Issue #035 · LatestMonday, October 19, 2026 · sunny, high near 63, northeast wind 6 to 8 · Council meets Tuesday 6:15 PM at City Hall · Wildcliff's Little Haunters returns Halloween from 4:00 to 7:30 PM
City Hall week: the Council meets Tuesday, Wildcliff's haunts take over the weekends, and the Symphony opens its 29th season November 7
Free local email · Monday + Friday mornings · Written by Sabrina · 4-minute read
Both halves of Sunday's 250th doubleheader ran, and the weather held for each. The Battle of Pell's Point reenactment took the morning slot at Orchard Beach, 250 years to the day after the October 18, 1776 battle, and Taste of Lincoln filled the afternoon at Lincoln Park from 1:00 to 6:00 with dishes, music and vendors. Saturday's side of the weekend brought free public tours of the tall ship Lynx at the Municipal Marina, with the history festival at Hudson Park, plus the Downtown BID's colonial tavern night at 18th Ward Brewing.
The 250th programming does not pack up with the tents. The Westchester County Historical Society's History Hunt runs through October 30, and the city keeps its Revolution on the Sound! calendar at newrochelleny.gov/250. This week belongs to Halloween though. The city calendar puts The Haunt at Wildcliff Mansion on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, with the fundraiser HAUNTFEST on Saturday and the kid-scaled Little Haunters back October 31 from 4:00 to 7:30 PM. The Youth Bureau's FALL-O-WEEN lands Friday at Five Islands Park. Sunday reached a high near 57 under sun; today runs sunny with a high near 63 before Tuesday's clouds move in.
The questions New Rochelle searches this week, answer first, source after.
When does the New Rochelle City Council meet next?
Tuesday, October 20, 6:15 to 7:15 PM, at City Hall, 515 North Avenue. It is the Regular Legislative Meeting, the Council's standard working session, and agendas go up on the city's meeting page ahead of the gavel. If you cannot sit in the room, the calendar entry carries a Watch link with the video. Two more dates fill out the month: the Planning Board meets Monday, October 26 at 7:00 PM, and the State of the City follows Tuesday, October 27, 6:00 to 8:30 PM at the JCC Mid-Westchester, with an RSVP at newrochelleny.gov/SOTCRSVP.
Three versions run at Wildcliff Mansion, 44 Wildcliff Rd, and the age line decides it. The Haunt itself is the full-strength one: 25 dollars, timed entry, recommended ages 10 and up, no unaccompanied children under 15, with strobe lights, fog and confined spaces listed in the safety notice. Little Haunters is the scaled-down family version with no jump scares and trick-or-treating at the end; it runs October 31 from 4:00 to 7:30 PM, after the October 18 session. HAUNTFEST on Saturday, October 24, 7:00 to 10:30 PM, is the fundraiser night, with music, a food truck and vendors supporting the Hudson Park Children's Greenhouse. Tickets for the haunt nights live at hauntatwildcliff.com.
Where does New Rochelle's professional symphony play?
At Iona University. The Symphony of Westchester, a professional orchestra of 35 to 55 players, opens its 29th season Saturday, November 7 at 8:00 PM in the Christopher J. Murphy Auditorium in the Murphy Science and Technology Building, 25 Mayflower Ave. Founder and artistic director Barry Charles Hoffman conducts an all-Beethoven program with pianist Alon Goldstein playing the Piano Concerto No. 3, plus the Leonore Overture No. 3 and the Sixth Symphony, the Pastorale. Tickets are 60 dollars general admission, 45 for seniors over 65 and 20 for students with ID, at thesymphonyofwestchester.org or 914-654-4926. The season runs through May 8.
The Regular Legislative Meeting runs Tuesday, October 20, 6:15 to 7:15 PM at City Hall, 515 North Avenue. The agenda posts on the city's meeting page before the session, and the Watch link on the calendar entry carries the video.
Tuesday's meeting sits inside a longer stormwater story. The Tulip Lane closure between Pinebrook Boulevard and Winding Brook Road, which started October 14 and runs about six weeks, is the Sheldrake Culvert Replacement Project upsizing two culverts and adding a bypass near Dennis Drive, part of the city's flood mitigation program. Drivers detour via Ramona Court and Amherst Drive, and pedestrians are routed north through Pinebrook Park to the Pinebrook Boulevard crosswalk. The county has money in the same fight: County Executive Ken Jenkins proposed a 435.7 million dollar 2027 capital budget on October 15 with 5 million dollars for flood mitigation, alongside 161.4 million for refuse, sewer and water districts. The Board of Legislators still has to act on it, so treat those as proposals, not checks.
One more date worth a note: the county Stormwater Advisory Board meets Thursday, October 22 at 3:00 PM, the body that advises on flood projects funded under the county's stormwater law. Between the city's culverts and the county's budget line, this is the week the drainage work is visible from three directions.
AI Corner: one plain-English AI thing, every issue
This week: have an AI summarize the library's week, then spot-check two events before you plan around them.
The library calendar lists a week of programs at once, which is exactly the kind of long page an AI reads well. Copy the week's events into a free AI chat with this prompt: "I will paste a library event calendar. Summarize each event in one line with day, time and room, and mark which ones need registration." Thirty seconds of paste saves twenty minutes of scrolling.
Then do the part that makes it trustworthy. Pick the two events you care about and open their own event pages, because listing pages lag. The teen manga club is a clean example this week: the calendar's group page and the event's own page both put Frieren Vol. 1 & 2 on Saturday, October 24, 2:00 to 3:00 PM in the Teen Room, with a Register Now button on the event page. If the AI's line and the library's page disagree on any of that, the library wins. The AI's summary is the map; the library's page is the territory.
Reply with questions; they become future AI Corner topics.
Sing Your Heart Out! adult singing workshop, 9:30 to 11:30 AM at the Ossie Davis Theater, full; The Basics of Medicare Coverage, 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM in the HELP & Learning Center; sunny, high near 63, northeast wind 6 to 8 mph
Main Library, 1 Library Plaza · library calendar and NWS
City Council Regular Legislative Meeting, 6:15 to 7:15 PM at City Hall; The Basics of Medicare Coverage returns, 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM in the HELP & Learning Center
City Hall, 515 North Avenue and the Main Library · city calendar and library calendar
Halfway to Earth Day Fall Festival, 4:00 to 6:00 PM at Ward Acres Park, Broadfield Road; United Nations flag raising, 5:00 PM on the City Hall front lawn; The Haunt, 7:00 to 10:30 PM at Wildcliff Mansion; county Stormwater Advisory Board, 3:00 PM
Ward Acres, City Hall, Wildcliff Mansion · city calendar and county Planning Department
FALL-O-WEEN for Pre-K through 5th grade, 5:00 to 8:00 PM at Five Islands Park, LeFevre Lane, costumes encouraged; The Haunt, 7:00 to 10:30 PM at Wildcliff Mansion
Five Islands Park and Wildcliff Mansion · city calendar
Manga Book Club: Frieren Vol. 1 & 2, 2:00 to 3:00 PM in the Teen Room at the Main Library, registration open; HAUNTFEST at Wildcliff Mansion, 44 Wildcliff Rd, 7:00 to 10:30 PM, music, food truck and vendors, proceeds supporting the Hudson Park Children's Greenhouse; The Haunt, 7:00 to 10:30 PM
Wildcliff Mansion and the Main Library · city calendar and library calendar
Planning Board Meeting, 7:00 PM; the WCHS History Hunt through Westchester wraps October 30
City Hall, 515 North Avenue · city calendar
State of the City 2026, 6:00 to 8:30 PM at the JCC Mid-Westchester, 999 Wilmot Rd; RSVP at newrochelleny.gov/SOTCRSVP
JCC Mid-Westchester · city calendar
Civil Service Commission Meeting, 3:30 to 4:00 PM; New Rochelle CLD and IDA boards, 7:30 PM
City Hall, 515 North Avenue · city calendar
Plaza Night at Anderson: Halloween Bash, 6:00 to 9:00 PM at Anderson Plaza
Anderson Plaza · city calendar
Little Haunters at Wildcliff Mansion, 4:00 to 7:30 PM, no jump scares, trick-or-treating at the end; The Haunt, 7:00 to 10:30 PM
Wildcliff Mansion, 44 Wildcliff Rd · city calendar
