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Here’s the Week in Review, ladies and gentlemen.
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South Orangetown school board members were tight-lipped last night about the whole fiasco surrounding Howard Sokol. Sokol is the lawyer from Blauvelt who was elected to the school board May 20, and the following day was busted by cops for drinking and driving.
The board called a special meeting to talk about Sokol, then broke into a closed executive session to talk to a lawyer. When that consult ended, they emerged with this verdict: the board had no power to remove Sokol from office, even if it wanted to.
And that’s pretty much all they said. There was no criticism, no rebuke, no public service message about drinking and driving. Board members seemed afraid to say anything that hadn’t been pre-approved by their lawyer.
Right now, Sokol is poised to take office July 1. Some parents have urged him to resign, but as of yesterday, he was staying put.
Here’s a story that ran today: School board won’t remove member-elect charged with DWI.
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Orange & Rockland plans to visit Blauvelt homeowner Maureen O’Neill today, but this time the visit will be welcome.
O’Neill was one of many residents who protested when O&R cut down trees in her backyard as part of a tree removal program meant to prevent power outages. Residents complained that more trees were cut that necessary and that O&R’s hired crews left a mess of stumps and debris behind.
O&R reached out to O’Neill after hearing her concerns and agreed to replace the lost trees with what they call compatible species, which are basically trees that won’t grow too high. An O&R arborist will visit O’Neill today and walk though the backyard to go over the plans for replanting.
“Fair is fair,” O’Neill said yesterday. “They’re trying to do the right thing.”
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My colleague, Cathey O’Donnell of the Data Desk, put together this cool map showing where all the Catholic schools are located in the Lower Hudson Valley, in commemoration of Pope Benedict’s imminent arrival in our region.
Click on one of the markers to find out details about each school, such as its location, enrollment or website.
Interesting tidbit: Albertus Magnus High School in Bardonia has the largest enrollment of all the Catholic schools in the tri-county area.
There are 72 Catholic schools in LoHud land, though five schools are slated to close at the end of this school year: Immaculate Conception Elementary in Stony Point and St. Catharine’s Elementary in Blauvelt, along with Holy Rosary Elementary in Hawthorne, Immaculate Conception in Irvington and St. Lawrence O’Toole Elementary in Putnam County (though there’s a big campaign on to save that school; check out the info here).
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Unhappy homeowners are calling and writing The Journal News to complain about chainsaw-wielding crews clearing their backyards.
Their gripe — Orange and Rockland’s hired crews clear-cut through a number of backyards, leaving tree stumps and tree debris in their wake. Not pretty.
In its defense, O&R was only doing what it was supposed to do. In 2005, the state Public Service Commission ordered utilities to clear 100-foot swaths of land around transmission lines to prevent power outages.
Homeowners say the PSC overreacted and now they, and the trees, are suffering. (See photo on right, taken at a Blauvelt home by Peter Carr.)
Residents and elected officials are now taking their fight to the state. The Rockland County Legislature and the Clarkstown Town Board and its supervisor will consider resolutions on Tuesday protesting the clear cutting of trees along tranmission lines and asking the state to reconsider. Meanwhile, residents are also starting to file complaints with the state agency.
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Spitzer’s resignation:
Spitzer joins a list of govs to quit early
Residents say Spitzer right to resign
Spitzer resigns; Paterson to take over Monday
Call girl at center of gov’s sex scandal
Paterson looks to steady state government
Paterson says he’s ready to govern
Spitzer legal woes mount
Spitzer resigns, felled by prostitution scandal
LoHud women divided over whether Spitzer should resign
Other top stories:
Judge offers 3 years in jail in teen sex case; Modica will have to choose in 2 weeks
Plans for next year occupy St. Catharine’s, Immaculate Conception students
Plastic surgeon to call it a career
St. Patrick’s Day parade in Pearl River celebrates family tradition and Irish kinship
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Meet Rockland’s newest reporter: Hannan Adely.
Hannan joined The Journal News/LoHud.com in 2003 and will cover Orangetown and its villages  Nyack, South Nyack, Grand View and Piermont. (And all the hamlets  Blauvelt, Orangeburg, Palisades, Pearl River, Sparkill, Tappan, Upper Grandview  I hope I didn’t forget any!)
She replaces Gerald McKinstry, who moves to the other side of the river to cover several Westchester municipalities and cut his daily one-way commute by a good 20 miles or so. Hannan’s commute gets shorter, too  she lives in New City.
Hannan covered government and community issues in Yonkers, her hometown, before coming over here to Rockland.
Before she joined The Journal News, Hannan wrote about theWarren County, N.J., for The Star-Ledger and also covered the north Bronx, and politics in Central America.
You can reach her at hadely@lohud.com or 845-578-2439.
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Some phone service that has been out since Monday and affected about 220 Verizon customers in the Orangeburg and Blauvelt area remained out today.
About 150 customers had already been restored yesterday with more expected today.
Blauvelt resident Melanie Garvey reported that her service was “in and out� today.
In an e-mail, Verizon spokeswoman Heather Wilner, said all phone lines should be working by this evening.
“As of this morning, service had been restored to most customers and we expected the repair to be completed and service fully restored by the end of the day,� she wrote.
She had said customers could call the repair number at 845-890-6611 to report issues or to receive a pro-rated bill.
Give us a ring (on a cell phone) or send us an e-mail if your phones aren’t working by Friday.
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Copyright © The Journal News, a Gannett Co. Inc. newspaper serving Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties in New York.
