A Teen Center for Mamaroneck and Larchmont?

by Joan R. Simon

(June 8, 2006) Has the time finally come for a teen center for the Larchmont-Mamaroneck-Rye Neck community? “This has been a pipe dream for a long time,” commented County Legislator Judy Myers, who founded the Youth Council when she was a councilwoman in the Town of Mamaroneck. “I can’t imagine that anyone would deny that there’s a need for something, it’s just whether the need could be met,” she said.

Many concepts have been floating around for years, including the idea of rotating a site for youth activities between Mamaroneck Village and Town and the Village of Larchmont. But recently the focus has shifted to finding a suitable location within the 44 acres of Harbor Island, according to Village of Mamaroneck’s Deputy Mayor Bill Paonessa, who has been championing the idea of including a teen center in the Harbor Island Master Plan. “It would pay us dividends way beyond anything we could measure,” he said. “This is something that must be done.”

Under the auspices of RADAR (Responsible Action: A Drug and Alcohol Resource), a community-wide alcohol and drug prevention group based at Mamaroneck High School, an email campaign got underway this week to convince leaders of the three municipalities to get behind the idea of a teen center.

What Might a Teen Center Look Like?

During the past year, Roseanne Saracino, Mamaroneck Village’s Superintendent of Recreation, has taken several groups of school and municipal personnel to visit the Arch Street Teen Center in Greenwich, CT. The facility includes a large dance floor and multi-level stage, a café, pool tables, video games and other recreational equipment. It is a drug-free, alcohol-free environment, run by a professional staff, with input from local youth. “It really fits the bill as a place to go for teens,” said Ms. Myers. Mr. Paonessa agreed: “We don’t need to reinvent the wheel.”

What are the Schools Doing?

Along what he called a “parallel” line, Mamaroneck Superintendent Paul Fried has been meeting with Rye Neck’s Superintendent Peter Mustich for almost a year to talk about how to increase activities for youth. They have brought in middle and high school students from both districts to explore various possibilities, including a teen center (see student letter). Dr. Fried reported that the kids “thought a place was vital,” and added, “It was interesting to see how much both groups were on the same wave length.”

“I think the more groups that carry the message, the better,” he said, noting the frustration that results from the division of the community into three municipal governments. It means “there isn’t one place in the community that all of the groups come together all of the time,” he explained. On June 8th Mayor Phil Trifiletti hosted a meeting with the two school superintendents and their students, as well as other local municipal leaders, which Dr. Fried hoped would “bridge communication” between the various groups working on this issue.

Who Would Pay for a Teen Center?

The purchase or construction of a suitable building and the on-going staffing costs make a teen center a big ticket item, even if the three municipalities decided to pool their resources. Alternatively, the community could follow the example of the Arch, which is supported entirely by a non-profit organization. Wealthy donors (among them Tommy Hilfiger and Kathie Lee Gifford), along with fund raising events, helped jump-start the effort in Greenwich. Ms. Saracino was not discouraged: “We have lots of people who have money.” The Arch has been “doing it right and doing it right for many years,” she said, with “no municipal money at all.”

“Communities That Care”

How does a possible teen center fit in with the Communities That Care (CTC) process that RADAR is launching? (see: "Communities That Care" to Target Teen Drinking, Drug Abuse) Janet Buchbinder, the coalition coordinator and a member of the Mamaroneck School Board, said that the point of CTC is “setting up people to work collaboratively toward the goal,” of creating a healthy environment for kids to grow up in. “A teen center is an end result. It is a protective factor – one of the things we would be looking to support,” she said.

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