Most Viewed 2017

10. 'Just for you, neighbor'
The tenth most viewed story was published at the end of March and detailed how Woodbury Common Premium Outlets was offering shopping with special perks for people living within 30 miles.
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9. Monroe is already awake!
Once again, a letter to the editor from United Monroe's John Allegro was among the most viewed items in The Photo News during 2017. In this missive, published in June, Allegro chastises an earlier letter writer: “The idea that Monroe needs to 'wake up' shows a willful ignorance of our community's civic pride.... It's an insult to the thousands of our citizens who attend rallies and Town Board meetings, sign petitions, and support the candidates who have brought sanity back to our government.”
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8. The Watering of Kiryas Joel
Seventeen years in the making, water from phase one of the Kiryas Joel pipeline to flow in June.
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7. Whither the well?
The seventh most viewed story was one published at the end of June detailing the court case over the Cornwall water supply that highlighted a growing chasm between Kiryas Joel and its neighbors.
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6. 'Politics should not get in the way of jurisprudence'
The sixth most viewed story again is a letter to the editor in early January about the Kiryas Joel annexation, again writtn by John Allegro of United Monroe. He wrote: “The Kiryas Joel annexation lawsuit is in appeal. The Courts will make the final decision – based on the merits – in the future. Nobody, including our Town Supervisor, has the legal or moral authority to exert political pressure on our School Board to make a premature decision.”
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5. Repeal Harley Doles
The fifth most viewed story in The Photo News during 2017 was another letter to the editor, this time by John Allegro, one of the founders of United Monroe. It begins: “Next week, the Town Board will vote “Yes” or “No” on Supervisor Harley Doles' proposal to repeal the accessory apartment law in Monroe.”
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4. The Artaud affair
If you want to understand the propulsive growth of Kiryas Joel and how it is upending the lives of its neighbors, look no further than the private well at the home of Rene Artaud at 505 Forest St. in the Town of Monroe. The freshly deepened pit in his back yard speaks to a fear afoot in the communities abutting KJ that the overflow of people and institutions from the village is imperiling their most precious natural resource — the water.
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3. 'Pressing the M-W School District to act prematurely ... would be improper'
The third most view story during 2017 was a letter to the editor in January from the United Monroe Executive Committee to Joel Petlin, the Kiryas Joel superintendent of schools. It is important to note the adversarial tone of the letter, a tone that would change during the course of the year.
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2. The pressure for housing within Kiryas Joel and in neighboring communities
Two stories, one published in February (KJ outgrowth expands) and the other in May ('Be fruitful and multiply') dealing with the housing market in the Village of Kiryas Joel and outside the village in South Blooming Grove and Woodbury accounted for the second most viewed stories in 2017. The first detailed single-family rentals in the Village of South Blooming Grove and homes for purchase in Woodbury. The second covered a Yiddish newspaper's report that 6,150 units of housing could be built within Kiryas Joel's expanded borders.
KJ outgrowth expands
'Be fruitful and multiply'

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1. Crime News
The most viewed group of stories were the police blotters from the Village of Monroe, Village of Harriman and Town of Woodbury Police departments as well as the State Police at Monroe.
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