SATURDAY, JULY 19

Town of Clarkstown
• Pascack Community Center: 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
• Congers Community Center: 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
• Central Nyack Community Center: 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
• Palisades Center Mall Community Center: 10 a.m. – 9 p.m.

Town of Ramapo
• St. Lawrence Center: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Village of Haverstraw
• Village Community Center: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Village of Suffern
• Village Hall Community Room – top floor: 7 a.m. – 9 p.m.

Village of Spring Valley
• Louis Kurtz Civic Center: normal operating hours

OPEN SATURDAY, JULY 19 AND SUNDAY, JULY 20

Town or Orangetown
• New Court Room  (use police entrance)

Village of Sloatsburg
• Sloatsburg Volunteer Ambulance Corps: 8 a.m. – 10 p.m.

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The chair factory's 10-acre waterfront property was recently condemned by the village, despite court challenges by the owners.

Kanner has been pushing for the local law to be adopted so that no other property owners would have to go through an ordeal similar to his.

Nationwide, 42 states and some local communities, including Yorktown in Westchester County, have adopted legislation limiting the economic development portion of the eminent domain laws.

So while we focused primarily on this year's candidates I took a peek at the statements of County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef and some of his rumored 2009 opponents.

Vanderhoef, a Republican now serving his fourth term in office, brought in more than $105,800 in contributions in the last six months—more than any of the people running for statewide office this year. He reported a balance of $166,577. 27 after opening with more than $131,200.

Much of his money came from corporate donations and several of his expenditures were on fundraisers.

Among the rumored challengers is Orangetown Town Supervisor Thom Kleiner, who's getting really good at being charmingly coy when asked about the subject.

He raised nearly $41,000 this period, ending with a balance of $112,788.28. Ramapo Town Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence took in nearly $76,000 and Clarkstown Supervisor Alex Gromack took in nearly $61,500.

That's big money in an off-year compared with Haverstraw Town Supervisor Howard Phillips who took in just more than $1,200 and Stony Point Supervisor Phil Marino who raised about half that.

All five supervisor seats, now filled by Democrats, are up next year as well.

In the past year, the Village Board reversed a decision on parking rates and postponed the date that new rates would take effect. In its most recent about-face, the Nyack board voted last week to change the structure of parking penalties, just three months after new penalties were set.

Some business owners were upset in April, when the Nyack Village Board decided to raise the penalties for parking tickets from $12 to $25, or $15 if a person paid within two days. The new rate structure was supposed to take effect Sept. 1.

Though their pleas didn't work back then, merchants were successful last week is getting the board to change its decision on penalties. The board voted 3-1 to lengthen the time in which drivers could still pay just $15. Richard Kavesh voted no, and Denise Hogan was absent.

Now, drivers can pay $15 up until the day of their court appearance. After that, they must pay $25. A court appearance can be scheduled anywhere from two weeks to five weeks from the day the ticket was issued, depending on how busy the courts may be.

It came in at No. 71. Plymouth, Minn., topped the list at No. 1.

The other New York towns on the list:

Clay, No. 59 (Onandaga County)
Greenburgh, No. 80 (Westchester County)
North Hempstead, No. 46 (Nassau County)

Criteria were jobs/economy, safety, education, housing affordability and leisure/arts. The rankings were among the 716 cities/towns in the U.S. with populations between 50,000 and 300,000.

Not included: retirement communities, places with income to far above or below the state's median income, those more than 95 percent white, and with high crime rates, population declines and significant unemployment/job loss.

Finally, the magazine said, locations were visited and residents interviewed to assess intangibles such as like sense of community.

Neighboring New Jersey had more towns on the list:
• Edison, No. 35
• Franklin Township, No. 5
• Hamilton, No. 51
• Howell, No. 77
• Middletown, No. 86
• Parsippany/Troy Hills, No. 13
• Union, No. 75
• Washington, No. 58
• Wayne, No. 100

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This was the first event organized by Rodney Smith, the center's new Youth Outreach Coordinator, along with Teen Drop-In coordinator Johnsie Valdez and tutor Shawn Leonard. Afterward, they went back to the center for a barbecue, where the food was supplied or donated by Johnsie Valdez, Johnna Downing, Green Harvest Gourmet, Rochelle Pitt and the Nyack Center.

The center will host a barbecue welcome reception at 6 p.m. July 24 to officially welcome Smith. He's worked in the New York City probation department for more than 15 years and has five children. The public is invited to meet him.

Photo courtesy of the Nyack Center of the winning team from July 3: From left, front row, Winn Joseph, Tyrell Augustine, Maurice Jones, Shawn Leonard, Dequan Rogers, Dexter Fisher, Wendy Jean. From left, back row, Dashawn Rodriguez, Jamar Jones, Shamir Howard, Rodney Smith.

Kavesh filed to run on the Democratic and Working Families party lines, while Louise filed on the Democratic line only.

No surprise here: No GOP candidates have filed to challenge the incumbents. Nyack, which is known as a liberal-leaning village, has a Democratic mayor and all-Democratic board.

Still, candidates have until the end of the work today to file. So we'll check back in to see if there are any anomalies.

St. Lawrence said tonight that he will make amends to Quinn personally and publicly, saying he will apologize if his calling Quinn insensitive to a Hasidic woman's religious views during an arrest were insensitive to the officer and department.

A few weeks ago St. Lawrence fueled a firestorm across the town by calling Quinn's decision to photograph Shifra Cohen, 24, of Monsey, without her wig insensitive. Married Hasidic women wear a wig for modesty and don't allow men other than their husband to touch them. Quinn also fingerprinted her.

Cohen and her husband, Joseph, are accuse of stealing more than $8,000 in Medicaid by underreporting their income on their applications. They were two of more than 40 people charged with fraud, but have drawn attention because they complained about Shifra Cohen's treatment at booking.

Some Hasidic Jewish leaders threatened a demonstration for his actions. St. Lawrence met with community leaders and Cohen and her husband and cooled off the community.

Now he's looking to cool hot feeling among police officers and will discuss the issues tomorrow night.

"If my comments were insensitive to the officer, I will apologize to the officer and the department," St. Lawrence told The Journal News tonight. "I will make it clear that the officer did follow the training he was taught. My intent is to take the silver lining out of this incident and strengthen our policy, procedures and general orders and our training."

St. Lawrence said he will meet personally with Quinn, who has been advised by his union president, Officer Dennis Procter, to keep a low profile and not talk about the incident.

St. Lawrence said a fact-finding report by Capt. James Quinn, no relation to the officer, will not be completed by tomorrow's meeting, since additional people need to be interviewed, including dectectives with the Rockland District Attorney's Office. St. Lawrence said the report will state Officer Jonathan Quinn followed the department's written procedures.

Procter and many residents already have argued Officer Jonathan Quinn followed procedures and the Hasidic Jewish community should not get special treatment from the police. The incident has added to already tense feelings between some Hasidic Jews and some secular residents and other Jews, some religious and some non-religious.

In response to the incident, St. Lawrence has called for the police to have sensitive training on the Hasidic community, with Rabbi Simon Lauber of Bikur Cholim showing officers a video on the community. St. Lawrence also said he wants to extend the training to other ethnic communities.

St. Lawrence said that when he speaks at tomorrow night's meeting, he wants to make it clear his goal is to improve the police department and strength relationships with the town's diverse communities.

He also said he would make it clear that the police department's video system was broken for some time. He said the system was not tampered with by the police when Cohen was being processed – as he said some conspiracy theorists have proffered.

St. Lawrence has won elections as supervisor on the strength of overwhelming support from the Hasidic community and some Orthodox Jewish communities. His support for housing for the religious communities and other services has led to opposition from many non-religious areas of the town.

Two trustee seats are up for re-election on the Haverstraw village board.

Haverstraw village Mayor Michael Kohut said that two incumbents — Trustees Francisco Batista and Emily Dominguez, both Democrats — are going to run for re-election.

Another Democrat, Zahira Serrano-Rodriguez, who unsuccessfully ran for a trustee seat last year, is also seeking to run for a trustee seat.

Petitions for the primary need to be filed by July 10.

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Bill sponsor Alden Wolfe, D-Suffern, knew the demise of the so-called LEED law was coming — he'd been told the Legislature's minority party members would side with Republican County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef — so he took the time normally spent pleading for votes to castigate the exec's office for poor communication.

It's been a running theme of the Legislature this year—that Vanderhoef's office is either less than forthcoming on certain issues or gratingly mum on others.

Wolfe detailed to the Legislature his attempts to get the county executive's input and how he had heard from his chief of staff only after it was too late to make any changes to the proposal.

Chief of Staff Sean Mathews, who was in the audience during Wolfe's speech, released the following statement through spokeswoman C.J. Miller: "The (LEED) law was flawed. We could not support a law that puts the County in direct conflict with the intent of the  legislation. Secondly, we work with everyone. With over 350 pieces of legislation passed so far this year with only one veto, Legislator Wolfe's comments seem unfounded."

The veto override failed 11-6 with Legislators voting among party lines. Twelve votes were needed to overturn Vanderhoef's veto.

It's usually a time to set up golfing dates, plot travel routes to untested courses, and search the pro shops for a new wedge or fairway wood that could knock off a couple of strokes.

Instead, thoughts run to the most recent fill-up at the gas station — a Jersey one, no less — that cost almost 50 bucks. And that's for a mid-sized sedan.

Monthly gasoline bills are rivaling house heating bills in the middle of winter!

What's missing as summer vacation approaches is a carefree sprit. There will be less golf and it will be closer to home. The new wedge or wood will have to wait.

Scrooge lives on the Fourth of July!

So…What are other people giving up this summer? Are there fewer steaks for the grill, fewer days at the beach? Will the town pool sound like a reasonable alternative to Long Beach Island?

The year 2013 was a date that Gerald Levitus, president of the Squire's Gate homeowners association, recalled of a potential construction start-up, and that may not take into consideration the long list of projects that could come out of this year's massive flooding in the Midwest.

The Army Corps of Engineers Web site shows that a Mahwah-Ramapo river project, based on a 1990 design, would cost $23 million in today's money.

State Sen. Thomas Morahan, R-New City, has pledged New York's cooperation and contribution to funding — both New York and New Jersey must sign off on any project, as well as Suffern and Ramapo — and he organized a meeting last week of interested local, federal and state officials to discuss the situation.

Business owners say the county should have taken the work a step further by taking down the plethora of parking and road signs. They also hope to see some resolution soon to the lawsuit the local fire association filed against the county. Work in front of the firehouse has been stopped since December and there's a big construction hole there.

For more on this story, read: Tappan improvements almost done, but lawsuit goes on.

Have you seen the improvements. What do you think?

Among the agenda items are public hearings for both the preliminary subdivision approval and final subdivision approval of a plan for seven lots on a total of 1.79 acres off Grove Street and Augusta Avenue in Monsey.

Potential environmental impacts will be reviewed for two community houses of worship, one by Congregation Chesidei Bobov of Monsey on a half acre off Jill Lane opposite Ralph Boulevard, and the other by Congregation Bais Yisocher Berish off Brewer Road about 200 feet west of DeRonde Road. The latter application is also for a rabbi's residence.

A community house of worship can have a sanctuary capacity of more than 100 people, unlike the local house of worship, which has a capacity of fewer than 100. A local verision is sought by Congregation Ahvas Chesed, whose plan off Remsen Avenue and Hilda Lane will also be subject to an environmental review at the meeting.

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Developers of the proposed Ramapo Hills subdivision of 263 condominiums will be taking a second crack at getting variances for their project off Route 17, just south of Sloatsburg.

Variances from town codes will be sought for Yeshivas Bais Yehudi for a two-family house on North Saddle River Road, while Congregation Bais Yehuda seeks zoning accommodations for an existing school at 72 Main St. in Monsey. It was "unclear" to the county Department of Planning how the school was operating without a special permit.

The agenda also includes three-lot and four-lot subdivisions off Old Nyack Turnpike, the conversion of a single-family house to a three-family building with two accessory apartments on Cedar Lane, and the construction of another three-family house with accessory apartments on Ellish Parkway.

The meeting begins at 8:15 p.m. in Town Hall, 237 Route 59, Airmont.

The proposal had been vehemently opposed by local Little League organizations, with officials coming to a recent committee meeting on the subject.

"I'm pulling it out for one reason: because Nanuet Little League has taken the first step toward safety," Pradhan said. "They are asking their pitchers to wear a shield to protect their heart."

Pradhan said he hopes other local Little Leagues will follow Nanuet's lead. Nanuet started using the chest guard recently.

The whole issue came back into the limelight in May when the family of a 12-year-old New Jersey Little Leaguer sued an aluminum bat maker, the league and the store where the bat was sold. In 2006, the boy's suffered brain damage after a line drive off such a bat hit him and stopped his heart.

Minority Leader Ed Day, R-New City, called, as a longtime coach, to say he was glad the matter was being pulled, saying the ban would have been unnecessary.

Clarkstown has been making some efforts in the past. Last year the town purchased six hybrid vehicles and signed on to an energy conservation plan. Two council members — Shirley Lasker and Frank Borelli — formed a committee to study energy conservation issues. The building department is looking into a updating the building code that would require all new residences to be built to Energy Star standards.

Supervisor Alex Gromack says the town is committed to protecting the environment. We'll watch out for other measures the town will take to that end.

It took about 15 years for the officers to notice that their retirement plans were different from what other officers have. And in 2004, the Policemen's Benevolent Association started negotiating with the town to change those officers' 35-year retirement plans to the 20-year retirement plan, which would require the town to put a higher contribution.

The town was not forthcoming in the beginning, saying that the town did not make mistakes but those officers did when they applied for their pension plans.

The PBA representatives argued that the town had plenty of time to notice the mistakes but did nothing.

But the town has recently held two special meetings to prepare for the state Legislature to pass the home rule legislation to enroll six police officers in the 20-year retirement plan. The home rule legislation is a necessary step to make the changes.

The bill passed the state Assembly and Senate, though it still needs to be signed by the governor.

That was the suggestion of one resident at a Town Board session this week. The meeting was held to decide what environmental issues would be reviewed as part of Scenic Development's plan to build nearly 500 single-family homes, townhouses and rentals on the 200 acres off route 202 and 306.