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The coronavirus pandemic impacts us all. One of the hardest hit communities has been among small businesses where the cushion to endure a long-term shut down is thin. Rockland County is no exception. Restaurants have been especially hard hit.

PALISADES COMMUNITY CENTER. 675 Oak Tree Road Palisades, NY

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We extend wishes of gratitude to Keith Buterbaugh for his years of service on the PCC Board. He was especially helpful with all our restoration projects. We are excited to welcome Sabelle Frasca onto the Board. We look forward to working with you!

In response to Paul Riccobono’s article “Our Salt Addiction,” Rockland County’s Superintendent of Highways Charles “Skip” Vezzetti further described the county’s salting policies and equipment, and concluded with this: “A study that we performed in 2013 indicated that the Rockland County Highway Department had reduced its salt usage by 50 percent and still achieved safe passable roads. That same year, an in-house study was also conducted which indicated that household use of lawn chemicals, water softeners and driveway and sidewalk salting contributed ten times the amount of chlorides to the ground water than the amount of salt spread annually on the roadway in front of each individual home.

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Kids today have no idea how lucky they are to enjoy the beauty of our shining Hudson River. People swim in it. They canoe, kayak and row on it. They build houses overlooking it, and they photograph and paint it. It wasn’t always this way. When I was a kid in the early 1960s, the Hudson was famously polluted; its name, like Cleveland’s “burning” Cuyahoga River, was a child’s joking shorthand for any toxic stream that bubbled with streaks of industrial waste and raw sewage.

Beginning March 1: all plastic carryout bags are banned from distribution by stores collecting New York State sales tax. Stores may charge five cents per paper bag at check out. Keep your reusable bags handy.

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Lamont invites our community into its world of discovery with the third public lecture of Our Changing Planet public lecture series. The series connects our community with world-leading scientists currently performing globally significant research right here in our backyard. The lectures are designed to illuminate what changes in our planet may mean, how and why they are happening, and how a scientific understanding of events may help inform vital solutions.

When Department of Transportation (DOT) representatives didn’t show up for a scheduled meeting in December, a new meeting was rescheduled for January with a sense of urgency. This was because DOT had contacted three Palisades families with property abutting Route 9W about acquiring portions of their property to implement Phase 1 of DOT’s preliminary safety improvements plan. This plan includes removal of the northbound bus stop at the intersection of Route 9W and Washington Spring Road, and installation of two new large bus stops; one in the “forever green” triangle on Oak Tree Road and the other on Route 9W slightly north of the Washington Spring Road intersection. The existing southbound stop would also be enlarged.

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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

NOW OPEN EARLIER MONDAY - FRIDAY
Hours: Monday - Thursday 10:00 am - 9:00 pm
Friday, 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Saturday, 11:00 am - 5:00 pm
Sunday, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

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On January 7, 2020, Teresa Kenny was sworn in as Orangetown Supervisor, the first woman to hold this position in Rockland’s 221-year history. While she has made it clear she does not want to be defined by this fact, it is noteworthy in this 100th anniversary year of women winning the right to vote.

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PALISADES PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Phone: 845-359-3147
Email: ppc10964@gmail.com

Palisades Free Library has completed the first stage of its evaluation toward potentially becoming a Special Library District. There are pros and cons to this possibility.

Often, we are blind to what happens behind the scenes in our homes and businesses. Our garbage gets picked up. We turn on the faucet and the water runs. We flip the light switch, and, as if by wizardry, the room is lit. But what are the technical, regulatory and administrative elements that make such modern conveniences possible? Palisades is about to participate in a program of aggregating our purchasing power with the possibility that our energy consumption will be less expensive and more renewable.

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In the early 1960s, a small group of forward-thinking Palisadians decided to start a local swim club. During the spring of 1964, while their teenage children were busy listening to the newly discovered Beatles, this dedicated group of parents was busy looking for a suitable site for the pool, meeting with the zoning board, securing a mortgage, and eventually, setting up the brand new Palisades Swim Club.

Our NEW kitchen is in!. We are very grateful to the community for your memberships and donations that funded our beautiful NEW Kitchen!. We truly could not have done this without you!

We give a BIG thank you to the following who. donated their time, their team, and professional services to do the renovating:
Larry Bucciarelli, Susan Nemesdy, Henry Ottley, David Palacheck, Paul Riccobono, Michael Tersigni. Also, to those who gave discounts for their services: Rita at Five Star Marble and Granite and Matt the kitchen designer at Lowe’s. Thank you to our volunteers for running our fall events: Antiques Sale-Joyce Gavin, Susan Nemesdy and Eileen Larkin. Scarecrows- Sunny Park, Marco Jo Clate, Omiira Rohani, Liana Karavani with their children and husbands, Carol Knudson, Vienna Guzewich, and Samantha Shanahan. Family Portraits- Photographer Linda Epstein for the third year donated her talents to this fundraiser. Christmas Caroling-Michele Balm, Bernadette Vero and Carol Knudsen.

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A collection of Rodney Smith’s iconic photographs will be on display at The Edward Hopper House Museum. Human in Nature: The Art & Wit of Rodney Smith runs from December 7 through March 8, 2020 and features 20 black and white and color photographs, illustrating Smith’s love affair with nature. His images are instantly recognizable for their surrealism, style and humor. Smith was a long-time Palisades resident. A members’ reception will be held on December 6. The Hopper House is located at 82 North Broadway, Nyack.

If you read a landscape as a story (romantic, naturally) then trees are our heroes, our character actors and, from time to time, the lurking villain. Architecture introduced into the landscape can insert itself effortlessly into the plot line. The story is transformed into a play; the landscape becomes theatrical set. But what happens when there is disaster on the set and the hero dies? The play becomes a tragedy.

Back in 1972 when Paul Olsen, a leading paleontologist, professor at Lamont Doherty and a member of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, was a student at Yale, he and a friend noticed a large flat expanse of rock that had recently been exposed while visiting the friend’s father in Blauvelt. They knew that rock in the area had been determined to be about 215 million years old. (Rock is dated by examining the decay of radioactive minerals.) Within an hour, the duo had discovered about 20 prehistoric footprints in the densely wooded area between Route 303 and Greenbush Road.

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Stepping into the darkened float tank, I pull the door closed behind me. I lie down. Warm shallow water, dense and saturated with natural Epsom salts, surrounds me. It has a pleasant tangy smell. I settle my head back- wards onto a small pillow and let the sinking rise back up into floating. Dang it!...first timer error…I forgot to put in earplugs to keep the water out! Quick exit and poking the plugs into my now very slippery ears, I climb back into the tank and pull the door shut behind me a second time.

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society has announced plans to build a massive audio-visual production center on their 155 Sterling Mine Road property, which consists of 242 acres in Ramapo and seven acres in the Town of Tuxedo.

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 11:00 am - 9:00 pm Friday - Saturday 11:00 am - 5:00 pm Sunday 1:00 - 5:00 pm
Holidays: Closed Tuesday, Dec. 24 (Christmas Eve), Wednesday, Dec. 25 (Christmas Day), and Closing Early Tuesday, Dec. 31 (New Year’s Eve)