Hero of the Hurricane: Al Porpora of Heathcote Gulf
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Almost two weeks without power, compounded by a snowstorm and a gas panic left residents stressed to the max. Not sure when their heat would come on or if they would have enough gas to leave town, many were unsure where to turn. The word quickly spread that there was someone who could help: Al Popora of the Heathcote Gulf Station at 1 Weaver Street, Scarsdale. Al, his brother and the staff of the station rose to the occasion and were a reassuring presence for many cold, disheartened residents.
What did Al do?
The station was able to secure daily gasoline deliveries at a time of shortages elsewhere around town. Since they had power and ample gas, they filled up cars, but more importantly filled gas cans to fuel home generators. As the generators were keeping families warm, Al reserved enough gas each day so that people could always fill their gas cans, even when the automobile line was shut. Throughout the power outage he opened at 6 am and didn’t close until 8 pm at night to make sure that customers would have enough gas for their generators.
He also helped to calm nerves and assure gas to those who needed it most. He allowed the Scarsdale taxi drivers to come to 
the front of the line, figuring that those who ran out of gas could rely on the taxis to take them where they needed to go.
And when the gas line got too long, Popora stood at the end of the line, checked people’s tanks and asked those who already had more than half a tank to return the following day to permit others with empty tanks to fill up. When the gas line extended all the way down Weaver Street past Dunkin Donuts, Al stood at the end of the line to maintain order and clear the way for traffic on this busy thoroughfare.
For Al, the crisis this week brought to mind another gas shortage in 1973 when he was just 16 years-old. His Dad owned the station at that time – and Al was called on to help keep the calm as people waited for gas. At that time, he had a sign made for the back of his truck that said “Last Customer.” This week, 39 years later, he pulled out that same sign to use again.
According to one of his customers, Al has “infinite patience, can “handle 100 people at the same time” and makes everyone believe they are “special customers.”
Today Al was quick to deflect the credit to the community. He thanked all the first responders including the police, firefighters and public works employees for their hard work. He said the police did a terrific job of keeping him safe as he stood out in the street to manage the line-up on Weaver Street.
And most of all he thanked his customers, saying, “if it wasn’t for such a great community this would not have gone so smoothly.”
Say thank you to Al and send in the names of more Heroes of the Hurricane in the comments section below.
Jane Veron to Chair Scarsdale Bowl Committee
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Jane Veron has been named Chair of the 2013 Scarsdale Bowl Committee. The appointment was announced by Richard Toder, President of the Scarsdale Foundation. As Bowl Committee Chair, Veron will head the Scarsdale Bowl nominating committee and the community celebration dinner to be held on Wednesday evening, April 17, 2013 at Lake Isle Country Club. The Scarsdale Bowl is awarded annually each spring to a Scarsdale resident in recognition of his or her outstanding voluntary public service to the community. This year’s Executive Secretary/Treasurer of the Scarsdale Bowl Committee is Deborah Pekarek.
Veron has been active in a range of community and volunteer organizations. Appointed to a second term as Planning Board Chair, Veron was President of the League of Women Voters of Scarsdale, President of the Fox Meadow Neighborhood Association, and Chair of the Scarsdale Neighborhood Association of Presidents (SNAP). As SNAP representative, she participated on the Citizens Nominating Committee, Procedure Committee and School Board Nominating Committee. She also served as Vice President of the board of the Scarsdale Edgemont Family Counseling Service and Chair of the Scarsdale Advisory Council on Youth. She was a member of the Scarsdale Bowl Committee, the Scarsdale Historical Society Advisory Board and the Youth Athletic Coalition Steering Committee. Veron is also active in the schools, having served on the Fox Meadow School executive committee, the Principal Search committee, the Bond Issue committee and chairing a myriad of PTA committees.
Veron is co founder of The Acumen Partnership (TAP), a not-for-profit organization which deploys local professional women to assist local small businesses in need of strategic and tactical advice. Prior to TAP, she worked as a strategy consultant and marketing executive. A 15-year resident of Scarsdale, she and her husband Andrew Feldstein have three children. Julia and Anna attend the Scarsdale schools, and Emily is a freshman at Yale University.
The Scarsdale Bowl is administered by the Scarsdale Foundation which operates as a not-for-profit community foundation to promote the civic welfare. It does so by supporting institutions and individuals in a manner that encourages educational and human development in the community. The Foundation provides need-based financial aid to Scarsdale High School graduates who are entering their sophomore, junior and senior years in college and to children attending the Recreation Department summer day camp. It also administers a number of special purpose funds, and makes grants for various community needs which have included the Scarsdale Volunteer Ambulance Corps and the Scarsdale/Edgemont Family Counseling Service.
Locked in on Lenox Place
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Scarsdale10583 jreceived this email Jeannie Mackler of Lenox Place who is closed into a dead end street by fallen trees and wires. Here is her story: We are completely locked-in on Lenox place with large tree across the entrance to our street (off Mamaromeck Road) Besides, the tree brought down all power lines. We have no electricity. The live electric wires are partially resting on our cars , and we were warned by firemen not to touch our cars nor to get close. The first and second houses (mine and neighbors) are seriously impacted. No calls back from Con Ed nor from Village Hall emergency services. But our Mayor did answer her personal phone line late in day and assured us that she would pass the message on to Con Edison. No phone other than cell and we are in the dark!
Today we received another email from Gary Trock, also on Lenox Place:
"I live at 11 Lenox Place. We are in the midst pf total devastation on our block. Not to diminish any other catastrophes in our town, there has been no response from the town of scarsdale in respect to what has happened on our street. Two cars have been crushed and has not allowed us to exit the street through Lenox Place. No electricity and most importantly all the wires are live which clearly restricts anyone from going near the front of the street. Help us on Lenox Place.. With 6 children under the age of 5 and no accessibility for any medical or emergency crew to gain access to the street, this is a travesty. Please react at least to our phone calls and help us stay out of harm's way."
(from Mackler) "No it's not our car lying under the tree. It belongs to homeowners on Mamaroneck Road who shouldn't have parked their car on our street."
Mayor Flisser Lauds Scarsdale's Emergency Response Team
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We spoke with Scarsdale Mayor Miriam Flisser late Saturday afternoon after she had partial power restored to her home and was able to use her land line. She provided an account of the Village’s response to the storm and lauded the entire team for their round-the-clock efforts to keep residents safe and clear the streets of 250 tons of debris.
According to Flisser, the emergency response team meets twice a day in the new Public Safety Headquarters to coordinate the efforts of safety and highway department workers. This team has spent hours on the phone with municipal officials and Con Edison advocating for services for Scarsdale. In Flisser’s words, they “did everything they could” to get Con Edison to service Scarsdale, but “they do not consider the Village a priority.” She said that Con Edison is a “public utility without adequate resources” and said that the Trustees would soon revise the home generator law to make it easier for residents to install their own power source.
The team’s work was severely hampered by the collapse of the Village’s new, state-of-the art Optimum Lightpath Communications System. Apparently Optimum had no back-up generator in place, and once the primary generator was out, there was no way to power the communications system. According to Flisser, the Village turned a few fax lines into phone lines to permit calls to Village Hall and team members used their personal cell phones and email addresses to stay in touch. Thought the Village has made almost daily robo calls and sent emails to those who are registered to receive them, the outage prevented them from updating their website. Flisser credits the highway department with hooking up the Village’s generators to power traffic lights at busy intersections to prevent accidents.
The Highway Department cut down and moved massive amounts of tree material and has cleared many major routes including the Post Road,
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Photo credit: Harvey Flisser
POSTPONED: Navigating Ethical Dilemmas with Randy Cohen at the Scarsdale Library
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Randy Cohen's visit to Scarsdale has been postponed until Thursday night November 29 at 7:30 pm!
The line between good and evil, polite and rude, selfish and self-serving has never been murkier. You can barely make it through a day without jockeying for a parking space, evading an intrusive “friend” or making a joke that was perceived as a snub. No one knows better how to sail through these choppy waters than ethicist and author Randy Cohen. He’s coming to the Scarsdale Library to discuss his new book, “Be Good: How to Navigate the Ethics of Everything,” on Thursday November 1 at 7:30 pm.
In order to prime the pump for his visit, we asked Cohen if we could pose some ethical dilemmas on Scarsdale10583.com and discuss the answers during his visit to the library. He suggested we take one question from his book and also come up with our own suburban dilemma. So here are two ethical questions that Cohen will review at the library: In the interim, please share your thoughts on these questions in the comments section below:
Here’s a dilemma posed in Cohen’s new book: 
Marry and Die in Haste:
Four months after he remarried, my father died in an accident. During his brief second marriage, he often told family and friends, “What’s mine is mine, and what’s her is hers,” indicating that he wanted his estate to go to me and my brother, as stipulated in his will. (My mother died from cancer about five years ago.) But New York law allows a spouse to claim about one-third of that, and his widow intends to, despite my father’s wishes, although she has resources of her own. This is legal, but is it ethical?
And here’s a dilemma posed by the mother of a Scarsdale teen:
Scared to Snitch?
As far as I knew, my 14 year-old-daughter, a freshman in high school was with four friends at a girlfriend’s home one Saturday night. At 12:30 am she called and asked if we would extend her curfew by a half hour so that she and her friends could finish watching a movie. Having no reason to question her veracity, and pleased that she asked me ahead of time, I said yes. She arrived home on time. Several days later I ran into an acquaintance who mentioned how funny it was that her 17 year-old-son had seen my daughter and her group at a big party that Saturday night, hosted by a senior boy. My friend assumed I knew where my daughter was and I let her continue to believe that. Furious I had been so naïve, I confronted my daughter about this deception and she readily admitted that she and her friends all lied to their parents in order to be able to go to this party.
My question: Should I let her friends’ parents know that their daughters were at an upper classman’s party Saturday night? If the other girls also lied to their parents, should I let their folks know? Though I don’t want my daughter to be considered a “tattle tale” “ and I don’t want her to be uncomfortable telling me the truth in the future, do I have an obligation to call them? What’s the right thing to do?
Post your opinions in the comments section below and see what Cohen has to say at the Scarsdale Library on Thursday night November 1 at 7:30 pm.
