Clarkstown’s supervisor is weighing his options as the town’s Term Limits law he helped create has been upheld by a judge. George Hoehmann is precluded from running again this year based on that law. Hoehmann told “The Morning Show’ yesterday that he still disagrees with New York State Supreme Court Judge Amy Puerto’s decision…
Hoehmann and two other plaintiffs claimed the law was invalid because it hadn’t been put to a referendum and required a supermajority vote of the board. The judge decided that because the plaintiffs were challenging the procedure of the law, it was too late. That challenge needed to happen years ago, before the statute of limitations had run out. Hoehmann says a decision could come in the next few weeks on an appeal and what his future may hold.
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The owners of the home in Spring Valley that was destroyed in a fire last month that killed five people, including two children, are being sued by residents. That’s according to the Journal News. The residents say substandard conditions caused the blaze. Jacob and Esty Jeremias have not been charged criminally but have been slapped with hundreds of building and fire code violations.
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The Nanuet Union-Free School District has become the second in Rockland to sign on to the county’s School Bus Safety program. Cameras will be installed on the buses that service the district. Rockland County Executive Ed Day says the county is working with a company called BusPatrol on the violator-funded business model, giving the school districts the camera technology at no cost…
Day says a 30-day warning and public notice period will begin once 25% of buses within a district are equipped with stop-arm cameras, after which enforcement and fines will begin. Drivers caught illegally passing activated stop-arms on school buses will face a $250 fine for a first violation, $275 for the second and $300 for the third. The Pearl River School District was the first Rockland school district to sign on to the program. 50,000 stop-arm violations are committed each day in New York State.
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Residents of the Pearl River fire district can attend a public hearing tonight over the potential adoption of a resolution giving volunteers a break on their property taxes. Many other municipalities in the county have already passed similar laws, and Orangetown supervisor Teresa Kenny says it’s a worthy cause, but it’s hard to determine how much it will affect local budgets…
In February, the town of Orangetown approved the law, giving volunteers with at least five years of service the tax break. The fire district public hearing is being held at 7:30 tonight the Excelsior Fire Engine Company located at 1 Mike Kiernan Drive in Pearl River, at the corner of Route 304 and Hillside Avenue.
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Area environmental activists are livid at Holtec’s plan to dump about 45,000 gallons of radioactive water into the Hudson River months ahead of schedule and before an alternative plan can be put into effect. The water is part of the company’s cleanup of the Indian Point nuclear plants in Westchester. Manna Jo Greene is the Environmental Action Director of Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, and she says state lawmakers need to fast-track a state bill that would keep the company from putting the plan into effect, possibly as early as May 4th…
Greene encourages residents to attend the next Decommissioning Oversight Board meeting on the evening of Thursday, April 27th at Cortlandt Town Hall from 6:00pm to 8:30pm. The group plans to protest outside town hall before the meeting starts. A Holtec spokesperson has told News 12 the radioactivity levels of the wastewater are within state and federal limits.