With two Ramapo villages at odds with the Town of Ramapo, the special ward election on September 30 takes on an interesting color. Would an expanded Town Council with locally elected members have made any difference in how the town and villages communicate related to pressing development and tax issues? Continue Reading

A quick step on the wrong pedal caused one New Jersey driver to make an unscheduled stop at Golden Nails & Spa 2 in Sloatsburg Sunday morning. Continue Reading

Think about this for a moment — you’re feeling tired, run down. The sluggish feeling just won’t shake. And then one day you just stop working right and collapse.

Doug Corbett, popular trainer and fitness instructor at Rockland Peak Performance, found himself in this very situation this past June. Corbett had been feeling like a “zombie” for a few weeks while training clients at RPP. Finally, one day, with his heart rate racing and jaw swelling, Corbett hit the wall and was rushed to the hospital. Continue Reading

With the super Harvest Moon rising full this weekend, don’t let the patchy sky fool you. This Sunday’s Highlands Bluegrass Festival at Harmony Hall should get you out under sunny skies for some down home roots music. The event takes place September 7 from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on the Great Lawn at Sloatsburg’s Harmony Hall, so bring a blanket and pull up a chair. Continue Reading

Students got back to school Wednesday morning, a chill in the air and an eye toward the calendar and first official school holiday. It’s back to those A, B, C, D school days again. Continue Reading

The Sloatsburg Fire Department’s recent colorful mid-August Classic Car Show featured a special guest bearing a great gift.

Rockland U.S. Congresswoman Nita Lowey made an appearance at the car show and gathered firefighters together, including Village Trustee Peter Akey, to announce that Sloatsburg’s volunteer fire department was the recipient of a 2013 FEMA Assistance to Firefighter Grant (AFG) for radio equipment. Continue Reading

Chuck Stead presents his interdisciplinary Recovery Narrative PhD dissertation to the public at Ramapo Town Hall. / Photo by Geoff Welch

The long story of life in the shadow of Torne Mountain made its way to the Ramapo’s Town Hall when environmental educator Chuck Stead presented his doctoral dissertation to the public last week. An interdisciplinary recovery narrative, Stead’s story is also a history of Torne and Western Ramapo that traces industrial impact on the area’s community and uses ecotoxicology and memoir to weave together a complex story of Ford Motor Company’s toxic legacy in and around Torne Valley. Continue Reading

Joshua Goldstein (on the right at the podium) at one of the many Orange Avenue Associates presentations on the proposed apartment complex in downtown Suffern.

The long journey of Suffern’s Orange Avenue luxury apartment project took another turn last week as the Town of Ramapo adopted a resolution that would set the development’s property taxes for up to 40 years. Continue Reading

Soon enough Sunday will roll through the Ramapo Mountains and with it the Highlands Bluegrass Festival at Harmony Hall. Pull up a chair and for a bit of twanging banjo and fiddle whine — a perfect way to welcome in the harvest season. Continue Reading

With the school season just around the corner, it is notable that four Ramapo Central schools were named High Performing Reward Schools by the New York State Education Department. Continue Reading