The Ramapo Planning Board on July 15 will be reviewing proposed subdivisions, rabbis residences and houses of worship. The meeting begins at 8:15 p.m. in Town Hall, 237 Route 59, Airmont.

Among the agenda items are public hearings for both the preliminary subdivision approval and final subdivision approval of a plan for seven lots on a total of 1.79 acres off Grove Street and Augusta Avenue in Monsey.

Potential environmental impacts will be reviewed for two community houses of worship, one by Congregation Chesidei Bobov of Monsey on a half acre off Jill Lane opposite Ralph Boulevard, and the other by Congregation Bais Yisocher Berish off Brewer Road about 200 feet west of DeRonde Road. The latter application is also for a rabbi’s residence.

A community house of worship can have a sanctuary capacity of more than 100 people, unlike the local house of worship, which has a capacity of fewer than 100. A local verision is sought by Congregation Ahvas Chesed, whose plan off Remsen Avenue and Hilda Lane will also be subject to an environmental review at the meeting.

Today, Rockland can bid adieu to the young men and women who have been going door-to-door to sell magazines, Ramapo police said on Friday.

Detective Lt. Brad Weidel said Paragon Sales sellers were supposed to leave the county for other regions today.  The sales contingent has been estimated at 40 by police and have been staying at the Holiday Inn in Montebello.

Weidel and the police expect them to back up their vans – with Michigan, Tennessee and Illinois plates – and head off.

In their short time here, four of the sellers have been arrested – three for soliciting sales without a permit Airmont. They were released on $50 bail by the police pending a hearing in Airmont Justice Court in June. If they don’t show up in court – and that’s the betting odds – they lose their bail money.

Left behind in the county jail was Donnell Preston, 28, of Dayton, Ohio, on felony counts of second-degree attempted murder and second-degree burglary. He is accused of breaking into the hotel room of a 25-year-old fellow seller and attempting to choke her to death. The woman he is accused of attacking is the mother of his two children.

His case will go before a grand jury and his victim will be asked to testify.

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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64 years later, Ed Peterson gets his purple heart
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Top stories
Two men die after jumping from Tappan Zee Bridge
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Palisades Center mall stories
Palisades Center reshapes Rockland
Megamall replaces county’s downtowns
Mall a magnet for white-collar crime, but violence is lowPalisades Center mall timeline
Mysteries, myths lurk beneath mall’s surface
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For Palisades native, war trauma ends in suicide
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Some bridge tolls, train tickets increased over weekend
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The latest piece of campaign literature to come out of the District 12 County Legislature race contains an error that some say really isn’t an error at all.

Sent out by Preserve Ramapo in support of Airmont Trustee Joseph Meyers, the back side of the glossy mailing talks of Legislator Patrick Withers’ support from Ramapo Town Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence, former Assemblyman Ryan Karben and Legislator Ilan Schoenberger, D-New Square.

D-New Square?

Schoenberger has never lived in New Square. He lives in Wesley Hills and has since the early 1980s. The village of New Square is included in his legislative district.

That was not a mistake on the mailing, he said.

“I think it’s an attempt on their part to appeal to the people who are anti-Semitic,” he said.

I’ve tried to reach Preserve Ramapo Chairman Robert Rhodes, but my phone message wasn’t immediately returned. I’ll update once I hear from him.
———————————-

UPDATE: Rhodes said that he knows Schoenberger lives in Wesley Hills, “but he has always been the representative from New Square.”

When I told him about Schoenberger’s comments that the mistake appealed to anti-Semitic supporters, Rhodes said he was “full of [doody.]” Except he didn’t say “doody.” Sorry- it’s a family newspaper.

Rhodes also said that Schoenberger has made a career out of calling his opponents anti-Semitic.
————————————-

Withers, D-Suffern, and Meyers are vying for the Democratic nomination for District 12. The primary is Sept. 18.

As usual, the Assembly Democrats got more money to spend on pet projects this year—commonly referred to as “pork,” but Republicans got more this year than last. About $2 million to be exact.

For more information on pork spending and the specifics of the statewide trends, click here for our recent Lohud.com story.

In Rockland, the late Assemblyman Kenneth P. Zebrowski, D-New City, secured the most pork funding—$153 million—to be spent on things like a new van for the Helen Hayes Hospital Foundation and new computers for Meals on Wheels.

Nancy Calhoun, R-Blooming Grove, came in second for the Rockland Assembly members, but out of $121,000, only three items totaling $17,000 were set aside for Rockland, not including money for the Ramapo-Catskills Library System which includes both Rockland and Orange counties.

Calhoun’s district includes all of Stony Point.

Annie Rabbitt, R-Greenwood Lake, set aside $18,096 and just four items of her $103,000 total for Rockland items, not including the Ramapo-Catskills Library system. Her district includes part of Ramapo.

Freshmen Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee, D-Suffern, brought home a total of $110,000 for things like renovations at the Airmont community center after school programs at the Nyack Center and the Martin Luther King Center.

Below is a full list of the Rockland Assembly pork:

Nancy Calhoun, R-Blooming Grove

$2,500, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Orange County for youth programs.

$10,000, Town of Blooming Grove for senior center improvements and recreation equipment at Mays Field.

$10,000, Town of Chester for Sugar Loaf planning grant.

$5,000, Town of Cornwall to digitize historical archives.

$10,000, Town of Crawford for improvements to the town park.

$2,500, Town of Highlands for equipment at Fort Montgomery.

$7,500, Town of Highlands Ambulance Corps for defibrillators and pagers.

$7,500, Town of Montgomery for a video-surveillance system.

$8,500, Town of New Windsor for a backup generator.

$10,000, Town of Stony Point for programs.

$4,500, Town of Stony Point for an accident-investigation system.

$10,000, Town of Woodbury for senior center improvements.

$5,000, Village of Cornwall-on-Hudson for a commercial freezer door.

$2,500, Village of South Blooming Grove for start-up expenses.

$2,500, Village of Walden for programs.

$2,500, Village of Woodbury for start-up expenses.

$2,500, Rockland County Sheriff’s Dept. for sex offender-tracking software.

$5,000, Ramapo-Catskill Library System for a summer reading program.

$5,000, Sarah Wells Girl Scout Council for programs.

$3,000, Orange County Veterans Cemetery for equipment.

$5,000, Orange County Firefighters Museum for programs.

$121,000 total.
– – – – – – – – -

Ellen Jaffee, D-Suffern

$2,000, Suffern Farmers Market for marketing and promotion.

$7,500, Village of Spring Valley for training classes.

$2,000, Orangetown Fire Company No. 1 to remodel the interior room.

$8,000, Lower Hudson Valley Challenger Center for software and programs.

$10,000, Community Outreach Center of Monsey for a community patrol.

$7,500, Village of Spring Valley for the Jitney bus service.

$5,000, Community Action Program of Rockland for women’s programs.

$4,000, Community Action Network for a Drug-Free Life and Environment for counseling programs.

$15,000, Haitian American Cultural and Social Organization (Spring Valley) for a language-support program.

$8,000, Martin Luther King Multi-Purpose Center for software and equipment for an after-school program.

$5,000, Nyack Center for an after-school cultural program.

$7,500, Rockland County YMCA for after-school programs and field trips.

$9,500, Rockland Family Shelter for a teen workshop on abusive relationships.

$10,000, Village of Airmont to renovate a community center.

$4,000, Volunteer Counseling Service of Rockland to upgrade computer system.

$1,000, NAMI Familya of Rockland for support services for the mentally ill.

$4,000, Arts Council of Rockland for marketing.

$110,000 total.
– – – – — – – -

Annie Rabbitt, R-Greenwood Lake

$2,260, Pine Island Chamber of Commerce to plant trees.

$2,260, Campbell Hall Fire Dept. for equipment.

$4,524, Monroe Lakeside Fire Dept. for equipment.

$4,524, Town of Goshen for a fuel-dispensing system.

$4,524, Town of Hamptonburgh to construct a picnic area at a senior center.

$4,524, Town of Mount Hope for playground equipment.

$4,524, Town of Warwick to pave the area around an animal shelter.

$4,524, Village of Goshen for improvements to village hall.

$4,524, Village of Harriman for improvements to village hall.

$4,524, Village of Hillburn Dept. of Public Works for equipment.

$4,524, Village of Kiryas Joel for a radio repeater.

$4,524, Village of Monroe to plant trees in Crane Park.

$4,524, Village of Montebello for solar electric panels at town hall and for a 20th anniversary brochure.

$4,524, Village of Otisville to pave a municipal parking lot and for new curbs and trees.

$4,524, Village of Sloatsburg for software.

$4,524, Village of Suffern for Suffern Day.

$4,524, Village of Tuxedo Park to repair a dam.

$4,524, Village of Warwick for benches.

$4,524, Florida Police Dept. for security cameras at reservoirs.

$4,524, Greenwood Lake Police Dept. for computer upgrades.

$4,524, Wallkill Police Dept. for equipment.

$5,000, Ramapo-Catskill Library System for a reading program ($500 for each library in the system).

$4,524, Tuxedo Senior Center for renovations to the railroad station.

$3,000, Orange County Veteran’s Service Agency for cemetery equipment.

$103,000 total.
– – – – – – – -

Ken Zebrowski, D-New City

$10,000, Helen Hayes Hospital Foundation for a van.

$30,000, Village of Haverstraw for a new room at the Haverstraw Center.

$8,500, Village of Pomona for an emergency generator.

$50,000, Village of Spring Valley to replace the heating system at the Louis Kurtz Civic Center.

$2,900, Rockland Teachers’ Center Institute to purchase school supplies for needy children.

$5,000, Meals on Wheels of Rockland for new computers.

$5,000, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Rockland for a gang-prevention counselor.

$3,100, Child Care Resources of Rockland for new computers.

$7,000, Community Action Program of Rockland for women’s programs.

$5,000, Haverstraw Ecumenical Project and Day Care Center for services.

$7,000, Interfaith Coalition for the Homeless of Rockland County for office equipment.

$8,000, Rockland Family Shelter for furniture.

$2,500, Star Kids (Garnerville) for a sports program.

$5,000, Volunteer Counseling Service of Rockland to upgrade the computer system.

$4,000, Arts Council of Rockland for office equipment and a newsletter.

$153,000 total.

The people of South Nyack are particularly interested in the fate of the Tappan Zee Bridge. The darn thing’s so close to their homes that they can practically set up toll booths in their back yards.

So it’s no surprise that candidates seeking office in the March 20 elections put the bridge’s future at the top of their watch lists.

Read about South Nyack and other village elections at:

www.lohud.com/elections/airmont

www.lohud.com/elections/chestnutridge

www.lohud.com/elections/grandview

www.lohud.com/elections/montebello

www.lohud.com/elections/pomona

www.lohud.com/elections/southnyack

www.lohud.com/elections/uppernyack

“Ah, the good life, full of fun, seems to be the ideal.”

So go the lyrics to the old standard, and that’s apparently how they feel in one Rockland village (Grand View), where even politicos think that Life’s a Party.

It’s all part of The Journal News and lohud.com’s ongoing coverage of the March 20 village elections.

Here’s the links to the articles that are available:

http://lohud.com/elections/uppernyack

http://lohud.com/elections/airmont

http://lohud.com/elections/chestnut

http://lohud.com/elections/grandview

It’s been said that all politics are local, and there’s nothing more local than your village election.

On March 20, voters in 10 Rockland villages (Pomona, Grand View, South Nyack, Upper Nyack, Chestnut Ridge, Kaser, New Square, Hillburn, Montebello and Airmont) will go to the polls.

Although only Pomona and Hillburn have contested elections, each race offers a chance for residents to let Village Hall know whether they think things are headed in the right direction.

And, don’t forget, in smaller villages there’s always a chance that a write-in candidate could sneak into office. (Brian Miele in Hillburn, anyone?)

This is all a way of announcing that The Journal News and LoHud.com are providing coverage in print and on the Web to keep you informed before you cast your ballot. Each article in the newspaper will contain a link to lohud.com for candidate profiles and other information. The stories will remain on LoHud.com’s Rockland page through Election Day.

Here are the links to the first three articles, which will appear this weekend:

http://lohud.com/elections/uppernyack

http://lohud.com/elections/airmont

http://lohud.com/elections/chestnut

Airmont Road and Route 59 in Ramapo is one of the most heavily traveled intersections in the county.

It seems that a change in the traffic light intervals has improved the flow of traffic.

Have you noticed that? And what other intersections in the county do you see as troublesome, either because of congestion or other issues?