Rockland

A budget workshop session scheduled by the Clarkstown school district for 6:30 Tuesday has been canceled.

District officials did not provide a reason for the cancellation. It will be rescheduled at a later date.

The district announced a $171.4 million draft budget for the 2010-2011 school year on Thursday. It is looking to slash $5.9 million from the spending plan to keep a tax rate hike to a minimum.

Hema Easley
heasley@lohud.com

The Clarkstown school district is expected to propose a $171 million draft spending plan this evening for the 2010-2011 school year.

The draft budget will not reflect a nearly $6 million decrease in spending the district is planning because it is yet to decide where those cuts will come from. The reductions have to be made because of an anticipated $3 million cut in state aid and contractual increases in salaries and health care and retirement contributions, the district has said.

The reductions could come from cuts in transportation, office supplies and staff, including teachers, and from increasing class size, among others.

Check back for updates at LoHud.com

VCS Inc. will hold its second Gay Pride Rockland Battle of the Bands on Saturday, March 13, at Indigo Paradise Lounge at 168 Main Street in Nyack.

Seven bands are expected to take part in the event, which will start at 7 p.m. and continue until 11 p.m. More than a hundred people are expected to attend, which will be a show of support for the LBGT community by Rockland youth, said Joseph Coe of VCS.

Tickets — $5 for students and $10 for other members of the public — can be purchased at the door or by going to www.gaypriderockland.org.

Money raised from the event will go toward supporting LBGT programs run by VCS, said Coe.

The widow of Suffern Army captain Phillip Esposito is applauding the decision of a general to pull his name from consideration for the top job at the Army National Guard and to retire from the military. Siobhan Esposito has lobbied the Senate Armed Services Committee to block Maj. Gen. Joseph Taluto’s nomination because of what she calls his poor handling of the investigation into her husband’s killing in Iraq in 2005.

Her husband and another officer were killed in a mine explosion, and the military charged a soldier in their unit. But a military jury acquitted the suspect, Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez. The two widows said the investigation into their deaths was so compromised that it led to the acquittal. Taluto did not head the investigation but was in charge of the National Guard in Iraq at he time of their deaths. His confirmation was held up for eight months. In case you missed the story, read it here: http://www.lohud.com/article/20101300350

Laurel Plains Elementary School will have a two-hour delay Wednesday to allow for repairs following a power outage that occurred Tuesday when a main breaker failed.

A replacement part is being shipped, and repairs will take place early Wednesday, according to the principal, Carol Pilla.

The two-hour delay means that students who are usually picked up by bus at 7:15 a.m. will be picked up at 9:15 a.m. instead. School will begin at 9:30 a.m.

All after school and evening activities were canceled Tuesday.

The Town will host a foreclosure prevention seminar on Thursday, Nov. 12 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Town Hall Auditorium, 10 Maple Ave. Residents will have access to a number of foreclosure prevention professionals from Rockland Housing Action Coalition, Legal Aid Society, Mental Health Association of Rockland, Rockland Community Development Council, The Rockland Bar Association and the District Attorney’s office, among others.

A panel presentation will be followed by a question and answer session. Residents can ask questions written on index cards during and after the presentation.

Later breakout sessions will give residents private time to discuss specific questions or concerns.

For more information call Supervisor Alex Gromack’s office at 845-639-2050.

The Town of Clarkstown is close to completing its 2009 Comprehensive Plan. Residents have until Nov. 4 to add additional comments.

Residents can submit comments by going to the town’s Web site at www.town.clarkstown.ny.us, and under the community section click on “Final Comprehensive Plan.” Residents have already participated in the making of the plan through three public workshops, and answering surveys by phone and mail.

The Comprehensive Plan examines everything from bio-diversity to sidewalk construction, the future of volunteer emergency services, open space, development and making downtown’s more pedestrian friendly.

“By providing a blueprint for our future, the Comprehensive Plan will allow us to create and adopt initiatives that will promote continued improvements in our quality of life, the recruitment of industry to the Town that will continue to stabilize our tax base and environmental conservation that will define the well being of generations to come,” Supervisor Alex Gromack said in a statement.

The plan will be adopted by resolution of the Town Board by the end of the year.

Rockland Family Shelter has received a $5,500 grant from the Verizon Foundation and Verizon Wireless to help support the Teen Dating Violence Prevention Program that the shelter offers to all high schools in Rockland.

The grant is just one of several efforts the foundation has made in domestic violence prevention. Verizon’s Hopeline collects old wireless phones and batteries, refurbishes and sells them, and the proceeds are donated to domestic violence prevention advocacy groups and to survivors of domestic violence in the form of prepaid phones.

The shelter’s teen dating prevention program offers peer counseling training for students, teachers and counselors on issues of teen dating violence, sexual and domestic abuse. The shelter estimates one in five female high school students report being physically or sexually abused by a partner.

At least three Clarkstown Town Board members agreed to a salary freeze during Tuesday’s Town Board meeting when Disgusted Taxpayers of Clarkstown called on Supervisor Alex Gromack to cut all town empoyees’ pay and trim the town budget by 10 percent.

Though Gromack rejected the call because most town employees’ compensation is covered by a CSEA contract, Town Board members George Hoehmann, Frank Borelli and John Maloney said they wouldn’t take a raise next year. They are among approximately 20 towm employees who are not covered by a contract.

Both Maloney and Hoehmann are running for re-election; Borelli is not.

Town Board members serve four-year terms and are paid $41,000 annually.

Like everywhere else, the economic downturn has been taking a toll on New City businesses. But merchants say the ongoing New City revitalization is exacerbating the problem with badly planned construction work on the main thoroughfare that is reducing customer traffic. If things continue this way, merchants say, many will be out of business in the next few months and there won’t be much left of New City to revitalize.

Some New City businessmen and businesswomen have formed a group—New City Revitalization Merchant Committee—and have met with Supervisor Alex Gromack and other town officials. The administration promised to be sensitive to the merchants’ concerns. But the group has planned another meeting with Gromack to make they keep up the pressure.

For more information about the merchants’ concerns and their efforts, go to www.newcityrevitalization.blogspot.com. The group can be reached at NewCityRevitalization@hotmail.com