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 →

The Nyack Environmental Committee has distributed its Green Questionnaire, a survey on Nyack’s environmental concerns and desires for a Greener Nyack. Look for drop boxes throughout 13 locations along North and South Broadway and Main Street corridors.

What do you want Green Nyack to look like? Can Nyack be the “greenest” village in Rockland County? These are questions that the newly formed Environmental Committee of the Village of Nyack will attempt to answer. And you can play a part!

These locations are generously hosting drop boxes for the Green Questionnaire:

• Village Hall, 9 North Broadway
• The Nyack Library, 59 South Broadway
• Continue reading →

“If you’ve ever tilled a weed-packed lawn, raked your backyard, or placed a tiny lettuce seed into a narrow groove in the dirt, you’ve experienced the therapeutic benefits of gardening first-hand,” says Jennifer Hausler. There are over 20,000 active community gardens in the US — and one significant patch of green on Franklin Street in downtown Nyack.

Read her photo essay, “A Visit To The Nyack Community Garden” on the Nyack Backyard blog.

San Francisco lawmakers say that just because you are wireless you shouldn’t be worry-less. There’s a new law in the city by the bay that requires cell phone sellers to show the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) of electromagnetic radiation for each cell phone model. This act has reignited public concern about radiation from cell phones and the possible affects of their prolonged use.

The cell phone industry has sued the city of San Francisco to stop the law saying there is no scientific evidence linking cell phone radiation to an increase in health problems. “Peer-reviewed scientific evidence has overwhelmingly indicated that wireless devices do not pose a public health risk,” the international wireless industry association CTIA told Time magazine last Fall.  “I am disappointed that the…wireless communication industry has decided to challenge our landmark consumer information law in court,” says San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom.

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by Peter Klose

As Chairman of Nyack’s Planning Board, I received an inspirational compendium of riverfront revitalization projects undertaken by various Hudson River communities in partnership with Scenic Hudson, a group which has been instrumental in encouraging the revitalization of Nyack’s park and marina. They are especially cognizent of the future of non-motorized access to the Hudson, and various environmentally responsible programs relating to development of waterfronts throughout the Hudson River Valley.  Continue reading →

Nyack, July 6 — Rockland has opened cooling centers across the county in response to severe temperatures and poor air quality forecast through Friday. Here are a list of cooling centers close to Nyack: Continue reading →

July 5 — With temperatures expected to reach 96 degrees today, Orange & Rockland has declared a Heat Watch for Monday July 5.

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.

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by Cliff Weathers

A battle is brewing between the energy industry and environmentalists concerning the dangers of removing natural gas from the shale using a process called hydrofracking. There have been reports of exploding houses, tainted water supplies, and serious health problems as a result of the process, which injects toxic chemicals into rock about a mile below the surface. The toxic brine created by the process can seep into underground and ground-level water supplies. As we don’t even know what compounds the energy industry is using to extract methane gas, we can only guess as to the long term ramifications of this process.
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by David Carlucci

“Hydro-fracking,” the process of using water and chemicals to release trapped deposits of natural gas in shale shelves, in many respects is New York’s equivalent to the Gulf’s deep water oil drilling process…and must be treated as such. Whether to allow unchecked hydro-fracking in New York comes down to weighing the very real environmental impact concerns against potential economic benefits.

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by Tina Traster

I now know there is a medicinal plant that can be used to treat the next-door-neighbor blues. It’s called Fargesia, or clumping bamboo.

Some background: my neighbor and I are not on friendly terms. Continue reading →