News

Rockland County is celebrating National Senior Citizens Day tomorrow. The Rockland County Office for the Aging is hosting a special health walk at Palisades Center. General Manager of Palisades Center, Darrin Houseman, says area seniors are encouraged to walk a ½ mile circuit on the mall’s first floor, participate in some activities, and pick up some information, snacks and a swag bag…

You can register for the event at the East Court by H&M in the mall starting at 9:30 tomorrow, or call the Office for the Aging at 845-364-2110. The event starts at ten and runs until noon. National Senior Citizens Day is traditionally observed August 21st.

The Jewish school that lost its bid to buy the Grace Baptist Church in Nanuet has filed a petition against Clarkstown’s Zoning Board of Appeals in state Supreme Court in New City. The board had refused to hear Ateres Bais Yaacov Academy of Rockland’s appeal after the board decided the school couldn’t operate from the church. Clarkstown supervisor George Hoehmann calls the action “ridiculously frivolous”…

Last year the school announced it would be relocating from its modular units on Summit Road in New Hempstead to Nanuet. Area residents had voiced concerns about traffic and overcrowding if the school were to move into the Church Street location.

The town of Clarkstown fined a developer $15,000 last week, claiming he let construction fill be dumped on his Valley Cottage property near Rockland Lake State Park despite numerous warnings to stop. Akinyinka Olateju is looking to build 35 condos there, but the violations have put a temporary stop to his project. Clarkstown supervisor George Hoehmann says he was told to secure the site but he didn’t…

Olateju claims he didn’t hire the people who were doing the dumping. He is due back in Clarkstown Justice Court next week.

A Pomona woman has won $56 million in a malpractice verdict against a team of neurosurgeons after complications from spine surgery left her paralyzed from the neck down in 2009. 67 year-old Patricia Jones’ surgery at Good Samaritan Hospital reportedly suffered a series of events causing her to become paralyzed. The Journal News says the verdict is the largest one in a Rockland County medical-malpractice case. A Good Samaritan Hospital spokesperson told the Journal the case occurred under previous hospital ownership and could not comment further.

The Code Enforcement report from a local state lawmaker is a mixed bag that has some good ideas and insight but also some mistakes. That’s according to Ramapo supervisor Michael Specht, who told “The Morning Show” Friday he expects to release a detailed response to the report compiled by the Investigations and Government Operations Committee…

The six-month investigation’s report, released earlier this month by committee chairman, North Rockland State Senator James Skoufis, concluded Ramapo has failed to properly enforce codes, even with a state oversight official to monitor related activities. Rockland County Executive Ed Day says Ramapo should join the county’s four other towns in the Rockland Codes Initiative…

Rockland Business Association CEO Al Samuels praised the Skoufis report…

Among other things, the report recommended minimum statewide penalties for violations; cracking down on illegal housing; and better remedies for non-compliance.