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The year 2009 marks the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s voyage of exploration of the Hudson River. The Palisades Historical Committee and the Palisades Free Library celebrated this milestone with a weekend of special events.

“The first thing to do, we must kill all the lawyers” famously proclaims one of Shakespeare’s characters, meaning that the world would be better off without them. I have my own candidate for this honor: the developer. Not that I’m advocating the death penalty for anyone but I think the place for the developer is not Palisades. Palisades does not need to be “developed.” It has already grown organically and much of the architecture reflecting its history is intact.

Attention: Snake Bite Alert

It is not news that copperheads live in our area. Recently a worker was bitten by a copperhead snake on Tweed Blvd.

What to do if you are bitten: Contact Jacobi Medical Center Regional Snakebite Treatment Center (Level 1 Trauma Center)
Children’s Emergency Room: 718-918-5875
Adult’s Emergency Room: 718-918-5800
Address: 1400 Pelham Parkway South Bronx, NY 10461

The ONLY Regional Snakebite Treatment Center, Jacobi treats snakebite victims from the entire New York City and tri-state area. Treatment is provided in cooperation with the herpetology staff of the nearby Bronx Zoo.

Finally! After much anticipation, if owner Dianne Walsh Fuhrmann has her way, her new Palisades Market on Route 9W on the site of the old gas station will be up and running on or around October 1st. Dianne, the friendly, enthusiastic mother of three, is brimming over with ideas for her new business. “I wanted to open an old fashioned American store reminiscent of those from the 20s and 30s when life was simpler.”

A number of Palisades post office box holders have been frustrated and upset recently by a change in policy at our post office. All of us try to insure that our correspondents send mail addressed to our PO boxes, but there are always a few letters sent to our street address instead. Some of this is due to ignorance, and some is due to regulations that forbid mail to be sent to post office boxes by some organizations.

In the past staff at the Palisades post office usually put the letters with street addresses in the right box, if they knew what it was, and we were grateful to them. But during the last six months most letters with street addresses instead of PO box numbers have been returned to the sender, in some cases causing serious problems to the recipients who did not receive them. Checks, driver's licenses, car registrations and other important documents have failed to arrive on time due to this new policy.

Post office staff has explained that new regulations are causing this problem and have been unable to come up with a solution. Application of the new policy has been inconsistent; some mail with a street address arrives but most does not. A search of the US postal service site has come up with a partial solution, although it still entails extra work for all of us. The relevant section is below.

About 20 community members who were concerned about the threat posed by panthers in Palisades attended the meeting held at Town Hall on Monday night. Bill Marple and Shane Hobel of Tracker SFI began by giving their report to the Board.

At 7 o’clock on July 28 Supervisor Kleiner and three members of the Town Board — Marie Manning, Nancy Low-Hogan and Michael Maturo — appeared at Town Hall for a special meeting called by Kleiner to consider a proposal dealing with the panther problem in the community of Palisades. The proposal, submitted by Carol Baxter, Susan Nemesday, Milbry Polk and Dana Stangel-Plowe on June 24, asked for funds to monitor the suspected black panthers for a month with the help of eight cameras. Tracking would be done by Shane Hobel, a member of Tracker SFI team; the proposal also included money for two traps. The total cost was $6000, $2500 for cameras, traps and equipment, and $3500 for a month of tracking and monitoring the cameras.

Palisades residents filled the community room of the Palisades Presbyterian Church on the evening of July 23, responding to an invitation to attend a 7 PM meeting on the panther threat to the community. Since last February, thirteen people in Palisades have reported seeing a large black feline (about waist high and more than 30 inches long) with a long black tail. Sightings have come from a number of different sites in the village and from sites in the Palisades Interstate Park (for details refer to lead story in the May 2009 10964 issue, “Black Panthers in Palisades”). The community has been kept informed about the panther sightings by e-mails from Carol Baxter and articles on the 10964 website, www.palisadesny.com.

Deer Carcass
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This morning an eviscerated deer carcass was discovered on Corbett Lane. This is sighting is consistent with the other sightings this week and with the tracking done by Shane. Last week a dead fawn was found behind Bjork’s house on Woods Road.

On Friday, July 10, friends of the Goldmans' were visiting the Goldmans with their children and nanny. The nanny is someone the Goldmans have known for years. While the Goldmans and their friends were out to dinner, the nanny was on the back porch and saw what she first described as a black bear hopping along the rocks near their garage.

A number of Palisadians attended a Panther Party at the Community Center on the afternoon of Saturday, May 2. After sampling wine and cheese, they heard from four of the ten people who have actually seen a panther in this area and then from tracker Shane Hobel, founder of the Mountain Scout Survival School in Beacon, New York.

The Palisades Cemetery
The Palisades Lot Owners Trust ( P.L.O.T. ) needs help. Likely everyone reading this knows something of this small volunteer group that has taken on the maintenance of the otherwise uncared for cemetery since 1982. Private contributions have covered the cost of mowing and seasonal clean up, but it may not have been possible without the really kind consideration of Dennis Haight. Dennis’s father Howard is interned in the cemetery as are his aunts, uncles and more. Dennis’s charge for his labors was low to say the least; in part a tribute to his dad and other relatives. However, Dennis has moved away. Too far away to tend to the cemetery. Well, we need a person or persons to take over the responsibilities and to coordinate scheduling etc. with Bill Knudson. If you would like to discuss taking the job on or have suggestions for a candidate you can call Bill Knudson at 845/359-0160 or Lee Sneden at 845/368-0243.

We are increasing our offerings at the community center and welcome new programs. At our Annual Earth Day Tag sale this year, we joined up with Keep Rockland Beautiful and had clean-up supplies available for the community to clean-up their neighborhoods. We thank those who recycled their items wth us and the volunteers who helped with this event.

All of us want to remain in our own homes as long as possible. But things happen, and sometimes we can no longer manage alone at home. It is a good idea to investigate the alternatives, because some are better than others. Foreknowledge gives you the ability, in an emergency, to make choices you won’t later regret.

Memorial Day Pancake Breakfast
Monday May 25th 8:00 -10:30 AM

On Memorial Day the Palisades Presbyterian Church will host their traditional pancake breakfast, an event always anticipated by local residents. Start the holiday with a hearty breakfast of juice, brown sausage links and golden pancakes at the bargain price of Adults: $5.00 and Children under 10: $3.00

Rockland Center for the Arts (RoCA) joined with The Giulio Gari Foundation to present An Afternoon of Opera, featuring extraordinary voices and an elegant reception. The event took place at the Morales Estate, home of Leslie Morales, in Palisades, NY on Saturday, April 18, 2009 from 4pm to 7pm. The reception featured fine wine and delicious fare courtesy of Grandaisy Bakery, Manhattan’s premiere artisan bakeshop.

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Check Out Our Blog! For the latest books, DVDs, and news at the Library. Link from our home page, www.rcls.org/pal Member of the Ramapo Catskill Library System 19 Closter Road Palisades, NY 10964 845-359-0136, Fax 845-359-6124 pal@rcls.org, www.rcls.org/pal

We always thought that our community was special — blessed (or cursed) with lots of wildlife — but the latest addition to the list makes us truly remarkable. As well as deer, foxes, coyotes, possums, raccoons, woodchucks, muskrats, turkeys, peacocks, bald eagles, ospreys, copperheads and rattlesnakes, we seem to have black panthers.

On January 21, Barbara Gupta, operational officer of SOAC, spoke at a meeting of the Palis-Agers. Although some of us have already called on SOAC in emergencies and discovered what a capable and helpful organization it is, we learned important facts during the course of Barbara’s speech.

Recently an elderly Palisades resident was discovered lying helpless and dehydrated in her own home by a concerned neighbor who had been keeping an eye on her. The neighbor’s vigilance may have saved the woman’s life. Of course not all situations where help is needed are that serious. But this story suggests that Palisades could use a forum where people could ask for help if they needed it and others could volunteer if they felt able to fill their needs.