Maybe I’m wrong, but there’s one thing that has struck me about every snow we’ve had so far this winter.
Unless I missed it, there hasn’t been one accumulation yet that’s been made up of the light, fluffy flakes that swirl along the ground and fall off your car with the wave of a hand.
Each time we’ve had any accumulation (have you noticed that most all of them have come on Sunday night into Monday?) it’s been the heavy, water-logged kind that’s too heavy to push.
You’ve just got to shovel it away.
That doesn’t sound like the type of snow they’re hoping for once the new Tappan Zee Bridge deck replacement is finished.
The new deck units come with higher side walls with no openings plows can push snow through.
The answer, Thruway Authority officials say, will be to borrow a snowblower from another region of the Thruway and blow the snow off the span.
Not the snow we’ve been having, unless that snowblower has the force of a jet engine.
They acknowledge that a major storm of 10 to 12 inches could be a problem, forcing them to use the snowblower rather than pushing the fallen flakes to one end or the other.
I guess they’re betting against one of those 27-inch blizzards we get now and then.

Our school district was among several in the LoHud region that called a 2-hour delay for today. The call was made last night, as predications for 4 to 10 inches of snowfall made many districts concerned. Of course, that’s not what happened.

Near us, there was just a little snow on the car windows, a dusting on the grass and nothing on the roadways. Some areas had more snow, but few in Rockland had much. Yet, some districts had already made the 2-hour-delay call. Should the delay have been called so early? With the information districts had, it made sense.

Sure, people will be mad at some school officials for the snow delay that wasn’t, but that’s a “glass half empty” view. Safety always outweighs convenience, and the attempt to call it the night before surely made planning for staff and parents alike a little better. Unfortunately, weather prediction is hardly and exact science.

Here’s my upside: I was talking this morning with a friend who is a dental hygienist. She, too, was practicing the fine art of kid-juggling this morning as she needed to get to work and needed to make sure her kids were safe and school-ready. I noted to her that we are both in professions—journalism and dentistry—that aren’t very popular at times. But, we can always pity the poor meteorologist, who gets blamed for acts (or no-shows) of nature.

The story chat on a recent article about North Rockland school district is quite interesting. The district has been hit more than most when it comes to rising tax bills. The Mirant tax assessment settlement, and the future lost resources from the power company have and will put more of a burden on taxpayers in the district that encompasses Haverstraw and Stony Point. The problem, though, isn’t as simple as lost revenue from a big ratable. (It never is.)
The school board—which last election gained two members who have put the tax question front-and-center—asked the superintendent to provide information on a reduced income budget. Basically, the board wanted a picture of what a $13 million cut would look like.

Just the idea of having a discussion about dramatic cuts was surely scary for some, especially parents worried that the tax cuts could be balanced on the backs of kids. The discussion took on political tones, as just about any money discussion would.

But, really, this is a discussion that every district should have, every year. If such examinations aren’t taking place, that’s more of a concern than whether they should. Does requesting a list of cuts that could be made mean they should be, or will be, made? No. Making such a list shows the education/social/economic tradeoffs that every community in this state must make. Let’s hope this is only the beginning, and that those who want quality schools at any cost can hear the frustration of other taxpayers, and that those who are fed up with high taxes can see the that the cost of some cuts may not be worth the bottom line. But, the more the groups work together the more likely they are to find workable ways to ease the tax burden and preserve the quality of education.

I, too, am getting used to the new LoHud.com format. It’s all there (I’m sure it is, if I just can find it…) and now there’s even more. Here’s a great feature that’s worth a look-see: a tutorial for using some of the options, including Rockland’s own MoJo (motorized journalist) Christina Jeng explaining how to comment, give news tips, sharing photos, and of course, my favorite, submitting a letter to the editor. Take a spin on LoHud and see how you like it. Then, post a critique.

You’ve got to think that the gleaming Avon research and development center in downtown Suffern would be safe, but the company is planning on cosmetic surgery—a nip and tuck that will soon leave them shy 2,400 jobs.
To read the wire reports of comments by Avon execs, the idea is to suffer the expense of the cuts now in order to improve the bottom line later.
A lot of the operations that are in line for restructuring are in Western Europe and Latin America, but once corporate surgeons get the scalpel out, there’s no telling who gets clipped.
Losing some staff in Suffern—and remember, there’s no certainty that will happen—would seem to undermine the effort to bring their research under one roof.
With some nifty work a few years back by Ramapo officials, who jumped in to save a large employer while Suffern officials were debating the tax impact of offering incentives to stay, the research facility landed right where the California Perfume Co. put down roots in 1897.
Let’s hope the company’s face lift leaves Suffern without scars.

So there I was, trying to do a good thing and make a long trip to a wake for a former colleague’s daughter.
When I read the obituary, what stuck was that the funeral home was in Allentown.
Naturally enough, I thought Allentown, Pennsylvania, a place I often pass on trips to visit my daughter at college in West Virginia.
So I got on line, Googled directions for the funeral home address and set out for 114 N. Main Street, in Allentown.
I made good time, getting there in under two hours and drive right to the address.
It was a private home.
I checked the address for the funeral home and realized that when I asked for the directions to 114 S. Main, Google turned into 114 N. Main—without a clue that it didn’t recognize the address I had entered.
So, I backtracked a bit and went searching around where I thought I’d find S. Main Street.
There was none. Checking at a couple of gas stations didn’t help. They didn’t even recognize the name of the funeral home.
Turns out, there is no S. Main Street in Allentown, PA., but there is one in Allentown, N.J., another two hours or so away, down near Trenton.
Like I said, it was a nice idea.

New Jersey Transit and the Metro-North Railroad will be studying ways to make improvements on the Pascack Valley Line, which serves Pearl River, Nanuet and Spring Valley.
The line has recently added off-peak service in both directions between Rockland and Hoboken. There’s new weekend service in place and the line just offered what one transportation observer says was the first scheduled holiday service in 60 years.
The list of items to be discussed even includes a possible second track, but that’s a long way off. For now, we’ll have to make due with a few passing sidings—including the one just south of Convent Road in Nanuet—which allow trains to operate in both direction’s on the line’s single track. Life would be easier if New Jersey communities hadn’t fought against other sidings, but the three have made a major difference in transportation options for three Rockland locations.
But the big picture?
Metro-North will be part of any commuter rail plan that comes with a new Tappan Zee Bridge. And here they are working to expand ridership on lines that will feed the NJ Transit and Port Authority tunnel that’s the heart of their Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) project.
ARC had roared past the planning delays on the Tappan Zee, but has slowed a bit in recent months as funding has become a bigger issue.
But for the moment, you have to think there are good things coming for the Pascack Valley Line.
And you have to think that will translate into many more devoted Manhattan-bound commuters heading through New Jersey by the time the Tappan Zee planners get their act together.

All 17 Rockland County legislators were up for election, or re-election, in November. So, all (except the two that didn’t attend last night’s meeting) were sworn in and had the opportunity to give speeches. Here are some of the more interesting comments:

Doug Jobson, District 1: “Settle in, I wrote a doozy.” Not. The less-than-verbose Stony Pointer gave a brief and direct speech, noting that he hoped the panel would “agreeably disagree” and “come together when we can to try and get the people’s business done.” Many made similar statements, but because of geography, he said it first.

Alden Wolfe, District 6 (ditto for Joe Meyers, District 12): “What a difference a year makes…” Wolfe was appointed, then lost the seat in the 2006 election to Bruce Levine. This time, Wolfe won. Meyers had sought appointment to the District 12 seat when Ellen Jaffee headed to Albany. The Legislature gave it to Pat Withers. Meyers then won the seat at the polls in November.

Phil Soskin, District 7: “You’re all here because democracy has worked.”

Bill Darden, District 8 and Harriet Cornell, District 10, both reserved the right to speak later in the meeting. He was named Legislature vice chairman, she was again named chairwoman, so they knew they would speak later. Pretty considerate, eh?

Gerold Bierker, District 9: He thanked those who ran against him because it made for more dynamic, substantive discussions. And, he adds, “All who sit at this dais are trying to do the best for you and and county at large.”

Joseph Meyers, District 12 (continued): “The ultimate decision-makers of democracy, the people, have had their voices heard.” See backstory under the Wolfe, District 6, entry.

Jacques Michel, District 13. The sheriff’s deputy and minister—and first person of Haitian descent elected to countywide office—threw in some Latin, Creole and Spanish. Dignitaries from Haiti and New York’s Haitian community attended. Many families, with small children dressed up for the historic evening, were in the audience. He talked about the “inseparable bonds between Haiti and America,” pointing to the Haitians who fought with the Colonists in the American Revolution. He spoke about a “new battlefield” of “social, political and economic freedom of all the people of Rockland County. He mentioned the need to “favor education over incarceration of our most precious assets, our children.” That his election was a first for Haitian-American Rocklanders was an important them. His speech started with, “About time, about time,” as cheers erupted and finished with: “We will walk slowly, but we will not walk backwards.”

John Murphy: District 16: In a scenario that seemed like an ideal setup for the wry Murphy, many of Michel’s supporters (especially those with young children) filed out the the Legislature chambers. It took some time. As they filed out, Murphy deadpanned: “I’ve had this effect on people all my life.” Of course, a man who has serve half his life, 35 years, in the Legislature had some important stuff to say, too. “Government is: to help the strong to help the weak …” said the man who advocates for, champions, and nurtures support for those with disabilities. He said, with no trace of hyperbole, that Rockland County is “the best human care county in the United States and the world.” If that is so, and I don’t doubt it, it is in no small part due to his advocacy over the years.

Winter holidays and cold weather add to the risk of a house fire. We all know that intuitively, with candles, lights and space heaters adding hazards if they aren’t properly managed and maintained.

In the last week or so, we’ve had articles on counterfeit electrical cords, and a jump in electrical fires in the region. An analysis of fire statistics in the Lower Hudson Valley showed Spring Valley and Pearl River ranked second and third in fire deaths in recent years. And, then, there’s yesterday’s Yonkers double-fatal fire. So many people will read the article and point to circumstances—a front door nailed shut, so firefighters took longer to get in, clutter that was too close to a space heater—that erase that “what if” warning such stories should evoke. Though the situation in this fire certainly is different than what happens in most homes, it’s still important to recognize every household has the potential for fire risk, even if these more obvious risks aren’t present.

Take a look at this list I copied from LoHud.com. Fire and electricity experts in the region have offered these general fire safety tips for ensuring electrical appliances and wiring are safe:

• Routinely check your electrical appliances and wiring to make sure they are not frayed or damaged.
• Replace all worn, old or damaged appliance cords immediately.
• Read labels on extension cords, don’t overload them and don’t run them under rugs or carpets.
• Keep electrical appliances away from wet floors and counters; pay special care to electrical appliances in the bathroom and kitchen.
• When buying electrical appliances look for products that meet the Underwriters Laboratory (UL) standard for safety.
• If an appliance has a three-prong grounding plug, use it only in a three-slot grounded outlet. Never force it to fit into a two-slot outlet or extension cord.
• Never overload extension cords or wall sockets. If you need more sockets, use a power strip with a circuit breaker.
• Check your electrical tools regularly for signs of wear. If the cords are frayed or cracked, or if the tools cause even small electrical shocks, overheat, short out or give off smoke or sparks, replace them.
• Never plug two power strips together.
• If you believe there is a problem with any component of your home’s electrical system, call a licensed electrician.