Congratulations to Makayla DePalma for winning our Virtual Valentine’s Day Contest! Thank you to everyone who participated in the contest. We enjoyed seeing how everyone celebrated the holiday and hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine’s Day.
(SPARKILL, NY – February 15, 2022) – St. Thomas Aquinas College’s Justice Studies Institute will be hosting a 3-part series entitled “Education, Decarceration and Re-entry.” This virtual series is free and open to the public.
The Justice Studies Institute at St. Thomas Aquinas College works to advance interdisciplinary examination and collaboration on justice-based issues at the College and within the broader community. Housed in the School of Arts and Social Sciences, the Justice Studies Institute brings together a diverse mix of faculty to foster critical dialogue.
A detailed schedule can be found below. Register here for one or all three virtual events.
Part 1: The Experience: What is it like to be a Formerly Incarcerated Student?
Meet students Eldredge Blalock and Jose Fitzgerald who will give a first-hand account on the transition from college while incarcerated to joining a college campus post incarceration.
Wednesday, February 16, 2022 | 6:30 PM | Zoom
Part 2: The Challenges of Re-Entry During a Pandemic: A Panel Discussion
Hear from leading activists in Rockland and Westchester County who work to improve the re-entry process and make connections between incarceration and higher education. Panelists include: Sean Pica (Hudson Link), Nicole Prais (Bridges), and Tarik Greene (OWDS and Activist for Returned Citizens)
Wednesday, March 9, 2022 | 6:00 PM | Zoom
Part 3: Educating Incarcerated Students: Lessons from Teaching at Sullivan
Hear from St. Thomas Aquinas College faculty with first-hand experience teaching at Sullivan Correctional Facility with Hudson Link.
Wednesday, April 6, 2022 | 6:00 PM | Zoom
St. Thomas Aquinas College is an independent liberal arts college located on 72 acres in Rockland County, NY, which provides education at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The College’s approximately 2,000 full and part-time students can choose from more than 100 different majors, minors, specializations, and dual-degree programs across four Schools: Arts & Social Sciences, Business, Education, and STEM. The College is recognized by U.S. News & World Report in the Top-Tier for Regional Universities, by Colleges of Distinction in both its New York and Catholic editions, by Affordable Colleges Online as a Top College in New York for Return on Investment, and is included as a Military Friendly School®. St. Thomas Aquinas College is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools; its School of Education is a candidate for accreditation by the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation (AAQEP), and its School of Business is accredited by the International Accreditation Council for Business Education (IACBE). For more information, visit www.stac.edu.
His decades of leadership helped to make Rockland County’s local emergency medicine sector one of the most innovative in New York State.
ROCKLAND COUNTY (February 15, 2022) — Rockland Mobile Care and Rockland Paramedic Services are announcing the retirement of founder and long-time CEO/Executive Director Ray Florida after more than three decades of service. Florida will continue to serve as a consultant to both agencies and act as a non-voting board member for both organizations. His successor is Tim Egan who has been with Rockland Paramedic Services (RPS) since its inception and worked alongside Florida even before the founding of RPS. The two have been working on the transition for more than a year to ensure a smooth shift in leadership.
Florida, who began his career in emergency medicine as a student in one of the first paramedic training programs at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the late 1970s, leaves behind a rich legacy. He worked as a paramedic and a captain, as well as a paramedic/EMT instructor, for New York City Emergency Medical Services in Manhattan for 13 years before coming to Rockland County, where he joined Good Samaritan Hospital as an EMS coordinator to launch a paramedic program for the Town of Ramapo. Eventually, Good Samaritan joined forces with Nyack Hospital as well as the local volunteer ambulance corps to form a nonprofit organization—Rockland Paramedic Services (RPS)—to run a single paramedic service for the entire county, with Florida at the helm. In 1998, Florida oversaw RPS’ launch of a wholly owned subsidiary, Rockland Mobile Care (RMC), to offer better transportation services between healthcare facilities throughout the county. Today, RPS and RMC are the primary providers of advanced life support 911 response and emergency and non-emergency ambulance transportation in Rockland County.
Throughout his career, Florida built a reputation for his innovative approach, helping to spur RPS and RMC to many forward-thinking offerings including being the first to use cellular telemetry to transmit EKGs and launching a Home-Based Crisis Intervention Program as well as a Mobile Mental Health Crisis Team – Rockland’s Behavioral Health Response Team or BHRT—which was the first of its kind in the nation and has since become a template used by other municipalities to launch similar crisis units.
The two organizations have flourished under Florida’s leadership. Today, RMC maintains a fleet of 18 ambulances, employs a staff of 100-plus, and runs a 24-hour communications center which houses one of the most advanced computer-aided systems in the region, while RPS operates seven highly-equipped rapid response vehicles serving towns across Rockland County. Together, RPS and RMC both respond 24/7 to a combined call volume of more than 45,000 EMS calls per year.
As he settles into his retirement, Florida reflects with pride on his accomplishments in what has been a very fulfilling career. “What I’m most proud of is that the EMS system has progressed significantly, and we have been able to save thousands of lives of Rockland County residents,” he said. “It has been a 30-year collaborative effort between our organization and all of the town governments, communities, and ambulance corps. And, I have had the honor of working with wonderful staff who have dedicated their lives to help make many of these accomplishments happen.”
“I am grateful to Ray for all of the opportunities he afforded me throughout my career at Rockland Paramedic Services,” said Egan. “For more than three decades Ray and I have worked together to provide the best pre-hospital care to the residents of Rockland County. I am proud to assume the Executive Director/CEO role and to follow the example set by Ray over the years.”
Moving forward, Florida hopes to see local, state, and federal governments working together to help alleviate the immense amount of pressure that the country’s emergency health care system is under. The pandemic has put intense strain on the industry, and Florida would like to additional funding for emergency medical programs as well as a greater focus on education and training for the next generation EMS/EMT workforce. “I’m hopeful that we can get to a point where EMTs and paramedics will make a better rate of pay and have more opportunity to advance themselves in the areas of emergency medical service,” he said.
Rockland Paramedic Services Rockland Paramedic Services is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit Advanced Life Support Service operating in Rockland County. They are the advanced life support first response service that operates in conjunction with the local volunteer ambulance corps. Through the EMS 911 system, they respond with the volunteer ambulance corps to all medical emergencies. Rockland Paramedic Services has made a firm commitment to staff to be the best trained and qualified paramedics in the Hudson Valley. RPS has concentrated its efforts toward providing the latest state-of-the-art equipment and lifesaving medical techniques available. To find out more visit www.rocklandparamedics.org or call 845-627-8612 or send an email to info@rocklandparamedics.org
The Village of of Haverstraw will host a public news conference on Thursday to discuss the plans for the “Chair Factory.”
CHAIR FACTORY
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17TH AT 11:30AM
EMELINE PARK 16 FRONT STREET
30-Day Moratorium on New Permit Applications in Effect until March 15th
New City, NY, – On Monday Rockland County Executive Ed Day, alongside newly appointed Director Ed Markunas, discussed the launch of the new County Office of Buildings and Codes which, effective February 14, 2022, assumed full control over the functions of the Village of Spring Valley Building Department as Ordered by New York State.
“I am proud to stand before you today to celebrate achieving the near-impossible,” said County Executive Ed Day. “In only three months, Rockland has launched a brand-new county Office of Buildings and Codes.”
The County of Rockland was ordered by the New York State Department of State on November 16, 2021, to take over the functions of the Spring Valley Building Department.
Preparing for the takeover has been an all-hands-on deck situation with staff from the Office of Fire and Emergency Services, Facilities Department, Purchasing Department, Information and Technology Services, Law Department, Personnel Department, Finance Department, Office of Consumer Protection, and the Office of the County Executive taking part.
A small scope of those accomplishments include:
The Office of Buildings and Codes main office is located on the 2nd Floor of Building A in the Robert Yeager Health Complex in Pomona. Rockland County will also have a small satellite office at Spring Valley Village Hall to accommodate the needs of village residents. The satellite office will be staffed by a clerk and certified code inspector to provide forms and answer questions.
Former NYPD Police Officer and Suffern Mayor Ed Markunas is the Director of the Office of Buildings and Codes. During his time as Mayor Ed Markunas oversaw the Village’s Building Department and developed and implemented the Village of Suffern Code Initiative (modeled after the incredibly successful Rockland Code Initiative) which combatted code, housing, and fire safety issues.
“Based on the information provided by Spring Valley there are over 800 outstanding inspections that we must tackle as quickly as possible which will be prioritized based on any safety concerns,” said Office of Buildings and Codes Director Ed Markunas. “To accomplish this, we have 20 certified code inspectors and several support staff who will tackle the outstanding inspections. As this process plays out, we are prepared to increase staffing and inspectors if the workload demands it.”
The County of Rockland created an Intermunicipal Agreement with Spring Valley which lays the groundwork for a smooth transition of this department under County control and prepares for the day that New York State decides to return it to Spring Valley. The agreement outlines the expectations and requirements of the working relationship between the County of Rockland and Village of Spring Valley including accessing their recordkeeping program and allowing their existing building and fire inspectors to report to and work for the county. The inclusion of fully vetted, existing village inspectors is necessary because they know local conditions best. With proper oversight, training, and direction these inspectors will help speed up this process significantly.
“Any Village employee who does not comport entirely with the rules and regulations of New York State will be removed from participating in our effort,” said County Executive Day. “I promise the people of Rockland that my top goal in fulfilling this order from New York State is to protect the health and safety of village residents, visitors and first responders.”
The new Office will operate under a strict zero-tolerance policy. Additionally, when it comes to enforcement of the Uniform Building and Fire Codes of New York State, inspectors will not hesitate to issue fines to those in violation.
“Fines are not the goal, they are just a tool that we will utilize whenever necessary,” said Director Markunas.
The Office of Buildings and Codes has instituted a 30-day moratorium which will end on March 15, 2022, on any new permit applications while the Office conducts a comprehensive review of all outstanding violations while resolving issues that pose an imminent threat to life, health, and safety. The Office requests all interested parties begin submitting complaints by calling 845-364-3700 or emailing BuildingsAndCodes@co.rockland.ny.us.
“This new Office will ensure strict compliance with all New York State Fire, Building and Energy Codes. There will be zero tolerance for anyone looking to skirt or circumvent the law. There will be a quality control and operational oversight piece to the effort that will ensure inspections are done right and by the book,” said County Executive Ed Day.