News

An area lawmaker says legalized recreational marijuana has a long hill to climb to get passed in New York State before the end of the legislative session. Rockland state senator David Carlucci says a new bill in the Senate looks to simplify the law and includes some of the concerns others have had…

The governor originally wanted pot in the budget that was passed in April. The legislative session ends in mid-June. The governor recently suggested the bill will not likely pass last year due to lack of support in the Senate.

A 75th anniversary D-Day ceremony is being held this morning at 11 at the Camp Shanks Museum in Orangetown to honor those who went to fight, as well as those who never returned home. The museum is on South Greenbush Road in Orangeburg. Another ceremony in Clarkstown is at at 11:30 at the Street School Community Center on Zukor Road in New City.

The town of Ramapo is expecting its ballpark consultant to issue a report later this month with ideas on how to make it profitable. Supervisor Michael Specht says though they haven’t had concerts there in a while, it’s something they’d consider trying again…

The town is also considering opening up the field to soccer games.

If you are sending your kid to camp this summer in Rockland, make sure you have paperwork proving they’ve been inoculated against the measles. Rockland County Executive Ed Day says there will be no religious exemptions for the county’s 71 camps as there is for schools…

The same goes for camp staff…anyone born on or after January 1, 1957 must provide documentation that they’ve been vaccinated as well. Free MMR vaccines will be available at the Rockland County Department of Health, Building A in Pomona on Friday from 9:00 am – 11:30 am and then again on Monday, June 10th, from 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm. As of Sunday, there have been 255 confirmed cases of the measles since the outbreak began last fall.

The county’s largest union has ratified a tentative contract with the county. The agreement with the Civil Service Employees Association covers August 2016 through the end of December 2021. The county executive says he’ll sign the agreement, which also requires the approval of the Rockland County Legislature. The nearly 13-hundred members of the CSEA will get an $800 lump sum payment for 2017, 1,500 for 2018, a 2% salary increase for 2019 and 3% for 2020 and 2021. There will also be changes in vacation rules for new hires and an expansion of the drug and alcohol policy. The cost of this contract through the end of 2019 is approximately $4 million.