Turn on Route 340 from 303, heading east. You first detect a faint odor. Wet socks? Within seconds, as you pass the entryway to Rockland County Sewer District No. 1’s Sewage Treatment Plant. And then it hits you — the dense rank air, the smell.

Equipment failures at the sewer district’s plant has caused the smell throughout the neighborhood along 340. The main contributor though, are problems with “digestor tanks.” In December, the cover on one failed, so it was taken out of service. Then, the second tank ran into problems when bolts apparently blew loose from built-up gas. The epoxy in which the bolts were set didn’t hold up, it seems. So, then the stuff was put in the first tank with the metal cover problem. What’s that stuff? Sludge that still contains a significant amount of wastewater. When it sits in the million-gallon digestor tanks, a biological process that involves heating and mixing help break down organic matter. The solids form a treated sludge that is taken to the county Solid Waste Management Authority in Hillburn, where it is turned into compost. See TJN staff writer Laura Incalcaterra’s story on LoHud today to understand the whole process.
So, what to do now? Well, an emergency plan was set at a meeting this afternoon, sewer district Chairman Jules Graifman, Orangetown Supervisor Thom Kleiner (also a sewer commissioner, even though most of his town’s residents don’t use Sewer District #1) state Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee, Rockland County Legislator John Murphy, R-Orangeburg, Orangetown Town Board Member Nancy Low-Hogan and sewer district Executive Director Dianne Philipps and town sewer director Ron Delo. They will work together to go to the Legislature and County Executive with their plan. What they will do is hire a company to remove the contents of one digestor (it’s not ready to be transported, and they can’t get the processing done with the way the equipment is now). Then they will bring in an engineer to come up with fixes. Then get that one fixed. Then they are onto the other digestor. Meanwhile, to help control odors, they will come up with some misting to hold down the wafting smell.

How long will this take? Six months was what I heard, “at least.”

So, the first tank failed in December. The second in January. Now, it’s August. The neighbors are putting up (since spring!) with a horrendous smell (it abates at times, but it is really pukey!). Now, with the county in a budgetary deep-freeze (last week the County Executive froze all unfilled positions) it’s a tough time to come up with the extra workers and money to get this done.  Why, when the first tank was knocked out, wasn’t there an assessment about there being no backup?

But, if you think this doesn’t need to be done, drive down Route 340. Breathe deep. Imagine living in one of those nice little homes along the road, on a day like today, and being unable to open your windows.

So it begins. Faga Savino, LLP, has sent the Town of Ramapo a Freedom of Information Act request, with 25 requests. The documents requested focus on the town’s acquisition of the Tilcon quarry, and the subsequent possible sale of the land to developer Sheldon Goldstein. The lawyer filing the FOI requests is James L. Hyer, who ran for Town Board last year on the Preserve Ramapo ticket. Hyer, a Spring Valley resident, verified that, indeed, Preserve Ramapo is his client.

The issue? Quarry Ridge. The 65-acre site in Suffern, a spent quarry once owned by Tilcon New York, was gifted by Tilcon to the town. Now, a couple years later, Ramapo has a plan to sell it to developer Goldstein for $4.4 million. The developer would put 444 condominiums at the 65-acre site, plus a flood-control system to ease the damage that comes when the Mahwah River swells. Ramapo Town Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence touts this plan as a way to get an expensive and necessary drainage project in place. But, the quarry’s in Suffern, so the zoning is Suffern’s call. If Goldstein can’t get the village board to go along, he can walk. No sale, no drainage plan. “We’re concerned hat the property is being transferred at lower than market value,” Hyer said by phone today. “A municipality has to make good faith efforts for any land that they’re alienating,” which is I guess how a lawyer says “selling.”

So, $4.4 million for 65 open acres? What do you think?

AND NO SMALL POINT: St. Lawrence touts the town’s great Open Space program (“The Town of Ramapo is 55% parkland & growing!” one town flier pronounced). He got caught last year in a tangle when Preserve Ramapo noted that none of the land, save for the Mitch Miller property, had been formally dedicated as parkland; St. Lawrence said it wasn’t necessary. Months later, he said he would consider going through the process of dedication if it would make people comfortable. I guess that didn’t include the Tilcon Quarry, listed on that same town flier as #16 of 23 sites categorized as “Open Space, Parkland & Historic Preservation 2003-2007.”

With all the attention paid to The Greatest Generation, the Americans who lived through the danger and deprivation of World War II, there was a danger that the veterans of the next war in our history—Korea—might be overlooked or outright forgotten.

But we’re doing better remembering, mostly because those veterans don’t let us forget.

We don’t forget that they left families and homes to fight in places few had ever heard of. And we remember because they have taken the baton, offering other veterans the moments of dignity and respect they deserve at the end of their days.

Since 1993, they have marked the anniversary of the end of their war—the one that took the lives of 27 young Rockland residents who answered the call.

And since the government trimmed back on veterans services, the Korean War Veterans of Rockland have carried the colors and stood at attention at the graves of hundreds of veterans being laid to rest.

Without the Korean War Veterans, their burials would have lacked that extra dimension of caring and respect of veterans standing by for their fellow veterans.

In those graveside ceremonies and in anniversary observances like that Sunday, the Korean veterans teach to future generations of veterans—from Vietnam, Desert Stork and Iraqi Freedom—the lessons they learned and the legacy they’ve built.

This week’s Watcher column talks about “sidewalks to nowhere.” Surely you have them in your community. There’s a stretch of concrete, then nothing, maybe not even a road shoulder along a busy street, then more sidewalk, then maybe a few hundred feet of overgrowth. In lots of places, you can’t walk from here to there.

I remember trying to walk from downtown Nyack to the former Journal News offices on Route 303 in West Nyack. Route 59 is a no-go, even though there are areas with nice, wide sidewalks. I see people do it, but it looks unsafe. I finally went roundabout, up 9W, on Christian Herald Road onto 303 South. There weren’t sidewalks that way, either, but there was a bigger buffer between me and traffic in the places where sidewalks didn’t exist. And hiking up Christian Herald is a nice little workout.

Unfortunately, many of these unwalkable places would be hard to fix: infrastructure is difficult to put in after-the-fact. The price of too much development, too fast, with too little attention to planning. Too bad, in a $4-a-gallon-of-gas, obesity-epidemic culture, it would be nice to have the option to walk. Of course, the safety issue is there, too. We’ve had heartbreaking events in Rockland, people hit by trains using the tracks as a shortcut, pedestrians hit by cars along thoroughfares that push walkers too close to traffic.

This afternoon, in short succession, we received e-mailed press releases from the County Executive (2:16 p.m.) and the County Legislature leadership (2:22 p.m.) about drastic measures as the county tries to heal its $18 million operating deficit. The county ended 2007 with nearly $29.5 million less in revenue than anticipated, which was offset by $11.2 million that was budgeted but never spent, auditors reported this week. That’s still whopper of a shortfall for a budget that was about $647 million in 2007. (I’m no financial whiz, and don’t ever let me balance your checkbook, but missing on both ends—even when one is a gain—still seems like that’s not the goal of fiscal management.)

The county exec’s press release (find it on the county’s Web site) talks of spending cuts in all county departments by 50 percent, which would save the county “and its residents” an estimated $4 million this year. Returning “take-home” county vehicles (except for law enforcement) could bring another $50,000 in savings.

Over at the Legislature, that body of government, too, will cut spending by 50 percent for the rest of the calendar year. (Their press release is posted on the County Legislature News Page.) “The spending cuts relate to office equipment and supplies.” Plus, they are going to institute a moratorium on legislative districtwide mailings for the rest of 2008, and encourage e-mail to constituents and posting newsletters, etc. on the Legislature’s Web site.

These are great, wonderful ideas (especially the environmentally- and cost-friendly electronic newsletters!)

So, why did they have to wait until now? In May, the county’s undesignated fund balance was operating at a $12 million deficit. Belt tightening works better if you do it before your slip is showing.

Here’s a glimpse of the news coverage about the cuts; look for a more detailed story on LoHud tomorrow.

Talk of re-establishing the national speed limit, at 55 mph, was a big topic of conversation this weekend. My sister and I were on our second roadtrip in as many weeks (yes, great timing with gas prices) and she asked what I thought about it. I was driving at the time because, well, relatively speaking, she’s a slowpoke.

My sister began driving in 1974, the year Congress first imposed the limit to save gas during the Arab oil embargo. (Ahem, she’s my older sister. By three years.) It was a pretty big deal, as I recall, when the freeway and highway signs changed to 55. Maybe that’s why she still goes 55. Me, I go with the flow of traffic. She always wants me to drive.

Our first roadtrip this summer, through the Midwest, had us going in places where the speed limit was 70 mph. Sandy, my sister (older sister, I might add, though not by much) couldn’t go 70 is she tried. Not her style.

This Saturday, we were driving to upstate Connecticut, near the Rhode Island border. It was no pleasure trip. Sandy’s son had taken ill at camp, and we needed to get there directly. She had me drive.

As for the 55 mph rollback, she saw merit in the idea. Safety was her top reason, and fuel efficiency. It could save about 2 percent of the nation’s highway fuel consumption and it would save thousands of lives in high-speed highway accidents.

Me? I think we could do it and make it pay off in another way. All speeding tickets would carry an infrastructure surcharge. The extra $5 or $10 would go into a national fund to fix bridges and roads that are in serious disrepair nationwide. If that was part of the deal, I’d support it, and maybe even drive 55, if that was with the flow of traffic.

As for the trip, we did pretty well, timewise (yes, I drove) and we got to reminisce about the roadtrips we used to take when we were teens. And, most important, my nephew is doing fine.
Here’s USA Today’s forum chat about rolling back the national speed limit.

Monday night, more than 50 people from around the county showed up at a Haverstraw Town Board public hearing on United Water’s plans to place a pilot water treatment plant on the Hudson. Recall that United Water been ordered by the Public Services Commission to come up with a long-term water supply solution to Rockland’s needs. The pilot plant is a precursor to a permanent water treatment plant (they don’t think “desalination plant” reflects what they are doing)  that would tap the Hudson to increase Rockland’s water supply.

And of course, yesterday, Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. was granted a 3 percent rate increase, over each of the next three years, by the PSC. Part of that increase is needed to make about $185 million worth of infrastructure improvements, including new substations and the upgrading of transmission lines, O&R spokesman Mike Donovan told Journal News staff writer Laura Incalcaterra. Why? The same reason United Water needs to boost the supply. Because demand has soared. Because the development trajectory in this county is straight up, up, up.

Are United Water and O&R responsible for curbing development? United Water has been clear that it is mandated to provide the water. That, though, doesn’t mean those concerned with United Water’s project should stop their fight. But they also need to demand real, real, real master plans from municipalities, ones that lay out development plans that are actually followed, and incorporate Smart Growth guidelines instead of knocking down woods for more one-acre zoned single-family McMansions.

Bring in more water (and electricity) and they will come? You betcha.

Some of our LoHud forum posters took issue with one paragraph in the news coverage of Brandon Berman’s funeral yesterday — the mention that only the driver was wearing a seat belt in Saturday’s fatal crash on the New York State Thruway. Brandon was one of five in the car returning from the Jersey shore. The driver lost control of the car while driving north on the highway. The car struck the center guardrail and rolled over onto the other side of the highway, according to New York State Police. Berman, a rear-seat passenger, was partially ejected from the car. It was his 19th birthday.

The crash was tragic. Brandon’s death is heartbreaking, wrong, wrong, wrong. Sad. A true senseless loss that causes so many pain. It was an accident.

But, the mention that he wasn’t wearing a seat belt should be made. Repeatedly. Putting on a seat belt is easy. It is also lifesaving. It is not disrespectful or insensitive to say that. It is a way to spread the word so others are reminded to click the belt and possibly save their lives. That Brandon didn’t—and according to police none of the other passengers did either—shows the tragic ramifications. It is as much a part of the story as the outpouring of support for his family, the descriptions of a funloving, supportive friend, a great brother an avid sports fan and participant.  He was a whole, wonderful, valuable, loved young man. His death is a great loss to our whole community.

But we shouldn’t skip mentioning he wasn’t wearing a seat belt, according to police.  Some forum posters viewed the mention as “insensitive.”   Others, though, hoped the information would help others be safe. One poster, pal1111, who has posted s/he saw the accident scene, wrote, in part:

No one can bring you back, but hopefully by your death young people will be more viligant … Driving is serious and dangerous. Like someone else stated…lock the seat belts.

Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, one of the county’s largest employers and still riding high on its ever growing foray into open-heart surgery and advanced cardiac treatment, has announced it will lay off 34 workers, staff writer Jane Lerner reports today.

That was part of 80 who lost jobs in its parent company’s facilities. The cuts were, in part, pinned to declining Medicare/Medicaid reimbursements, reductions in HMO and insurance reimbursements,  health care for the uninsured and underinsured.

Good Samaritan invested $25 million in its new heart center, Active International Cardiovascular Institute, that opened in 2007. It’s the only facility to offer such cardiac services in New York west of the Hudson River between New York City and Albany. But that kind of investment won’t be earned back overnight. And, the program has been steadily growing, adding much in-demand services, like a complete electrophysiology laboratory that was opened in April. Its programs have rated well.

Health care is a tough business. There are lots of variables that are often out of a provider’s control. Add to that offering the right balance of services that will attract patients, and reimbursements. The cardiac care provided by Good Sam is much needed in the community, and the new program has earned good reviews.

In April 2007, the hospital reported a $14 million profit for its last fiscal year, though half of that was from a one-time source. But by February 2008, the hospital was laying off 59 people. Earlier this month, a Good Sam spokeswoman said no more layoffs were planned when the hospital reported it was likely to end its fiscal year with a shortfall.

Nyack Hospital’s had some rocky financial times. It, too, has invested in a specialty field — its Union State Bank Cancer Center offers treatments that are hard to find anywhere else in the region.

It’s kind of weird, isn’t it, that even local hospitals have to have a gig? A niche? For all of us who rely on them, let’s hope Good Sam and Nyack find out how to keep financially healthy.

Given recent events, asking for a volunteer to step forward for the South Orangetown School Board is like asking for a volunteer to lead the troops through a mine field.

After a contentious election and a divisive debate over whether or not Howard Sokol should take his seat he won in the district election, the board owes it to the public to allow voters to pick his replacement.

Sokol, at long last, finally did what he should have done immediately—stepped aside after getting cited for drunken driving one night after winning a term on the board.

The board can’t function properly for any length of time with the vacancy, but the answer to filling the seat is a special election—not appointment.

There’s a cost attached to holding a special election and it will take a while to get it all done, it’s true.

But fast and cheap don’t always add up to the best answer.

Giving voters the choice of who should replace a trustee who never really took office is the right way to go.