As you probably have heard by now, 2012 heralds the final year of the Mayan Long Calendar and some say the end of time itself. We can’t vouch for that. What we do know with certainty is that this coming Saturday is New Year’s Eve and the very last day of 2011. And it will be the end of the year as we know it. That is, for all you followers of the Gregorian calendar. Continue Reading

A close look around Sloatsburg can be revealing, with many natural gems hidden in plain sight. Take a moment and scenes open up right before you — the ever-changing face of Torne Mountain shrouded in clouds one minute and glancing sunlight the next. The Ramapo River can run slow and murky or fast and frothy as it rushes through the village at Seven Lakes Drive. Continue Reading

The Village is alive in the evening hours this holiday season, lights strung colorfully into all sorts of scenes. Some simple, many festive. More than a few competitively creative. From the bluff above the pool and Flats below, to Pine Grove Lakes and down along the Presidents streets and around Sloatsburg Elementary School, yards are blinking and decorated and spirited. A stew of themes are on display as days and nights notch us closer to a new year, fresh start, pause for reflection, continuation, change. Continue Reading

Sloatsburg — Inside the Sloatsburg Fire Hall, full bags lined in straight rows were neatly coded with particular messages. Boy 12. Family of 4. Girl 8. Family of 6. Clothes and gifts were being readied from made-to-order lists by children in the Sloatsburg area, lists collected from Sloatsburg Elementary School, Saint Joan of Arc Church and the Sloatsburg United Methodist Church. The Fire Hall this time of year is the inner workings of Sloatsburg’s version of Santa’s Workshop Continue Reading

Sloatsburg — Bells clanged, lights flashed and sirens rang out as fire trucks from around Rockland County gathered this past Saturday, December 17, for the Orangeburg Volunteer Fire Association’s First Annual Holiday Parade. Continue Reading

Sloatsburg Traffic Bulletin Update: Due to New York Thruway contractual scheduling, the steel beam abutment work and additional heavy construction activity on Seven Lakes Drive has been postponed until the new year. Continue Reading

The sounds of holiday singing were heard throughout the day Sunday at the Waterwheel Restaurant and Cafe in Tallman as carolers and students sang for their supper, entertaining friends and family. Continue Reading

Sloatsburg — Up in the wooded hills above Sloatsburg, decisions are brewing for a large swath of residents related to life in and around Pine Grove Lakes. Sewers. Fees. Roads. Waterways. Dams.

The Pine Grove Lakes Homeowners Association, a New York state non-profit organization, will hold its annual meeting Tuesday at the Sloatsburg Public Library to explore and explain some of those topics for attending members. Continue Reading

Sloatsburg — The time of year is here when firewood is finally stacked. Evening shadows come early. Decorated tree lights blink into the night. Winter winds pick up. Thursday, December 22nd, is also the shortest day of the year and the offical first day of winter. The occasion goes by many names: Winter Solstice, Saturnalia, Yule. Christmas. New Year. Celebrated since neolithic times, it’s that special moment when the Earth’s axis tilts away from the sun, creating the shortest day and longest night of the year, the significance being the gradual lengthening again of days, or rebirth. Continue Reading

Sloatsburg — Sloatsburg Fire Department trucks went racing up Council Crest to Hillside Road Thursday afternoon, responding to a sudden car fire at 6 Hillside Road. The owner had started his car, momentarily stepped back into his house, then returned to find his 1994 Cadillac smoking and in flames. As fire trucks arrived, loud booms from popping car tires could be heard in the Pine Grove Lakes neighborhood. Thick, choking smoke drifted downwind from the charred vehicle as masked firemen hosed off the car. Continue Reading