Mahopac News 12.29.2022

VOL. NO. Visit TapIntoMahopac.net for the latest news. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2022

Year in Review

BY BOB DUMAS & BRETT FREEMAN CAZZARI BECOMES NEW tion. Previously, Schmitt had held the January that well water contaminants
EDITOR AND PUBLISHER TOWN SUPERVISOR same o ce for 14 years. were discovered in wells throughout
the business district along Route 6N.
Another year has come and gone in Mahopac A new era in Carmel town govern- Looking ahead, Cazzari’s current
and it’s time to look back on 2022 and recap the ment dawned on Day 1 of this year term ends at the end of 2023. ere is came after the state lowered its
most noteworthy stories of the past 12 months. when former police chief and former will be an election to ll the next threshold for maximum contami-
trustee of the Mahopac Board of Ed- term this November. nant levels. e state, county and
2022 was a busy year as the community ucation Michael Cazzari was sworn town joined together to combat
nally began to emerge from the pandemic to o ce as the new Supervisor. BIZ DISTRICT WELLS TEST the problem, although as the year
and nd some sense of normalcy. So, in no POSITIVE FOR CONTAMINANTS progressed, the contaminated area
particular order, here are the top notable sto- He defeated Ken Schmitt in the
ries from 2022: GOP primary the year before and e Department of Environmen- SEE 2022 PAGE 2
ran unopposed in the general elec- tal Conservation released a bulletin in

845.664.4579

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BUSINESS & REAL ESTATE YOUR NEIGHBOR
CLASSIFIEDS
LEGAL NOTICES Mahopac archaeologist
LEISURE wins state award.
OBITUARIES pg 3
OPINION
SPORTS

PAGE 2 MAHOPAC NEWS THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2022

The Staff PHOTOS COURTESY OF SUPERVISOR’S OFFICE PHOTOS COURTESY OF WESTCHESTER DEPT. OF PUBLIC SAFETY

EDITORIAL TEAM Supervisor Michael Cazzari takes the oath of office from Town Clerk Ann Ghost guns were created with 3-D printers and parts found on
BOB DUMAS Spofford as his wife, Doreen, holds the Bible. the Internet without serial numbers.

EDITOR: 845-208-0774 2022
[email protected]
FROM PAGE 1
WHIT ANDERSON
SPORTS EDITOR spread outside the business dis-
trict. In addition, six other water
[email protected] districts were found to be above
VIM WILKINSON the threshold later that year. e
state mandated that the town
SPECIAL SECTIONS EDITOR develop a facility plan to remedy
[email protected] the problem, which the town has
done. ey hope to have the de-
ADVERTISING TEAM sign of the facility plan complet-
PAUL FORHAN ed in two years.

(914) 806-3951 Ha FOUR LOCAL MEN
[email protected] Ne Y ARRESTED ON FELONY
WEAPON CHARGES
BRUCE HELLER
(914) 486-7608 More than 100 weapons were
[email protected] seized, and 11 people were arrest-
ed in January, including one Ma-
LISA KAIN hopac man and three men from
(201) 317-1139 Carmel, following a six-month,
[email protected] multi-agency investigation into
CORINNE STANTON “ghost guns” and other illegal
(914) 760-7009
[email protected] rearms in Westchester and Put-
nam counties.
JAY GUSSAK
(914) 299-4541 Search warrants were executed
[email protected] at eight locations in Westches-
PAM Zacotinsky ter and Putnam by investigators
845-661-0748 from county, local and federal law
[email protected] enforcement agencies, and ri es,
handguns,“ghost guns”and high-
PRODUCTION TEAM capacity drum magazines were
TABITHA PEARSON MARSHALL seized. Several silencers, ballistic
vests, counterfeit police shields
CREATIVE DIRECTOR and quantities of ammunition
PHOTOGRAPHER were also seized in the probe,
dubbed “Operation Casper” by
[email protected] investigators.
NOAH ELDER
DESIGNER from all of us at BYRNE WINS GOP
NOD TO RUN FOR
[email protected] Law Offices of Joseph J. Tock COUNTY EXECUTIVE

EXECUTIVE TEAM 963 Route 6, Mahopac, NY 10541 • TOCKLAW.COM In a highly contentious battle
BRETT FREEMAN for the Republican nomination
CEO & PUBLISHER 845-628-8080 in the race for County Executive,
845-208-8151 state Assemblyman Kevin
Byrne soundly defeated County
[email protected] Legislator Carl Albano at the
GOP caucus by a 2-to-1 margin,
Deadlines 148-76.

MAHOPAC NEWS DEADLINE SEE 2022 PAGE 4
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Your NeighborTHURSDAY,DECEMBER29,2022 MAHOPAC NEWS PAGE 3

DR. EUGENE BOESCH

Unearthing history of the Hudson Valley

Mahopac archaeologist wins 2022 New York State Historic Preservation Award

BY EMILE MENASCHÉ
STAFF REPORTER

Growing up in the Bronx and Eugene Boesch PHOTO COURTESY OF EUGENE BOESCH
lower Westchester, award-win-
ning archaeologist Dr. Eugene County area for at least 7,000 Dr. Eugene Boesch shows a student how to handle artifacts during an archeology lab.
Boesch inherited a love for his- years. e area would have been
tory from his father. more inhospitable then because ogy was life-changing for late-18th century stu associ- of Parks said it represented
of the end of the last glaciation. me because it exposed me to ated with the original Jay house, a signi cant restoration of a
He also developed an inter- What I nd interesting is to see di erent cultures and histories. which is called the Locus [built late 19th-, early 20th-century
est in the landscape from child- evidence of what we call “pre- I would also encourage them c. 1740-1750]. It was destroyed garden and the preservation of
hood visits to Mahopac’s Ossi contact” cultures—how native to take courses in history and and replaced by the one there an important late 18th-century
Club community, which was co- people lived before contact with ecology and try to do what’s now, which was built in the deposit.
founded by his grandfather. the Europeans around 1600. called a eld school to learn the 1840s. We also found some
techniques of archaeology. ere Native American sites on the Do any other projects or
But it was as an undergrad at ere’s a large site behind the are also amateur societies, such property. ere’s one Native discoveries stand out to you?
New York University that Boesch Belden house [on the corner of as the Lower Hudson Chapter American site that probably
learned that the ground under his Route 6 and Belden Road in of the New York State Archaeo- goes back about 9,000 years. So I guess one of the most
feet might hold clues to the bur- Carmel]. Sites have also been logical Association (nysar- there’s been a lot of activity over satisfying was when I was a eld
ied stories of people who came found near Red Mills, on Hill chaeology.org). ey may have the millennia, but particularly director on the African Ameri-
before us, revealing their day-to- Street, along Barret Hill Road--I excavations that young people over the last couple hundred can burial ground excavation in
day lives through artifacts and could go on an on. You’d think can get involved with. years. lower Manhattan in the 1990s.
human remains. Specializing in development would have de-
pre-contact Native American stroyed a lot of stu , but there’s ere are so many things you We were working on a section at was very, very touching-
history along with colonial and still a lot left. can do, from being a specialist from the 19th-century house -seeing the remains of enslaved
early American life in the Hud- in animal bone to becoming a called the Jay Garden. About peoples and how they were
son Valley, Dr. Boesch now lives What can archaeology tell us technician who uses ground- two feet below the modern marginalized. We ultimately ex-
in Mahopac and serves on the about this area’s early history? penetrating radar to see what’s surface, we found a soil de- cavated close to 500 interments.
Westchester County Historic going on below the surface. You posit that was associated with
Preservation Advisory Commis- Population density was very could become a paleontologist the 1740-1750 house. It was a e remains were analyzed and
sion, among other duties. Since low. If you had a few thousand and look at human fossils that remnant of an earlier garden eventually reinterred.
2006,he’s spent much of his work- people between [modern] West- are millions of years old. that had been sealed in. We
ing life at the Jay Heritage Cen- chester and Albany, you had a excavated that and found bro- I also worked on the 17th-
ter at the Jay Estate in Rye, where lot. ey were trying to make When I was in grad school, ken ceramics, glassware, liquor century Dutch State House in
some recent discoveries earned a living by moving around the the earliest human nds were 2 bottles, personal items, smoking lower Manhattan. One of the
him the 2022 New York State landscape hunting and gather- million years old. Now discov- pipes, animal bones…We also most life-changing ones was the
Historic Preservation Award. ing. You know, you didn’t have eries are going 6 million years identi ed a structure that may Ronson Ship [marinersmuse-
supermarkets, so you had to back. It’s the cutting edge. have been that of an enslaved um.org], a mid-18th century
How did you get interested in make sure that you got to the individual on the property that ship that was used as land ll in
archaeology? right areas when nuts and acorns New York State’s 2022 seemed to date to the late 18th lower Manhattan: at’s where
were falling from the trees in Historic Preservation Award or early 19th century. I met my wife!
I had a teacher in college order to collect enough food to recognized your work at the Jay
who was an archaeologist, and get through the winter. Estate Gardens. What did you e award was for a work on Learn more about Dr. Boesch’s
he became a mentor. My father both the later and earlier sites. work by visiting this same article
was always interested in history, How can young people get nd there? at TAPintoMahopac.net and
and that interest fell to me. In involved in archaeology? We’ve found a lot of mid- to e New York State O ce clicking on the links in the article.
college, I found a way to put
archaeology and history together. You can make a living out of
it. I’ve been doing it for 40-plus
e late 1970s and ’80s was years, and I’m still doing it. I
the golden age of archaeology in work with a lot of students of all
New York City. ere were all ages. If they go to college and
these large downtown building are interested in archaeology, I’d
projects that uncovered Dutch advise them to take an anthro-
and English sites that I got pology course.
involved with. Later, I went to
graduate school and got a Ph.D. In many ways, anthropol-
specializing in early Native
American history.

How do artifacts from cen-
turies ago connect to our lives
today?

In their own ways, people then
had the same concerns that we
do: Are you making a living? Are
you nding enough to eat? How
are you dealing with your lands?

ere’s evidence that people
have been in the Putnam

PAGE 4 MAHOPAC NEWS THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2022

2022 Byrne is set to be sworn to of- Barnabas Hospital in the wake Gualdino, a Mahopac resident, of owers, the family has asked
ce tomorrow, Dec. 30. of the accident that took place was killed in a high-speed colli- for donations to the Elizabeth
FROM PAGE 2 on March 19, according to Aaron sion with an unlicensed 16-year- Seton Children’s Foundation
MAHOPAC MOURNS Donavan, deputy communica- old driver earlier this month. Fel- in Yonkers: setonchildrens.org/
Byrne’s decisive victory was LOSS OF HOPE MANTOVI tions director for the Metro- low o cers described Gualdino donate-now.
a blow to Putnam Republican politan Transportation Authority as a “cop’s cop” and a family
Party Committee Chairman Hope Mantovi, the 23-year- (MTA). Mantovi’s mother, Clau- friend described his marriage to SEE 2022 PAGE 6
Tony Scannapieco, who had en- old Mahopac woman who was dine Coletti, said her daughter Lisa as a “true romance.” In lieu
dorsed Albano and sent a series struck in the head by a pass- would be an organ donor.
of scathing letters to other GOP ing train while she waited on a
committee members calling By- Woodlawn station platform in MAHOPAC MOURNS LOSS OF
rne dishonorable and disloyal and the Bronx with friends in March, DET. SGT. FRANK GUALDINO
contending the Assemblyman’s succumbed to her injuries in
actions nearly broke the Repub- April. A Yonkers tragedy hit home
lican Party in Putnam. when that city’s Det. Sgt. Frank
Mantovi passed away at St.

COURTESY OF CAMPAIGN

Putnam County Executive-elect Kevin Byrne with his wife,
Briana, and their son, Braeden, on election night.

The Mahopac
community
mourned the
passing of Hope
Mantovi

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THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2022 MAHOPAC NEWS PAGE 5

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PAGE 6 MAHOPAC NEWS THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2022

2022 the reins as superintendent of SCHOOL BUDGET
FROM PAGE 4
Mahopac schools PASSES ON SECOND

on July 1. She TRY

SCHOOL BOARD took the place After rejecting the

NAMES FIRST FEMALE of Anthony Mahopac school budget

SUPERINTENDENT DiCarlo, who by just eight votes, voters

e Mahopac Board of retired at approved the budget the

Education appointed a the end second time around on

woman as the new school of the last June 21 by a 1,747-1,120

superintendent for the school year. margin.

rst time in the district’s e district avoided

history. having to resort to an

Christine A. austerity budget, which

Tona, assistant would have resulted in

superinten- slashing after-school

dent for programs, sports and

curriculum other nonacademic ac-

and instruc- tivities. But the $132.5

tion of the million spending pack-

Riverhead age prevailed. after the deputy commissioner of
the New York State Department
Central School o cials man- STATE THREATENS of Education issued a memo
MAHOPAC SCHOOLS OVER threatening state aid if school
School aged to cut slightly more than ‘INDIANS’ NICKNAME districts using Native American
names and mascots don’t change
District half a million dollars from the e Mahopac Central School course before next September.
District is in the middle of
on originally proposed spending deciding how to proceed, so the e school board met last week
saga involving its mascot and to decide next steps. Mahopac
Long package, and dropping the team name continues. e issue News will follow this story into
turned into high gear last month 2023.
Island, budget-to-budget increase

took from 4.42 percent to 3.99

PHOTO COURTESY OF MAHOPAC SCHOOL DISTRICT percent.

Christine Tona was appointed as the first female superintendent of
the Mahopac Central School District.

Happy Holidays PLAN TO BUILD CELL TOWER
& Happy New Year! NEAR WALTON DRIVE
DEEMED ‘ILLEGAL’
From Our Family to Yours
An Article 78 lawsuit ask-
YOUR TRUSTED HVAC COMPANY WITH HEATING SCAN HERE 0 DOWN ing the State Supreme Court to
DECADES OF EXCEPTIONAL EXPERIENCE AIR CONDITIONING FOR MORE 0% block construction of a 140-foot
PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE cell tower near a Walton Drive
AIR QUALITY INFO FINANCING neighborhood in Mahopac was
DUCT CLEANING/SEALING AVAILABLE! upheld.
GEOTHERMAL SYSTEMS
e suit did not seek mon-
WHAT IS A HEAT PUMP? etary compensation. Instead, it
looked to overturn a decision by
845-600-8004 | www.bellmech.com the Town Board in May 2020 to
approve the project without input
from the town’s Planning Board
or Zoning Board of Appeals.

e saga at Walton Drive be-
gan in 2018 when Verizon Wire-
less and Homeland Towers asked
for site-plan approval to build
cell towers on residential prop-
erties on Croton Falls Road and
Dixon Road. In November 2019,
the Planning Board denied those
applications on several grounds,
primarily saying it believed
Homeland had not su ciently
proven a need for the towers.

Homeland subsequently took
the town to federal court, where
a judge urged the parties to com-
promise and settle the matter
themselves.

Six months after the federal
action was initiated, Verizon and
Homeland agreed to withdraw
their application for a cell tower
at the Croton Falls Road prop-
erty, while the town agreed to is-
sue a building permit for the cell
tower for a new location on the
Dixon Road property.

FIRST DRAFT OF MASTER
PLAN PRESENTED

It was more than two decades

SEE 2022 PAGE 7