Rockland County turned over four surplus TRIPS buses to Clarkstown today.

Each bus has about 150,000 miles, and are “beyond their useful life…due to the the tremendous number of miles TRIPS logs each day, County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef said.

The county has replaced the buses with new ones purchased using funding from the Federal Transit Administration.

Meanwhile, Clarkstown’s fleet has exceeded 300,000 miles per bus, Town Supervisor Alex Gromack said.

Town mechanics will refurbish the donated buses for use by the town’s Mini Trans service, Gromack said, a move that will help save the town about $300,000 by avoiding the need to buy new buses for the next two to three years.

Above, Gromack, left, and Vanderhoef, right. Photo provided by Vanderhoef’s office.

Got an e-mail this morning from someone complaining about a new valet parking area at the Palisades Center, in front of the Staples, facing the New York State Thruway.

Reporter David Schepp called over to the mall to check out the valet situation and he found that yes, indeed, there was a new area at that spot, in addition to those on Level 2 of the parking deck and in the underground parking garage.

“We moved the valet parking around a little bit,” mall spokeswoman Ann Marie Dell’Accio said.

Whether the valet area in front of Staples will remain after the holidays isn’t yet clear.

“That I’m not sure of yet,” Dell’Accio said.

What do you think? Should they keep it or can it?

We’ve reported on two red swastikas that were found spray-painted on trees on South Mountain Road in New City.

The Nazi symbol angered residents in the Lake Lucille community on South Mountain Road, but they responded to the vandal(s) with humor. Barry Carl, president of the Lake Lucille Property Owners Association, said they covered the symbol of hate up with hearts.

Clarkstown police Detective Sgt. Bernard Cummings said investigations were still continuing.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Clarkstown Police Department Detective Bureau at 845-639-5840.

(The photo with a heart was contributed by Barry Carl.)

More of Rockland’s homeowners are being stretched to the limit, as the costs of mortgages continue to increase despite declining home values. Last year, 29 percent of Rockland’s residents reported spending 35 percent more of their income on mortgages, an increase of 3 percent over the previous year. At the same time, the median price of a home fell $13,400, according to new data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. How much is the burden on homeowners and renters? Here’s a glimpse:

Median home values:
2007: $503,100
2006: $516,500
Median monthly mortgage:
2007: $2,556
2006: $2,504
Median rent:
2007: $1,206
2006: $1,170 (43 percent of renters are spending 35 percent or more of their income on rent)

Other details from the 2007 American Community Survey:
Population that is foreign born: 21.3%
Population that speaks Spanish at home: 11.%
Median household income: $81,809

To read more about the housing burden, check out today’s article written by my colleague, Dwight R. Worley: Values fall; mortgages and rents are up .

The Journal News has prepared an interactive database showing the housing burden, along with numerous other statistics, including the percentage of people who speak Spanish, poverty levels, educational levels, etc. The data covers counties and communities with 65,000 or more in population, including Clarkstown and Ramapo. You can also compare Westchester with Bergen County, N.J. and Fairfield County, CT. along with others throughout the state.

You can find that database here: Housing costs: See which NY communities have the highest burdens.

A whole lot of Ramapo news for this Week in Review.

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County Democrats abandon meeting

Motorcyclist who hit Nyack restaurant suffers leg injury

Ramapo police commission grants officer’s request for Sabbath off

Ramapo cop wants same religious consideration as collegue

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Ramapo mom gives birth before rescuers arrive

Here’s the newest Rockland podcast.

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Jaffee cruises to victory in 95th Assembly District race

5 arrested in Haverstraw nunchuck brawl

RCC report finds water, mold problems at Brucker

Cop who ran 100-mile race nabs man easily

Back-to-school edition for the Land of Rock podcast. Enjoy, friends.

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Burning tugboat disaster averted on river

S. Nyack family accuses sheriff’s office of racial profiling

Smooth opening for Rockland schools

Scenery businesses put Rockland on the map

New City residents who were waiting for South Mountain Road to reopen yesterday, Aug. 25, will have to wait at least another week, Clarkstown’s Department of Environmental Control said.

The road has been closed to thru traffic between Hemlock Trail and Tioga Court. The town planned a culvert replacement project beginning Friday, July 25, but work was delayed because workers unexpectedly came across a gas main, said Rich Westervelt, an engineer with Environmental Control. That caused a couple of week’s delay in starting the project.

But workers have apparently been working hard to fix the problem as soon as possible. The street is expected to be open to the public again before the start of school, Westervelt said.

It’s a dog’s world and three Rockland police departments received equipment through a non-profit group for their K-9 units.

Spring Valley, Clarkstown and Ramapo received the equipment from the Onyx and Breezy Foundation, an organization started in 2004 by Mark and Wanda Shefts in honor of their two Labrador retrievers. The foundation supports a wide range of projects that advance the welfare of animals.

The Shefts will appear with the three dogs and officers to discuss the grants tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. in the Rockland Legislature Chambers, first floor of the County Office Building, 11 New Hempstead Road, New City.  The grants were procured by Rockland Public Safety Advocate David Fried, who works for Sheriff James Kralik on finding money for police across the county and other issues like recruitment.

Fried estimated the equipment is valued at $6,000. The  following equipment was obtained :

• Technology equipping K-9 vehicles in Spring Valley and Ramapo with temperature monitoring to ensure a safe environment for the dog when the canine is unattended on hot or cold days during emergency responses. Remote pagers would tell the officer if temperatures inside the vehicles would endanger the dog’s health. The cars also would be equipped with a cooling fan that would turn on automatically at certain temperatures. The officers also would get device that automatically opens the vehicle door to allow the dog to respone in emergencies.  Each departments has one dog each trained in tracking and narcotics.

• Computer software for the Clarkstown Police Department that would maintain records such as veterinary care, training logs and deployment.  Clarkstown has the largest K-9 patrol program in the county with two dogs. Suffern also has a K-9 unit.

The Sheriff’s Department has two dogs trained to sniff out explosive components and one canine trained to sniff out accelerants for arson investigations. A third dog trained for the bomb disposal unit coming soon.

“The equipment that is being provided is a testament to the importance of K9s in all our lives, the noble service of K9s in law enforcement and the legacy of Onyx and Breezy,” foundation Trustee Wanda Shefts said in a news release. “As a society we have an obligation to support and provide for animals.”

Kralik noted that since the terrorists attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan and Pentagon in Washington with hijacked airplanes, police dogs have played a larger role in law enforcement.

“Together with their human handlers, law enforcement has been greatly enhanced by police dogs in narcotic seizures, arson investigations, explosives detections and patrol work,” Kralik said.

This blogger has noticed that posts with the name of Ramapo Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence draw an extraordinary amount of attention.

It’s not like Mr. St. Lawrence can drop his last name and be known around the world as Chris, ala Elvis or Ali, but hey, when it comes to name recognition, St. Lawrence rings a lot of bells in Ramapo.

It’s not like that everywhere. I recall doing a story in Clarkstown a few years back, when the woman I was interviewing forgot the name of her town supervisor, who by then had already served a few four-year terms.

“You know who he is,” she said, “that tall, nice-looking man. Vanderhoef’s his name.”

She was close. Charles Holbrook, then the Clarkstown supervisor, was tall, and so was C. Scott Vanderhoef, who was then and still is the county executive.

Back to the present…It seems that a blog only needs to have St. Lawrence in it to draw out heated exchanges between his supporters and detractors, while a reasonable question posted by the blogger is ignored.

Why is that? What makes St. Lawrence verbal dynamite?

Here’s the Week in Review, ladies and gentlemen.

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Mother recounts horror of house fire

Legislators carve $427M from state budget

Hollywood director instructs at RCC

Driver, 76, who cops say hit 2 teens is unlikely to face charges

Man accused of of making false 911 call after condom refund denied

Strange accidents, education assessments, police indictments AND MORE in this Week in Review. Watch … if you dare.

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Ramapo fires cop accused of sex abuse

Train hits car left on Haverstraw tracks

Rockland students surpass state average in Regents, graduation rate

BOCES, transgender teen face challenge

Legislature denies Rockland exec’s raise

Wii tournament stops in Nanuet

Just a reminder:

The Brandon Berman blood drive will be held tomorrow, Aug. 10, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the New City Ambulance Building, at 200 Congers Road in New City. The drive was named in honor of Berman, a New City teen who died in a car accident on the New York State Thruway on July 12, his 19th birthday.

For more info on blood donations and drives, contact the New York Blood Center at nybloodcenter.org or 1-800-933-2566.

Hey Rocklanders, I’m back on the Week in Review after taking a break for my nephew’s bris. Here’s the latest news. Anyone can e-mail me if they want to join my quest to make flonkerton an official Olympic sport.

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Man’s death ruled suicide in Clarkstown hanging

Man’s hanging upsets Rockland yeshiva

Cops: 4 pickpockets worked as team to steal wallets across region

Native American festival dancers shine after rain

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Rockland’s police departments embark on joint minority recruitment effort

I was over at Clarkstown Town Hall today and noticed that the hall of fame at the main entrance lacks a photo portrait of Charles Holbrook, the former town supervisor.

There are pictures of everyone else, including Holbrook predecessors Ted Dusanenko and George Gerber. There’s even one of Holbrook’s father, the late Martin Holbrook, a former councilman.

Anyone out there going to push for a place on the wall for ‘ol Charlie?

The July periodic campaign finance disclosure forms were due yesterday for any person or committee with an active account.

So while we focused primarily on this year’s candidates I took a peek at the statements of County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef and some of his rumored 2009 opponents.

Vanderhoef, a Republican now serving his fourth term in office, brought in more than $105,800 in contributions in the last six months—more than any of the people running for statewide office this year. He reported a balance of $166,577. 27 after opening with more than $131,200.

Much of his money came from corporate donations and several of his expenditures were on fundraisers.

Among the rumored challengers is Orangetown Town Supervisor Thom Kleiner, who’s getting really good at being charmingly coy when asked about the subject.

He raised nearly $41,000 this period, ending with a balance of $112,788.28. Ramapo Town Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence took in nearly $76,000 and Clarkstown Supervisor Alex Gromack took in nearly $61,500.

That’s big money in an off-year compared with Haverstraw Town Supervisor Howard Phillips who took in just more than $1,200 and Stony Point Supervisor Phil Marino who raised about half that.

All five supervisor seats, now filled by Democrats, are up next year as well.

OK, not the very top, but Money magazine once again included Clarkstown as one of the best places to live in the United States.

It came in at No. 71. Plymouth, Minn., topped the list at No. 1.

The other New York towns on the list:

Clay, No. 59 (Onandaga County)
Greenburgh, No. 80 (Westchester County)
North Hempstead, No. 46 (Nassau County)

Criteria were jobs/economy, safety, education, housing affordability and leisure/arts. The rankings were among the 716 cities/towns in the U.S. with populations between 50,000 and 300,000.

Not included: retirement communities, places with income to far above or below the state’s median income, those more than 95 percent white, and with high crime rates, population declines and significant unemployment/job loss.

Finally, the magazine said, locations were visited and residents interviewed to assess intangibles such as like sense of community.

Neighboring New Jersey had more towns on the list:
• Edison, No. 35
• Franklin Township, No. 5
• Hamilton, No. 51
• Howell, No. 77
• Middletown, No. 86
• Parsippany/Troy Hills, No. 13
• Union, No. 75
• Washington, No. 58
• Wayne, No. 100

There were many major breaking stories out of Rockland this week, check them out on the Week in Review.

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Judge gives ‘monster’ Modica 2 years

Homeless man was slain, authorities say

New census data shows added residents throughout Rockland

Man on tracks may not have heard horn

Holiday starts early with fireworks in Nanuet, Haverstraw

Last week Clarkstown became one of 600 municipalities nationwide to sign the U.S. Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreeement. The Town Board unanimously approved the agreeement, which commits participating towns to reducing carbon dioxide emmissions to 7 percent below the 1990 levels by 2012.

Clarkstown has been making some efforts in the past. Last year the town purchased six hybrid vehicles and signed on to an energy conservation plan. Two council members — Shirley Lasker and Frank Borelli — formed a committee to study energy conservation issues. The building department is looking into a updating the building code that would require all new residences to be built to Energy Star standards.

Supervisor Alex Gromack says the town is committed to protecting the environment. We’ll watch out for other measures the town will take to that end.

Shortly after I started working in the Rockland newsroom more than seven years ago,
I was taught a truism by my fellow staffers: If it’s Greek Festival weekend, it must be raining.

I laughed, but year after year discovered that it didn’t much matter what meteorologists predicted, if it was Greek Festival weekend, it was most likely going to rain.

There would be fantastic food (check out those kebobs from 2003, to the left) , great dance and music performances and anything from drizzle to a monsoon. Guaranteed.

So when I first heard it was supposed to be sunny and hot this weekend, I was surprised. And skeptical.

But the festival opened last night and started up again at noon today and, so far, no rain. In fact, the sun has finally come out and it’s shaping up to be a lovely day.

I began to wonder: Did it just seem as if it rained every year?

Well, I went back into our photo archives and this is what I came up with: Read more of this entry »

OK, before I explain any further, I just have to share this wonderful photo shot by Bob Rooney of Suffern at the United Hospice of Rockland’s annual spring gala Sunday.

No, you’re not imagining things. That is a photograph of town supervisors Alexander Gromack (Clarkstown), Howard Philips (Haverstraw), Thom Kleiner (Orangetown) and Phil Marino (Stony Point), wearing muscle T-shirts and performing at the gala.

The gala honored Bill and Ginny Maloney of Vista Electrical Contractors Inc. and raised $129,000 (a record for UHR) to help build the agency’s first Hospice House in the county.

Here’s some other photos from the event, all shot by Rooney: Read more of this entry »

Its details remain secret because it’s a surprise, but the four town supervisors in Rockland have been meeting twice a week since the beginning of this month to practice their performance — singing and dancing — under the direction of two accomplished Broadway dancers.

“This Sunday night is our big performance,” said Stony Point Supervisor Phil Marino, while we were talking about various town businesses at his office this morning.

Along with Supervisors Howard Philips of Haverstraw, Alexander Gromack of Clarkstown, and Thom Kleiner of Orangetown, Marino will perform to raise funds for United Hospice of Rockland at its 2008 Gala at the Colonial Inn in Norwood, N.J.

Marino said he was excited about being part of the fundraising event because of his experience when his and his wife’s fathers were under the care of hospice.

“I can’t say enough nice things what hospice does. … It’s an honor and blessing,” said Marino, adding that he had some muscle sores on his body as a result of the recent practice.

Marino said the four supervisors and other dancers will practice this Saturday and will have a dress rehearsal Sunday prior to the event.

Connie Grunfeld of United Hospice of Rockland said she wouldn’t reveil the details of the performance, but for those who were interested in watching the show, tickets — $195 — for the gala were still available. But they would have to make a reservation by tomorrow (Friday) by calling her at 845-634-4974, she said. The door will be open at 6 p.m. and the dinner will be served at 7:30 p.m. The supervisors will perform about 8 p.m.

Photo by Vincent DiSalvio / The Journal News/LoHud.com 

This week, I’m hosting an election special. Feel free to leave a comment.

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Lawyer elected to South Orangetown school board charged with DWI

Three incumbents lose seats, East Ramapo budget defeated

East Ramapo students plea for programs, board delays a week deciding on second budget vote, austerity

East Ramapo’s budget fails by big margin

Clarkstown: Budget, propositions pass; incumbent Davidson ousted

Nyack school district: budget passes, Burrell, LaColla and Jimerson elected

Rockland synagogue touts new Torah

The Memorial Day parade in New City this year will take a detour from its decades-old route.

For 60 years, the parade has stepped off at the intersection of Collyer Avenue and South Main Street, heading up Main to the lawns of the county courthouse.

But safety concerns have prompted the town to make the change, moving one-third of the route to Maple Avenue. Main Street is in disrepair, officials said, with crumbling sidewalks and blacktop-filled potholes creating an uneven surface. The road will be repaved this summer as part of a hamlet revitalization project.

So instead of having anyone trip and fall on the roadway, the decision was made on the advice of the town’s safety officer and insurance agent. Check out Hema Easley’s story tomorrow on LoHud.com and in The Journal News for the full details.

And, after the break, a full list of Rockland’s Memorial Day parades and events:

Hey everyone, I’m heading off but our new MoJo, Ben Rubin, will be hosting the week in review podcast from now on. Check out his very first one below and feel free to leave a comment!

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