The long and winding budget battle is over. With unofficial results tallied, it appears Ramapo residents passed the $127,066,927 2012-13 school budget, with 1358 yes votes to 618 nos. Ramapo Central also has a new School Board member.

According to school district documents, the district was able to contain a budget-to-budget increase of 3.28%, or $4 million, by capturing savings through the implementation of an energy performance contract, restructuring of its special education program and Family Resource Centers and reductions in transportation, infrastructure and staffing due to attrition. Continue Reading

The Sloatsburg Historical Society and Friends of Harmony Hall have united this week for a series of events and activities to celebrate Ramapo History Week. The historical Jacob Sloat House will be host to talks and multi-media presentations about the significant role that the Hudson Highlands’ Ramapo River Pass has played in the rich history of the Empire State. Continue Reading

As part of Ramapo History Week, Friends of Harmony Hall and the Sloatsburg Historical Society host the first of a weeklong series of events at the old Jacob Sloat mansion this evening. Monday night’s event features a panel discussion with Diane Jabis from Rockland County BOCES, Environmental Educator at Cornell Co-operative Extension of Rockland County Chuck Stead, Harmony Hall Curator Geoff Welch, and Village of Sloatsburg Historian Harrison Bush. Continue Reading

After many months of workshops and candid conversations, meetings and number crunching, Tuesday’s the time to vote on the 2012-2013 Ramapo Central School budget.

Local recanteur and Harmony Hall Curator Geoff Welch returns to the South Salon at the old Jacob Sloats House Friday, May 11, to shed new light on the works of American master painter John Singer Sargent. Renowned as one of the most brilliant portrait painters of his time, his images of water are too often overlooked. History shows that Sargent could hold a brush with most any painter, past or present.

Welch will revisit Sargent’s water images by taking a whirlwind tour around the world, focusing on these more intimate Sargent travel paintings and covering some 100 slides. Continue Reading

Many Sloatsburg residents recently received their blue flyer in the mail announcing that the Municipal Pool is  getting ready to open for weekends, beginning Memorial Day weekend, Saturday, May 26. The pool’s regular season then begins at the end of June. But first, the pool’s being cleaned and painted. And when residents arrive, they’ll note a marked difference. Continue Reading

Most days Hayward’s Deli & Market bustles early with customers stopping in for an on-the-run bagel and spot of coffee or bit of morning news. And then there’s the big lunch sandwiches for the hungry noon crowd, where the Hayward motto “meats to please you” hits home.

Something arty is brewing down at the Tuxedo Train Station this weekend when the town holds its First Annual Steeped in the Arts show Saturday, May 12, from 12 -4 p.m.

“It’s an opportunity for local artists to display their work,” said Shari Brooks, director of recreation for Tuxedo. ” We have photography, paintings, sketches. We have some metal art and one or two quilts.”

Brooks said the show was put together partly in response to community feedback on another program the recreation department was planning — a children’s art show with tea for adults. Brooks said the overwhelming feedback by local artists convinced the department to create the Steeped in the Arts show instead. The show will display artwork from local artists throughout Tuxedo.

“The tea is something we’re serving,” Brooks said.

Artists will show up to three pieces per artist with much of the work displayed on portable panels. The event is free and some of the work may be available for sale.

For more information on Steeped in the Arts, please call the Tuxedo Recreation office at 351-2265.

Source: Image courtesy of Tuxedo Chamber of Commerce.

The mystery of the Four Corners Fish Kill in Tuxedo continues, like a Charles Durning Texas two-step, where the Governor slides this way and that, obliquely answering ‘could be’ to most all questions.

The known knowns, to use a Rumsfeldianism, are that in late March, a large fish die-off was discovered at Four Corners Pond and Warwick Brook waterways. Many pointed fingers at the steamy Perfect Cut mulch pile on Long Meadow Road as a possible culprit. Continue Reading

A lively crowd turned out for the Ramapough Lunaape Nation Prayer for the Earth rally Saturday, May 5, held at Ramapough Lenape Tribal land in Mahwah. Part anti-fracking rally and Earth day ceremony, the rally was held as an effort to bring attention to the proposed Tennessee Gas pipeline that will cut through the Ramapo Valley Reservation. Continue Reading