The Rockland County Sheriff’s race certainly has taken a high-tech turn. We have a supporter of Democratic challenger Timothy O’Neill scooping up Internet addresses that could be confused as belonging to Republican Rockland County Sheriff James Kralik. Read the news article here. Now, we find out that O’Neill’s Web site gets a little ahead of itself — a list of Tim’s Supporters mentions The Journal News.

Funny, we haven’t even held endorsement hearings yet in any election contests, let alone sheriff. (I oughtta know; I schedule them.)

Here’s what O’Neill’s Web site says: THE JOURNAL-NEWS – “Tim O’Neill usually minces no words and has won praise from this newspaper, other officers and residents… views that have taken a bit of courage.”

Unfortunately for Tim, we have better than an institutional memory: We have an electronic archive! This comment comes from an editorial written in 2001 about an imbroglio that erupted after O’Neill wrote a letter to the editor critical of the Rockland district attorney.

Last weekend, we decided to head down to City Island (in the Bronx) for dinner, and pick up Grandma on the way. Both kids had friends over who wanted to go. We figured, the more the merrier. Then, we realized we’d have to take two cars so everyone could fit. We shrugged, loaded everyone in our two smallish sedans and off we went.
No biggie. But, think about the Tappan Zee Bridge deck repair project under way (well, on hold right now) that was bringing in prefabricated panels for much-needed deck repairs. The flatbed trucks that were carting the panels from a New Jersey plant to Rockland apparently were not equipped to carry the weight they were hauling, so they were failing inspections by New York State Police.
Until the project contractor can get big enough trucks from around the country, the repairs are on hold, TJN staff writer Khurram Saeed reports today.
I dunno. We figured out that we needed vehicles big enough to haul our load of kids (not really weight, but number of seatbelts. Though, the boys did eat their weight in lobster, but that’s another story…)
No one thought, as they were awarding this $147 million project, to make sure they had a way to get the panels (some are 50 feet long) to the site?

I’ve been tracking Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s appearance at Columbia University today.
The invitation has been extremely controversial. Columbia President Lee Bolinger took a lot of heat, even from many members of the campus community, for granting such a platform to a man who, on a good day, still offends most the world. The irony of granting Ahmadinejad such a showcase “in the name of free speech� was not lost on many. (Wonder if he’ll be invited to hang out with his Neteuri Karta buds in Monsey.)
It seems to me that Ahmadinejad didn’t hide behind his academic rhetoric as well as he might have hoped. There are plenty of news outlets tracking this pretty closely. Here’s a fun one — Ahmadineblog — brought to us by the Columbia Spectator, the student newspaper there. (And yes, I did go to Columbia, but not as an undergrad, so I have no ties to the Spectator.)
So, what do you think? Should he have been given such a prime platform from which to spew?
Was this a great exercise in free speech, and an opportunity to give Ahmadinejad a little full-frontal democracy — as he viewed the protests, read the signs, heard the boos and faced aggressive, demanding questions?
Was it a great academic exercise or a publicity stunt?

In New Jersey, a federal magistrate judge’s decision to allow Upper Saddle River’s water pollution suit against Rockland Sewer District # 1 is getting some props in this editorial in today’s Bergen Record.
(Note that the Village of Airmont, which argued that it has no control over the sewer system, was let off the hook. U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Fox recommended that the case not continue against the village, just the sewer district.)
Upper Saddle River alleges that the sewer district violated the federal Clean Water Act by spilling at least 2.5 million gallons of raw sewage into the Saddle River from a manhole in Airmont between Aug. 23 and Sept. 3 of 2006. The lawsuit seeks a judgment declaring a violation of the Clean Water Act, and a permanent injunction to force permanent compliance with the Clean Water Act and discharge permits. Of course, civil penalties and plaintiff lawsuit costs are being sought.
As with most environmental impacts, what occurs here doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
Certainly, we’ve heard the argument about capacity (sewer officials say there’s more than adequate capacity; critics, most significantly Preserve Ramapo, point to what it believes is overtaxed infrastructure of the whole system.)
As is just about everything, especially in Ramapo, sewers are political. That doesn’t matter to our neighbors downstream, they just want their water kept clean.

How upsetting to read about the fatal accident during work this weekend on the Millennium Pipeline.
I visited the Blue Hill Plaza offices of Millennium Pipeline Co. LLC of Pearl River in June with TJN staff writer Laura Incalcaterra. That was just days before work was to begin on the 182-mile project.
The steep and rocky terrain near the Orange-Rockland border was seen as the most challenging step, and so work was to start there, and would take a lot of the project’s time and effort, explained Millennium spokesman Mike Armiak. Laura had some great questions as Millennium folk explained the challenges posed by the rock, and rough terrain through Kakiat Park and Harriman State Park. (Saturday’s accident happened on a steep slope in Harriman State Park in Tuxedo).
In the June meeting, Millennium described the purpose of the replacement pipe (30 inches where 10-inch pipe had been, with more compression capability, meaning the ability to ship much more gas from the Southern Tier across the Lower Hudson Valley). We also heard very clear messages about safety. There were to be supervisors on site daily, including third-party inspectors. We were invited to visit, though would have to undergo safety training.
On Saturday, less than three months into the work, and still hammering away at that first 9 miles, Pat McCaffrey of Lebanon, N.J. died when the sideboom he was operating on a very steep hill apparently toppled. The investigations into the tragedy continue. At this point, the hows and whys remain unanswered. What we do know is this: A man left for work one day and did not return. That is truly a tragedy.

Rockland County filed its lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration yesterday on the FAA’s home turf, Washington, D.C. Likely this won’t give the FAA a homecourt advantage; seems those who know the FAA are even less enamored with the way the federal agency operates. Rockland’s lawsuit basically says FAA didn’t follow its own rules when it came up with the plan to reconfigure airspace over a 31,000-square-mile area. (It’s really fun to read how they “mitigated” the impact. They make a plan. Then they look at ways to lessen the impact of their own plan. Basically, they “mitigate” something that doesn’t really exist, except on paper.)
Well, this lawsuit that’s landing in the U.S. Court of Appeals will be interesting to watch. There are plenty of Connecticut, Bergen and Westchester communities that find themselves with a flight corridor overhead, and don’t believe they had much of a voice. Pound Ridge is holding a meeting this morning on the plan’s impact, and how the community should react. Let’s hope they look at supporting Rockland’s suit, and the county looks at, and considers supporting, their ideas as well. The problem with this redesign is beyond more planes coming over certain people’s homes. It’s about failed public participation and lax attention to what was below as the FAA moved around lines in the sky.

I’ve spent a lot of time today talking to People to People executive director Dolores Treger, as we discussed the closing of the breakfast program in Haverstraw.
The bottom line became that People to People decided it was time to take the $15,000 spent on the Haverstraw program and invest it in more educational programs. Treger cited ESL language lessons and school-success programs that help build skills that lead to better employment opportunities.
Basically, it comes down to limited resources, a limited volunteer pool and no more space at the St. Peter’s, which redid the basement and wants the space back. As Treger pointed out, they served the community for 18 years, and fewer were showing up. Also, there was some pretty aberrant behavior that the volunteers and the church didn’t seem willing to accept.
She wanted to assure me (really Rocklanders) that their food pantry was accessible to Haverstraw residents, and they always helped get people to and from their Nanuet facility.
Haverstraw has a very active village collaborative, which provides networking and brainstorming for nonprofits in the community. It would be interesting to hear their ideas, opinions and suggestions.

I’ve just returned from Orangetown 9/11 Memorial ceremony. The reading of the names, as is done at every ceremony, still conjures images. I guess the reporter in me should be observing the audience reaction. But, I find myself closing my eyes for the names, so I can concentrate and remember. I am grateful I am just there as a resident, not a reporter, as another person showing that I do remember, and will remember and want to honor those who died.
The National Anthem was sung so sweetly by TZ High School junior Chloe Cannon. No small feat.
Father George Torok of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church in Tappan gave remarks that simply moved me in their clarity. He talked about that immediate bond we all formed after 9/11, how it “forged over American identity anew.” He implored that we share that memory of unity with our children. His observation included that like the Passover story, we need to repeat the telling of the loss, and the strength “in our spirits and in our hearts” to our children.
As he said, “We were truly one nation, at least for a while.”
That memory, too, we must remember … the loss, the bravery and the unity.
I was glad I went.

It almost seemed like a relief that tomorrow that it’s supposed to be cloudy and rainy, not a brilliant blue, not another warm, sun-kissed wondrous Tuesday, Sept. 11, as it was six years ago.
Maybe it will help remove us from the last Tuesday, Sept. 11. Maybe we will feel less of the panic, less of the anger, less of the fear that the day has brought since 2001.
No, we will feel all those things. We will remember loved ones, neighbors, the names we read in lists that grew longer and longer with every publication.
The news of 9/11 keeps coming. Just last month, more lost lives from chaos that could have, should have, we wish, been avoided at the unnecessarily deadly Deutsche Bank building fire. Memorials, meant to honor and remind us of what was lost, still can divide those who mourn in different ways. New York City just launched a Web site on World Trade Center health-related issues, and more obituaries appear from those who responded to that day, or worked on the pile. The lawsuits continue to wend their way through the courts. And, Osama bin Laden still haunts us, still taunts us and still must be brought to justice.
It is six years past, the morning that glorious sun turned into a smoky haze of panic, fear, anger, and yes, terror.
Six years later, we still feel those emotions, along with the deep aching that will never go away. Tomorrow, we remember, all in our own way, and will every day of our lives.

Now, at least one day of school is behind every Rockland district (even Pearl River schools got in one day before classes were canceled at all schools after a bomb threat was called in this morning. Yes, sad but true.)
Besides the aforementioned mess, we’ve been getting a lot of letters, mostly complaints about transportation. Some parents are mad their middle schoolers have to cross busy streets. Some think it’s unfair that their high schoolers have to walk a mile to school. There are the requisite complaints of late buses. A couple families who had the school bus come into their cul-de-sac are disappointed that this year, their kids have to go out the main road and cross to the other side to pick up the bus. (Even my bus stop has some grumbles. The driver has a bad habit of taking off before all the kids are seated on the elementary school bus. This isn’t new. He did it last year and it was just as irritating.)
What seems fair for school bus service? It’s a huge part of every district’s budget. The safety-cost formula is a tricky one. Where does convenience come in? Thoughts?