Jeff Lewis

O&R had their hands full just before the storm hit yesterday, as they scrambled to repair the damage from a car accident on Route 59 in Nanuet just after midnight early Monday morning. A car had crashed into a utility pole, knocking it, three sets of transformers and hundreds of feet of overhead wires into the roadway. A second vehicle came through the scene a short time later, causing further damage to more poles and wire, leaving six poles knocked down or badly damaged. Clarkstown supervisor George Hoehmann says more wires in town should be put underground, as they did not long ago on the Congers Road causeway over Lake Deforest…

Hoehmann says the causeway project cost about a million dollars. There were no serious injuries reported in the Nanuet accident, which knocked out power to 440 O&R customers. Route 59 by the park-and-ride at the Thruway entrance remained closed until about 7:30 last night.

Two rabbis have been indicted in connection with the fatal fire in Spring Valley earlier this year while cleaning the facility’s ovens for Passover with a 20-pound propane-injected torch. That’s according to the Journal News. They’re also accused of asking to have the facility’s fire alarm system be taken offline from the county’s central fire dispatching center and putting it in “test mode” while the cleaning ritual was underway. A Rockland grand jury handed up an indictment charging Rabbi Nathaniel Sommer and his son Aaron Sommer with multiple counts of second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, arson, reckless endangerment, and assault. They are scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday. 35 year-old Jared Lloyd was killed fighting the blaze at the Evergreen Court Home for Adults. A 79 year-old resident of the facility also died. The investigation thus far has brought charges against the head of Spring Valley’s Building Department, the village’s chief inspector, the facility’s director, and a maintenance employee. All have pleaded not guilty.

Ramapo’s planning board will be discussing the controversial proposed Pascack Ridge project tonight. Supervisor Michael Specht says the planning board will review and consider preliminary and final subdivision and final site plan approval…

The proposal calls for around 224 high-density housing units on nearly 30 acres between Rose Avenue, North Pascack Road, and Ewing Avenue on the Spring Valley-Clarkstown border. It’s a closed public hearing tonight at town hall at 8pm.

A new pharmaceutical company is taking over where Endo and Par pharma left off here in Rockland. Governor Kathy Hochul announced yesterday that Strides Pharma of India, which has operations in Florida and New Jersey, is opening and expanding a manufacturing and marketing facility on Ram Ridge Road in Chestnut Ridge. The 200,000-square-foot facility will add more than 250 jobs. The company focuses primarily on niche, low-volume modified releases, soft-gel capsules, topicals and liquids.

Residents of Orangetown can come out to a public hearing tonight to discuss next year’s preliminary budget. Supervisor Teresa Kenny says they intend to keep the budget under the tax cap…

The hearing is 7pm tonight at town hall. Click here for details.