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Suzan Clarke has been a reporter for The Journal News in Rockland since 2002, where she has covered numerous beats, including town and village government, community affairs and crime. She now reports on immigration, religion and diversity.
E-mail Suzan Clarke at snclarke@lohud.com
People in the Spring Valley community are upset about a debate in which the only non-Haitian candidate in the Democratic primary race for mayor was not invited. Bernard Charles Jr., who is African-American, believes organizers’ decision to hold the Thursday debate entirely in Creole and not invite him was exclusionary. The five candidates who were [...]
Officials from Spring Valley and the wider community this morning dedicated the new Jay Street park, located at the intersection of Jay and Division streets in Spring Valley. Among officials in attendance from Spring Valley were: Mayor George Darden, Village Attorney Bruce Levine, Deputy Village Attorney Ryan Karben, Community Development Director Rita Grayson, Trustee Anthony [...]
The Haitian American Cultural and Social Organization Inc. (HACSO), will hold its 35th annual fundraising dinner on Aug. 15. HACSO is a nonprofit in Spring Valley that provides the public with support services and assistance, including free basic health care, along with other social programs such as low-cost immigration and translation services. Located at 25 [...]
It’s official. County Legislator Jacques O. D’I. Michel is running for mayor of the village of Spring Valley. The 69-year-old ordained minister joins a growing field of candidates for the Democratic primary election for the post. He declared his candidacy on July 6 in front of Spring Valley’s Village Hall. Standing before a crowd of [...]
Yesterday, Spring Valley’s Village Trustee Demeza Delhomme proudly showed three Ramapo Town Council members around the soon-to-be-finished space for the Ramapo Skills Training Center, a town-funded venture. The interior of the skills training center, housed inside the Ramapo Cultural Arts Center (the former adult movie theater) on Main Street in Spring Valley, was constructed with [...]
Elections in Spring Valley have tended to feature multiple candidates. This year’s mayoral election will hold to that tradition. Already, three people have come forward to say they’ll seek top post, while the sitting Mayor George Darden has said he’s not sure he’ll run again. Currently in the race for mayor are Deputy Mayor Noramie [...]
Cash or charge? The village of Spring Valley’s Justice Court now accepts credit cards for the payment of fines and surcharges. The Board of Trustees voted to approve Mayor George Darden’s recommendation on the issue during a regular meeting on Tuesday night. The board also voted 3 to 1 (one board member was absent), to [...]
The Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, a luminary of the civil rights movement, will be keynote speaker tonight at the 50th anniversary of the Nyack chapter of the NAACP. Lowery — who gave the benediction at the Inauguration of Barack Obama in January (as shown in this photo from The Lowery Institute for Justice and Human [...]
The Martin Luther King Multipurpose Center in Spring Valley is facing funding reductions that may result in cutbacks to its summer day care and youth employment programs. Not only are donations from municipalities down, but private benefactors and other individuals are feeling the pinch too. So the center’s taking a novel approach to try and [...]
The village of Spring Valley has re-designed its Web site. If you go to www.villagespringvalley.org, you will now see holiday closing information, as well detailed information by department — including the names and telephone numbers of department heads and the cost for fees, licenses or permits. In some cases, department heads have written brief introductions [...]
The first anniversary of the Poet’s Café will feature special guest appearances by spoken word artists including D-Black, Rainmaker and Tammy. Organized by the United Youth Movement and Diedre Frater — the social worker who’s started youth cultural programs in Spring Valley — the event will be 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday at Origin, a [...]
The Rockland Haitian relief task force last month spent eight days on a relief mission to deliver $30,000 worth of medicine, food, clothing and other basic emergency supplies to the storm-ravaged Caribbean nation. Renold Julien, who helped lead the effort, said the trip to Haiti was a personal sacrifice for each of the 10 members [...]
Garrett Bucksath, Michael Pagano Jr. and Kevin Keelty were in Nicky’s Pizza in Suffern yesterday when the village’s Mayor John Keegan and Police Chief Clark Osborne ran into them. The three men — all members of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division — ended up being invited by Keegan and Osborne to attend the Veterans Day [...]
The Spring Valley office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People will be open tomorrow — which is Election Day — starting at 9 a.m. According to a release, members of the chapter’s Civic Engagement Committee will be available to answers questions regarding polling sites, transport people to the polls, or to [...]
It’s hard to believe that Election Day is only a few days away. The campaign has captivated people across the world, igniting passions and obliterating apathy in America. It seems that no matter where you go, people have something to say about Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, or his Republican rival, Arizona Sen. John McCain. The [...]
Preserve Ramapo’s Robert Rhodes and county Legislator Joe Meyers will hold a press conference on the steps of the courthouse at 9 a.m. tomorrow during which they will announce a lawsuit against the town of Ramapo and its board to stop the sale of the former Tilcon quarry located in Suffern. Members of the village [...]
Former Spring Valley Trustee Bettie Brown has said she has personally witnessed Mayor George Darden use profanity towards village clerks. Darden did not return calls seeking comment, and village officials wouldn’t speak on the matter. Brown was speaking yesterday during an interview for a story I wrote (which appeared in today’s paper) about Trustee Demeza [...]
It’s been reported that Spring Valley Mayor George Darden has a reputation for being abrasive in his dealings with the public. He has no problem offering strong opinions to his constituents and fellow Village Board members. Well, we found out yesterday that the newspaper is not spared. As reporters, we’re used to politicians not rolling [...]
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