On Sept. 1, New Castle will grow by five people and be geographically enlarged by 4.625 acres, as the New Castle Town Board voted Tuesday to approve the annexation of the Graham property from Mount Pleasant.

In a unanimous 4-0 vote at a special meeting, the board concluded an ordeal for the Grahams that has last for more than a decade.

Residents of 233 S. Greeley Ave. since the late 1990s, the Grahams have delt with dirty well water on their property, spending time and money to clean it, with limited success. With annexation, they can now hook up to New Castle's municipal water supply. The property is south of, and adjacent to what will become the former town line, and is a quick walk to downtown Chappaqua.

Lawrence Otis Graham, a lawyer with Cuddy & Feder, former Congressional candidate and commentator, and his wife Pamela Thomas-Graham, believe that the water quality was responsible for health problems endured, including multiple miscarriages. It is believed that the well water was contaminated from activity at the former C.V. Pierce industrial site across the street, which closed in 2002.

The town board's approval came after the Graham couple voted 2-0 in a special referrendum last week to join New Castle. That vote was allowed due to approval from both the New Castle and Mount Pleasant town boards as a special July 12 joint meeting in which consent for the process was given.

Annexation was essentially a last resort. Other options were looked at, including a tie-in to New Castle's water supply while remaining Mount Pleasant residents, which could not be done without creating an expensive, one-property water district, due to New York City Department of Environmental Protection regulations that govern the city's reservior watershed. Annexation to Pleasantville, which is located across the Graham property but not geographically contiguous due to a street cut off, was dismissed as not practical, and extension of Mount Pleasant's municipal water line was deemed to be the same.

The addition of the Graham property will not change school district boundaries or postal zip code. Currently, the property is mostly within the Pleasantville school district, with a small part in the Chappaqua school district. It is already covered with a Chappaqua postal address, which means the Grahams would also become Chappaqua hamlet residents.