Inside Rockland

Archive for the 'VJ Pradhan' Category

Metal bat proposal strikes out

June

The County Legislature Tuesday will formally pull a proposal to ban metal bats from all pre-high school baseball games at the request of its sponsor, Legislator VJ Pradhan, D-Nanuet.

The proposal had been vehemently opposed by local Little League organizations, with officials coming to a recent committee meeting on the subject.

â€œIâ€™m pulling it out for one reason: because Nanuet Little League has taken the first step toward safety,â€ Pradhan said. â€œThey are asking their pitchers to wear a shield to protect their heart.â€

Pradhan said he hopes other local Little Leagues will follow Nanuetâ€™s lead. Nanuet started using the chest guard recently.

The whole issue came back into the limelight in May when the family of a 12-year-old New Jersey Little Leaguer sued an aluminum bat maker, the league and the store where the bat was sold. In 2006, the boy’s suffered brain damage after a line drive off such a bat hit him and stopped his heart.

Minority Leader Ed Day, R-New City, called, as a longtime coach, to say he was glad the matter was being pulled, saying the ban would have been unnecessary.

Posted by Sarah Netter on Friday, June 27th, 2008 at 5:24 pm |

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And in this corner…

April

I attend most of the County Legislature’s meetings, held the first and third Tuesday’s each month. They are interesting for the most part, but can get a little dry.

Well last night was anything but. A simple public hearing and subsequent vote on a law to mandate recycling programs for plastic bags turned into an all out snit-fest.

It all started when Legislator Gerold Bierker, C-Bardonia, called for motion to table the resolution until it could be heard by the Solid Waste Management Authority. (Keep in mind that the SWMA doesn’t recycle plastic bags.)

The only votes of encouragement he got were from the five members of minority parties (the sixth—Legislator Doug Jobson, R-Stony Point—was absent.) So Bierker’s motion got shot down by Dem power.

But the motion then causes Legislator Ilan Schoenberger to remark that no member of the minority parties had brought up the SWMA issue previously and that it was a display of party-line voting. He also noted that if a minority member had sponsored the law along with him and Legislator Connie Coker, D- South Nyack, it would have passed smoothly.

Which then led Bierker to comment “that when the lower tier votes, it’s a called a party line vote. But when the Democrats vote I presume it’s called democracy in action.”

Ding! Round Two.

Rockland RLUIPA resolution has (at least) two more hurdles

February

Legislator Joseph Meyers’ resolution to request that Congress review and amend the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, also known as RLUIPA, has passed on Legislature committee and has one more to go before going to the full body.

The resolution, which does not request legislators take a stance on the merits of the law, was unanimously approved at this week’s Planning and Public Works Committee meeting, chaired by Legislator VJ Pradhan, D-Nanuet. In two weeks it’ll go before the Multi-Services Committee, chaired by Legislator Phil Soskin, D-Monsey. If approved there, it will go before the full Legislature for a vote, likely at its March 18 meeting.
The law itself has been controversial in Rockland, especially in Pomona where where Congregation Rabbinical College of Tartikov sued the village to build a college with housing for nearly 5,000 people on a 130-acre site off routes 202 and 306.

Meyers promised during last year’s campaign for the Legislature seat that calling for a review of RLUIPA wouldÃ‚Â be the first thing he did if elected. And it was. Meyers has, in the past, called for the law to be taken off the books entirely.

Posted by Sarah Netter on Thursday, February 28th, 2008 at 12:36 pm |

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Cornell makes some committee changes in Legislature

January

Legislature Chairwoman Harriet Cornell, D-West Nyack, has made a few changes in the committees and their leadership.

She created one new committee on economic development to be headed by Majority Leader Michael Grant, D-Garnerville. The committee will deal with the “stimulus, development and revitalizaton of Rockland County’s economy” according to a new release issued by Cornell.

Newly returned Legislator Alden Wolfe, D-Suffern, has been named chair of the Government Operations Committee, a spot formerly held by Grant. And Legislator Jay Hood Jr., D-Haverstraw, will replace former Legislator David Fried as the chairman of the Public Safety Committee.

Returning to their posts are:

Legislator Ilan Schoenberger, D-Wesley Hills: Budget and Finance

Legislator Connie Coker, D-South Nyack: Environmental

Vice Chairman William Darden, D-Spring Valley: Rules

Legislator VJ Pradhan, D-Nanuet: Planning and Public Works

Legislator Philip Soskin, D-Monsey: Multi-Services

That leaves two Democratic legislators, Joseph Meyers from Airmont and Jacques Michel from Spring Valley, without leadership positions. The two are new to the Legislature this year.

Posted by Sarah Netter on Wednesday, January 9th, 2008 at 5:22 pm |

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Planned Parenthood endorses candidates

November

The Planned Parenthood Hudson Peconic Action Fund endorsed the following candidates for Rockland County Legislature:
—Michael Diederich, D, District 1
—Legislator Ilan Schoenberger, D-Wesley Hills, District 4
—John Fellas, D, District 5
—Legislature Vice Chairman William Darden, D-Hillcrest, District 8
—Legislature Chairwoman Harriet Cornell, D-West Nyack, District 10
—Legislator VJ Pradhan, D-Nanuet, District 14
—Legislator Connie Coker, D-South Nyack, District 17

Posted by Sarah Netter on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 4:36 pm |

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