December 22, 2025

Topics include:

• Westchester County Youth Bureau Executive Director Ernest McFadden joins to discuss a $3.1 million County investment in youth development through the Invest in Kids program
• Westchester County Department of Environmental Facilities First Deputy Commissioner Lou Vetrone joins to discuss new AI-powered robotics at the County’s Materials Recovery Facility to increase recycling efficiency and reduce contamination
• What riders need to know about OMNY launching on Bee-Line buses January 4
• Reflections from County Executive Jenkins as Westchester prepares for Inauguration Day
• Upcoming County, community and Parks events

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: 0:29

This is this week in Westchester, the briefing. I'm County Executive Ken Jenkins, and um this is gonna be everything that you need to know. Um, breaking news, urgent updates, and essential information for our residents. Um, this afternoon, we're going to be hearing from our Westchester County uh Youth Bureau um executive director Ernest McFadden. We're gonna hear from um our deputy commissioner, Department of Environmental Facilities, Lou Vitron, and certainly we'll get some information from our um Deputy County Executive Richard Wishney. But this afternoon, we're gonna start um with our Westchester County Youth Bureau releasing its 2026-2028 Invest in Kids Awards. Um these you these are three-year um awards. Westchester County Youth Bureau Executive Director Ernest McFadden is gonna be with us and announce that $3.1 million has been allocated in the 2026 budget to fund the county's Invest in Kids program administered by the Westchester County Youth Bureau. The Invest in Kids Program focuses on assisting at-ref at-risk youth ages under 21 and in certain 11 urban communities that we have Elmsford, Greenburg, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, Austin, Peakskill, Port Chester, Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, White Plains, and Yonkers. However, recent demographic and socioeconomic shifts have been identified throughout Westchester County, and that expanded the consideration for youth residing outside of those 11 municipalities. All in all, 63 programs across 46 agencies that receive funding will be providing innovative, positive youth development services and opportunities that support the following areas: citizen and civic engagement, um, community, economic security, physical health and emotional well-being, and education. With that, let me bring up the leader of our youth bureau, our executive director, Ernest McFadden.

Speaker: 2:33

Thank you, sir.

Ernest McFadden: 2:36

Thank you, Mr. County Exec Jenkins, and good to be here seeing my friend uh Deputy County Exec uh Richard Wishney. Um good afternoon. Uh my name is Ernest McFadden. I'm the executive director for the Westchester County Youth Bureau. Um, we're excited. You know, every holiday season, particularly as we close out uh our fiscal year when we do our request for a proposal, it's always amazing to see the number of responses that we receive. And as the county exec shared, um, we're fortunate to be uh the keeper of $3.1 million to serve young people in Westchester. The Westchester County Youth Bureau, we focus on providing uh equity and access, both formal and informal. Some of the informal work we do is around our leadership conferences and training that we do with young people throughout the county. However, the core of the work that we do at the Youth Bureau really lies within our professional development and our evidence-based training program. So I am pleased to be here today to share that for the 2026 through 28 Invest in Kids program, we will be covering uh virtually the entire Westchester. As the county exec shared, we have 11 core community that the Invest in Kids legislation covers. However, latest trends and data we've been seeing, there's other community that's in need of the service. So I'm pleased to say that the list of awardees for 2026-28 will cover from the banks of the Hudson and Peekskill and Yonkers to the Long Island Sound and New Rochelle, Port Chester, and the Rye community through the YMCA and the Rye. Um this year was a record number for us. Historically, when we do our RFP for our investing kids, which as the county exec shared, is three years of funding. We receive on average of about 75 to 80 applicants. This year, we received a record number of 110 applications, uh, which says that there's a need in the community. Um, but from our perspective in the county government, it's it's it it poses uh an opportunity for us because we recognize this tremendous amount of needs, and our dollars does have an uh a finite amount to it. And so with the $3.1 million, we're going to serve 63 programs throughout Westchester. For those organizations who have not been successful through this RFP, I encourage you to check in with us to look for other RFP opportunities, whether it's through our Office for Children and Family Service through New York State or other opportunities. So uh with that said, I want to thank uh in addition to the record number of respondents we received, we were fortunate to have over 45 reviewers. So I want to thank all of the reviewers. Uh each one of them got about three or four proposals, uh, number of county employees, some of our board members. So I want to thank you for that. In addition to that, we also uh want to thank uh the administration and also thank the board of legislators for seeing the value in the work that we do invest in kids, as I shared earlier. We offer formal and informal training to young people throughout Westchester. It's the formal evidence base that speaks to uh job skills, uh, career exploration, how to work well with others. It's those tangible skills that young people really need as they transition from high school to college and ultimately to Westchester's workforce. So, with that in mind, I want to thank my team. We have a team of seven at the youth bureau, I like to say, and I think the county exec referenced it from time to time, the Mighty Seven. And um we're looking forward to again working with our partners this year. Now the work starts. The funding will start January 1. My team is now out negotiating with our service providers, that's been successful, and they're gonna be charged. They're gonna be charged with making sure that they provide young people with evidence-based training that's gonna help young people change the trajectory of their lives. As we shared earlier, there are 11 key communities, but we're starting to see areas that we traditionally don't provide service to start to fall more into the work that we're doing. So um uh congratulations to the 46 recipients, uh, and we look forward to working with you in 2026 through 2028. Thank you, Mr. County.

Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins: 7:22

Thank you, I appreciate that. That was Ernest McFadden, um our executive director of the youth bureau, um, talking about um those 63 programs and the 46 agencies um that receive funding for investing kids um for the 2026 through 2028 um years, and it is certainly an exciting opportunity to continue to do that. Investment is great seeing the work of the Magnificent Seven um to continue to um do that work and investment, but also um a shout out for um Office of Children and Family Services, um the continuation of the level of partnership between the state and going through the youth bureau for those um programs that may have not gone through, but certainly um for the applicants um that were not successful to be able to come back and and get that information um certainly from the youth bureau to help um provide some additional direction. So thank you. Again, that's the investment of $3.1 million in um 2026 um across those agencies, and we're gonna continue on. Um Westchester County um has also installed new robotics equipment um in its material recovery facility in Yonkers as part of a continued effort to increase recycling rates and reduce contamination in our curbside recyclables. Um, the Department of Environmental Facilities partnered with um Everness um Everest Labs to create and add a robotic arm and an AI-powered optical cameras that identify common items and remove contaminants from the sorting line. This technology is designed to improve the quality and volume of material recovered and processed for sale. Um the facility processes more than 65,000 tons of material every year, including aluminum, um, the first metals, cartons, plastics coated one through seven, plastic boat wrap, newspaper, corrugated cardboard, and mixed paper. The robotic system can pick items within a 36-inch range, complete up to 60 picks per minute, and has an accuracy rate about 80%. The equipment also produces detailed data that will guide operational decisions and support the county's public education efforts. Um, those public education efforts, especially in the contamination of curbside recyclables, um, that means you didn't clean out the recyclables before you did that. I remember one time on the board of legislators um asking when I was on the board of legislators asking um Deputy Commissioner, now Deputy Commissioner Lou Vitrone that question about recycling, especially those folks that really like peanut butter like me. You gotta make sure to clean those things out before you put it out. They don't clean up after it. So again, those are just contaminated and they have to take them out of recyclables, so that is not good. So again, um the county has been a regional leader in recycling um since the uh materials recovery facility, commonly known as the MERF, opened in 1992. Investing in new technology um shows our continued commitment to strong environmental stewardship. These upgrades also save money by increasing the amount of material that we can actually recover and sell. At this time we have an awesome video. Let's take a look at it now.

Lou Vitron: 10:40

Hi, I'm Lou Vitron, first deputy commissioner of the Westchester County Department of Environmental Facilities. Westchester County boasts one of the highest recycling rates in New York State. One of the ways we're able to achieve such a high recycling rate is by continually integrating new technology. If you are interested in the police, like toward the money, please at Westchester County M Ly Democrat. If you have any other recycling questions, please call a recycling helpline at 914-813-5425. Hi, I'm Lou Vitron from the Department of Environmental Facilities. Thank you, County Executive Jenkins, Deputy County Executive Wishney. Uh, on behalf of the Department of Environmental Facilities, we are so excited about incorporating robotics and AI-powered tools at the MERF or material recovery facility in Yonkers, where all of the refuse districts' residential recycling is processed and, as the county executive said, uh sold to recyclers to be made into new materials. Also, as the county executive said, Westchester is known as a regional leader in recycling. And one of the reasons we're able to stay ahead of the curve is because we're constantly monitoring developments in the industry and incorporating new technology where it fits our needs. So the robotic arm that you saw earlier is going to clean up our plastics and metals. So, what does that mean? We have optical sorters, we have other equipment, we have people on the line who sort by hand. We're not reducing any staff, they're all going to remain there. This optical arm, though, is going to basically clean up what they've missed. And that's great because the more recycling we take in, as County Executive Jenkins said, the more money we save for Westchester taxpayers because we take that recycling, we process it, we bail it, and we sell it to recyclers, and it's made into new products. The optical scanners that uh the county executive spoke about, they operate as the eyes, basically. And they're gonna give us feedback on what is and is not being recycled by our residents in Westchester. And that's important because we have a recycling education public uh campaign that we that we work on. It's going to inform that campaign so we can kind of focus, tweak it, and focus on those items that uh we are not seeing getting recycled at the MERF. Uh so that is just the more information, the more we're gonna be able to fine-tune that uh public recycling campaign. Uh I just want to I want to thank, take the opportunity to thank the county executive for his support and leadership, not just on our recycling initiatives, but for all our waste reduction initiatives and all of our other environmental programs. Thank you so much.

Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins: 14:16

Thanks, DC. Thanks. That that was our Deputy Commissioner, um Lou Vitron, um talking about those things and seeing how important it is at the the um materials recovery um facility um that we we can tell you the Daniel the Daniel Thomas material recovery facility, by the way. Um so many people are seeing that now during the holiday season, but they realize when you see the video and see how much things are happening through that from a recycling perspective and understand it's your help that makes sure that we can continue to be not just the recycling leader in our region, but more importantly, be able to save those dollars from a tax point and protecting our environment, which is the number one facility, uh number one goal. Thanks so much, um Lou for all of the things and work that the Department of Environmental Facilities does, and specifically talking about um the optical thing. You know, everyone thinks about AI for different things and whether it's just doing um I think some crazy things with the AI. The reality is that there's a lot of um tech you know practical applications that continue to be moving forward with it. And this is just another one of those examples when you watch the video and seeing the robotic optical arm pulling out those items and then being able to take that data and being able for us and then to go to municipalities and help do education. Make sure you take an opportunity um to get folks to come by the material recovery facility, the MERF, um that's down in Yonkers. All right, coming up next now on January 4th, 2026, the Westchester County B-line system will officially adopt um the Omni system, um, the Metropolitan Transportation Authorities MTA contactless fair payment system. I know many of you have been asking about that, especially on the B-line buses. You've seen them, um, but we were not ready yet because all of the buses need to be um done in order for it to turn over, and that's gonna happen on January 4th, um, 2026, which is gonna offer riders a more convenient and flexible way to pay um on getting on the bus. This marks a significant step in modernizing the region's public transit system and improving the overall um passenger experience. Omni will now be available across all the B-lines buses, making it easier for riders to tap and go using credit cards, smartphones, smart watches, or Omni cards. Um we know that we deserve a transparent system and a transportation system that reflects how people live and travel today, um especially with that tap to pay moving there. Again, so while Omni officially will launch on January 4th, 2026, um Rider can continue to use Metro Cards on Beeline buses as long as the card has not expired. This one it probably is, um, but I'm gonna make sure to swap it out at the one of the Metro Card uh facilities like we have in the county center. Metro car sales are gonna end December 31st, 2025, and those cards can no longer be reloaded after that date. To support that transition, passengers can transfer any remaining MetroCard balances to the OmniCards at the Omni Mobile Sales RAN, which will continuing um continue visiting various locations throughout Westchester. The mobile service, formerly known as the MetroCard van, provides convenient in-person assistance for riders who need help switching over to the new system. In addition to Omni, riders can continue to pay with coins on Beeline buses. This ensures flexibility and continued access for those who prefer using the cash fare. Um for more information on the Omni rollout in Westchester County, visit www.westchestergov.com, B Line Dash Bus, or call the B Line Helpline Customer Service Center at 914-813-7777. Um we're going to talk for a second again about the anniversary, the 50th anniversary of the Office for People with Disabilities, promoking five death codes of service, innovation, and leadership throughout the county in Westchester County, supporting residents with disabilities across the county. The office, which was formally established on January 1st, 1975, was originally named the Westchester County Office for the Handicapped and Disabled. It was created to help the county comply with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and it opened as one of the earliest local government offices of its kind, setting a statewide standard for accommodations and support with people with disabilities. For over 50 years, the Westchester County Office for People with Disabilities has been a driving force in ensuring that every resident, regardless of their unique abilities, can access the services, the programs, and opportunities they deserve. This office has led the way in this space since before the American with Disabilities Act ADA existed, and it continues to shape a more inclusive Westchester County today. Celebrating this milestone reaffirms our commitment to removing barriers, expanding access, and uplifting voices of people with disabilities across our county. We congratulate all of them under the leadership of our new executive director, um Karen Horowitz, and we thank them all for what they do. Um they have a small but mighty team as well, um, but they continue to make sure that we are doing everything possible in coordination with the um with the uh the all the people with disabilities um board that continues to make sure to move things forward here in Westchester and making sure. Everyone feels their home here in Westchester has accessibility to them. With that, we're going to ask the Deputy County Executive Richard Wisney to come up, give us some information before he heads into his parks report.

Richard Wishnie: 20:14

Mr. Sir. Good afternoon, everyone. And we're delighted to report that the county executive uh will be inaugurated on January 1st, along with uh some other brand new public servants who just won a recent election. Uh we'll be swearing in along with the county executive, uh, our new county clerk, Thomas Roach, the former mayor of White Plains, and two new county legislators, Jennifer Pooja and Anant Manambiar. The ceremony will take place on Thursday, January 1st at 2 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College. It's located at 753 Anderson Hill Road in Purchase. This public event marks the formal beginning of their terms in offices and celebrates a shared commitment to service, leadership, and the future of Westchester County. We're delighted to have these folks, these wonderful public servants, sworn in. And we hope that many of you will take the time to join us on January 1st. We also now would like to tell you a little bit about our award-winning and nationally accredited park system events that will be taking place in uh the next week or so. At Lasden Park Public Gardens and Veterans Memorial in Katona, we're going to have a Hill Train Show. It's a stroll, you can stroll through the 2,500 square foot exhibit set with the stunning Lasden Glass House Conservatory. Multi-level tables and tracks carry trains as they chug past whimsical settings, nostalgic scenes, and well-known characters, all with a fresh, innovative design that brings holiday cheer to life. The program runs through December 31st, and we recommend that you contact uh Lazdin to uh get the exact dates and times that do vary over this period. And again, that's through December 31st. At the Westchester Winter Wonderland that's being held at Kensico Dam Valhalla once again. This year's thrilling highlights include beloved elves Ned and Albert, glittering angels of peace, a 50-foot dove, dancing trees, glowing snowballs, candy lane, candy cane lane, and a breathtaking 100-foot light tunnel. Families will marvel at a 125-foot pixel wall that illuminates scenes from the winter night sky and can use the Autocast app to hear magical stories about these displays along the route. The select dates and times are again through December 31st, and we do recommend that you make an appointment uh with the uh Parks and Recreations Group. You can reach them at 914-231-4033. And then on Saturday and Sunday, uh December 27th and 28th, uh, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., our fabulous Westchester Knicks will be taking on the Birmingham Squadron. We feel badly for the Birmingham Squadron because they're going to lose to our favorite uh Westchester Knicks. And with that, I'd like to bring back my friend and our county executive, Ken Jenkins.

Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins: 23:56

Thank you, Mr. Deputy County Executive Richard Whisney. Um, and certainly there was this shout-out earlier from Ernest McFadden because they're Austining fam. Um that you know make sure things are happening. I know that we have so many Austining connections here, we might as well you know make sure Austin is the center of the universe today. Um but but this week, um, we we certainly want to to say today um last night was the last night of Hanukkah. Um three days, three shopping days left until actually two, till Christmas. So um if you haven't done it, it's almost too late, it's too late to get those overnight shipments, so you gotta do what you gotta do. Get out there and do that shopping and making sure that you're taking care of those loved ones. But more importantly, having an opportunity to celebrate this time of the year, wonderful time of the year, um, with friends, family, um, and enjoying all those things that are happening in the nationally accredited and award-winning park system that includes um the Winter Wonderland and holiday light extravaganza to continue to make sure that those things are happening. And whether you're watching the Westchester Knicks or you are participating and supporting one of the um the 46 um agencies, 65 different programs that um our executive director Ernest McFadden mentioned um earlier this morning from um in this program from the investing kids, um, and then certainly making sure that all of those young folks in part of the education component understand everything that's happening in recycling. Most of the young folks actually have that happening in their school districts, in addition, but some of those groups are making sure to visit our Department of Environmental Facilities, the materials recovery facility in Yonkers. Um there's a great education center there. Um, and not just seeing the video, but coming down to see that um in in person. Um so this week um reflected actually fantastically what Westchester does best: investing in people, modernizing how we deliver services, and planning deliberately for our future. Um so we are gonna continue to move forward with this week in Westchester, the briefing. I'm sure that everyone enjoyed that. Um and I know that we're approaching um inauguration day. Thank you for our Deputy County Executive Richard Wishney pointing that out. Um I know that um leadership is both a moment and a responsibility. Um the ceremony ahead represents continuity, accountability, and a shared commitment to serving the people of Westchester with integrity and purpose. It is certainly an honor and a privilege to work alongside of these dedicated pro public servants that we saw here, and all of those folks working for Westchester County, our community partners and residents who care deeply about the future of our county. And that's this week in Westchester. I'm County Executive Ken Jenkins. Have a wonderful and Merry Christmas.