A Spring Valley man is lucky to be alive and that he didn’t kill anyone else, after he allegedly drove the wrong way early Saturday morning on the New York State Thruway. Video posted to the Ramapo Police Facebook page shows the van around 4:30 Saturday morning driving south in the northbound lanes after getting on the wrong side of the highway in Airmont. He turned around and exited back in Airmont again, and then headed towards Route 59. The unidentified 41 year-old was stopped when he drove across the lawn of Ramapo Police headquarters. He was arrested and charged with DWI. He was arraigned and released without bail and is due back at the Village of Airmont Justice Court next month.
Hungry Hollow Road Bridge Re-opens in Ramapo
The Hungry Hollow Road bridge over the Thruway in Ramapo has reopened to traffic. The bridge was the first to be replaced in a $31 million three-bridge New York State Thruway Authority project. The Hungry Hollow Road bridge was first built in 1955 and had a vertical clearance of 14 feet 2 inches. Last year it was hit three times by trucks traveling on the Thruway carrying loads that were too big. The bridge’s new vertical clearance is now 16 feet 6 inches. The Scotland Hill Road bridge and College Road bridge will be replaced next spring.
O&R to Develop Advanced Weather Forecasting Tool
Orange & Rockland Utilities is partnering with Central Hudson Gas & Electric to develop a new weather forecasting tool that provides real-time predictions on storm outages, electrical load and renewable energy generation. O&R spokesman Mike Donovan says the project relies on various public weather data sources, including sensors that are being installed at large New York solar farms, and from the University at Albany’s Weather & Climate Analytics group…
The tool will be created in two phases over the next two years with $1.7 million in external funding, $1.2 million of that coming from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
Cut Down on Waste by Choosing Reusable COVID Masks
Some of those re-usable masks that we’ve been wearing to guard against COVID infections, aren’t exactly great for the environment. Mike Wilson hosts the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Rockland’s “Storm Water Consortium” show here on WRCR, and says besides the added litter we’ve been dealing with, some masks can take 450 years to decompose…
Wilson says re-usable masks can cut down on tons of plastic and medical waste.
COVID-19 by the numbers now, here in Rockland, we’ve got 4 in the hospital being examined, another 61 have been confirmed with coronavirus, and a total of 1,559 active cases. The state says since the crisis began, we’ve had a total of 20,942 reported cases, 118 more than Wednesday, and the number of deaths in the county since the pandemic began remains at 695.
Pandemic Slows Growth in Clean Energy Industry
Three out of four clean energy workers who lost their jobs at the beginning of the COVID pandemic still are out of work. A new report says that includes solar- and wind-energy installers, factory workers and building-efficiency contractors. Philip Jordan is vice president of B-W Research Partners, and he believes the ongoing pandemic continues to be a major factor in the industry’s slow rebound…
Jordan says a federal clean-energy jobs program would provide good-paying jobs while helping meet carbon-reduction goals to combat climate change.