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This fall the Palisades Free Library will complete an exciting renovation project that will expand and improve the services we can offer our residents. The last major building improvement was in 1996. The renovation will update the functional space and energy efficiency of the building while retaining the library’s warmth and historic charm.

Ernest de la Torre
The August issue of Architectural Digest featured a distinctive SoHo loft recently completed by Palisades resident Ernest de la Torre. Created as a residence for a client of New York and Philadelphia, the apartment interiors are modern and classic. A cozy outdoor living space, complete with fireplace, renders this loft a versatile indoor and outdoor living space year-round.

The building of the new Tappan Zee Bridge requires dredging of the river bottom for the construction of pylons to support two new spans. The degree of damage this dredging will inflict on the local ecosystem is not precisely known, but what is known is that the dredging project is the largest in the history of the Hudson.

A beautiful summer evening — four of us having dinner together outside on the terrace below the house. My tenants Danny and Aline Lehrecke had invited me to share their grilled chicken, and we were catching up on events, since I had been away for three weeks. It was a peaceful night, although there were the usual late-day noises: a passing train across the river, a cricket or two, a distant barking dog.

JOIN US AT OUR END OF SEASON FARMERS' MARKET DINNER

the Market dinner 2010 celebration
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Saturday, May 18, 7:00 to 9:00pm.
Under twinkling lights, enjoy food straight from the farm to our table in the company of friends and neighbors.

Please R.S.V.P. so we can get a headcount. www.brownpapertickets.com/event/372261
Volunteers and underwriters are needed!

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Palisades Free Library
Member of the Ramapo Catskill Library System and ANSER Network
19 Closter Road, Palisades, N.Y. 10964
Phone: 845-359-0136, Fax: 845-359- 6124.
www.palisadeslibrary.org
Visit our website for a full listing of pro grams and events: Like us on Facebook www.palisadeslibrary.org

Block Party

The Strange Bedfellows will appear at the Union Street Arts Center from May 30 through June 2, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:00pm, Sunday matinee at 3:00pm in a production of Twelfth Night that will begin in the street and then take you inside and up and down the stairs. Adults: $15; Seniors: $12; Children under eighteen: $10. For reservations, go to www.brownpapertickets.com.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Pancake Breakfast

Memorial Day, May 27, 8 to 10:30 AM

Strawberry Festival

Saturday June 8, 2 to 6 PM

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By the time you read this, the place could be carpeted with cicadas driving you nuts with noise — music to their ears, but not to ours — more like the sound of a roaring train that never quite passes all the way through.

What the? you might ask.

Photo by Eric Vorenkamp
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On February 21, 2013, the Northvale Planning Board approved a plan submitted by Northvale Shopping Center Associates for an expansion of 15,000 square feet to be added to the north side of the existing ShopRite supermarket in Northvale, N.J. The Board also approved plans for a new 24,500 square foot freestanding retail building and space for an additional 590 parking spaces to be located between Pegasus and Livingston Streets (Rte. 303), part of which will encompass the TECT/Danzig site. Two buildings where Bobʼs Carpets is currently located will be demolished to make way for additional parking.

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Palisades Free Library
Member of the Ramapo Catskill Library
System and ANSER Network
19 Closter Road, Palisades, NY 10964
845-359-0136, Fax 845-359-6124 www.palisadeslibrary.org

Hours:
Monday - Thursday 11-9, Friday - Saturday 11-5, Sunday 1-5.

Next Meeting of the Board of Trustees
Wed., April 10, 7:30 pm at the Library. All meetings are open to the public.

Antiques

Repaired, Refinished and Restored
Contact Robert Adzema, Palisades, NY.
845 359-5421.

Cemetery Update

Tour the Historic Palisades Cemetery April 14th, 3PM. Tour originally done for Palisades History Day in June of 2005. Come explore the beautiful treasure of our cemetery and learn about local history from grave stones dating from the Revolutionary War to the recent past of notable people in Palisades. Meet at the Cemetery Gate and gather at the Community Center afterwards for a reception.

A Title Company is presently researching conditions on the property and we expect to have their report shortly. The next step will be another meeting at the Community Center in May, when we can discuss possible futures for our historic cemetery.

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The Palisades Presbyterian Church invites you to attend a professional reading of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the classic novel about a Victorian-era miser taken on a journey of self-redemption, on Sunday, December 16, at 5:00 pm. This early evening hour was chosen so that families with elementary school-aged children could attend and, for some, be introduced to Dickens for the first time.

Palisades Presbyterian Church 1900
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ADVENT POTLUCK DINNER AND WREATH MAKING:
Sunday, December 2, 5:30 pm

CHRISTMAS PAGEANT:
Sunday, December 16, 10:00 am

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We look forward to creating new events and activities in the coming year and we welcome your 2013 membership and investment in the PCC. Join us at our Annual Palisades Community Center meeting Sunday, February 10, 2013 at 3:00 pm.

Palisades Indoor Winter Farmers' Market Returns January 12, 2013!
As we plan for our 5th season, we are excited to announce that Blooming Hill Organic Farm will be joining us! Their farm is in the Black Dirt region of Orange County and they supply many high-end Manhattan restaurants with their beautiful, heirloom varieties of organic produce. We are lining up all our favorite farmers and we have a few surprises too! Stay tuned! Your support enables us to bring the farms to you all winter long. Thank you! WEBSITE: http://www.palisadesfm.org

On Thursday, August 9, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the landmark Sewage Pollution Right to Know Act. Wastewater treatment plants will be required to disclose to the public within four hours of releasing raw or partially treated sewage into state waterways, including the Hudson River. This disclosure will help you avoid contact with bacteria in water that, nationwide, causes as many as 3.5 million illnesses each year.

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After almost 48 years, Gore Vidal’s The Best Man has finally come to these Continental United States (plus Alaska and Hawaii) on DVD. This rarely seen biting and bitter political satire was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner of Patton fame and photographed in sharp-edged black and white by legendary cinematographer Haskell Wexler.

Car Theft on Washington Spring Road
On the evening of October 22 or early morning on the 23rd, a car was stolen from the driveway of Marjorie Galen’s home on Washington Spring Road. Orangetown Police Chief Nulty says, “While there has not been a rash of car thefts in the area, there is always a market for higher end cars. I would like to remind people to lock their cars and remove a duplicate key from inside. Park near a light or one with a motion sensor.”

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I heard and felt nothing that I can remember at home where Washington Spring Road begins its descent on the precipice of the cliff, when a shaft of approximately 10,000 tons of Palisades diabase broke free from the rock face of the Hudson Palisades at the Alpine State Lookout, only a mile and a half away. Collapsing in a cloud of dust and boulders onto the scramble called the Giant Stairs edging the river below, it occurred at 7:28 pm on May 12, as peaceful an evening as any other.

Like New York City, the tiny Hudson River town of Piermont, NY was built at water’s edge because of commerce. Ships, and later, trains, pumped goods in and out of ports vital to economic survival. But with sea levels conservatively estimated to rise seven to twenty-three inches by 2100 according to a 2007 NY State study, and storm surges becoming increasingly severe, waterside communities, big and small, are rethinking their infrastructure.