Week In Review: Soccer Star Returns to Port Chester, Trustees Fight Two Battles to Save Cash

More than a month after helping the U.S. soccer team to a surprising run in the World Cup, Port Chester native Edson Buddle returned to his hometown.

Although there were 600 fans lined up for his autograph at the downtown Panera Bread, for Buddle it was equal parts reunion and public appearance -- friends, family, former teachers and classmates showed up to say hello to Los Angeles Galaxy forward and former Port Chester High School stand-out.

"I just have a lot of good childhood memories from here," Buddle said Wednesday as he greeted well-wishers.

On the same day, writer Ed Boulat introduced readers to another Port Chester native making international moves. Heather Paul leads SOS Children's Villages in the U.S., where she enlists the aid of spiritual leaders like the Dalai Lama and celebrities like Angelina Jolie to bring attention to the plight of orphans and other kids at the charity's 500-plus safe havens.

Paul graduated from Port Chester High School, then spent three years studying tribal groups with an anthropologist before launching a long career in advocacy for children. Her organization helps kids who have had it rough -- most of them are orphans or were removed from abusive situations. With safe havens in war-torn countries, the Children's Villages ensure kids who lost their parents aren't separated from their siblings too.

On the municipal front, a judge weighed in on a case that's been hanging over the village since earlier this year.

In a preliminary ruling, a state Supreme Court judge said the village is not under obligation to pay lifetime health benefits to a group of seven former trustees. Some of those trustees -- including former mayor and current board member John Branca --voted for the benefits with a 1988 resolution. The resolution granted them lifetime healthcare, or the option of an annual payout, if they served village government for 10 years or more.

When Port Chester's last board cut the benefits in April, the seven beneficiaries sought asked a federal judge to step in. But they "rely upon town resolutions and a 22 year past practice of affording coverage" while the benefits were never bound by contract, Judge Emmett Murphy wrote in the preliminary decision.

The case isn't over, but it's a blow to the seven men who received free health insurance or cash payouts of up to $7,700 a year. The village would save more than $1.8 million by cutting off the benefits, the mayor's office said.

Other things happening around town:

- Temperatures dropped late in the week, encouraging people to get out to the Corpus Cristi carnival.
- An accused rapist appeared in court and his case was adjourned, while police were shocked when they pulled over a Staten Island man for making an illegal left and learned he had 39 suspensions on his license.
- A hazardous materials team plugged a chlorine leak at the Westchester Joint Water Works, which supplies some of Port Chester's water. Officials said the leak was contained and drinking water wouldn't be tainted.

And Port Chester police detectives are investigating a Port Chester woman's fatal fall from her fourth-floor balcony Thursday afternoon. Police say a man stepped out of the lobby at 395 Westchester Avenue and saw the severely-injured woman on the ground. He called 911, and paramedics rushed the victim to Westchester Medical Center, but she was pronounced dead a few minutes later.

Police are waiting for the results of an autopsy and toxicology.