by Bill Batson
On May 22, at around 11:00p, I rose to the podium in the auditorium of Clarkstown Town Hall to invoke the name of  June Sundvik. As a first time author at 88, June had published Life on Old Mill Road from 1750 to 1950. She had given her last measure to complete a book about the road that she was born on in 1929. As I sat at a forum where the fate of Old Mill Road was being decided, I knew she would want her work to speak for her, and in defense of the homes, family’s and habitat that she so loved.
The idea for the book started when she came across papers and artifacts removed from the basement of a home that was condemned to create Lake DeForest. Sundvik’s volume chronicles her family’s history as well as stories of her neighbors, some of whom were noteworthy creatives including stained glass artists Clement and Maurice Heaton, illustrator Noel Sickles and the actor George MacReady. Her father, Gustav Svahn, was a very prominent builder responsible for 10 homes on Old Mill Road and many others throughout the region.

As evidence, June’s book provides the base line comparison to show the impact of decades of development on Old Mill Road.  The 2019 State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR) handbook states that “changes in population patterns or community character likely to be induced by a project have been held by the courts to be relevant concerns in environmental review”(see Chinese Staff and Workers Association et al., v. City of New York et al,1986).
One of the structures that June describes in Chapter 17 of her book is the John Tourner house, which is possibly the oldest in the County.  The structure, which Tourner was removed from for being a Tory, is part of a local network of historic sites on or near Old Mill Road that include Storms Tavern, and the historic markers at the 4 corners in West Nyack at the other end of Old Mill, one discussing Washington’s encampment, another identifying the corners as Pye’s Corner, and a 3rd on Colonial Clarkstown that states “Ancient Indian Trails intersected at this place.”
Local historic homes and markers, along with the experience of local residents who live and/or drive on Old Mill Road should give us the common sense to prevent excessive truck traffic anywhere near this location.

A hastily called meeting of the Clarkstown Planning Board is now scheduled for June 5 at 6:30p to discuss a traffic study on the Suez proposal.  I urge all interested in Rockland history, and its future, to attend.
This will be the third meeting in a month on Suez Water Company’s plan to build their headquarters, and station a fleet of over 100 vehicles, on the banks of Lake Deforest, our source of drinking water.
At a contentious meeting on May 22,  Planning Board Members were visibly surprised to learn that a year-long repair of Snake Hill Bridge would occur at the same time that Suez would be staging their fleet of commercial vehicles on Old Mill Road. The resulting traffic from Suez would be redirected through residential streets, including historic Old Mill Road.

After publicly expressing their frustration at the news of contemporaneous bridge construction, the planning board demanded a traffic study. After on-the-spot community input suggested an interval for public review, the board announced a meeting date of June 19th.
While meeting with Clarkstown Supervisor George Hoehmann on June 1, activists expressed their own shock that the meeting date had been precipitously switched to June 5th.  The community would not have two weeks, but two days to review the traffic study.
Residents began to receive the 169 page report by email on Monday, June 3rd. Neighbors of this site had less than 48 hours to work, sleep, care for their families and read this report. One resident wrote, as well, “The community would like to have an independent consultant review this study as well but we find ourselves in a situation where that can hardly be possible since the planning board has rescheduled the meeting from June 19th to June 5th, less than 44 hours away.”
In the pursuit of meeting the lowest rung of legal requirements, Suez has abandoned any pretense of making a good faith effort to inform the public. Legitimate concerns and rights are being trampled in the rush to build a facility inappropriately close to a critical natural resource. Clear cutting trees in one of the few remaining pristine natural habitats near the reservoir adds arboreal injury to this civic assault.
It is said that the most deadly place in Africa is between a hippo and the watering hole. The only thing standing between Suez and our watering hole, Lake DeForest, is the public, the seven members of the planning board and every elected official in Rockland County whose constituents need access to safe drinking water.
The only difference between Suez and the hippo in my analogy is that hippos don’t need permission to stampede. Suez can be turned back through the courts of law and public opinion. Join this fight before it’s too late and the only watering hole in Rockland County is no longer safe for anyone, hippo or human, to drink.
Here’s my column about June, her book, and Old Mill Road from November 14, 2017. Copies of her book are hard to find.  However, after June 5, the Planning Board of Clarkstown will have a copy.

I met Rockland County’s newest author when she was 85 at a book talk I gave at Valley Cottage Library.  “I’m writing a book and you’re going to help me self-publish,” she informed me. “Sure,” I replied, thinking I would never hear from her again. Two years later, I answered a call from an unknown number and heard the party say, “I’m done writing. Let’s get this published. You promised.” That determined voice was a force of nature named June Sundvik.
My bluff had been called  I never expected June to call back.  The way forward required acknowledging a tragedy.  June sought my guidance because I had self-published Nyack Sketch Log Volume I.  However, without the wisdom and dry wit of Jim Hershberger, my tome would have never made the book store shelf. Jim was a retired executive who made it his second life’s mission to provide tech support to historical societies and non profits and tail-gate every Giants home game. Jim vetted printers, compared notes with other self-published authors and helped me organize my sketches, essays and thoughts. The only way that I was able to help June was by reverse engineering what Jim did for me. Jim passed away on November 11, 2016. His loss is profound, but so is the continued resonance of his generosity.

June Sundvik was able to draft like a cyclist in the wake of Jim’s hard and smart work, channeled through me, to publish an exceptional local history entitled Life on Old Mill Road from 1750 to 1950.  Her family moved to Valley Cottage from Teaneck, New Jersey to a property that her grandfather, Carl Anderson, purchased in 1927.  Her father, Gustav Svahn, was a very prominent builder responsible for 10 homes on Old Mill Road and many others throughout the region.
With the help of fellow Swedish immigrants, Svahn built a garage, a flat-roofed four-bedroom house, dug a pond, created a cause way and an island in the pond, and expanded the original flat-roofed house to three-stories with a cathedral ceiling living room, among other structures, for his family.  The man-made and augmented natural features were so impressive that Charles and Ann Lindbergh were seen admiring the property from the road.
In July of 1928 Gustav and his wife Clara made June, the youngest of three. June’s personality was clearly shaped by her father’s blizzard of building. In how she wrote about her father, you can see the genesis of  June’s aesthetics, resourcefulness and resilience. “Besides being a builder, he loved gardening and flowers,” she wrote of her father. “He landscaped the property with plantings; some were formal, but most were placed in natural settings. The hillsides were dotted with daffodils, climbing roses grew around the pond, and rock gardens were tucked away along the paths.”
His prolific construction projects also betrayed a playful aspect. He built a miniature lighthouse, a shed for their beloved swans, Hansel and Gretel to winter in, a playhouse for the children, houses for the dogs. June’s hobby horse was deployed as a weather vane on a barn. His daughter June, pictured here playing at the base of the lighthouse, would go on to become an accomplished weaver and water colorist and now, a published author.