^outli o( the lff]ountain5 The Historical Society of Rockland County Vol. 48, No. 4 October-December, 2004 ■ . Town of Ramapo’s Housing Project on Poundview Drive The Energization of Ramapo The 225th Revolutionary War Anniversary A Baptism in Nyack Book Reviews IN THIS ISSUE The Energization of Ramapo................................................................... Page 3 Prodded by his children, John McAlevey wrote these pieces between 2001 and 2003. The author was born in Brooklyn and served as an Army fighter pilot during World War II. At Columbia University Law School, he met his first wife Hazel Hansen. The couple’s first home in Rockland County was in student housing at Camp Shanks in Tappan. In 1957, Mr. McAlevey became the first Democratic mayor of Sloatsburg and subsequently served four terms as Super­ visor of the Town of Ramapo. Ever energetic, John and his wife, Marlene, a retired school teacher, divide their time between their New York City apart­ ment and their home in the Adirondacks near Lake Placid. Commemorating the 225th Anniversary of the American Revolution in the Hudson Valley............................................................................................Page 11 Contributing editor, Marianne B. Leese, notes the commerative events of this year. Excerpts from diaries of two soldiers in Rochambeau’s army, as they cross the Hudson and march through Rockland County, are in an addendum. A Baptism in Nyack.........................................................................................Page 14 What is going on in the photograph on that old postcard? Book Reviews..................................................................................................... Page 18 Two books of local interest are reviewed by your editor: That Much Good Could be Done: St. John’s-in-the-Wilderness: The Legacy of Ada Bessie Carey and Mar­ garet Zimmerman by Odessa Elliott and The Brick House by Margaret English. COVER PICTURE. Contributing editor, Marianne Leese, resident Patricia Van Dunk, her children and friends stand in front of Pondview Houses, one of the notable projects built when John McAlevey was Supervisor of Ramapo. Photographed by Marjorie H. Bauer SOUTH OF THE MOUNTAINS (ISSN 0489-9563) is published quarterly by the Historical Society of Rockland County, 20 Zukor Road, New City, NY 10956; tele­ phone, 845-634-9629; fax, 845-634-8690, web site, RocklandHistory.org. E-mail, [email protected]. Single copy price of South of the Mountains is $5 including postage and handling. While all efforts are made to ensure accuracy in the articles, the society assumes no responsibility for opinions and conclusions expressed or implied by contributors. © 2004 The Historical Society of Rockland County All rights reserved Executive Director: Erin Martin Editor: Marjorie H. Bauer Senior Historian: Thomas F.X. Casey Consulting Editor: Marianne B. Leese Senior Historian Emeritus: John Scott 2 The Energization of Ramapo by John McAlevey The Best Paid Police Force East of scale and better morale than the the Mississippi Ramapo police—and we were the larg­ er town. I immediately set about When I became Supervisor of the shaking up the Town of Ramapo Town of Ramapo in January of 1966, I Police Department. found that I had on my hands a police Even before I could get into an department that was low in morale, organized program of reform, I was poorly equipped and woefully underpaid. presented with the opportunity to set I do not claim credit for all of what a tone. At that time, the Ramapo I undertook to do when I found this sit­ High School on Viola Road was in the uation on my hands. One of my Demo­ course of construction. cratic confreres in the county govern­ An agitated individual appeared in ment at the time was Paul Mundt, who my office to tell me that he was the had been Supervisor of Clarkstown for clerk of the works, supervising the con­ some years. If memory serves me cor­ struction. He had just witnessed a rectly, Paul became Supervisor of town police officer drive to the back of Clarkstown while I was still Mayor of the construction site and fill up the the village of Sloatsburg. trunk of the squad car with plants that Other than meeting at political were to be placed on the school grounds. affairs county wide, I hadn’t much to The clerk of the works took down the do with Paul until I became one of the number of the car as it drove off. five people running Rockland County I was outraged and immediately on the Board of Supervisors. Paul was called the police chief and ordered him then perhaps the senior Democrat to require the car to report to head­ (Bob Slocum of Stony Point may have quarters. I told the chief to send other antedated him by a bit) and we had policemen out to the home of the offi­ many conversations. Paul was most cer in question and to let no one enter generous in offering me the benefit of or leave the property. his experience. When the patrolman, whose name One of the things Paul said was to I cannot recall, came in with the chief, treat the police well and they will I told him what evidence I had, what become your avid political supporters. witness I had and what security I had I had certainly noticed that the Clark­ placed at his house. I told him to call stown police had a much higher pay an attorney: I was giving him an ulti­ 3 matum and I wanted someone to rep­ exchange for adequate pay and proper resent him. equipment. While I was in office we Shortly thereafter, Joseph Bal- had all of that. What happened subse­ samo, an attorney in Suffern, arrived quently is a piece yet to be written. to represent the patrolman. We sat down, and I told him, in no uncertain On Civil Disobedience terms, that I wanted a resignation Sunday, June 3, 2001 immediately; otherwise, he would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Certain posturing individuals are If he did resign immediately, we would having their story told in today’s New pick up the purloined shrubs, return York Times. They had engaged in them to the Ramapo High School and some acts of civil disobedience and nothing more would be said about it. were shocked when they were jailed for Mr. Balsamo consulted with his 90 days instead of getting a slap on the client, and they agreed to our terms. wrist and the nominal fine they expect­ This set the tone for what I wanted from ed. The coverage is extensive, and the the police department in the Town of people involved need not be memorial­ Ramapo. ized by having their names reported in Later I substantially increased my memoirs. police salaries at all grades. Nobody They remind me, however, of what asked me for it, nobody expected it, and happened in Rockland County in the of course the police were magnificently early days of my tenure as Supervisor appreciative. The next step was to of the Town of Ramapo. upgrade the facilities, get decent police I had been involved on the legal cars and so forth. Within two years, at fringes of the Civil Rights Movement the most, the Town of Ramapo Police since I was in law school in 1949. Further Department was the highest paid, best back, I was a sometime disciple of cared for and best equipped police Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker department in Rockland County. Movement. I was well acquainted with And, I found out, in terms of pay the philosophy and practice of civil disobe­ scale and benefits, the Town of dience. Ramapo now had the highest paid In the years immediately before I police department east of the Missis­ became Supervisor, I had attended two sippi River. national legal conferences sponsored When word got around, police offi­ by CORE, the Congress on Racial cers from all over the state were trying Equality. At one of these conferences, to transfer into Ramapo. We had state Father Robert Drinen, at that time police and a lot of New York City police Dean of the Boston College Law officers, who were living in Rockland School, was the featured speaker, and County, dropping by to make an his subject was civil disobedience. inquiry. Father Drinen subsequently became a What we achieved was tremen­ United States Congressman from dous morale and esprit de corps and an Massachusetts, serving several terms. understanding, on the part of our At any rate, at about the time I policemen, that, if they so much as became Supervisor of Ramapo in Janu­ reached for an apple, they would get ary of 1966, there was a great deal of an arm cut off. I wanted nothing short civil rights agitation and specifically, of absolute discipline and honesty in here in Rockland County, the pressure 4 was on to break the white monopoly on sure for change. the volunteer fire departments. I am a product of Manhattan Col­ There was a chap in Rockland lege and its liberal theology. Under­ County, Bill Scott of Spring Valley, now graduates were introduced to the dead, whom I knew by reputation and Catholic Worker Movement and the came to know well later. He was a very radicalism of fundamental Christianity energetic and forceful guy, committed as practiced by Dorothy Day and Peter to achieving civil rights for his fellow Maurin. In law school I also knew a African-Americans. chap, by the name of Albon Man, who Bill Scott and others made a prac­ became a good friend of mine. Albon tice of lying down, handcuffed or what­ spent three and a half years in Dan­ ever, in front of fire trucks at the annu­ bury Prison as a conscientious objector, al firemen’s parades to make their while I was putting my four years in point.