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

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

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

The local farmers’ markets send Saturday salutations on clear blue blue days and a bit rainy too. The season of chill mornings and warming days are upon us. Look for both the Suffern and Tuxedo Farmers’ Markets to be open Saturdays until midday this late summer and into the fall, with colorful vendor tables laden with foods and hand crafted goods — soaps, syrups, sauces. There are baked goods, plus farm foods galore, all waiting for you to stroll through and make a selection of something eye catching. 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

For some the dog days of summer have already arrived. But for the Friends of Harmony Hall, August will feature the real deal when the group hosts its annual Dog Days of Summer Community Yard Sale and Flea Market on the old Jacob Sloat House Great Lawn. Continue Reading

From the new Jehovah Witness sprawling world headquarters to Tuxedo Farms and Genting Americas Tuxedo Ridge casino, the Town of Tuxedo is percolating with development activity. If all the projects continue and come to full project completion, they would certainly change the Western Ramapo-Orange County connected community. Continue Reading

The cards are being shuffled and four lucky winners are gambling on a winning hand in gaming in New York.

The Tuxedo Ridge Ski Center and Genting Americas, part of an international gaming conglomerate, hosted  an afternoon meet and greet at the popular ski center that abuts Sterling Forest and is adjacent to Harriman State Park. Continue Reading