RyeCity REVIEW THE
April 21, 2023 | Vol. 10, Number 16 | www.ryecityreview.com
RIVALS COLLIDE!
Rivals Rye and Eastchester squared off in a pair of league contests last week. The Eagles and Garnets both earned road wins as the teams split the season series. For story, see page 16. Photo/Mike Smith
Rye City awarded $10M state grant
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced on March 8 that the city of Rye has been awarded $10 million under the New York State Water Quality Improvement Program (WQIP). This $10 million award is part of the $108 million that was awarded for 51 projects statewide under WQIP. The WQIP grant program funds projects that directly improve water quality, or aquatic habitat, or protect a drinking water source. In 2019, the City of Rye completed a Sewer System Evaluation Survey (SSES) to locate areas of its sewer system in need of rehabilitation. The implementation of certain projects identified in the SSES corresponds with the Consent Order Rye entered into with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and a federal Stipulated Order that the City entered into to settle the Save the
Sound Clean Water Act lawsuit. The City of Rye has invested over $8 million toward completing critical sewer infrastructure upgrades over the last several years – including through the successful execution of a 2018 $3.9 million grant award under WQIP for several large sewer repairs and pump station projects. With this $10 million funding, plus the City’s $2.5 million matching obligation, the City of Rye will upgrade its sewer system by completing spot repairs and replacements, installing approximately 22,000 linear feet of pipelining, and repairing 500 manhole defects citywide. This project will reduce the amount of untreated wastewater entering Long Island Sound during storm events. Rye City Mayor Josh Cohn commented, “This grant will help Rye enormously as we pay for our ever
more expensive list of badly-needed capital projects. Our thanks to Governor Hochul and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and especially to Senator Shelley Mayer and Assemblyman Otis for their critical support in the WQIP process. Thanks and congratulations are due to our City staff, as well, for all the hard work needed to gain this important success.” State Senator Shelley B. Mayer said, “I am very pleased that yesterday, Governor Hochul announced that the City of Rye was a recipient of a major award under the Water Quality Improvement Grant program administered by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Of the $108 million awarded this round, I am honored that the City of
see GRANT 3
Bronx woman arrested for threats to New Ro sports bar U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, the FBI’s Michael J. Driscoll and New Rochelle Police Commissioner Robert Gazzola announced that Jayleen Mota was arrested on April 16 and charged with making threatening interstate communications, in which Mota threatened to shoot up the Buffalo Wild Wings sports bar located on LeCount Place in New Rochelle on Saturday night. “Actual or threatened gun violence cannot be tolerated. Simply put, those who place the public in fear by engaging in or threatening the use of violence will be held accountable,” Williams said. FBI Assistant Director in Charge Michael J. Driscoll said: “As alleged, Ms. Mota sent a series of text messages in which she threatened to commit a mass shooting at a crowded New Rochelle restaurant. Communicating threats like those we allege she made can waste valuable law enforcement resources and cause unnecessary alarm in our communities. Today’s charges should serve as a reminder for all that the FBI takes these types of threats seriously, and there will be consequences for those who make them.” NRPD Commissioner Robert Gazzola said: “I want to commend the New Rochelle Police detectives, members of the Westchester County Department of Public Safety’s Real Time Crime Center, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. They worked quickly and diligently to identify and arrest the individual who allegedly made threats of mass violence directed at a local New Rochelle restaurant. It is a testament to the professional
cooperation that exists in law enforcement today. The New Rochelle Police Department does not tolerate such acts and will make every effort to identify and arrest anyone making such threats.” On April 15, New Rochelle police received a call from an individual who had received an initial text message from an unknown person, later identified as Mota, threatening to “shoot up” Buffalo Wild Wings. The text message further stated that there would be a “massacre” and “lots of people are going down.” A subsequent text message stated that “[t]odays a busy night because of the game DON’T TAKE ME AS A JOKE lots of people will die DON’T CALL THE STORE AND RUIN MY PLANS I’m gonna make the news.” That same day, police received a call from a second individual who had received an identical text message from an unknown person threatening to “shooting up” the sports bar and commit a “massacre,” stating, “lots of people are going down.” The NRPD took the phone number from which the text-message threats were sent and traced the number back to Mota. On the evening of April 15, pursuant to a search warrant, the FBI and New Rochelle police searched Mota’s apartment and found the cellphone from which Mota sent the threats. Mota admitted that she had sent text messages to five individuals. Mota, 21, of the Bronx, is charged with making threatening interstate communications, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.