By Tina Traster

“It’s kinda like the Wild West up here,” the town official said, shaking his head. “It’s remote. It’s an old road. People do what they want to — and they usually get away with it ’cause no one’s minding anyone’s business.”

Except me, that is.

On this occasion, I was standing with the town environmental officer at the end of my driveway. We were discussing a slipshod demolition going on across the street. Continue reading →

Rockland County, September 2 — With heavy rains in the forecast for Thursday night and Friday from the remnants of Hurricane Earl, Orange & Rockland has declared a storm watch. Preparations include prepping overhead line crews and coordinating with contractor line and tree teams, underground line crews and gas department crews.

To help its customers prepare to weather a storm, O&R offers these tips:

• If you experience a power outage, don’t assume that O&R automatically knows about it or that someone else will report it. To be sure the outage is reported, call O&R at 877-434-4100. Continue reading →

by Dave Zornow

Nyack, Sept 1 –  Nyack Schools has set aside $300,000 for the current school year to end the open campus program for freshman and sophomore students. Part of those funds will be used to support a pilot program in September and October to revoke off campus lunch privileges for 9th and 10th graders. Nyack’s Board of Education will decide in November whether to make the test program permanent.

The funds will cover adding ten additional security cameras to the 24 already in place and the hiring of up to eight more security staff.

Continue reading →

Nyack will weigh in on four different Superblock scenarios at a community meeting in September. Project feasibility consultant HR&A will present preliminary concepts of the site’s redevelopment potential at The Nyack Center on Tuesday September 14 at at 7pm.

The public meeting will attempt to find a consensus on key planning and development principles to guide any future redevelopment.  Four development alternatives, ranging in scale and use, will be used as a framework for the discussion. HR&A, the lead consultant on the project, will use the public input from this meeting as direction to finalize its analysis, and help the Village Board decide on a preferred alternative.

Continue reading →

Pearl River, August 31 — Orange & Rockland has declared a Summer Heat Watch for today with a predicted high temperature of 94 degrees in the Lower Hudson region.

A Heat Watch means non-emergency work on the electric distribution and transmission systems will be deferred and system engineers will closely monitor the loads throughout the electrical distribution system.

Today’s scorching forecast will require 1,307 megawatts of power. A typical day requires about 1,000 megawatts of power. The all-time one day O&R record load was 1,617 MW set on Aug 2, 2006. Continue reading →

Join Left of the Hudson on Rockland World Radio tonight at 8p as we welcome State Senate candidate David Carlucci. We’ll discuss the path to reform in Albany, government transparency, the MTA, and the economic climate in Rockland and Orange Counties.

Carlucci is serving his third term as Clerk of Clarkstown. As an early adopter of information technologies, he has brought the town into the 21st Century by digitizing hundreds of thousands of documents and using advanced medias to make municipal government more efficient. As a candidate for the New York State Senate, Carlucci faces County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef in November.

Send your questions for David to lefthudson@gmail.com, and click here to tune in.

Beginning on September 11, Hopper House invites painters with all levels of experience to take classes each Saturday with Delah McKay at her studio in Piermont, NY.

Oil Painting (9.30a-12.30p): Achieve that professional touch to your painting with this step by step approach from set up to finish.

Fearless Painting (2pm-5pm): Acrylics, watercolor & crayons. Loosen up, use your fingers, try new utensils, paint to music, and discover your own voice and style.

Continue reading →

by John Patrick Schutz

Nyack’s Village Code is 59 chapters and sub-chapters of ordinances, building codes and zoning regulations filled with the rules and regulations governing our community. It’s a fascinating read which gives us insights to the history of our village.

For instance, did you realize Nyack has a curfew after 10 PM for those under the age of 17? Owning a rooster is illegal? Are you aware that property owners who have not cleared the sidewalks abutting their property of snow by 11 AM (or salted, if the storm is continuing) are liable for a substantial fine? How about the restriction of ALL pets from attending the street fairs – not just dogs as many seem to think, but kitties, birdies and SNAKES too (Remember the guy with the python wrapped around his neck at all the street fairs? Obviously, he freaked out one too many people!)

Continue reading →

Nyack, August 26 — Nyack’s building inspector has issued a stop work order to Oak Hill Cemetery to halt further clear cutting of 19 trees that were supposed to be preserved.  As specified in the Planning Board’s conditional site plan approval (see minutes), the trees were only to be removed with the approval of two Village Planning Board members. Ten of the the 19 trees remain.

Oakhill Cemetery has been clear cutting a portion of their property in order to expand their operations, and did not contact the Village as required  in the approval.  Continue reading →

Nyack, August 26 — Nyack will spend $53,000 to repair sidewalks on High Ave between Broadway and Franklin and Depew Ave between South Midland and Summit. $50,000 of the cost will be covered by federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money.

Due to Sunday’s storm, there was a major flood in the DPW garage.  There was three feet of water in the building, causing considerable damage.  Continue reading →