With Montana Construction trucks rumbling through Pine Grove Lakes and Carbro Construction banging away in the Waldron Terrace neighborhood of Sloatsburg, sewers are top of mind with many residents these days. The cost of hooking up to the new Sloatsburg sewers varies, but can certainly make a dent in the household budget. Continue Reading

Incoming Sloatsburg Principal Joe Lloyd gave Ryan a hand at a recent SES kindergarten orientation activity.

As the school year winds down for students, there are new faces and old who are being celebrated, along with other changes afoot in the Ramapo Central School District. Sloatsburg Elementary School and Cherry Lane Elementary School each get new principals next year, with SES Principal Eric Baird moving to Cherry Lane and Joseph Lloyd due to become Sloatsburg’s new principal. Continue Reading

Update: The Town of Ramapo Planning & Zoning Board voted 7-0 for approval of the Ramapo Woodmont Hills site plan. The development approval process must move through the New York Department of Environmental Commission and Department of Transportation before construction on the project would begin.

Talk to some locals and the take is that the deal is done, with the final vote just an official show piece. Others believe that more people in Western Ramapo will automatically equal more dollars for businesses. Then there are those that roll their eyes and ask who’s going to pay for the infrastructure upgrades. Pause. Answer: your taxes. Continue Reading

Turtle clan Chief Vincent Mann from the Ramapough Lenaape is given a friendship gift while Chuck Stead and Chris St. Lawrence look on / Photo by Geoff Welch

The sun shone bright and hot Sunday as people from across Ramapo, and beyond, gathered to celebrate the huge new medicine garden in Torne Valley. Covering half an acre, the Ford Motor Company built a large, raw-post and fenced-in garden that will feature Sweet Grass for basketry and smudging as well as herbs and other native plants. Continue Reading

They came from all over the past two weekends, pumped up and ready to face any number of obstacles, including rocky hills, climbing walls, carrying logs, clambering under treacherous barbed wire, and, finally, jumping through fire to become a finisher. Continue Reading

Blunt Mountain mint, Pycnanthemum Muticum, transplanted from the Harmony Hall Herb Garden to the Saltbox Environmental Research Center in Torne Valley by volunteers Nathan and Angela.

The slow, steady work by hand and machine to clean up Torne Valley is bearing fruit. The story of how 55 gallon drums of paint sludge trucked from the long-closed Mahwah automobile factory and dumped in the valley are now legendary. Continue Reading

It seems to be a seasonal thing. In August of last year the Pine Grove Lakes neighborhood of Sloatsburg was plagued by a series of car and home burglaries. The culprits in those acts were later caught carrying petty loot from a house in Ho-Ho-Kus, NJ. Continue Reading

They can dot the local landscape like broken teeth in a poor man’s mouth — vacant buildings, be they big or small. Are they unoccupied or abandoned?  And what’s the difference, anyway? Continue Reading

The Cub Scouts of Sloatsburg and Tuxedo learned recently what it takes to be a dog on the New York Police force, while discovering that it’s hard to hide anything from a police dog. Continue Reading

The monthly live Slaughter Stand-Up comedy celebration rolls into Characters Friday night with a diverse group of comics that should keep the upstairs room crackling and tense. The evening’s host will be Paul Byrne with “the first lady of Slaughter Stand-Up” Stephanie Vanacore set to headline the night. Continue Reading