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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

Tomorrow’s expected rain has pushed three Halloween celebrations to Sunday:

• The Chamber of Commerce of the Nyacks’ annual Halloween parade begins assembling at 3:15 p.m. Sunday — bands, floats and marchers assemble at the upper level of Memorial Park, at the corner of DePew and Piermont avenues.

• Haverstraw’s annual Halloween festival has been moved to noon to 4 p.m. Sunday at Bowline Point Park.
• Sloatsburg’s annual Halloween parade has costume judging beginning at 4 p.m. and the parade at 5 p.m., at the entrance to the community fields by Route 17. The parade goes up Route 17 to the elementary school.

Pomona’s not changing its Halloween party, scheduled for 1 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Village Hall.

Suffern’s parade was already planned for 2 p.m. Sunday at the corner of Orange and Lafayette avenues, so it’s not changing. Costume judging, cider and donuts immediately follow the parade at the Virginia Menschner Gazebo on Washington Ave.

Have fun!

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 — 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:

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

Vendetta Paintball fills void in Rockland

Ramapo mom gives birth before rescuers arrive

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

 This week, I host the Rockland review from a pier in Nyack. Which one? Well, I’m none too sure, but if anyone finds a microphone in the water, please call me.

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Rockland Republicans open McCain campaign headquarter

Obama’s Rockland campaign headquarters opens in Montebello

Man held in Sloatsburg weapons discovery

Community group to address youth issues in Nyack

Central Nyack gas station robbed for second time in a week

Learning the lessons of war

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

9:31 p.m., Thursday, July 24: At this moment, I am on my way to Morristown, N.J., to see my first EVER nephew, born 7:20 p.m., weighing in at 7 pounds, 4 ounces. Shai Rubin, welcome to Earth!

Oh, and here’s the Week in Review…

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Passer-by’s face slashed in Nyack brawl, cops say

Witness: 20 involved in Nyack fight

Hydrogen fuel cell SUV makes rounds in Rockland

Employee lived in paint shed at Rockland Psychiatric Center, report finds

Two more charged with burglary in Haverstraw, bringing total to 4

312 step out for glory

Here’s another Week in Review from your friendly neighborhood mojo.

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Funeral for New City teen teen killed in accident

Friends remember Brandon Berman of New City

Young people hit and miss in job search

Good Samaritan Hopsital in Suffern has layoffs

Blauvelt college denies negligence, indifference toward alleged rape victim

Teens playing with matches accidentally burned down West Nyack elementary school playground

Zen Center expands minds, temple

New iPhone draws crowds, wins fans

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.

Nyack changes its mind, a lot.

In the past year, the Village Board reversed a decision on parking rates and postponed the date that new rates would take effect. In its most recent about-face, the Nyack board voted last week to change the structure of parking penalties, just three months after new penalties were set.

Some business owners were upset in April, when the Nyack Village Board decided to raise the penalties for parking tickets from $12 to $25, or $15 if a person paid within two days. The new rate structure was supposed to take effect Sept. 1.

Though their pleas didn’t work back then, merchants were successful last week is getting the board to change its decision on penalties. The board voted 3-1 to lengthen the time in which drivers could still pay just $15. Richard Kavesh voted no, and Denise Hogan was absent.

Now, drivers can pay $15 up until the day of their court appearance. After that, they must pay $25. A court appearance can be scheduled anywhere from two weeks to five weeks from the day the ticket was issued, depending on how busy the courts may be.

Richard Kavesh and Louise Parker have filed petitions with the Rockland County Board of Elections to run for re-election to the Nyack Village Board.

Kavesh filed to run on the Democratic and Working Families party lines, while Louise filed on the Democratic line only.

No surprise here: No GOP candidates have filed to challenge the incumbents. Nyack, which is known as a liberal-leaning village, has a Democratic mayor and all-Democratic board.

Still, candidates have until the end of the work today to file. So we’ll check back in to see if there are any anomalies.

It’s Fourth of July weekend. ‘Nuff said.

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Stun gun ends standoff with Bardonia man

Police ID man at center of Bardonia standoff

Sokol steps aside in South Orangetown

Pearl River man accused of selling heroin to teen girls

Rockland’s first female police officer dies at 74

West Point welcomes its Class of 2012

38-foot boat capsizes in Hudson near Nyack

This picture was sent to me by Donald Sullivan, a Tappan resident who is organizing opposition to a proposed Orange & Rockland substation on Oak Tree Road.  Sullivan and other residents are meeting on a regular basis to plan their protest and are speaking up at town meetings. They’ve also put up signs like this:

The county is just about done with improvements to the center of Tappan, where crews replaced sidewalks, repaved streets, did drainage work and added decorative light posts. The new look, with brick sidewalks and cobblestone print on the road surface, was meant to evoke old-world charm in the historic area.

Business owners say the county should have taken the work a step further by taking down the plethora of parking and road signs. They also hope to see some resolution soon to the lawsuit the local fire association filed against the county. Work in front of the firehouse has been stopped since December and there’s a big construction hole there.

For more on this story, read: Tappan improvements almost done, but lawsuit goes on.

Have you seen the improvements. What do you think?

Orangetown has hired its first certified Spanish-speaking police officer and has plans to hire a second. The town has been criticized for the past few years for being the only town police force without a Spanish-speaking officer.

Police Chief Kevin Nulty said he had been unable to hire a police officer who speaks the language because of town policy, which dictates that police officers must live in Orangetown at the time they’re hired. There were no Spanish speakers on the town list, Nutly said. On Monday, the Town Board passed a resolution allowing the hiring of an officer from the county’s Spanish-speaking list, which includes candidates from other towns.

For more on this story, read Orangetown hires first Spanish-speaking police officer.

Here’s the newest Week in Review.

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3 killed, 11 hurt in van crash on Thruway

Nine women in stable condition after Thruway crash

Police: Alcohol may be a factor in fatal Thruway crash

Construction worker hurt at W. Nyack store

Inspector: Steel beam wasn’t secured

Nyack mayor seeks support for gang-prevention program

Beekeeper’s backyard is buzzing

Spring Valley bridge club celebrates member’s 100th birthday

Orangeburg firefighters are weeks away from moving to their new home, said Kenny Gordon, chairman of the Board of Fire Commissioners for the Orangeburg Fire District.

Gordon said exterior work on the department’s new firehouse was finished, but the building still needed still plumbing and electrical work and phone lines.

Voters approved $5.2 million bond in a 2006 referendum to build the 15,000-square-foot facility, which will have more office, garage and training space. The red-brick firehouse is on the corner of Orangeburg Road and Dutch Hill Road.

It was fairly typical as far as conventions go, although I noted a few oddities:
—While he was in the audience, Ramapo Town Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence did not make an obligatory short, heavy joke at Chairman Vince Monte’s expense as in previous years.
—I got told I looked like one of the Zebrowski kids. (Note to readers who haven’t met me: I look NOTHING like any of the Zebrowski kids.)
—None of the supervisors performed the dance they did at a recent charity event. This is less an oddity and more just something I had been hoping for.
—Thom Kleiner was wearing a tie with puppies on it.
—When getting ready to introduce the party’s candidate for state Senate, Monte, trying to rile up the crowd, proclaimed: “We didn’t field a candidate, I think, the last two times.”  About eight rows back, the 2006 candidate, Orangetown Board Member Nancy Low-Hogan raised her hand, as Monte struggled to dig himself out of that one. Ouch.
—It was held in the Clarkstown Town Hall auditorium. Usually it’s somewhere like a theater, a restaurant or a community center or anything that doesn’t smack of government-controlled interior decorating.