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!

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

Burt Singer of Pomona always thought that more parking spaces should be available at Pomona Village Hall when it serves as a polling site. He thought many residents might shy away from casting their votes because of the difficult parking situation there.

Through his observation, Singer realized that on an election day, election workers seemed to take up most of the spots in the small Village Hall parking lot. He thought election workers should park their cars in other locations so that voters can use more parking spaces.

To make the plan work, Singer offered his help in giving lifts for election workers who park their cars at the Hindu temple’s parking lot.

Singer said Mayor Nick Sanderson gladly accepted Singer’s offer, and Village Clerk Lisa Thorsen would help Singer.
So on Super Tuesday, voters should have a better chance to find a parking spot at the village hall.

Pomona Mayor Nick Sanderson yesterday refused to disclose any information about how much it would cost to receive services from Robinson & Cole LLP., a law firm that was hired by the village to fight a lawsuit brought by a Jewish congregation.

The congregation wants to build a rabbinical college on a 130-acre site off Routes 202 and 306.

Sanderson said he had “some” idea about the price tag but wouldn’t give any estimate because he didn’t know.

I pressed him to give me the information, saying that it would be unreasonable as the village’s fiscal officer to hire a firm without informing residents how much the village would pay for its services.

Then he said the village wanted to focus on defending itself, not on the cost, at this point.

I told him that it was illegal for the village to withhold the information because the village board voted to hire the firm at a public meeting.

Sanderson then told me to talk to Village Attorney Doris Ulman.

Ulman said the information should be available to the public, but I needed to file a Freedom of Information Law request to get it because the firm’s proposal, which included dollar figures for its fees, stated that the information in the document was confidential.

I sent out my FOIL request as the first thing this morning but found that the village’s record officer, Village Clerk Lisa Thorsen, was out of office today. Without her, we cannot get it.

We’ll do a story as soon as Thorsen gives me the information.

It’s puzzling that Sanderson did not want to disclose how much it would cost at the first place. Whose money is the village going to use? It’s taxpayers’ money.

Haverstraw town’s Democrats are likely to have a primary election as a recently retired police detective plans to declare his candidacy this evening for a seat on the Town Board.

Hector Soto, 60, of Pomona, said he would make an announcement at 6 tonight at the Haverstraw King’s Daughters Public Library on Route 202 that he planned to run for Town Board.

Two seats are up for election on the Haverstraw Town Board this fall, and the town’s Democratic Committee has nominated incumbent Isidro “Papo” Cancel and John J. Gould, a lieutenant with the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office, to run on the party’s line.

Town Board member and Democrat Jay Hood Jr. is not seeking re-election because he expects to be appointed next week to the County Legislature representing District 3. The seat will soon be vacant because Legislator Roman Rodriguez (and his wife, Evelyn, a Haverstraw village trustee) are moving out of the area.

The Rockland Coalition for the Future is sponsoring a public forum next week called “Understanding RLUIPA.”

The featured speaker will be Doris Ulman, who serves as village attorney for Chestnut Ridge, Grand View, New Square and Pomona.

The purpose of the forum is to give background on the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, commonly known as RLUIPA.

Here is a link to the federal Department of Justice’s explainer on the law. Here is a link to a site that supports the federal law. Here is a link to a site that opposes the law.

The forum will start at 7 p.m. May 1 (that’s next Tuesday) at the Suffern Free Library, on Route 59 in the village. Refreshments are available at the Library Café until 7:15 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

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.

SUFFERN — For Mary Hussain, finding shelter from the pouring rain is a matter of flexible scheduling.

At about 12:30 p.m. this afternoon, the 46-year-old woman who lives on a plot of land in Nanuet was seated on a bench at the Rockland Community College bus stop.

Snugly dressed in a fur-lined, aviator-style jacket, she looked as comfortable as one could possibly be while sitting on a wooden bench inside the RCC lobby.

“It’s a little warmer than standing in the cold,� she said, smiling.

Hussain, for all intents and purposes, is homeless. So staying warm requires a bit of savvy planning on her part.

(Mary Hussain, 46, of Nanuet, waits at the Rockland Community College bus stop to stay warm and dry) … Read more of this entry »

Preserve Ramapo endorsed Nick Sanderson for mayor and Brett Yagel and Rita Louie for trustees for the March 20 Pomona village election.

According to the organization’s Web site, the organization valued those three candidates’ preparedness for dealing with challenges based on the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.

Pomona is expecting a proposal for a rabbinical college on Route 306, which may more than double the village’s population of 3,000.

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

Election signs along Route 306 near the intersection of Route 202 became a source of controversy because of their location.

The 100-acre lot along the Route 306 is the site for a yet-to-be-proposed rabbinical college, which could double the village’s population.

The signs were for incumbents Mayor Herbert Marshall and Trustee Alan Lamer, who are seeking reelections, as well as Linda Simmons, who is running for trustee.

People said the signs led some residents to believe that the developer for the rabbinical collage was endorsing Marshall’s team.

Marshall said today that he believed that the signs along Route 306 were all within the public right of way and did not require the property owner’s permission to put up.

But if the signs were becoming a source of concern, he’s going to take them down this afternoon, he said.

Marshall later said that he took them down by 1 p.m.

“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