I stopped by Admiral’s Cove Marina in Haverstraw last week to see some happy faces of North Rockland Rowing Club members: The club held a dedication ceremony of the club’s new dock, which would be used by club members, including North Rockland High School crew team.

I met club members for the first time on Aug. 9, 2005. It was my second day on the job with the Journal News, covering north Rockland.

Members spoke before the Stony Point Town Board, lead by former Supervisor A. Douglas Jobson, and asked about status of their proposal to build a boathouse on a town park.

The club was just established by parents of North Rockland High School crew team members to support the high school crew team.

Parents said that having a boathouse was very important to protect the team’s expensive gears. They were hoping to build it in a location near the Hudson so that children can launch their boats safely and conveniently.

Since then, the project took many unfortunate turns. When a new administration took over the Town Board in January 2006, the plan basically went back to stage zero, as Supervisor Phil Marino and Town Board members expressed their concerns on building a permanent structure for a private club on a town property.

Club members repeatedly told the town that the boathouse would be dedicated to the town so that it would be a part of town property. But the town did not buy the club’s argument, and eventually the project died. Meanwhile, the crew team’s boats on a boat rack left outside of the Fieldstone Secondary School — because they didn’t have a boathouse — were vandalized.

The club’s attempt to place a dock in a Stony Point town park did not go through, either.

But after nearly four years, the club finally found a home in Haverstraw village. Though the club still doesn’t have its own boathouse, they have a dock, which cost about $27,000. Jerry Rodriguez of North Rockland Rowing Club said major part of the cost was covered by the state grant procured by state Sen. Thomas Morahan (R-C, New City). A $5,000 grant sponsored by Assemblywoman Nancy Calhoun (R-C, Blooming Grove) was also used to finance the cost. Rodriguez said the club was hoping to build a boathouse somewhere near the dock, although he didn’t know where yet. Rodriguez said he was grateful that Haverstraw village Mayor Michael Kohut and Ginsburg Development Companies, owner of the marina, stepped up to the plate to help the club and the high school crew team.

Jobson was one of the dignitaries who attended the dedication ceremony, which I arrived too late to see ribbon cutting.

“Jerry invited me down. I’m glad to see they’ve finally got plenty of space to work out,” Jobson said. “It’s been four years.”

Strange accidents, education assessments, police indictments AND MORE in this Week in Review. Watch … if you dare.

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BOCES, transgender teen face challenge

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Wii tournament stops in Nanuet

Our Data Desk has posted two new databases with all sorts of info useful to Rockland residents.

First off, relating to today’s story about how many schools and districts in the Lower Hudson Valley, including some in Rockland, received high marks from the state Education Department for their academic performance and for closing the achievement gap.

Here’s a link to the article about it, written by Journal News reporters Randi Weiner and Dwight R. Worley: Nearly 150 schools show improvement. And here’s a link to the database.

Then, we have the database the desk put together on tax levies and school spending. Check out how your school district compares with others.

The anti-drinking and drug message while driving will  be demonstrated for Fieldstone Secondary School 9th-graders with two mock car crashes on Tuesday at the West Ramapo Road campus.

The volunteer victims will be covered in red – for blood – and trapped inside a crushed car, requiring firefighters to cut open the vehicle. A medical helicopter will land to show how personnel transfer the victims to the hospital. And capping off the lesson will be a Hearst carrying the casket with the victim(s) to the cemetery for burial.

And Fieldstone School Resource Officer Henry Sirakovsky is looking for volunteers, preferably students, to spend time in the casket.

The hour-long simulated crash and responses is to emphasize to students the dangers of driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol – and an general message  not to drink and use drugs in ny case. Some schools have left a crushed car on the campus as a message.

The mock crash at Fieldstone will be held at 9:50 a.m. and again with a second car at 1:05 p.m. Sirakovsky, who will moderate,  organized the mock crash with school officials and Students Against Destructive Decisions. And the rain date is Thursday.

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Spitzer’s resignation:
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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

Two supervisors in North Rockland want to meet the public this Saturday.

Haverstraw town Supervisor Howard Phillips will hold a “meet the supervisor and town elected officials� event from 10 a.m. to noon at the ShopRite store on Route 202 in Garnerville. Residents can bring their questions and concerns related to the town government.

Stony Point Supervisor Phil Marino invites residents to join the “Coffee with the Supervisor” session from 8 to 10 a.m. at Stony Point Town Hall at 74 E. Main St. People can bring their concerns and issues to discuss with Marino. Coffee will be served.

While Marino is having coffee with residents, Stony Point Town Clerk Joan Skinner will open her office for business from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. to accommodate residents who cannot make it to her office on weekdays.

I stopped by Haverstraw Center this week, where the Haverstraw Collaborative — a group of local agencies serving the village youth and families — was hosting a week-long event for children during the school break.

When I was visiting, multiple programs — including a knitting class, a group discussion, and exercises — were ongoing, and participating children looked all excited.

Jeanmarie Zubko, counselor at the center, said about 100 children participated in this year’s event. The number had doubled from last year, since said.

Haverstraw Village Mayor Michael Kohut, a supporter of the project, was pleased to see the successful event.

“Kids do enjoy it,” Kohut said. “The more things they get to do, the less chance they get in trouble.”

The children were supposed to celebrate the center’s first anniversary last night as part of the week-long event. But the reception was postponed to 5:30 p.m. Feb. 29 due to the weather.

They should for anyone dining tonight at Del Arte Restaurant in Orangeburg.

As part of a fundraiser to support breast cancer research, County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef, Rockland Community College President Cliff Wood and Orangetown Town Board Member Denis Troy, among other notable Rocklanders, will be serving food starting at 7:30 p.m.

The John Carollo Cooking Class fundraiser supports the Brest Buddies two-day, 26-mile Avon Walk for breast cancer research.

Anyone wanna place bets on who will drop the first plate?

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North Rockland taxpayers raise their concerns at tax forum

Okay this is gonna be a quick entry. Laptop battery is low, it’s on the red. Plus, I learned from the last entry that I get nauseous typing on the bus. The movement along with the wafting smells of someone’s tuna sandwich was not good.

Anyway, onward! So about 10 a.m. we parked at a rest stop and lookie lookie who we bumped into — the other Rockland bus packed full of Albertus Magnus High School students, most of whom are part of the school’s Pro-Life Club. The young’ns had interesting things to say, but alas my battery life is now at 21 percent.

To sum up their sentiment, the teens were wearing sweatshirts that quoted Dr. Seuss’ “Horton Hears a Who!,” which read, “A person’s a person, no matter how small.”

This is part one of our Year In Review podcast. Check out part two above. Happy New Year!

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Rockland’s top stories of 2007

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.

Gobble gobble, I’m back and here with another Week In Review.

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After the break, check out the links to related articles, videos and blogs. Note: These Week In Reviews only show portions of the videos our photo staff puts together, so be sure to view the full videos by clicking the links.

A long-awaited bridge-replacement project at the former Letchworth Village finally started this week.

The bridge on American Legion Way, formerly known as Underpass Road, was condemned in fall 2005 because of structural problems.

The condemnation left the North Rockland school district’s Fieldstone Secondary School and Willow Grove Middle School without an emergency route in or out of the facilities. Employees of the Hudson Valley DDSO, a local division of the state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities located at Letchworth, were trapped in the area when its primary access road for was blocked by storm damage.

I’ll check with the town about the progress of the construction.

Hey hey Rockland,

Just a reminder that you can get a rundown of the week’s major stories by viewing our Rockland Week In Review podcast. If you have a video iPod, you can also subscribe to this podcast by clicking the link on the right side of your screen so that you can download and view ‘em say … during your commute to work, maybe during a quick sprint on the treadmill or a commercial break at home? Also, below I’ll include any relevant links to the stories mentioned in the podcast. Have a great weekend!

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Earlier this week, I visited St. Agatha Home in Nanuet moments after the bell tower was removed from the top of the Little Flower House, which was one of the first buildings built on the campus. It was an emotional moment for many, like Kevin Donahue, who has been working on the campus for 31 years. After all, the he and many members of the alumni association had been working to save bits and pieces of their former campus ever since they found out it was going to be sold to the Nanuet school district. I wrote a short story on it.

While there, I took a ride with Donahue to a grassy plot of land on Duryea Lane where the group hopes to construct a museum from the bell tower. On that bare hill, Donahue and another member, Victor Castro, shared fond memories of adolecent mischief. They reminisced about the former dump where they would find interesting knick-knacks and the adjacent grassy slope on which they would roll down in garbage cans. And that’s not all.

“There were many a clandestine meeting with members of the opposite sex near this dump,” Castro said with a chuckle.

In the coming months, members said they planned to restore the bell tower and that they would prepare to move it to the top of the hill once other buildings on the campus were demolished. Many well-known people who live in Rockland County grew up at St. Agatha’s, according to members, and they hope those people will preserve and share those memories on their web site’s guestbook, which can be found at www.stagathahome.org.

After the story ran on August 7, I received an e-mail from a woman named Anne, who said she will greatly miss St. Agatha Home. She said:

“I spent 7 yrs. at St. Agatha’s from 43 to 50 and I must say my only place of solace while there was the chapel. For awhile I even worked in the dormatory [sic] where the cables held the bell so it’s a very sad thing to know that the home is no more but I’m so happy the bell could be saved. It was a symbol of peace for me and for many of us who were raised there, our spirits will always be with what was good about the home.”

The Rockland County Legislature unanimously passed Rockland Community College’s $53,984,906 budget for the 2007-2008 year.

The budget reflects a $2.2 milion, or 4.3 percent increase over the current budget. Tuition will increase by $200 a year, meaning full-time students will pay $3,200.

Little Tor Elementary School in New City recently dedicated its peace pole, a hand-crafted monument that reads, “May peace prevail on Earth” in several languages. School officials said the languages that made up the peace pole represented the school’s diverse population. They are: Chinese, English, Gaelic, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Serbo-Croation and Spanish.

Today, 5-year-old student Anthony Barbato said he liked the pole and that to him, peace meant, “Loving people.”

We just got this e-mail from Lisa Saunders at RCC’s Campus Communications office:

Please be advised that the Spring Fashion Show (London House of Fashion) scheduled for tonight, May 4th at 8:00 pm in the Field house has been canceled. Thank you for your understanding.

Clarkstown North High School’s Young Democrats of America will show “An Inconvenient Truth” at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday to teach the students about politics and the role they play in public life. The global warming-themed movie was former Vice President Al Gore’s project. It won an Academy Award earlier this year. The Young Democrats also have invited a board member from the American Constitutional Society to be the keynote speaker.

The event is open to the public.

Ashley Dechelfin, 18, a senior at North Rockland High School, shares her views in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech massacre. She is the commentary editor for the high school’s monthly newspaper, the Rambling Raider.

Her article after the break… Read more of this entry »

NYACK — Her sermon had those listening on their knees and weeping for God’s healing in their lives.

They asked to be restored from sexual, physical and emotional abuses. They asked to no longer feel hopeless and abandoned. They asked because she asked them to ask.

But the young woman preaching to the crowd of Nyack College students during their regular — and oftentimes tedious — chapel services was no renowned reverend, but a peer.

She was simply 21-year-old Holly Thoelen from Enfield, Conn., a senior at Nyack College, working towards a degree in youth ministry.

(Natalia Gaviria, an 18-year-old freshman at Nyack College, left, prays for her friend Belinda Lin, a 19-year-old freshman, after Holly Thoelen, a 21-year-old senior, preaches) … Read more of this entry »

Kenneth P. Zebrowski Jr., son of the late Assemblyman Kenneth P. Zebrowski, announced today that he will seek election to the 94th Assembly District. Assemblyman Zebrowski died March 18 from complications of liver disease less than four months into his second term.

The governor’s office announced today that the special election will be held May 1.

“We care about a lot of the same things,” Zebrowski Jr. said today, noting that he’d like to continue his father’s work on HMO reform and relief for North Rockland taxpayers.
Kenneth P. Zebrowski Jr. on the campaign trail in 2005. Photo by Vincent DiSalvio/The Journal News

Zebrowski Jr. served on the County Legislature for a year in 2005 after being appointed to his father’s old seat when the elder Zebrowski was first elected to the Assembly. The younger Zebrowski then lost his seat in November 2005 to now Legislator Ed Day, R-New City.

Former Clarkstown Town Board Member Ann Marie Smith also said today that she’s interested in running for the position.

Day said he’s received phone calls encouraging him to run also, but is not ready to make a decision yet. But, “I really find all this timing very curious,” he said. “I find it remarkable that these announcements come almost within an hour of each other.”

The governor’s office is expected to announce a date for a special election within the next few days.