Inside Rockland » Ben Rubin

Nyack primary surveys

Ben Rubin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:40:39 +0000

With Nyack Mayor John Shields stepping down at the end of his term, four Democrats have sought to take his place, forcing a competitive primary.

To supplement a candidates forum held earlier this week, the Friends of the Nyacks posted questionnaire responses from all four Democratic candidates running for mayor. The primary is Tuesday, Sept. 15.

The questionnaire answers are available here.

Nyack Sepemberfest

Ben Rubin — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:56:16 +0000

Septemberfest, a street fair hosted by the Chamber of Commerce of the Nyacks, will take place — rain or shine — on Sunday, Sept. 13 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A large portion of Main Street will be closed for the event to let an expected 25,000 pedestrians stroll around downtown.

The festival this year will include the local Amazing Grace CIRCUS! and a table providing information on the Hudson River Quadricentennial.

For more information, go to www.NyackChamber.com or call Briana Ryan at 845-353-2221.

Revenge of the Panther

Ben Rubin — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 13:00:20 +0000

In recognition of the renewed interest in the black panther(s) roving around Orangetown (and the inevitable sightings it will bring), I wanted to post a real photo Piermont Mayor Chris Sanders sent me a while ago, back when the panther was on the lip of every tongue and apparently lurking in every driveway. Most recently, The New York Times picked up the panther story over the weekend and The New Yorker wrote about it last month.

I’d also like to take a moment to ask the cartoonishly evil plutocrat from New Jersey who released this panther into the wilds of Snedens Landing (that’s the new rumor I’m hearing) to come forward and end the madness.

If you’ve got photos of your panther sighting, send them to my e-mail box, bfrubin@lohud.com.

Okay, here’s the photo:

Sons of Italy awards

Ben Rubin — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:00:38 +0000

Louis Mazzucca of Orangeburg submitted this photo of the Sons of Italy Rockland Lodge 2176 college scholarship awards event on June 24. The students who received the awards were Vincent Battiato, Jennifer Reynolds, Noelle DeNome, Elizabeth Rizzuto, Philip Hirsch, Luke Mennillo and Roberta Lee.

Nyack free parking

Ben Rubin — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:57:15 +0000

Nyack is now offering free parking on Thursdays from 6 to 9 p.m.

Local merchants Patti Aagaard and Marie Somos, who’ve created several collaborative business projects in Nyack, asked the village board to provide the free parking to help promote “Thursday Night Open Late.”

Merchants hope the initiative, which includes extended store hours and restaurant promotions, will make Nyack a destination on a relatively slow night in the week.

The free parking, which will cost the village about $400 a week in lost revenue, started last week and will continue on a trial basis until Jan. 1, 2010.

Nyack Flag Project

Ben Rubin — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:23:32 +0000

Marie Lorenzini, a village trustee who is running for mayor this year, said she wanted to do something special for Flag Day, an often forgotten American holiday.

So, this year she asked to receive a U.S. flag flown over the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., which she presented to the Nyack Fire Department after the volunteer firefighters’ parade a few weeks ago on Flag Day.

The firefighters will fly that flag at each Nyack firehouse through the year, until the flag will be brought back to Village Hall for Flag Day next year, where it will stay.

“It just was a nice thank you for them,” Lorenzini said about the firefighters. “That’s why I did it.”

Riverspace/Soup Angels concert

Ben Rubin — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:27:14 +0000

Tonight at 7:30 p.m.: Riverspace is hosting a concert to benefit the theater and the Soup Angels soup kitchen. Members of the principal brass of the New York Philharmonic will be playing a one-hour concert. Prices are $12 for students, $18 for adults. Ice cream and cake reception following the show (and who doesn’t like that?).

According to the press release, “a good time to be had by all.”

RPC public hearing in Otown

Ben Rubin — Sun, 17 May 2009 22:38:02 +0000

Orangetown officials are looking for public input on what is being called the largest private development in Orangetown history.

The homebuilder K. Hovnanian plans to replace dozens of defunct RPC buildings with 575 housing units worth about $300 million when completed, according to town estimates. Nearly all the new units would be restricted to people ages 55 and older.

A study on the redevelopment plan, which looked into the environmental, traffic and financial impacts of the project, was recently released publicly. As part of the process, Orangetown officials are holding hearings to get public input on the study. One of those meetings will be held tomorrow (May 18) night at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall.

The study (called the “Draft Environmental Impact Statement for RPC”) is available on the front page of www.Orangetown.com.

If you can’t make it, you can still submit comments on the study to:

Thom Kleiner at Town Hall, 26 Orangeburg Road, Orangeburg, N.Y. 10962 or by e-mail to supervisor@orangetown.com.

The deadline for comments is June 18 at 5 p.m.

Nyack parking fine increases start Monday

Ben Rubin — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:21:14 +0000

Below are two lists—the first is Nyack’s new parking fines fee structure, which will go into effect starting Monday, the second is the old list of fines. I should mention that these fine increases come on the same day as a new 25 cent hike in metered parking, to 75 cents an hour.

While parking meter violations and expired meter fines will stay at $15, other fines—deemed by the Board of Trustees as safety issues—will quadruple (perhaps this merits an exclamation point).

For example: parking in front of a fire hydrant will go up from $50 to $200. So will parking on the sidewalk. So will parking in police only spots. So will parking in handicapped spots and in fire zones.

For fairness sake, those are the largest increases, but—hey—don’t take my word for it. See for yourself.

NEW

OLD

Orangetown ZBA vacancy

Ben Rubin — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 01:20:56 +0000

The town of Orangetown is seeking candidates to fill a vacancy on its Zoning Board of Appeals. The ZBA meets twice a month to hear applications for use and area variances. Members of the five-person board are paid $4,778 annually. Interested Orangetown residents can submit a letter of interest and resume to Town Supervisor Thom Kleiner, at 26 Orangeburg Road, Orangeburg, N.Y. 10962, or by email at supervisor@orangetown.com. For more information, call the supervisor’s office at 845-359-5100 ex 2261.

Nyack parking gripe

Ben Rubin — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:12:15 +0000

I got emailed this flyer, which I hear has been circulating around local businesses since the village board said it wanted to raise parking fines. By the way, the board is planning to meet on Thursday, Feb. 26 to continue discussion on changing parking fines. If you want to read more on this and the recent parking rate hike, click here or here.

Indoor farmers’ market in Palisades

Ben Rubin — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:00:38 +0000

The Palisades Community Center seems to have found the answer to the dearth of farmers’ markets in the winter. Starting this Saturday, the center will be hosting what may be Rockland’s first indoor farmers’ market. It will be held every Saturday from February to April, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the center, 675 Oak Tree Road. Familiar local vendors will be there, providing organic nuts and dried fruit from Tierra Farm of Valatie, chicken and eggs from Dines Farms of Oak Hill, and cheeses made from grass-fed cows from Bobolink Dairy of Vernon, N.J. Visit palisadesny.com for more information.

While novel for Rockland, such an idea has been done before. Here’s a photo of the Westchester County Center’s indoor farmers’ market, which started in 2007.

Pearl River schools meeting

Ben Rubin — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:10:16 +0000

The Pearl River School District will be holding a budget focus group meeting Friday for parents of children not yet in kindergarten (from birth to 5). The session will take place from 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. at Pearl River High School, 275 E. Central Ave, in the Pirate Cove meeting room. The district will be asking for input on school programs, costs and taxes to consider for future budgets. Participants are asked to RSVP to Sandy Cokeley at cokeleys@pearlriver.org or 845-620-3932.

Orangetown Town Clerk satellite hours

Ben Rubin — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 23:51:33 +0000

The Orangetown Town Clerk will hold satellite office hours at the Pearl River Library on Wednesday, Feb. 4 and Wednesday, Feb. 11, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., providing 2009 commuter parking permits, handicap permits, dog licenses and requests for vital statistics.

Nyack’s Memorial Park redesign

Ben Rubin — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:03:30 +0000

Dozens of people met at the Nyack Center last week to look over the redesign plans for Memorial Park, a 5-acre patch of green space along the Hudson that is Nyack’s only public park. The $7 million to $15 million project would take 10 years to complete and would revamp the park with more open space, a new bridge to the neighboring marina, a larger beach and butterfly garden. Here’s the original story I wrote about the project.

And here’s a PDF of the park plans: memorial-park

Doug Foster, webmaster of NyackNewsandViews.com, has the plans up on his blog too and the Nyack Park Conservancy is welcoming suggestions and comments at Doug’s site. (Thanks for the PDF, Doug.)

Auto expo at RCC

Ben Rubin — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:42:09 +0000

The 23rd annual Tri-State International Auto Show will be held at the Rockland Community College Fieldhouse, 145 College Road in Ramapo starting Friday. Admission is $8 for adults, $3 for kids 10 to 15, and kids under 10 can come in free. Here are the times:

Friday, from 2 to 9 p.m.

Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

For more information on the show, click here.

Orangetown Christmas tree pickup

Ben Rubin — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:43:10 +0000

The holidays are over, everyone is miserably back at work or school, and I regret to inform all of you that the Orangetown Highway Department wants to remind us all of that fact by taking away our beloved Christmas trees. Admittedly, I never had one, being of another religious persuasion (Summum), but if you would like the highway department to pick up your trees, just place them out at the curb, not on the road. The pickup program ends Friday, Jan. 30.

And, for more info, call the highway department at 845-359-6500.

STEJ photos

Ben Rubin — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:43:57 +0000

In today’s paper, you’ll find my article on revised plans for a family-oriented sports and entertainment complex in Orangetown. The multimillion-dollar facility would include an aquatic center, a bowling center and lounge and an ice rink. If you’re interested, check it the whole story here.

The developer, STEJ, sent over a few photos of the project plans:

Exterior shot

Floor plan

Bird’s eye view

South Nyack leaf collection bulletin

Ben Rubin — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:39:49 +0000

Curbside loose leaf collection in South Nyack ends after today.

For the rest of the season, leaves must be bagged.

For more information, call Village Hall at 845-358-0287.

Nyack blog

Ben Rubin — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:41:20 +0000

At a budget workshop last night, I got a chance to bump into Doug Foster, a village guy who helps run a local blog. If you haven’t seen it, check it out some time: www.nyacknewsandviews.com. It’s got meeting dates, blog entries on recent news and they even gave one of my stories a shoutout.

Orangetown community meetings

Ben Rubin — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:47:52 +0000

Orangetown Councilwoman Nancy Low-Hogan will host two informal, community meetings in the upcoming weeks. The first will be tomorrow in the Greenbush Auditorium by the Orangeburg Library, 20 South Greenbush Road. The second will be held Thursday, Nov. 20 at the DeWint House, on Livingston Street and Oak Tree Road, in Tappan. Both meetings will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. For more information, call Town Hall at 845-359-5100.

Stephen Baldwin sighting!

Ben Rubin — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:59:22 +0000

YEAH BOY-EE! After months of trying, Vinny Raffa, local Internet radio host and East Coast skateboarding scene godfather, snagged his first big “get” for his Thursday night show â€” Stephen Baldwin, the virtuoso in such stoner classics as Bio-Dome and Half Baked. For Thursday’s interview, Raffa and Baldwin, a Grandview resident, sat down at Rockland World Radio’s HQ in Nyack and talked about Baldwin’s Christian works, his latest projects and his brother Alec.

Probably the funniest quote of the night came when Baldwin’s daughter called him mid-interview:

Stephen: Vinny Raffa’s gonna drive you to school tomorrow.

His daughter: Who?

Here are some more photos of the historic meeting:

Raffa presents Baldwin with a gift, a T-shirt made up of his sticker graffiti logo shaped in a cross.

Baldwin wastes no time trying it on.