The Town of Haverstraw has come to an agreement with United Water Suez concerning the desal plant down by the river. Supervisor Phillips has announced that the former landfill property on Beach Road along with riverfront property owned by The US Gypsum Company will be the permanent site of a desal plant.

I applaud Mr. Phillips and the Town Board for working with Suez United Water and others in securing this most important plant, and I hope that for many years we as a siting community will benefit from this 21st century ratable.

I still have a sinking feeling that in the long term, this ’solution’ to the PSC rate case could cost us in North Rockland untold millions. The Ambrey’s Pond property in the Town of Stony Point I assume will now be sold and developed regardless of current zoning, adding an additional burden on the North Rockland School District. It would be nice if Suez were to leave the land in trust for future generations, but that would be wishful thinking. I guess the real impact of this whole project will never be known until we find out about the future of Ambrey’s, until the impact of all of Suez United Water proposals to Haverstraw Town have been revealed, and we get our first water bills.

As I have said any number of times here, the long term solution for a safe, secure water supply as well as settling of the PSC Rate Case could be had by simply siting a desal plant at the river. It just seems that a whole different group of environmentalists come out when these issues involve the Hudson River. I just hope Suez Environment and Haverstraw Town can battle Riverkeeper, S.P.A.C.E. , and the FUD these left-wing radicals employ. A safe secure supply of drinking water without a drastic increase in taxes due to the sale of Ambrey’s Pond are what the residents deserve. Let’s just hope this plan works.

The Complete Draft Enviornmental Imact Statement , including maps traffic, ect.

Here

Riverkeeper Testimony to the NY State Assembly

After the RIP Video was taken down, I was looking to find something “Good” about Haverstraw and found this wonderful video. The heading reads:

Documentary Photographs taken By Students Ages 5-17 from the Arts Alliance of Haverstraw After School Photography Program In Rockland County N.Y. Instructor Ken Karlewicz

Take a watch

The times they are changing, and that includes where we get our water from. If you were to believe United Water Company, read the proposals and think about it, your probably convinced as I am that a new desal plant located on the Hudson River can supply Rockland with a safe and secure supply of drinking water for the future . Ambrey Pond, United Water’s property in Stony Point, isn’t really feasible anymore and who wants a billion gallons of water up hill from them any way?  United also has a gun to their heads in the guise of a Rate Case . They can comply, if they choose, without building a desal plant, but the pressure is on to provide us in Rockland with at least a steady water supply, without facing shortages while still shipping our excess capacity over to New Jersey. That how their company works. They see our groundwater as their profits. Either way, if United can site the plant in North Rockland it will solve at least the basic supply problem.

This whole story has yet to be told. Below are some links to the issue. With the cost of energy now twice the price it was last year, will the fuel costs associated with desalination make the numbers go upside down ?  The water produced by desalination still costs at least $2 per 1000 gallons , more than twice the cost of conventional water treatment. A large part of this cost comes from energy use, and this rate doesn’t take into account the large increase in the cost of energy over the last 6 months. Who said the environmentalists would roll over on this? And what about the waste these plants generate ? You know the media loves to write stories about shit , but yet they never asked what happens to Ambrey Pond in the end. There’s no doubt as it stands the Town of Stony Point has strict zoning for that property, but if United Water invests $60 M + on new technology down by the river, methinks the Courts may see things differently. Especially if United had shown good faith. Either way, that would be an epic battle for the Town of Stony Point.

The S.P.A.C.E. group. They deserve their own billboard on issues such as this. Even the testing building would have been a wonderful ratable .

Mr. Potanovic and the Sierra Club.

Do you want to drink Hudson River water? from the

TerraFirma Newsletter

The D.E.C. region 3 meeting in Suffern.

I still have to stick to my original point. Desalination is a great idea, but when these things involve the Hudson River, a whole different group of environmentalists take the stage. Not only that, I am quite sure the price of energy, the transport of waste from the plant, and the community opposition will change things. That doesn’t bode well for a quick resolution to our water problem, and maybe United Water knows that.

As we all know, traffic in North Rockland is getting worse but there are a number of new jobs in the offing that will help reduce the strain. The problem is getting the job done in a reasonable and organized manner. Some of the most recent infrastructure jobs in both Haverstraw’s lacked some finishing touches, like detour signs and flagmen, which would boost the cost of the job. We know it only takes one bad flagman, or lack thereof, to put traffic to a standstill.  We mentioned here before the need for local government require at least a barebones traffic plan in all bids and we hope they heard us.

What worries me is that the biggest projects haven’t started. Farley Bridge, Short Clove Rd, The Ferry Dock, and Gurnee Ave all have yet to be awarded, and our most recent experience here in North Rockland wasn’t pretty. The Old Rt 210 job in Stony Point was a low bid gone bad. The PIP exit 13 debacle is another bid issue, or some such thing, and we are left with a real mess. It takes strong, well funded companies to manage the costs of these multimillion jobs, and the bidding reflects this to a certain degree. The problem is that the State is blind at times to the way the companies intend to complete the job. Look at the Tappan Zee deck job. The contractor had to take into account the weight and size of the panels in every facet of the job, but he still made arrangements with a sub-contractor to avoid the expense, taxes, and fee’s related to over-dimensional moves, and they got caught doing it.  I guess its the contractors job to cheat and the taxpayers job to catch them.

Either way, the bids for Short Clove are in and there is a $6 million gap. There is no way we as a community should just accept this without getting a real good look at the differences. This job, if it goes bad, could cause major traffic issues in North Rockland and it deserves a close inspection from all of our elected representatives.

Read the Bid Sheet

Route 9W, Elimination of Railroad Grade Crossing of Short Clove Road over CSX, relocation of Short Clove Road including the construction of a new intersection and two new bridges (concrete) and reconstruction of Route 9W, Village of Haverstraw.

THE DELANEY GROUP   $24,124,000.09

ECCO III ENTERPRISES $30,253,000.00

BEN CICCONE INC $31,917,799.60

A SERVIDONE     $33,695,451.80

The menu offers Latin-inspired dishes and Latin-infused takes on Continental standards, frequently with a great deal of success. It’s not a total culinary makeover, but well-known dishes are freshened with new accessories. Owners Paulo Feteira and David Martinez come with sterling credentials, but the food, service and the wine list are still evolving. Even so, this is an exciting addition to Haverstraw’s growing culinary scene.

Read More HERE

Welcome to the Bricktown Inn, located in the historic Village of Haverstraw, Rockland County New York. Once known as the "Brickmaking Capital of the World", many of the buildings in New York City, just 40 minutes away, were built from brick made in Haverstraw in the 1800’s.

This charming Victorian Bed and Breakfast, circa 1885, is located on the banks of the Hudson River in the Village of Haverstraw. The Haverstraw Brick Museum offers a wealth of information on the brickmaking industry in the village. The Inn has recently been renovated to include all modern amenities while maintaining the integrity of beautiful original architectural features such as a mahogany staircase, ten and a half foot ceilings and plaster moldings. Rooms at the Bricktown Inn have been artfully decorated with an eclectic mix of magnificent antiques and family heirlooms.

Visit the Bricktown Inn HERE

The Soup Stone Cafe has been delighting tongues for more than five years in its neat and cozy storefront at 14 Main Street in the Village of Haverstraw, next to Lucas Candy and the Haverstraw Brick Museum. Hot soup steams everyday at the Soup Stone; each day two special soups are offered to accompany sandwiches and wraps, or as a main course. Stone Soup, the cafe’s signature, is offered everyday.

Read more HERE

Information is getting very hard to come by in North Rockland lately, and what little sources we do have need attention. If I wanted a groundhog, I’d have voted for Phil. At least he sticks his head out a little more than some local pol’s do. Either way, here’s a couple of links for local issues. An update from our intrepid School Board member on the state of Lovett at Colehatchard.org which gives a rather bleak view of that particular ratable. And S.P.A.C.E . continues to muddy the waters on the water projects. And blow-by-blow accounts from Joe in Florida on the W.C.I. debacle. Hell, if the JournalNews knew how to run a forum without all the flames, I’d point you there. But that’s not happening. They have never even wrote an article on Ambrey Pond that I know of and thats the real story.

Meanwhile, the Town of Haverstraw is still deciding if the internet works for them, and Hector Soto is pushing. It shouldn’t be hard since Mr. Piperato has done it at his day job. My personal view is that all of the town data, from property to zoning, forms and permits, applications and town records should be online on an intranet version for use by town employees. They will be more productive and I will be better informed. What you, as a town, share on the internet can than be easily manipulated from there for me, the taxpayer.  Something as simple as the Minutes of the previous Town Board meeting really should be available to anyone the moment they have been read and accepted by the Board. This goes for all the Boards, from Planning on down. Good job Hector, I hope one day I can share that link.

A story ran today that United Water is engineering for a new desalination plant in North Rockland.  Admitedly, that sounds like the begining of a long and tedious battle. Desalination is a great idea, but when these things involve the Hudson River, a whole different group of enviromentalists take the stage. That dosen’t bode well for a quick resolution to our water problem, and maybe they know that. The real question is, what about Ambrey’s Pond?

An acute lack of traffic control is evident in  Haverstraw lately, as private contractors from everywhere have conspired to inturrupt the flow of traffic to complete long overdue infrastructure upgrades. For the sake of a couple of detour signs and a barebones plan, traffic was at times stopped dead, often routed the wrong way on one-ways and sent without direction into unsuspecting developments. As the region both grows and ages, we ought to think about who’s responsible for traffic during these jobs. It’s got to be specified to begin with, or in the case of the Village, just put it in the bid.