West Haverstraw village Democrats will hold a caucus at the village’s community center at 6 p.m. tonight.

One trustee seat with unexpired term is up for election in November, and the committee is expected to nominate a candidate for the seat, vacated by Joseph Denise, who was recently appointed to a newly created position, Department of Public Works commissioner.

Mayor John Ramundo has filled the trustee position last month by appointing Mark Loblanco, a former chairman of the village’s Zoning Board of Appeals. To secure his seat, Loblanco, a Democrat, has to run as a Democratic nominee in November.

Haverstraw Town Board this week appointed West Haverstraw Village Justice John K. Grant to town justice to fill the unexpired term of Thomas Walsh, who was recently appointed by Gov. David A. Paterson to serve as an interim judge of the Rockland County Surrogate Court.

This creates a need for West Haverstraw village to appoint someone to fill Grant’s seat because Grant will have to resign from his village position to become town justice.

West Haverstraw village Mayor John Ramundo said today that the village was reviewing a number of applications for the village justice position.

This type of domino effect is not unusual in Haverstraw town and the two villages in the town.
When Haverstraw town Justice Charles Apotheker won a seat on the County Court in November 2006, Walsh, who was Haverstraw village justice that time and ran against Apotheker on the Democratic primary, succeeded Apotheker’s town seat. To fill Walsh’s vacancy in the village, Ronald Decaprio was appointed to the position.

Grant himself was appointed to the West Haverstraw seat in February 2007 to fill the unexpired term of Tom Zugibe, who stepped down to run for district attorney.

Confused?
I know. It’s hard to keep track of these changes because they happen so quickly.

Ten Haverstraw town and village police officers will be feted Friday on their retirements after decades of serving the public.

One officer in particular, Hector Soto, already has moved on in life to an elected councilman on the Haverstraw Town Board. Soto worked as a police officer for close to four decades and 36 years as a detective. He worked his share of robberies, shootings, rapes and homicide during his career. For many years, Soto was the county’s only Spanish-speaking officer – and constantly called by other departments.

On Friday, a retirement dinner will be held at the Patriot Hills course clubhouse in Stony Point.
Aside from Soto, the other town police officer- honorees are Detective Richard Janeli, Sgt. DannyFarrell and Officer William Harvey.

Six Haverstraw village officers who retired when the Haverstraw village police department disbanded two years ago and the town police force took over patrolling the village. They are Police Chief John Reilly, Sgt. Claudio Gatti, Sgt. Paul Hykas, Detective Sgt. Frank Alessio, Detective Vincent Ryan and Officer Richard Chorus.

And several other retirees – such as Detective Lt. Richard Rogers from the sunny shores and golf courses of Florida – and officers from across the department will attend the dinner.

Anyone interested in attending can call members of the planning committee – Dave Kryger, Jose Luna, Jorge Folch and Peter Connolly – at the Haverstraw Town Police Department at 845-354-1500.

Hi there, I’m back again with the latest week in review podcast. Take a look below and feel free to leave a comment.

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As promised earlier, here’s a full list of Rockland’s recipients of 2008 Community Development Block Grant funds:

• Spring Valley: $250,000 for the reconstruction of a park at Jay Street and Kennedy Drive.

• Ramapo: $150,000 to construct a handicapped-accessible pavilion and restrooms at Manny Welder Park.

• West Haverstraw: $100,000 for sidewalk replacement, lighting installation and landscaping on the Railroad Avenue corridor.

• Haverstraw village: $100,000 for new sidewalks, curbs, roadway, lights and other improvements on Main Street between Broadway and First Street.

• South Nyack: $100,000 to upgrade a storm drain system on Cedar Hill Avenue between Anna and Franklin streets.

• Haverstraw town: $75,000 for improvements to the pool deck at Bowline Point Park.

• Suffern: $50,000 for the construction of sidewalks and curbs on Ramapo Avenue from West Park Place to West Maltbie Avenue.

• Hillburn: $50,000 to help pay for a water system upgrade. The village has the oldest water pipes in Rockland.

• Piermont: $1,000 for a curb cut on the sidewalk at the public library, making the facility accessible to the disabled.

Image courtesy the U.S. Treasury Department, via the Associated Press.

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I drove by Benson Street in West Haverstraw yesterday to check if Raines and Welsh and Sons, a construction company on Railroad Avenue, was clearing up its backyard, following an order from the state Department or Environmental Conservation.

The work was in progress: a piece of heavy machinery was loading piles of dirt onto a truck.

Last month, the company was ruled to be in violation of state regulations, using its backyard to store piles of dirt, pieces of concrete and asphalt without a proper buffer against houses on Benson Street, which runs along the company property.

Several residents on Benson Street had complained about the dust, noise and constant shaking caused by heavy machinery in the company’s backyard.

West Haverstraw building inspector also found that the company did not have a village permit to use the backyard.

I’ll check back again to see if the work is completed.

Since John Ramundo left the Haverstraw Town Board to become West Haverstraw mayor earlier this month, the Town Board has been missing one board member.

Supervisor Howard Phillips said he was planning to appoint someone to fill the vacancy at the reorganization meeting at 7 p.m. Jan. 3.

Rumors have been circulated that Town Board member Isidro “Papo” Cancel, whose term expires at the end of this month, may be appointed to the position. Cancel lost his re-election bid to Hector Soto in the Democratic primary in September.

Four passengers said their evening wasn’t ruined tonight when the historic boat they were dining aboard got tangled in debris in the Hudson River.

The MV Commander, based out of the Haverstraw Marina, was hosting the Cornell Cooperative Extension’s 90th Anniversary celebration when debris got stuck in its propellers.

Tom and Carol Prestia of New City and Jeff and Ann Ellis of Congers said the captain told passengers about the boat’s troubles, but they went ahead and dined and had a nice evening.

“We just kind of floated around out there,” Carol Prestia said.

The boat, with about 75 aboard, was towed back to the marina and many guests, including the Ellises and Prestias, walked about a quarter-mile to their cars.

I was initially welcomed onto the Commander by its workers to ask some questions, but was prompted booted off by the captain who was not interested in answering any.

When I explained to him that I was not a passenger trying to get back on and that I was a reporter from the The Journal News he spat back at me “I don’t care where you’re from. I’m from my mommy’s tummy.”

Umm.. okay.

Oh well. At least I didn’t get spit on. That actually happened earlier this week to one of our interns

Gordon Wren Jr., Rockland County’s fire coordinator, reported today that the county had gotten word that three more entities signed the intermunicipal agreements needed to move foward with the $30.4 million project to get all emergency workers on the same radio system.

The county’s $20.4 million contract with Motorola Inc. to design, install and test the system is contigent on 90 percent—or 28—of the 31 fire districts and municipalities signing the agreements.

In the past two days, Wren said, Orangetown, Ramapo and the Congers Fire District voted to sign their agreements. That leaves the Valley Cottage and Tallman fire districts and the village of West Haverstraw left to sign.

“I think it’s great we’re moving along,” Wren said.

But still, he said, “I’ll feel better when we have them in hand.”

to make a low budget film look like a million bucks.

On the set of “Elan� today at the Haverstraw Marina, Spring Valley local filmmaker Michael Cesaire says if it weren’t for Rockland’s residents, he’d be spending thousands.

(Gianna Dazza, 21, a student at the Capri Cosmetology Learning Center in Nanuet, shows 6-year-old Gabrielle Kaufman her makeup. Kaufman plays the character Elan.) … Read more of this entry »

About 210 homes in Haverstraw won’t have water service until at least Monday because the water supply may have been contaminated with sewage.

While repairing a water main break from yesterday, United Water New York discovered a nearby sewer line was leaking. They could not immediately determine whether the sewage had leached into the drinking water supply, so they had to warn everyone served by the main not to drink the water.

The affected area includes: Picariello Drive, Spring Street, Victor Avenue, Rela Avenue, Rhoda Avenue, Harrigan Lane, Robbin’s Court and Gurnee Court.

Here’s a link to the United Water press release. Check for updates through the weekend on LoHud.com and in The Journal News.