Every factual claim, and the source it was checked against.

Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins signed four bills into law on Sept. 30 that expand county property tax exemptions, Westfair Online reports.¹ Qualifying veterans permanently disabled due to military service get a full county property tax exemption.² Active-duty military members serving in combat zones get a 25% exemption.³ Surviving spouses of police officers, volunteer firefighters and volunteer ambulance service members who died in the line of duty get 50%.⁴ The exemptions apply to assessment rolls with taxable status dates on or after Oct. 1, 2026.⁵ Owners must apply through their local assessor.⁶

Jenkins sent a letter calling on every member of Westchester County’s federal delegation to fight for full restoration of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding.⁷ The county says 41% of Westchester households cannot afford basics such as housing, food and healthcare.⁸ As of Oct. 1, the federal government cut its payments for administering SNAP in half, the county says.⁹ Jenkins said the county “will be forced to pick up the majority of the tab for SNAP”, which he said means higher property taxes.¹⁰

Niche again ranked the Scarsdale Union Free School District best in the Hudson Valley in its 2027 rankings, released Monday, Patch reports.¹¹ The district placed No. 3 in New York and No. 5 in the U.S., with an A+ grade.¹² It has 4,713 K-12 students and a student-teacher ratio of 11 to 1.¹³ Briarcliff Manor Union Free School District placed second in the Hudson Valley.¹⁴

Public Safety Commissioner Terrance Raynor named two deputies at the Westchester County Department of Public Safety, Jenkins announced.¹⁵ Nilda Hofmann becomes first deputy commissioner and John O’Rourke deputy commissioner.¹⁶ Hofmann, who spent 30 years with the New York City Police Department, is the first Hispanic and first woman in a leadership position at the department, the county says.¹⁷ O’Rourke is chief of the Investigations Division at the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office.¹⁸

Dogs are searching the Titicus and Cross River reservoirs in Westchester County for invasive zebra mussels to protect New York City’s drinking water, the New York Post reports.¹⁹ The state Department of Environmental Conservation awarded the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference a $400,000 contract last March for dog services to detect and manage invasive species.²⁰ New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection partnered with the state in late September.²¹ Zebra mussels can clog pipes, the National Park Service said.²²

Westchester County honored families of fallen service members at its annual Gold Star Mothers and Families Tribute Ceremony on Friday.²³ Jenkins and Veterans Service Agency Director Josh Gaccione attended.²⁴ The ceremony included a salute to each of the 17 servicemembers lost during Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom who are memorialized at the Kensico Dam Plaza Walk of Honor.²⁵ Yoselin Brice of Tuckahoe, an Air Force veteran and Gold Star spouse, told the families, “Your loved ones are not forgotten.”²⁶

One Webb Ave, a 200-unit, five-story development on a 10-acre site in Harrison, formally opened with a ribbon-cutting, Westfair Online reports.²⁷ The NRP Group developed it in partnership with RPW Group.²⁸ Five percent of the units are priced as affordable for residents earning 80% of the Area Median Income.²⁹ Five acres are preserved as open space, including a walking trail open to the public.³⁰

Meals on Main Street, a Port Chester-based nonprofit, held a ribbon-cutting in mid-September for a commercial-grade kitchen at 325 West Patent Road in Mount Kisco.³¹ The kitchen will prepare food for northern Westchester and parts of Putnam and Fairfield counties.³² A $200,000 grant from the Westchester County Community Development Block Grant Program backed the project.³³ The facility hopes to provide up to 10,000 meals a month to start, Halston Media reports.³⁴