No matter how much I curb my usage, why am I not able to reduce my energy bill? We’ve all tried the different suggestions that come from our local O&R utility: turn down your thermostats, better insulate your homes, fix drafty doors and windows, choose an energy supplier that offers competitive rates. The list is endless and while helpful there is one thing you are not being told and there seems to be nothing you can do about it.

There are private wells in all parts of Palisades. In mid-December some residents, including me, received a letter from the Rockland County Health Department advising homeowners with private wells of a possible Volatile Organic Contaminate (VOC) in their drinking water. The VOC identified is Tetra-chloroethene (PCE). Amy Isenberg, Rockland County Environmental Health Specialist, said the location of the contamination cannot be provided, the law only requires that homeowners be notified within a 1⁄4 mile radius of the identified contamination. This letter also provided a list of companies that will test water at a cost that varies widely and wildly. That’s it. What you do is up to you. Relying on the county to send a letter about something this important via the US mail is not ideal. I know because over the years there have been a couple times we’ve gotten a letter about possible contamination. At that point, I take a deep breath, go to ShopRite, buy gallons of water, call one of the water professionals listed on the letter and hope for the best. It’s a bad approach.

You heard it here—Orangetown now has an easy, clean way for residents to recycle household food scraps. It might just change our notion of what qualifies as garbage. Think about it—most of what gets tossed is food scraps: spoiled vegetables, plate scrapings, bones, peels, rinds, and occasionally, the muck from some weird jar in the back of the fridge. With a food scrap recycling program, that organic material is composted into nutrient-rich fertilizer and returned to the earth. So waste is no longer waste. It’s soil. That change of mindset is a first step towards reducing the amount of waste we generate.

Palisades Community Center
675 Oak Tree Road Palisades, NY

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Your friends at the Palisades Community Center wish you and your family continued health and very happy holidays.

Are you new to the area? Welcome! And to those who do not yet receive our e-blasts, we invite you to e-mail us at PCC@palisadesny.com to receive Palisades alerts and event information.

Marina and Samantha
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Any animal lover will enjoy reading Four Lives + Two, Our Lives with Our Furry Friends, by Marina Harrison, Cristina Biaggi and Gianni Biaggi. The privately printed book is beautifully laid out on pages with colored backgrounds and includes pictures of the family’s pets and their owners and stories of the animals’ lives. Marina, Cristina and Gianno had an idyllic childhood, living in a villa in Italy with a goat named Misti, a cow, a bunch of parrots and an aviary containing countless birds. Lizards, snakes and turtles lived in the garden, and the family had many pet dogs, as well as monkeys.

The famly as chldren with their pets Lady and Liu.
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Zain Ispharazi, who lived in Palisades for seventeen years, obviously loves to write, has a fertile imagination and enjoys traveling. As a child, he spent time exploring and playing in the woods in Tallman Park. He started out studying anthropology in college, which led to an interest in indigenous peoples. That led to visits to tribes in the Peruvian rainforest, where he spent two years in snatches over the five-year period between 2012 and 2017.

Manhattan’s Hudson Square district is rich in history. It borders Soho to the east and the Hudson River to the west. To the north is Chelsea, Canal Street to the south. In the first quarter of the nineteenth century, it was one of the most fashionable parts of town with the largest concentration of Federal and Greek Revival townhouses in the city. One hundred years later, the neighborhood had become industrial with warehouses and the establishment of a printing center. Change was afoot again when in 2013 the area was rezoned for taller buildings, attracting ongoing construction such as ABC Disney headquarters at 4 Hudson Street and Google’s new campus at St. John’s Terminal situated along the river.

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

We have been hearing a great deal about climate change lately, especially after the damage sustained from Hurricane Ida. While flooding from large rain events has become an all-too-common scenario, it was Superstorm Sandy, in 2012, that exposed our vulnerability to sea level rise and storm surge. It isn’t difficult to follow the still-warm trail back to humanity’s altering of Earth’s atmosphere, to assign at least some of the blame. Sandy was a Category 3 storm at its strongest, but upon landfall in our area, she was categorized as a post-tropical cyclone with hurricane-force winds. Even at that reduced ranking, the damage inflicted on our region was profound. The storm-surge impact in Piermont, coupled with downed trees and power outages, affected our area for weeks. All told, Sandy was estimated to have cost a whopping $70 billion and killed 233 people from the Caribbean to Canada. In the years since Sandy, we have witnessed an increase in droughts and fires in our western states, and extreme rainfall and flooding in the east. Large storms are increasingly common in all seasons. These types of events come with real costs, not only in monetary terms, but in our decreasing sense of security and safety in the places we choose to live.

We thought we were safe here. Until now, Palisades hasn’t suffered much from the damaging effects of climate change: mudslides; tornadoes; forest fires; droughts; severe heat waves and floods. Sea-level rise and warm- ing temperatures have affected us, but gradually. We felt lucky to live here. But that changed on September 2, when Ida visited our area.

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Palisades Community Center News
675 Oak Tree Road

Palisades Schoolhouse Celebrating 150 years! 1870-2020
Palisades Community Center Celebrating 50 years! 1970-2020

Board members:
Carol Baxter, President Michele Balm, VP Sunny Park, Secretary Carol Knudson, Treasurer Sabelle Frasca, Karen Godgart, Leo Keegan, Jeff Levine, Lynne Sandhaus, Honorary Board member: Virginia McCauley Rental Coordinator: Eileen Larkin Ileenog@aol.com 845.359.6589 Website: www.palisadescc.org

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Thomas J. Fallon, of Palisades, NY, passed away at his home in the early morning of August 18, 2021, under the loving care of his family. Tom was born in County Leitrim, Ireland, in 1938, the eldest son of Thomas J. and Margaret Fallon of Rockwell House, Dromahair. Tom was always a lover of animals and a natural athlete. He was a jockey in his youth; he rode at the famed Ballsbridge, Dublin race-track; he made the Leitrim County Gaelic Football team, playing in the Croke Park Dublin All-Ireland Championship of 1956, to the great pride of his hometown. Tom continued to be an avid follower of sports, keeping tabs on the success of Irish athletes and cheering on the successes of his own children and grandchildren.

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Own a piece of a longstanding Palisades tradition and support our library by ordering a copy (or 2 or 3) of the fourth edition of Pots & Pans in Palisades!

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PALISADES FREE LIBRARY
Member of the Ramapo Catskill Library System
19 Closter Road, Palisades, NY 10964
845-359-0136
www.palisadeslibrary.org

LAMONT OPEN HOUSE
Whether you’re an aspiring young scientist or a long-time science enthusiast, you’ll find Lamont-Doherty’s “at Home” Open House on October 13 and 14 of interest. Participate in hands-on science activities, learn about the latest discoveries of world-renowned researchers, take virtual lab tours and more. For additional information go to openhouse.ldeo.columbia.edu.

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PALISADES PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Reverend Leslie Mott
117 Washington Spring Road, PO Box 687 Palisades, NY 10964
Phone: 845-359-3147
Email: ppc10964@gmail.com
Website: www.palpresny.org

WHO

Rockland County Executive (Term - 4 years)
Ed Day-R (incumbent)
Tanya M. Watkins-D
www.watkinsforrockland.com

Orangetown Supervisor (Term - 2 years)
Teresa Kenny-R is running unopposed.

We are happy to report that the Union Arts Center in Sparkill is alive and well. Back in 2011, Piermont resident Simon Basner restored the historic brick structure, which was built in the late 1800s, and created the Union Arts Center as a home for a variety of creative endeavors. Chef Kevin Reilly along with partner Maria Santini, who own and operate Roost, an American-styled brasserie, leased the building just as the Covid virus was taking off. With renovations completed four months later including the installation of a live-fire charcoal grill, Roost moved around the block into the Center’s first floor. Throughout the pandemic, the restaurant stayed open offering a complete menu and signature drinks for takeout. Their new space with its high ceilings, large garage-style opening in front and outdoor dining just beyond is well suited now that it is considered safe for dining out.

Rockland County is looking for people who would like to work as election inspectors. It’s sort of like passing Go in Monopoly; as a paid volunteer, you get $200 for your service on election day, plus $25 for taking the training class. If you hurry, you can get trained in time to work on both 2021 elections; the primaries are in June and the general elections are in November. Classes are still being offered until May 24 at the county office buildings in New City, off of Route 45. I did the training in March, and I found it to be both fascinating and inspiring. We are lucky to have a great group of people to administer our elections.

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Palisades Community Center Celebrating 150 years! 1870-2020
We are still collecting memories of the “Old School.” Did you or a family member go to school there? Do you have photos? Memories or stories to tell? Please e-mail us at: PCC@palisadesny.com Help us document this period of our Palisades history!