[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 15185]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    RAMAPO AMONG BEST PLACES TO LIVE

  (Mr. ENGEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I am happy to report that Money Magazine has 
just named the town of Ramapo, in Rockland County in my district, as 
one of the 100 best places to live in the United States, ranking Ramapo 
as 49.
  I congratulate Ramapo and its town supervisor, Christopher St. 
Lawrence, who has done a wonderful job in leading that town. Ramapo, 
with a population of 110,000 residents, is the largest town in Rockland 
County, with a third of Rockland's inhabitants. It combines such 
densely populated places as Spring Valley, Muncie, New Square with the 
country settings of Chestnut Ridge, Suffern, and Wesley Hills.
  Half of Ramapo is designated park land. Businesses have invested more 
than $1 billion in the past 4 years. The town has the highest bond 
rating in the country. A new state-of-the-art cardiac care unit has 
opened at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern. They have great schools, 
and $125 million has been invested in a water treatment plant.
  Three years ago, Money Magazine named Ramapo as the second best place 
to live in the Northeast. This year the ranking was done on a 
nationwide basis.
  I am proud to represent Rockland and Ramapo in the U.S. Congress, and 
I congratulate the people of Ramapo on achieving this great honor.

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