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- On The Record: Rye Town Park is buzzing
On The Record: Rye Town Park is buzzing
Have you heard? Bees are making a comback
Rye Record
July 23, 2024
Good morning subscribers. ☕ This is your Tuesday, July 23, Rye Record newsletter, curating some of the latest headlines across the city of Rye.
What’s all the buzz? Did you know Rye Town Park is home to roughly 50,000 bees. That’s right. The resurgence is thanks to Russ Gold and Chris Meier who tend to thousands of honey bees that call their home a stack of boxes on the peninsula that juts into the duck pond.
The idea was Gold’s — it caught a buzz in 2020. He was inspired by efforts, already underway, to bring more native plants and flowers to the park’s green space. Pollinator-friendly plants attract bees, butterflies, and the likes that fertilize plants, enabling them to produce fruits, seeds, and young plants.
One big happy family, right? Bees, plants, and humans, have a mutually beneficial relationship. Pollinator-friendly plants provide bees with sustenance, and a third of the world’s food production depends on them — both honey bees and wild native bees, including the endangered ones.
The hives at the park produce about eight gallons of honey — known as liquid gold — which is then sold for $20 a jar. And the money goes toward beautifying the area. 🌺🐝
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-photo Alison Rodilosso
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IN OTHER NEWS
Welcome! Dan Borchert has been named the new ad sales director of The Rye Record. Borchert has managed ad sales and marketing for the Robb Report, Departures, Fortune, Conde Nast, and Calvin Klein.
Majority rules. The City Council voted 4-1 to re-enter into an agreement with Westchester Power — a move proponents said will provide residents more choice and help maintain clean energy practices.
See Shelley speak. State Sen. Shelley Mayer is hosting a virtual Town Hall today for constituents to learn about the 2024 state legislative session. The discussion will take place on Zoom from 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. You can register at https://tinyurl.com/2024MayerTownHall
A fond farewell. After a highly successful nine-year run, Saltaire closed its doors on July 14. But not before hundreds of friends and patrons stopped by to say their goodbyes to the trendy seafood restaurant.
AROUND TOWN
-The Rye Historical Society is hosting a week-long Time Travelers Camp for ages 7-11 at the Square House Museum. Campers will journey back in time and step into the shoes of the people of Rye during the Colonial and Revolutionary periods.
-Playland is collaborating with the Capitol Theatre to present live music and entertainment every other weekend at Playland’s main stage. These family-friendly performances are part of the Rock and Roll Playhouse series.
-The Rye PD will be hosting National Night Out — an annual free event that looks to strengthen police-community relationships across the U.S. — in Rye Rec Park on Aug. 6, from 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.
Off the record: Nicholas Aufiero, the fired Rye Golf Club employee who was arrested after allegedly assaulting a female co-worker, is a retired FDNY lieutenant. We also heard the victim had reported to her first day of work at the golf club the same morning the incident allegedly took place. Click here.
-curated by Christian Falcone
WEATHER
Today’s Weather Channel local forecast calls for cloudy skies in Rye with a high of 83 degrees and a 24% chance of rain. 🌧 Check out the forecast for the rest of the week here.
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COMMUNITY
Russ Gold and Chris Meier have spent the last few years cultivating a bee palace.
Rye Town Park Director Russ Gold wears many hats. But there’s one that Gold never envisioned wearing — that of beekeeper.
Yet several times from spring to fall, Gold dons a wide-brimmed veiled topper, along with a protective suit. He and Friends of Rye Town Park board member Chris Meier tend to 50,000 honey bees whose home is a stack of bee boxes on the peninsula that juts into the duck pond at Rye Town Park.
Gold’s idea to bring bees to Rye Town Park took root in 2020.
-by Jackie Frederick-Berner
A pleasure boat was struck on Friday by another boat operator who had been drinking.
POLICE
A boater who allegedly had one too many drinks was arrested late Friday night after careening into another boat in the Long Island Sound and injuring five.
Rye police nabbed Gareth Ederer, 62, after receiving a distress call around 10 p.m. about a crash on the water just south of the Milton Harbor area.
The city’s Marine Unit discovered two boats had collided as a result of an operator of one of the boats, Ederer, being allegedly impaired. Five people sustained injuries and two had to be rescued from the water, police Lt. Michael Anfuso said.
Four of the victims were transported by EMS to White Plains Hospital with minor injuries. A fifth victim was rushed to Westchester Medical Center after sustaining a head injury, Anfuso told The Record.
-by Christian Falcone
SCHOOLS
Rye High School’s rankings in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2024 Best High Schools in America fell nationally.
Rye High School has fallen 85 spots in the 2024 U.S. News & World Report survey of American public high schools.
In the most recent report by U.S. News, RHS ranks 252 nationally out of 17,655 public high schools and 31 in New York state out of 1,279 public high schools. In the 2023 survey, RHS ranked 167 nationally and 17 in New York state.
In 2019, Rye ranked 139 nationwide and 18 in the state, representing a drop of 113 spots nationally and 13 in NYS over the five-year period.
Superintendent of Schools Eric Byrne downplayed the report.
-by Chris Urban
Former City Councilman Peter Jovanovich died on July 15.
OBITUARIES
Peter Jovanovich, a peerless educational and academic publisher, died on July 15 at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. He was 75.
Born in Queens, on Feb. 4, 1949, he grew up in Briarcliff Manor.
He was the son of Martha (Davis) and William Jovanovich. His father started off as a textbook salesman for Harcourt Brace and Co. and built it into a publishing powerhouse. In 1972, the name of the company was changed to Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
SPORTS
Mitch Baruchowitz, the founder of the forthcoming Westchester Soccer Club, and sons Blake and Braden hold up their club scarves.
Westchester County is getting its own professional soccer team next spring, thanks to a Rye resident whose new United Soccer League franchise is scheduled to play in Mount Vernon.
Mitchell Baruchowitz, a 49-year-old private-equity investor, has assembled a Rye-based investment group whose partners include Simon Baines and Danny Dekker.
The men’s team, known for now as Westchester Soccer Club, or “Westchester SC,” will play its home games in Mount Vernon’s Stadium at Memorial Field, a recently renovated pitch at the corner of Garden Avenue and East Sandford Boulevard.
-by Mitch Silver