Our kickoff meeting was held on April 12, 2007 and featured former NRCC counsel and current Rockland County District Attorney Tom Zugibe as our keynote speaker. Other guests have included Town Supervisors Howard Phillips and Phil Marino. Dr. Brian Monahan, Superintendent of the North Rockland Central School District; Jennis Brandon-Watson of Tomorrow’s Workplace; members of the Stony Point Police Department, who gave presentations on safety programs for both businesses and residents; and engineers from United Water, who explained the Hudson River desalination project.
We hosted three property tax forums featuring the town supervisors, members of the school district administration, and Board of Education, and a representative from the governor’s office, Senator Thomas Morahan, Assemblywoman Nancy Calhoun, and Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowski Jr. We also facilitated the collection of petitions that helped the school district receive additional state aid in 2008, and formed Focus Groups to help the School Board find ways to reduce its budget and to address the needs of the businessesaffected by the closing of the Farley Bridge in Stony Point.
We are deeply saddened by the death of our beloved Thomas Morahan, who dedicated his life to public service.
We’ve promoted our organization and its members at numerous community events throughout North Rockland, produced North Rockland’s first ever Expo and Job Fair at North Rockland High school in 2008 and Family & Business Expo in 2009; gave a $500 scholarship to to a graduating North Rockland High School Academy of Finance student; are helping to establish the Cedar Pond Brook Nature Trail in Stony Point; and are collecting recipes for a fundraising cookbook that will help raise awareness of the diversity and creativity of our local cuisine while raising funds to support our programming.
And we’ve managed to have some fun, too. We’ve hosted networking events, held barbecues at River Front Park in Stony Point, and hold our holiday parties at Fireside Restaurant.