To commemorate Earth Day, the Great American Cleanup starts this weekend and other events will be held through the week next week.

You can read this article by staff writer Laura Incalcaterra about the events, but here’s a quick list:

Saturday

• The Palisades Community Center, 675 Oak Tree Road, holds an Earth Day Fair from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The emphasis will be on “reduce, reuse and recycle,” and there will be a tag sale, children’s events, and recycling collection areas for used cell phones, ink jet cartridges, eyeglasses and sunglasses, and household batteries. Adults and children can submit a design by noon and a winner will get to paint a Keep Rockland Beautiful trash can.

• The Great American Cleanup, organized locally by Keep Rockland Beautiful has several cleanups that welcome walk-in volunteers who don’t have to sign up in advance. The meeting places:
8:30 a.m.-noon: Hillburn Youth Center, 77 Fifth St.
9 a.m.: Congers Station Park, Lake Road; Montebello Village Hall, 1 Montebello Road; Farley Middle School, Route 210, Stony Point; Suffern Village Hall, 61 Washington Ave.; Back to Earth Natural Foods Market, 306 S. Main St., New City.
10 a.m.: Nanuet train station, off Prospect Street; Orangetown Town Hall, 26 Orangeburg Road, Orangeburg.
11 a.m.: Spring Valley Commons parking lot, off Slinn Avenue.
Noon: Corner of Maple and Twin avenues, Spring Valley.
Get more information at online or by calling 845-708-9159.

Tuesday

• Nyack Earth Days begin. Costume-making workshop for April 26 parade, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.; panel discussion on solar energy and greening your home or business, 7 p.m. At Nyack Center, Depew Avenue at South Broadway. Free.

• Rockland Community College’s Earth Day Information Fair, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., outside the library. Local environmental groups and vendors of environmentally friendly products, such as hybrid cars, will be present. Live raptor show and a disc jockey. Food, prepared by students in the hospitality program, will be available for $5 per plate.

• Hungry Hollow Co-op, Route 45, Chestnut Ridge, holds an open house, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with free samples of earth-friendly household-cleaning products, and information about sustainable agricultural practices.

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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Links to related stories:
Pearl River man remembered for love of family, friendship
25 arrested in Nyack cocaine raid
Couple, both 18, charged with Pomona home burglary
Residents have two more weeks to fight tree clearing
Rockland awarded $150,000 fr Tappan Zee Bridge historical project

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.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand that the March village elections generally lack much drama. Often several are uncontested and with the staggered terms and several other villages holding their election contests in the fall, just a few villages hold an election each March.

But, really, this was a bit much: Of the six villages running elections next month, not a single seat is contested.

The filing deadline for candidates to get on the ballot was Wednesday.

And file the did, in Grand View, Hillburn, New Hempstead, South Nyack, Upper Nyack and Wesley Hills. Thing is, only one person filed for each open seat. Virtually all are incumbents, either having been elected previously or appointed to replace someone who left the seat early.

But not a single challenger signed up to get on the ballot in any of the six villages. Read more of this entry »

I was surprised today to get in the mail my business card folder that I must have dropped on a sidewalk somewhere in Hillburn.

A Rockland Avenue resident – there was no name on the envelope or on a note inside – was kind enough to mail it to me.

Thanks a lot, whomever you are.

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.

“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