One thing that hasn’t changed over the past several years is Big Apple’s association with Rockland 21st Century Collaborative for Children and Youth, or 21C. Every time the Big Apple Circus comes to Lot J of the Palisades Center, one show is a fund-raiser for 21C.

21C runs the Family Resource Centers in seven of the county’s eight school districts.

Rockland is the only suburban county in the United States to have such a partnership—there are 31 Family Resource Centers in Rockland public schools. 21C uses the school setting to help provide early education and care, school age care, family support, mental health, health, and social services.

A nonprofit helping a nonprofit. Nice stuff.

Now, maybe I was too prepared, even looking for the plates, maybe because I wasn’t in crowded rush hour conditions, but I was able to negotiate them. I could see, though, especially the first time that drivers may try to swerve out of the lane.

But there may be another reason I was relatively unfazed—I just returned last night from a five-day, 1,800-mile road trip with my sister, her kids and my kids. After all that driving, on the worn roads of I-80 through Pennsylvania to the downpours across Ohio, to the side roads around Indiana, it may take more than mere steel plates to shake me. Best part about the driving: Using my EZ Pass to pay I-Zoom tolls in Indiana. Who knew?? Worst part? The approximately $350 we spent on gas alone!

Oh, and if you happen to decide to drive 1,800 miles in five days, may I recommend visiting: Toledo Zoo (baby elephant!), Indiana Dune State Park (the sand ‘sings’ and Lake Michigan is huge.) Cedar Point in Sandusky OH (tons of roller coasters; much more exciting than driving the TZ, whether or not you’re dodging steel plates and portruding bolts.)

Roadwork ahead: As this major deck replacement job continues, let’s remember that the Tappan Zee Bridge-Interstate 287 Project Team is due to announce its preferred alternative for the public transportation mode for an overhaul of the 30-mile corridor. That decision also includes whether the 3-mile bridge would be rehabbed or replaced, or even given a “sister” bridge. The announcement was to come in May; then it was rescheduled to June. It’s July 1.

If you think those plates are adding bumps, just wait…

But only twice, in the tournament’s first year in 1961 and again in 1964, have they faced each other.

It happens again tomorrow, when Stony Point’s Giants face the Haverstraw Cardinals in the 48th championship game, at 11:30 a.m. The action begins earlier, with an exhibition game by players from the District 18 Challenger Little League, for children with disabilities at 10 a.m. and the finals of the tournament’s skills competition at 10:30 a.m.

The Tournament has been played since 1961, when a partnership formed between The Journal News and Haverstraw Little League to benefit Jawonio, the Rockland affiliate of the Cerebral Palsy Associations of New York State. In almost a half-century, the tournament has raised about $350,000 for the Summer Education Program at Jawonio, a New City agency that provides a variety of services to individuals with disabilities.

Tomorrow’s clash, at Haverstraw’s Leo Laders American Legion Post 130 Memorial Field, is one the players will never forget. Although they will be opponents tomorrow and perhaps throughout their Little League careers, some no doubt will grow up to be teammates at North Rockland High School, which serves both towns.

It’s one of those clashes that bestows bragging rights for a lifetime.

Don’t tell the Cardinals, but back in the 1960s, Stony Point won both championships.

No matter the outcome, this year’s tournament will be memorable for a come from behind walk-off home run that won a first-round game for East Ramapo and for the no-hitter by Anthony Riello that vaulted Stony Point to the final game. There were other great games and memorable moments, but perhaps will measure up to tomorrow’s outcome—at least for two teams that both have their eye on the same prize.

They’ve sensed that people may be reluctant to just waltz into their respective village halls to meet the mayor, so the chamber has come up with a more low-key, constituent-friendly approach.

Residents can have a buffet supper and beverage with Haverstraw Mayor Michael Kohut or West Haverstraw Mayor John Ramundo this evening at 7 at the Haverstraw Elks Lodge. Pomona Mayor Nick Sanderson has been invited to take part, but whether he’ll be there remains uncertain.

Both Kohut and Ramundo say they are available almost anytime residents want to speak with them, but they still welcome this opportunity because it connects them with constituents in a different, more comfortable setting.

Tickets, which are available at the door, are $25.

But it’s also tough to turn away veteran groups that ask for money for parades, Memorial Day or Veterans Day observances or to fund their efforts to reach out and help veterans of Afghanistan or Iraq.

It’s also easy to say that the veterans groups should raise the money they need for such activities. To a degree, that’s right, but the reality is that some American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars posts are made up mostly of elderly members who can’t stand in traffic or outside supermarkets trying to collect what they need.

County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef could come off looking like Scrooge, saying he’ll veto the next batch of funding requests for veterans sent to him by the County Legislature.

It may be a little late in the game to make that firm stand this year.

But Vanderhoef is right to suggest that veterans groups should have to follow the same procedure as the so-called contract agencies—groups that get funding included in the county budget to help them perform services or activities vital to the community.

After all, veterans know when they hold activities and observances—Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Flag Day and the like—and they know how much money they need and when. If fact, that gives them a bit of an advantage over other contract agencies, whose needs may fluctuate or be more unpredictable.

So, let’s not turn them aside blindly this year, but reach out to all the groups, perhaps through the Veterans Coordinating Council, to let them know how the process works and get them ready to get in line like everyone else.

My favorite, though, was his discussion of baseball vs. football, especially enjoyable because I heard it when I was was with my dad, who was a huge football fan. Me, I prefer baseball. But we both got the routine. And, my kids knew who he was because he wason the TV show, “Shining Time Station,” playing it straight as the miniature Mr. Conductor. My kids didn’t know my dad, but the same guy made them laugh, in very different ways.

One of the salves for the ills of sprawl is the “Transit Village” concept, or Transit-Oriented Development, TOD. The “transit village” idea is quite a trend among community planners. (Here’s another transit village look.)

The “transit village” idea (and its complementary buzzword “smart growth”) has been mentioned during the glut of meetings about the Tappan Zee Bridge/Interstate 287 Corridor Project.

We are expecting to hear this month (maybe) about the preferred alternative for phase 1 of the massive TZ/I-287 project. That announcement will give the transportation mode, and whether the Tappan Zee Bridge would be rehabbed or built anew, plans that would then undergo a thorough environmental review. As that study goes on, phase 2 will determine where any public transportation stations would connect to the corridor. That’s where the “transit village” buzzword is heard. These multi-use commercial-retail-residential areas that are expected to crop up around transit stations (either commuter rail or bus rapid transit in Rockland, or possibly both or maybe neither, depending on what the TZ/I-287 Project portends.)

I’ve heard and read several comments about the “reurbanization” trend lately, including this article today in this Wall Street Journal article.

Thoughts about living, working, shopping in such a transit village, or having it built in your hometown? What about other projects, like Riverspace Arts’ plans for downtown Nyack? How should public transportation fit there? Should Spring Valley’s downtown revitalization incorporate more of the transit village concept?

Hmm. It seems rather cruel. And, this is a pretty big school. No one there, no beloved teacher, fellow student, administrator could give a first-hand account of what it is like to lose a loved one? There was no program that could be effective short of shocking the living daylights out of these kids, and toying with their emotions? Yes, teens feel invincible, and it’s a hard lesson to get to sink in. But faking death? Seems too much to me. Thoughts?

Onto potty language: It seems that those agencies that deal with restrooms use terms very specifically. In plumbing regulation-speak, the room is the “toilet” and the commode is the “water closet” and the sink is the “lavatory.” So, even in the big department store, the actual room is the toilet, though there are 20 toilets in there.

ADA adds space: Also, the Americans with Disabilities Act regulates the amount of accessible stalls. But if there’s only one stall, it has to be accessible (makes sense.) That means many smaller restaurants just take down the stall and leave an open room. Problem is, that means only one person can be in there at a time. That shuts out “multi-use” moments of one person washing up as another uses the facilities. Everything’s a tradeoff.

More potty info: Public restrooms with timers  record length of stay information. Muncipalities have found that the timers (which trigger doors unlocking and/or lights switching off when the time’s up) have to be set to 15 or even 20 minutes. That’s hardly the average stay, but such a visit happens enough to make the length of time have to change.

The litter letter program officially launched in November of 2007. “We’re proud,” KRB Executive Director Andy Stewart said of the three-digit milestone. “I think it fulfills an essential community need, which is people have to communicate the rules of the game to people who aren’t playing by the rules.

“We’re giving people an opportunity to communicate expectations of responsible behavior to other individuals who need to hear that, becuase, they, too are members of the community,” Stewart said. “That’s how community works. ... Litterbugs are not bad people. The goal here is to reach out with a reminder and a little slap on the wrist. There’s plenty of slobs out there, when they get the letter, they really do hear it. most people know they shouldn’t litter … but if there’s pushback, they’re going to think twice about it.

Stewart noted that the vehicle owner who receives the letter may not be the driver who was seen tossing a wrapper out the window. “It could be the parent of a driver, or owner of a roofing company.” And that’s OK, he notes. Business owners would likely appreciate the headsup about littering workers. They don’t want their employees, especially if they’re driving a truck with the company’s logo on the side, performing such an environmentally damaging deed.

Stewart noted that the litter-calling brigade is one thing, and law enforcement of the litter laws (it’s a violation with fines that reach into the hundreds of dollars in some areas) is another. The litter letters, he said are”not intended to be a substitute for police writing litter tickets.”