Wine and Design nights take place at Tuxedo Junction the first Tuesday of the month. Call for information.

Jennifer Marsh-Colby has an art studio tucked away in Warwick, NY. Some days it’s just hard for people to travel to her studio, so she created a business that does the traveling to them. Marsh-Colby, a former Sloatsburg resident, started up her franchise of Wine and Design Warwick, an instructional art studio that hosts wine and design parties at restaurants around the Hudson Valley.

The idea was to blend her art studio atmosphere with the wider community to create both a business and wider platform for painting.

An evening of wine and painting at Tuxedo Junction Inn / Photo Wine and Design Warwick

The first Tuesday of the month is dedicated to The Tuxedo Junction Inn, located along Rt. 17 in Tuxedo, NY. Marsh-Colby praised Tuxedo Junction’s Emily Nichols, who along with James Hartley operate the popular Tuxedo establishment.

“What’s great with Emily is that she collects the reservations and that includes wine and select appetizers for the evening,” Marsh-Colby. “It’s a really great deal,” she added, noting that not all restaurants offer food during outings.

The Tuxedo Junction wine and paint evening takes place today, May 20, and starts at 7 p.m. The $45 fee gets you your own canvas and seat at the table, a good go at select wines and appetizers, and a community of like-minded art adventurers who all paint the same picture along with you.

Marsh-Colby said that Wine and Design events help brighten a normally slow day restaurant day. Wine and Design also partners with local nonprofit organizations to host “Paint it Forward” events, where 25% or more of class proceeds are donated to the partner nonprofit organization.

“I’m definitely trying to do more business down in Rockland,” Marsh-Colby said about her business, which is a franchise of the mothership Wine and Design effort located in Raleigh, NC. “It’s a fun way to socialize with friends and feel productive at the same time,” said Marsh-Colby, who has also partnered with The Turn, located in Suffern, NY, to host a wine and paint event on the first Wednesday of every month.

For information on Tuxedo Junction Wine and Design nights, call the Junction at 845-915-3220.

This year’s Ramapo Central Schools budget process was not as contentious and controversial as last year, when program and personnel cuts were on the table.

This year’s Board of Education began a community outreach and communication initiative early in the budget process, beginning back in January, when the BOE gathered in the Sloatsburg Elementary School gymnasium to a packed local audience and district Superintendent Dr. Douglas Adams addressed the audience to announce that this year there would be no recommended program or personnel cuts for the 2014-15 school year. Continue Reading

The rain has stopped with gray clouds giving way to blue skies and Saturday sunshine. It should be a perfect day to peek and pick through an assortment of interesting items gathered around Sloatsburg, from furniture to bed frames to iron gates and dinner china, and even a Rav 4 and ATV. The abundance of yard sale items will be on display around the village all day May 17, for the annual Village Wide Garage Sale. Continue Reading

Visit the Lafayette Theatre Saturday to witness the Little Tramp gives his all for the poor flower girl.

Longtime Lafayette Theatre Master Organist Jeff Barker, who passed away suddenly on December 21, 2013.

The Ramapo Film Festival continues its run of classic Hollywood movies May 17 at the historical theater in the center village of Suffern. Fittingly, as City Lights is a silent movie, special commemorative ceremony will take place in former Lafayette Master Organist Jeff Barker, who died suddenly on December 21 last year.

Barker, a native of Manchester, England, served as the house organist for the Lafayette Theater for over a decade, playing before the Town of Ramapo Classic Movie Series and using his artistic and restoration skills to restore much of the decorative painting and gilding on the Lafayette’s Opera Boxes.

Barker was a Lafayette Theater fixture, playing Saturday morning shows to silent film fans and music lovers as well as on other special occasions. He was also active and well known in New Jersey Theatre Organ circles.

This special presentation will be immediately followed by a screening of the Chaplin classic, City Lights.

Tickets to Saturday’s show are $8 per person. Free admission for Ramapo Seniors, Veterans, Active Military Personnel, and First Responders.

Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Zugibe, with the Sloatsburg Board of Trustees at his back, addresses a Village Hall audience honoring graduating Sloatsburg high school seniors.

Sloatsburg’s Village Hall was filled with smiles and friendly faces Tuesday evening as the community gathered to celebrate another graduating class of senior students. Continue Reading

Update: As reported by the Tuxedo Chamber of Commerce Monday evening, May 12, the Town of Tuxedo Board voted 3 to 2 to write Genting Americas a letter of support to the New York State Gaming Commission that would facilitate Genting’s Sterling Forest Resort casino proposal.

Tuxedo in turn must negotiate a host-community agreement by June 30th. Part of that agreement purportedly involves the Town of Tuxedo providing Genting with expert witnesses related to key points of its proposal. In return, Genting will pay the town some three million dollars. Continue Reading

Dr. Michael Cocilovo and Dr. Gil Rodriguez of New City Chiropractic Center are the organizers of the New City Gladiators, who will compete again on June 1 in the Spartan Sprint in Tuxedo Park / Nyack Free Press

Run steep hills, clamber over obstacles, jump smoking red hot piles of wood. If you miss an obstacle, drop and give 30 burpees. The Spartan Sprint challenge is akin to a Cross Fit workout through a hilly course littered with jumps and walls and other tests designed to thwart all comers — and to make applicants into Spartans. The popular national race comes to the tri-state area at the end of the month with Saturday, May 31, and Sunday, June 1 races at Tuxedo Ridge Ski Center. For those who miss those dates, the race returns to Tuxedo Ridge Saturday, June 7, and Sunday, June 8. Continue Reading

Strip of vacant land that is the proposed site for the Sterling Forest Resort hotel and casino / Photo by Geoff Welch

As the tick tock of the casino review clock winds down to a possible town vote on the issue Monday, Town of Tuxedo residents met Wednesday night to discuss the Sterling Forest Resort proposal. Continue Reading

Volunteers from around Sloatsburg pitched in late April to clean up the Community Fields.

In mid April, many people across Rockland County joined together as part of a county-wide Great American Cleanup campaign Earth Day celebration  — which was organized locally by Keep Rockland Beautiful. Sloatsburg resident Carin Shapiro organized a successful local tie-in with the county effort. Continue Reading

Tuesday offers locals with an appetite the opportunity to feed the Sloatsburg Scholarship Fund.

Characters Restaurant and Bar will donate 15% of the cost of all dine in or take out meals after 4 p.m. on May 6 to the Scholarship Fund, which fundraises on behalf of various scholarships for Sloatsburg students. Continue Reading