septic system, which makes it much more accessible and usable for one of our very popular summer camps. For our Millwood Park, we've had recent upgrades, ADA pathways and a ramp, a new playground, new playground equipment, and the resurfacing of tennis courts, which are also lined for pickleball, which is a very popular sports now. Our town has a proud history of environmental leadership. In 2008, we became the first community of our size in New York State and the first municipality in Westchester to adopt the Climate Smart Communities Pledge. We've been a silver-certified climate smart community since 2022. We participate in the NISERTA Clean Energy Communities Program, and we've taken actions to obtain many grants for greenhouse gas reduction programs. We continue to expand our EV charger capacity. We have LED bulbs in all our street lights, all the lighting at our town hall, at our community theater, where we also install solar panels, which is projected to cover 100% of energy consumption. We hope that happens. We'll be monitoring that to test it out. We've had heat pumps installed as new HVAC systems in some of our town facilities. Our sustainability advisory group has a Newcastle Going Green podcast, which is also where students participate as well. I encourage you to look it up and go see recent episodes. We have a very active conservation board that has held very educationally minded programs. Recently, we featured Doug Talamy, a renowned entomologist and conservationist. We had a very well-attended Earth Day celebration with many regional partners. We also have green initiatives on private property and new housing. We have an application that we are currently holding public hearings on on a site of a former Rite Aid property which is a bit dilapidated now. This is at 50 North Greeley. This is an application to build a TOD development on underutilized property. It will revitalize a major area of our downtown. 20% of the units will be affordable, and it will contain green building features such as carbon neutral construction practices, no gas or fossil fuel fired equipment except for an emergency standby generator, on-site car sharing, off-street bicycle parking, and at least 50% of the parking spaces must be for EV charging. And green infrastructure will reduce existing impervious surfaces and stormwater runoff by including a green roof, rain gardens to capture stormwater, and cisterns. And so we're looking forward to that, and uh we hope that we can process the application without any bumps along the road. And continuing on the theme of greenhouse gas reduction, we continue to work on our transportation alternatives program, a TAP grant program to fund a non-vehicular infrastructure multi-use trailway, which we call the Chapline. It's a 1.7 mile multi-use trailway for walking and biking. And it will connect three major parts of our town: the Chappaqua Hamlet, which contains a Metro North Station, a middle school, the town hall, the Chappaqua Library, and commercial and residential uses. Approximately 6,500 residents are in the immediate area. So that area will be connected to our Horace Greeley High School, and another major economic hub, which is Chappaqua Crossing, with 91 townhomes, a building with 64 apartments, a Whole Foods, a Northwell Medical Center with about 500,000 square feet of medical spaces, and our community theater and restaurants. So this is a major area, two major areas that will now be connected through non-motorized trailways. The trailway will also offer, obviously, recreational opportunities and an educational opportunity by making accessible a town-owned bird sanctuary, which is hard to get to now. And so we will partner with T Town Lake Reservation and the Sawmill Audubon Society to provide that. Our design and construction planning firm is working on a final design expected in the fall, and we hope construction will take place soon afterwards. In the Arts and Culture Department, we have progressed with our public mural art project, which we call the Bridge Gallery, sponsored by our Arts and Culture Committee. We invited artists, local artists, to submit proposals for painted murals with the theme of community. This has revitalized a blighted concrete area under a bridge overpass above the Metro North Railway. We have eight arched areas, four on either side, and we have four murals that are completed on one side. We have very talented artists, Paul Quaranta, Jesse Rubin, Sophia Kong, and Rowan Hillard, those last two are Horace Greeley students, and Maravan Fleet, all local artists who have produced beautiful murals. And we invite you all to a next mural reveal for four more murals on June 13th from 11:30 to 1 p.m. on Allen Place beneath the Overpass. Everyone is invited. Come and talk to the artists and to our Arts and Culture Committee who will tell you how they went about the project. Moving on to our Chappaqua Performing Arts Center. We've got some new bands coming up. We've got uh performance on Thursday, June 11th. This is uh these are high school and college students who will be out there. This is a great night for college students and um high school students. Parents are welcome. There will be special pricing for students. Um we have a new artistic director at the Performing Arts Center who'll be bringing some exciting new uh programming and you know, working on a new creative vision for the um for the theater. Uh and just to end, I will uh point out on a historical cultural note, we have our Newcastle Historical Society celebrating its 60th anniversary with a Diamond Jubilee exhibition entitled Stories We Share on View through July 4th. This is taking place at the Horace Greeley House, which is itself a piece of local history dating back from the 1950s and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Um, these will be rarely exhibited objects from the earliest Quaker families in our agricultural economy back then through the revolutionary era, the arrival of trains, industrialization to today's suburban community. So there'll be also activities for kids. So we invite all to visit, and it's part of our Westchester history. So you can make a day of it through the Greeley House, go to Chap Pack, go to dinner at one of our wonderful restaurants, andor for an active day, come for a hike in the town of Newcastle. So I want you want to thank you again, County Executive Jenkins, for the opportunity to share all the goings-on in Newcastle. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins 15:48

Thank you. That that's our supervisor, the town of Newcastle, um, Victoria Vicky Tip. Um she's doing a fantastic job, and she pointed out in her second term, right? But she has continued um to continue to do so many great things for the town. Um her and her town board have just been so fantastic partners with us, so we thank you uh as well for that partnership. And there are so many great things to do. Um, Newcastle is historic, 1700s, 1791, if I heard correctly, if I make I'm probably messing up the date a little bit, but you know, when we keep talking on this revolutionary 250th year, that most people recognize that Westchester was the neutral ground, right, where we had the Patriots on one side and we had the loyalists on the other, so the Patriots would be in the northern part of the county. And certainly when you talk about um the Chappaqua meeting, the meeting Quakers meetings place, and we have in Chappaqua and Newcastle, they have one of the meeting houses that are spread out through Westchester County. All that history is coming together, and there's so much great information that we have to continue to do as we go through our 250th year um of celebrating recognizing the existence of America. But there were people here first, and certainly Chappaqua's name itself is going back to indigenous Native American um folks, and certainly the Lenape was the main main group for us around, but there are other Native American tribes that were around as well. So again, great history, great food. Um you can check us out in so many different places. There's so many good places to eat. A reopened Kittle House, right? So it reopened Kittle House now with new ownership. Um but also um family members that have been in Chappaqua went to Horace Greeley um and graduated from there. So again, it keeps coming back together. Readers digest and the um and the changes there, and certainly some great places to eat there as well. So many places to eat inside of Chappaqua, but more importantly, um in the hamlets that that continue to happen there. So again, thank you so much um for all the things that were the exciting things that people get a chance to see. Newcastle Day is coming up soon, right? And that is being done by their Kowanists, right? Organizations look on their website. Supervisor Tip has a weekly newsletter for those of folks that are in um the town of Newcastle and for the folks that are just interested, playing out, you can subscribe as well, and you can take a look at everything that's going on and making sure things move together. So, again, thank you so much for our town supervisor Vicky Tip from the town of Newcastle, and certainly um her work is without parallel for the work that she's done in the town. Um all right, so it's almost Pride Month. Um we're we're getting through, and Pride Month is in June. So Westchester County and the county's LGBTQ plus advisory board are proud to partner with the Locked LGBT LGBT Community Center here in White Plains in celebration of Pride Month, a time to honor the strength, resilience, history, and contributions of the LGBTQ plus community here in Westchester County and across our nations. So we're inviting our residents, community leaders, advocates, families, and allies to join us on Sunday, June 7th at 11 a.m. That's outside of the McKellan office building for a special pride flag raising ceremony. This annual tradition is more than a ceremonial moment. It is a visible reminder that Westchester County believes in the dignity, inclusion, and fundamental rights for every person to live openly, safely, and authentically. As the pride flag raises, so does our shared commitment in creating a county where everyone feels seen, respected, and welcome. I hope you will join us for this meaningful celebration of pride, visibility, acceptance, and community as we raise the pride flag together right in front of the county office building, the People's Government. With that, let me turn over to our Deputy County Executive, Joan McDonald, to let us know that things are going on in Parks.

SPEAKER_02 20:00

Joan. Thank you, County Executive Jenkins, and yes, happy birthday to you. So on Saturday, May 30th, from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m., there will be a vendor village at the Kensico Dam Plaza in Valhalla, New York. Come and enjoy live music, food trucks, local vendors, and new merchandise. There is free admission and free parking. Also on Saturday, May 30th, from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., our Westchester County beaches are open. Now it was a little chilly this past weekend, even though they were open, but they are open again this weekend. Croton on Hudson for the Croton Point Park, Glen Island Park in New Rochelle, and our Playland Park beach in Playland Park Rye. The three beaches will be open weekends and holidays through Sunday, June 21st. Croton Point Beach will be open on weekends and holidays starting Saturday, June 27th through Monday, June 7th. September 7th, excuse me. Glen Island and Playland beaches are open daily beginning Friday, June 26th through Monday, September 7th, weather permitting. No admittance after 6 p.m. Parking and beach admission fees apply at each beach. A Westchester County residency is required for the Glen Island Beach. However, Westchester County residency is not required for Playland or Croton Point Park beaches. On Sunday, May 31st, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., our bicycle Sunday continues on the 13.1 mile loop from the Westchester County Center south to Scarsdale Road and Yonkers on the Bronx River Parkway. It's closed to cars during those hours. It's open to bicyclists, scooters, and inline skaters, e bike class one only, plus walkers and joggers. Motorized scooters. There are many points of entry and exit along the way, and it is free admission. Also, on Sunday, May 31st, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., it's the 47th annual Polish Heritage Festival at Kensigo Dam Plaza in Valhalla. The festival will showcase Polish American cultural exhibits, Polka music, children's activities, and vendors selling authentic Polish crafts and food. The 2025 parade marshal, Miss Polonia, and junior Miss Polonia will also be there. Rain or shine. Seating is informal. Bring blankets or folding chairs for sitting on the lawn. No coolers are allowed, but it's free admission and parking. And that's it for the parks for this coming week.

Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins 22:54

Thanks, Joan. That was so great information on things that were going on. Certainly that very first festival for our heritage days, where we always try to make sure we're recognizing and celebrating our different cultures here in Westchester County. It's not every single category. We certainly try to group some together. But the reality is that we in Westchester County are so proud of those things that happen. And all of our cultures make Westchester just a fantastic place. And that first one is coming up on Sunday, this Sunday, May 31st, which is the 47th annual Polish Heritage Festival. Thank you, Joan, so much for giving us that information. So that may um happen, and we'll definitely let everyone particularly know about that. And that's this week in Westchester, right? This past weekend of Westchester County, as Supervisor Vicky Tippt pointed out, we officially reopened Playland Park back, and we welcome back the legendary Dragon Coaster. And not even a little bit of rain could dampen that excitement. So um families filled the park, the dragon roared once again, and the unmistakable magic of Playland returned to the shoreline, that memory maker. We certainly want to make sure to give a shout out and thanks to the entire comms team for helping pull the communication aspect of that together. Certainly our social media folks and influencers that are out there. My good friend AJ Chiarella, um, who was growing up with my son playing basketball. Now he's a world-renowned influencer, so doing so many good things. So it was always great seeing uh my friend A.J. Ciarella, who was MCing for the day. Um, but everyone that spoke, from all the parks folks um to our chair of the Friends of Rye Playland, Robin Um Robin Latimer, who chairs that committee for us, Joan McDonald herself of doing the great work that we did with the Parks Commission, um, our folks that were there as well speaking, included the chairman of the board of legislators and the aforementioned Vidat Gashi, who represents the town of Newcastle. So we want to make sure to get Vidat's name and Newcastle in there many many more times. So we want to say thank you to everyone that that spoke. For Kathy O'Connor, our Parks Commissioner, Parks Recreation and Conservation Commissioner, as well as first deputy commissioner Peter Tartagliet, but everyone making the difference. So we were able to get that opening in. And again, for those folks that were braving the tough weather this weekend, because it was tough weather, but sometimes you deserve, and we all need to do that. Um, but again, that the Memorial Day picnic, um, the barbecues and things that were going on, that's not the reason for Memorial Day. It's to recognize those who made the ultimate sacrifice for us. So we always thank those folks that continue to do that. And again, in the town of Newcastle, they actually did their parade on Monday, yesterday, or Memorial Day itself. Other folks um chose not to do that because of the weather that was either raining or threatening. Some of them were early when it was still raining, and then on Saturday and Sunday it was a lot of washouts, but the ceremony still continued in those municipalities to recognize people that made that ultimate sacrifice for us to allow to enjoy the moments of the day. So again, thank you for everyone. Um, so we want to make sure that everyone reminds themselves now that Playland's open, um, those dates um you should see on the website um on the playlandpark.org to be able to see that and experience it yourself. But there is nothing like that when you got on the chance to jump on the Dragon Coast. And although our first ride was cut a little short because of the weather, the reality was that many other people had an opportunity to ride during the days. And yesterday, um, the park was open from 12 to 10 o'clock last night, and people were out there having a wonderful, wonderful time on the Memorial Day weekend after they after they went to their local Memorial Day ceremonies to do that. All right, so again, the dragons roaring again again, the midway is buzzing, summer in Westchester has officially begun. Um, we want to again thank our friend and the supervisor of the town of Newcastle, uh Vicky Victoria Tip, and all the work that she continues to do, the leadership she is to do, and again, the 42nd President of the United States, as well as Secretary Hillary Clinton, are of fantastic residence and they participate and they would lead that parade. This year, um, Secretary Clinton wasn't there, but President Bill Clinton was out there taking pictures and walking around and doing that parade route and again recognizing and celebrating the veterans as we all, the veterans that gave the ultimate price, that paid the ultimate price and their families as well. And that's why we have to continue to make sure those things are happening. And that's this week in Westchester. I'm Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins. Yes, it's my birthday. Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes. And again, for other birthdays today, uh good friend Mayor Mary Marvin down in the village of Bronxville, as well as retired legislator, but she is my birthday twin as well, Alfreda Williams. So again, everyone that's out there celebrating, you know, we're gonna continue to do that. The next one for all of our birthdays yesterday, so we're gonna continue to keep our fingers crossed for the Westchester Knicks, where the Westchester location where they practice, and some of them actually live. And again, we want to celebrate all of them as well as they swept their way into the E uh to the finals since the first time since 1999, and that's why all the birthdays today we're partying like it's 1999. I'm Westchester County Executive Kent Jenkins. Thank you so much for watching and have a wonderful, wonderful week.