King Kone: One Of The Best For Ice Cream

 Once again, King Kone in Somers, NY makes the grade as one of the area's Top Ice Cream Shops, according to the Bedford-Katonah Patch.  Here's the scoop: 

Best Road-Side Shops
King Kone (109 Route 100, Katonah).  Opened since 1953, King Kone offers its customers a big dose of nostalgia along with a choice of 18 hand-dipped flavors, frozen yogurt, milk shakes, and vanilla and chocolate soft serve. 


Read the Patch story by Ali Jackson-Jolley, The Frozen Scoop: The Best Ice Cream Shops.  King Kone earned best of Northern Westchester in 2010 in the Small Bites blog of LoHud.com.  See our blog post from August 2010, King Kone -- Best of Northern Westchester.



LINKS:
http://bedford.patch.com/articles/the-frozen-scoop-the-best-ice-cream-shops#comments

Old Bet May Get Trunk Surgery

The statute of Old Bet, an icon in Somers, NY and the nation’s oldest elephant memorial, may be getting repairs this Spring. The back-end of the elephant and the pedestal were damaged in December in an auto accident. As part of the repairs, Old Bet’s trunk might also be restored to its original length.

Here is an excerpt from Art Cussano’s story in NCNLocal.com:

Supervisor Mary Beth Murphy told Town Board members the municipality has the chance to repair the statue and restore its trunk to its original length. "The actual old trunk is in the hall in a case," Murphy said. "As it turns out, the trunk used to go down, up and then down a little. It was a lot longer than it is now. I would not be averse to restoring it to its original grandeur." The trunk was shortened as part of a restoration project conducted by an Eagle Scouts, Murphy said, who was unsure of the year of its restoration.

Read the complete story posted on February 10 at NCNLocal.com, What will become of Old Bet? The 1905 picture is from the story.

LINKS:


http://ncnlocal.com/ncnlocal_news/article_79f138be-3531-11e0-af03-001cc4c002e0.html

Somers rallies again for cancer-stricken college student

Nice article by Barbara Livingston Nackman in LoHud.com on Thursday reporting on the support of the Somers, NY community for the Monte family as their 20 year-old Hanna Monte deals with treatment for colon cancer. As stated in the story, the Monte family is overwhelmed, but not surprised, by the support. Monte's dad, Christopher, said. "People in this town are just like this. They are not fair-weather friends. ... I can't say how much this has helped us."

Read the entire article here.

Two events are set for this weekend. Tonight at Saint Luke's Episcopal Church is a benefit concert at 7 PM. Scheduled to appear are Bruce Jepson, Marion LoGuidice, David Norris, Sleepy Hollow String Band, Too Blue, Gene Yellin, and Mike Burns & North Country. Call (914) 277-4993, if you have any questions.

On Sunday, from noon to 4 PM is the Block Party at Old Tomahawk Road. It’s a “combination of Somers clubs and organizations coming together for the benefit of Hanna Monte.” Games, business displays, music and a raffle are planned. For more info, call (914) 760-7009 or check out the facebook page.

Somers Is Number 31 Says Westchester Magazine

Let the debate begin! The October issue of Westchester Magazine ranks the “Best Places To Live” in Westchester County. Somers ranked 31 out of 40, although the Town received high grades for Housing Costs and Parks and Recreation. Somers got low marks for Shopping, Diversity, Proximity to NYC, and Proximity to the Hudson River/LI Sound. The subjective categories and weightings are sure to spark conversation about what is important to quality of life. In the City-Data Forum at City-Data.com, one poster remarked: “Fortunately my criteria weighting is pretty much the reciprocal of Westchester Magazine's, so all I have to do is turn their ranking upside down.”

The magazine admits they are “gluttons for punishment [as they] we dared to tackle the unthinkable—we’ve numerically ranked (virtually) every place there is to live in our county, from best to worst.” Ranked number one is Irvington, followed by Ossining, at number two. Ahead of Somers, ranked at number 30 is Rye; Briarcliff Manor is number 32. Where do our neighbors Bedford, Lewisboro, North Salem and Yorktown rank? Some lower, one higher.

The article is available at Westchester Magazine’s web site.

Somers Memento On Ebay

The Somers Spectator has no relationship to the seller. Ebay item 350396618808

Give Blood Today

The Semi-Annual Blood Drive sponsored by the Town is today at Town House from 3 pm to 8 pm. Drop in or schedule an appointment by calling the Supervisor’s office at 277--3637

News Round Up

Somers Leads Twelve-Town Effort To Protect Watersheds

Twelve towns in Northern Westchester announced plans on Monday August 23 to protect the Croton and Kensico watersheds. Somers Supervisor Mary Beth Murphy, who chairs the Northern Westchester Watershed Committee, helped make the deal to use $10 million obtained from the East of Hudson Water Quality Fund to bring the towns in compliance in the Memorandum of Agreement for watershed protection entered into in 1997. Most of the money is for storm water retrofit projects throughout the Croton watershed to reduce phosphorus discharged into the reservoir system.

“Protecting our watershed requires the vision to understand what needs to be done and the practical common sense to get things done,” said Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino Astorino. “The Northern Westchester Watershed Committee, under the leadership of Somers, has done both. Working with the county, the committee is taking important steps to protect our drinking water by keeping our reservoirs free of storm water, drainage runoff and contaminants.

Read news reports from NCNLocal here and the Bedford-Katonah Patch here.

LINKS:

http://www3.westchestergov.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2791:agreement-reached-on-approach-to-protect-watershed&catid=74:news&Itemid=300137

Supermarket Price Wars Go To Court

Supermarket giants A&P and Stop & Shop are in court accusing the other of lying about price comparisons at three stores, including one in Somers.

According to the LoHud.com story by Timothy O’Connor posted on August 24, A&P filed a lawsuit against Stop & Shop in federal court saying that “Stop & Shop's advertising campaign claiming consumers could ‘save more every time you shop’ at Stop & Shop compared to A&P was false and was damaging A&P's business.” The lawsuit cited advertisements from three stores in Westchester. Stop & Shop is asking the court to dismiss the suit.

Read the LoHud story here.

Fire Department Drills With Croton Falls

The Northern Westchester blog in LoHud.com reports that Somers and Croton Falls fire

departments recently conducted joint drills at the Exceptional Children’s school in North Salem.

Check out the blog entry and 10 photos here and here.

PHOTO from LoHud.com

Sign Of The Times: Somers Lacks EMT Volunteers

In a August 11 editorial, NCNLocal.com mourns the lack of volunteers in Somers to adequately staff EMT positions. “For the first time in Somer's history, town residents will have to pay for emergency medical technicians to be on call around the clock.”

However, in response, Town Councilman Harry Bolton does not see the issue as unique to Somers and applauds the Commissioners for staying on top of staffing issues.

Read the editorial here. Bolton’s comments appear in the comment section that follows the editorial.

LINKS

http://ncnlocal.com/ncnlocal_opinions/editorial/article_3d267544-a5c0-11df-a5d7-001cc4c03286.html?mode=story

King Kone -- Best of Northern Westchester

Small Bites, the LoHud.com good food blog, lists King Kone of Somers as one of its picks for best ice cream in Northern Westchester. In its August 10 post, Small Bites says:

You can’t miss the giant smiling ice cream cone atop this old roadside ice cream stand. The soft-serve is custard, but it tastes more like basic soft-serve. Nevertheless, savoring a cone at one of the picnic tables while the kids play in the sandbox is the nostalgic summation of an American summer evening.

The full review by Katherine Curry, along with some mouth watering photos, is here. Photo (above) from LoHud.com

LINKS:

http://food.lohudblogs.com/2010/08/10/best-ice-cream-in-northern-westchester/

http://food.lohudblogs.com/2010/07/21/the-journal-news-ice-cream-odyssey-king-kone-in-somers/

PHOTO:

http://food.lohudblogs.com/2010/07/21/the-journal-news-ice-cream-odyssey-king-kone-in-somers/

Elephant Hotel featured in Car & Travel magazine

The Elephant Hotel is featured in the August edition of Car & Travel magazine, a publication of AAA New York. The article Driving Into History highlights “5 perfect places to explore our regions history.” Among the five is the Elephant Hotel and its third floor occupant the Museum of the Early American Circus.

Check out the story on the web at http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aaa_ny/ct_201008/#/25/OnePage.

(Hat tip: Jacob Bergmeier and Somers, NY Facebook)

Drop Off Food on June 22/23

Westchester County government is once again hosting a two-day food drive. The Town of Somers is assisting by accepting donations at the Town of Somers Town House/ Elephant Hotel on Tuesday, June 22 and Wednesday, June 23. All food donations will go to Food Bank for Westchester.

Households requesting assistance from the Food Bank are up 22% this year. Help your neighbors!

According to the Town's web site, the most needed items include:

Cereals: hot or cold (corn flakes, frosted flakes, fruit loops, oat meal, grits)
Canned meats: spam, ham, meat spread, beef stew, chicken, and corned beef
Canned fish: tuna, salmon, sardines, mackerel
Canned or dry beans: kidney, lentils, butter beans, great northern, lima
Canned soups: with beans, chicken, ham or beef
Peanut butter
Macaroni and cheese
Canned ravioli
Canned spaghetti & meat balls
Drink mixes: iced tea, Kool Aid, Tang
100 percent juices in plastic bottle or can
Milk: canned or powdered
Canned juices
Coffee or tea
Hot chocolate
Fruits and vegetables
Canned fruits
Canned vegetables
Canned spaghetti sauce
Dried fruits: raisins, apricots, prunes
Pasta and grains
Rice: rice mixes and plain rice
Pasta: pasta mixes and plain pasta