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.

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

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In an unusual decision, the Orangetown Town Board decided last month to sue its own Zoning Board of Appeals to challenge a decision to approve a new warehouse and self-storage complex in Pearl River.  The lawsuit won’t come cheap.

The Town Board will vote at its meeting tonight to authorize the Zoning Board and the Planning Board — which is being sued by a citizen’s group over the same project — to hire outside lawyers to fight the lawsuits. The resolutions call for two different firms to represent each board “whose fees shall be paid by the Town upon receipt, review and approval of bills submitted to them.”

Normally, the zoning and planning boards would be defended by in-house lawyers. Obviously, that can’t happen because of the conflict of interest.

The battle is over developer Ed Lane’s proposal for Hillside Commercial Park, which Pearl River residents are trying to stop from being built.

The Town Board meeting takes place tonight at Town Hall at 7:30 p.m.

Speaking of Hillside (see my last post), it appears developer Edmund Lane is holding his ground when it comes to his plans for Hillside Commercial Park.

“If the town’s going to court, then go to court. If they want to waste the taxpayer’s money, then waste it,” Lane’s lawyer, Donald Brenner, said yesterday.

Town Supervisor Thom Kleiner wants Lane to reappear before the Zoning Board of Appeals because of a mistake the board made when it approved a waiver for the project. The board OK’d the waiver before the Planning Board made an environmental impact declaration. Since it was the board’s mistake, Brenner said his client shouldn’t be penalized.

Kleiner and the Town Board are considering suing Lane and the Zoning Board over the matter.

The mistake would have gone completely unnoticed, or ignored, except that a group of homeowners got wind of the project just over a month ago and were not happy. They put together a coalition to fight the project and caught the ear of Kleiner, who had the town’s attorney go over the project with a fine-toothed comb.

Here’s two stories on the project:

Pearl River residents rally to fight commercial park

Orangetown supervisor considers suing town’s own board

It’s been just about a month since Pearl River homeowners formed Residents United to Save Hillside. But already the group has hired a lawyer, launched a website and held several well-attended meetings.

Now, the group has plans for a fundraiser on May 21.  It will be held at The Saloon in Pearl River. Proceeds will go to support RUSH’s efforts to prevent a warehouse and two self-storage buildings from being built on a wooded area along Route 304.

Their web site is www.rushpearlriver.com.

Residents United to Save Hillside (RUSH) is keeping the pressure on to try and stop a commercial park from being built along Route 304 in Pearl River. The group has launched a website that states its case against the proposed development and lets people know how they can help. It can be found at www.rushpearlriver.com.

The group also has scheduled several meetings in the community room of the Pearl River Library. The next meeting is tomorrow at 7 pm.

The Pearl River homeowners oppose the commercial park — which would include a warehouse and two storage buildings on 10 acres — because of potential problems with flooding and noise and air pollution.

Here is a recent story about the situation: Pearl River residents rally to fight commercial park

Thanks for stopping by for the Rockland Week in Review, where we look back at the biggest Rockland stories of the past seven days.

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Yankees announcer John Flaherty gave a shout-out to Pearl River during a spring training game Sunday against Cleveland.

Flaherty, who grew up in West Nyack and now lives in Pearl River, talked about how great the hamlet’s St. Patrick’s Day parade is every year. Though he was busy working, he said his wife and daughter marched in the parade with the Girl Scouts.

The parade, which took place on March 9, is the second largest in New York State. The parade typically draws between 30,000 and 50,000 people, organizers said.

Flaherty was a catcher for the Yankees and also played for the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He retired from the field in 2006.

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St. Patrick’s Day parade in Pearl River celebrates family tradition and Irish kinship

The letters and phone calls to spare Joe Byrne of Pearl River from extradition apparently did not help. A friend of the Byrnes reports that Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice signed the extradition order from Ireland yesterday. Joe Byrne will be asked to turn himself in on or before Feb. 29.

Byrne is wanted in connection with a burglary charge in 1996 and a robbery charge in 1997, both in his native Ireland. His wife, friends and the local Irish community have fought to keep him in the US. They fear he won’t be able to get back in the country after he faces trial because he is not a citizen, though he has a green card.

Here is the story that ran about his case and the community’s efforts to stop the extradition.

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• Rockland’s first baby of the year born at Nyack Hospital


• Rockland’s ‘Crow House’ named national historic site


• Pearl River family of 4 loses home in fire


• Repairs to weak spots on Tappan Zee Bridge will begin in spring

It’s December, and that means we’re gearing up for the annual Year in Review, a look at the 10 biggest news stories in Rockland in 2007.

The main criteria we look at is that the news has to be Rockland-specific, so the war in Iraq would not qualify, but news regarding the criminal military case stemming from the fragging death of U.S. Army Capt. Phillip Esposito would.

We’d love your thoughts and suggestions. Some stories we’re looking at so far, in no particular order:

• Election defeats of District Attorney Michael Bongiorno and Haverstraw Mayor Francis “Bud” Wassmer.

• Wyeth Pharmaceuticals celebrates 100 years in Pearl River.

• The rabbi banned from baking matzos on a converted bus in his backyard.

• Rats, roaches in Clarkstown North.

• Scientists at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades share in the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.

Hey all,

Here’s this week’s review. Below the podcast, I’ve included links to the articles mentioned and the videos shown in the review. Check ‘em out and have a relaxing weekend.
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New Jersey man accused of Pearl River house burglary, as cops hunt second suspect

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Video: Burglary suspects sought in Pearl River

Photo by Vincent DiSalvio/The Journal News, 2006.

Next week, Wyeth will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of its Pearl River plant, which traces it roots back to 1860. If you or members of your family worked for Wyeth or its predecessor companies (American Home Products, Lederle), we’d like to hear from you.

To share your thoughts, memories or photos, contact business reporter David Schepp at dschepp@lohud.com or 845-578-2437.

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.

A former county court judge that was appointed by Gov. George Pataki last year and later defeated at the polls, will start a new gig with Orangetown next week.

The Town Board this week appointed Barbara Gionta a deputy town attorney. She will start June 5.

The job includes an annual salary of $39,199 and is considered part-time.

Gionta replaces Patrick Loftus, a lawyer who specializes in real estate, banking, land use and trusts law.

Loftus resigned effective May 25. He was unanimously appointed about a year ago after a long disagreement among some board members about whether the town would be better served by a land use or labor relations lawyer. The board went with a land use lawyer because most of its labor issues are contracted out.

Gionta, a Republican from Pearl River was also unanimously appointed by the board. A native of the hamlet, she started her career as a prosecutor with the county and was later promoted as an assistant district attorney for domestic violence. She was also a partner at her own firm.

In addition to two town attorneys, the town’s law office has five part-time deputy attorneys.

Heinz Ahlmeyer Jr.’s reach may extend far beyond his hometown hamlet this week.

On a day when the Pearl River man — who died about 40 years ago on his first day of combat in Vietnam — was honored with the dedication of the Post Office in Pearl River, lawmakers announced that Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee, D-Suffern, was working on legislation in the state Legislature to make May 10, 2007 (Thursday) Heinz Ahlmeyer Jr. Day in the state of New York.

Congressman Eliot Engel’s chief of staff, Bill Weitz, made that announcement, during his remarks to the crowd. Jaffee was in Albany.

Engel had sponsored the necessary legislation in the House to dedicate the Post Office, which was later approved in the Senate and signed by the President. (Engel could not be there yesterday because he was taking care of his mother who was sick, Weitz said.)

“It was a long time coming,â€? Weitz said to me before the official ceremony. “It’s a proud day for the family and for Pearl River.”

It may be a proud day around the state if people know Ahlmeyer’s story.