A Facebook “cause” page, where individuals can sign up opposing parole for the two killers of Paula Bohovesky in 1980, has gathered close to 3,000 electronic signatures,  which will be submitted to parole authorities.

The page, and a PetitionForPaula.org Web site have been created by a coalition headed by County Legislator John Murphy, whose own children were classmates of Paula and her brother Peter when the 16-year-old honor student, artist and aspiring actress was grabbed off a Pearl River street, beaten, sexually assaulted and repeatedly stabbed before being left to die just blocks from home.

Two men, Robert McCain and Richard LaBarbera, were convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life. They have applied for parole twice since becoming eligible and have been rejected both times — in 2005 and again in 2007.

They come up again in the next few months and the Web site and Facebook page are designed to supplement paper petitions circulating in and near Pearl River.

The Facebook page, which can be accessed after joining the free social networking service, went on line Sunday and collected 2,847 names as of 3 p.m. yesterday.

Residents of Rockland County Sewer District No. 1 should be glad to hear that the district is getting more than $35 million in federal stimulus money, which will reduce the cost to taxpayers of a new wastewater treatment plant.

The plant will provide sewers for western Ramapo — primarily Hillburn and Sloatsburg — and replace individual septic systems, many of which are old and crumbing, resulting in leaking and pollution of soil and groundwater.

The mayors of both villages are happy to see the $125 million project moving toward completion. They’re also happy to hear the stimulus money will reduce the bill.

But here’s an idea for the district.

It’s great to use that money to reduce the overall cost of the project — at one time projected as high as $153 million. But how about setting some of it aside to help the poor, disabled, seniors and others on fixed or low incomes pay for the connections necessary to tie into the new sewers?

That would assure that pollution problems get solved regardless of a homeowner’s ability to pay for a line from the house to the sewer line.

As I do many nights, I dozed off last evening to awaken around 11 p.m., ready to watch a late sports even if I can find one.

This week, my cable provider is offering a free preview of MLB Extra Innings, which offers about 10 Major League games daily throughout the season.  There’s a reasonable subscription fee, which I paid last year, but won’t this year with still looming economic uncertainty.

But last night, I caught the end of the Los Angeles Dodgers vs. the San Diego Padres and then switched to the Angels vs. the Oakland Athletics.

I just missed seeing Angels rookie pitcher Nick Adenhart pitch six innings of scoreless baseball.

Sadly, it’s an opportunity that won’t come again.

Adenhart’s Angels bullpen mates blew the lead and ended up losing the game, which I’m guessing ended around 1:15 a.m. our time.

Within hours, Adenhart was dead, killed with two others in a crash in Fullerton, Calif., with a hit-and-run driver, who was later arrested. A fourth individual remains in critical condition.

I’m not really an Angels fan and pay little attention to American League baseball, but for Adenhart, from Silver Spring, Md., to win a starting job in the majors as a 22-year-old rookie, he must have possessed a talent worth seeing.

He certainly had a bright future awaiting — a future lost to another 22-year-old, a driver police say will be charged with manslaughter, felony driving under the influence and hit and run.

He was so new to the Major Leagues that the Angels roster on a major sports Web site didn’t yet list his salary.

I’m one of the millions who measure the start of a new year, not from January 1, but from Opening Day of the baseball season.

Today is a soggy opener, no doubt, but baseballs were pitched and hit and caught for real today — no longer the practice stuff we call Spring Training.

Even if it doesn’t feel like Spring is here, the new baseball season is.

It brings with it new fields for both the Yankees and the Mets, new hopes and new concerns.

It may be how you play the game that matters most in life, but from today on, it IS whether you win or lose that matters.

The Mets posted a win today, and the Yankees are getting their feet wet in Baltimore, trailing the Orioles after three innings.

So, to Mets and Yankees fans all, Happy New Year!

County Legislator Frank Sparaco, R- Valley Cottage, has a good idea in trying to make it possible for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to attend Rockland Community College on a tuition-free basis.

It’s not going to break the bank, even in tough times, but just might work to keep young veterans close to home at a time when they most need their local support system of friends, family and familiar institutions.

Making it in Rockland isn’t easy for new high school and college graduates and neither is it easy for young veterans, who face added burdens.

There is a stumbling block, however, but it’s one our Albany delegation could address. Right now, to get state funding for RCC students, it’s necessary to charge tuition.

The college is doing its part, creating a Veterans Outreach Office.

That’s a help. This would be a big help.

Lois and Peter Bohovesky have been through this before — twice.

This afternoon, right about now, in fact, they should be wrapping up their victims’ impact statements before New York state parole officials in Manhattan, part of the effort to keep two killers behind bars.

Paula Bohovesky — Lois’s daughter and Peter’s sister — was a 16-year-old Pearl River High School student when she was beaten, sexually assaulted, stabbed repeatedly and left to die in a driveway just blocks from her home in the hamlet in October 1980.

The two men convicted of killing her have come up for parole in 2005 and 2007. They’re eligible again in the next few months and that’s why there’s a renewed effort to keep them in jail.

As in the other years, the Bohoveskys appear before parole officials to argue that the killers not be released.

They believe they could kill again, a belief reflected in the last rulings that kept the two in prison.

Lois Bohovesky fears that when she’s gone, the burden will fall to Peter alone.

County Legislator John Murphy, whose children were classmates of Paula and Peter Bohovesky, has orchestrated an effort to assure that won’t be the case.

He’s circulated petitions calling for officials to keep Robert McCain and Richard LaBarbera in prison.

The petitions are available in many Pearl river shops and through the new Web site, PetitionForPaula.org

So the first one-seat ride from Rockland to New York City will come to an end with the decision to stop ferry service from Haverstraw to Yonkers and lower Manhattan on May 1.

The service, operating since September 2007, just didn’t grow a big enough passenger following to justify the cost and the subsidy coming from taxpayers in tight times.

Viewed from the beginning of consideration as a pilot project, it actually pulled ahead to become the first of three potential one-seat rides for Rockland to Manhattan commuters.

Still in the wings are:

— The potential commuter rail service that would stretch from the Suffern-Hillburn area across Rockland along the Thruway right of way and over a new Tappan Zee Bridge  to  connect into the Metro-North Hudson Line south ov Tarrytown. That would carry Rockland riders to  Grand Central Terminal on Manhattan’s East Side;

— NJ Transit service from Rockland that would pass through Bergen County on the way to the proposed Trans-Hudson Express Tunnel, which would double the number of trains that can cross the river  each hour to  deliver passengers from Rockland and New Jersey points  to a new station just north of Penn Station on the West Side.

Because it’s been running a bit ahead  of the  often-dalayed Tappan Zee Bridge project, that one now looks like the favorite to  be next  to establish the  holy grail of  commuter service —  the one-seat ride.

No one is going to walk away from either the Tappan Zee Bridge commuter rail project or the new tunnel — which represents a partnership between NJ Transit and the Port Authority — once those investments are made.

In that respect, Haverstraw to Manhattan ferry service was a relatively inexpensive experiment.

Perhaps it was also one ahead of its time that could have used some more time to grow and plant roots.

Problem was, the funding to make that possible just couldn’t be found.

Even out of power in both Albany and Washington, it’s pretty easy being a Republican.

And Democrats knew it would be this way when Barack Obama rode the wave of anti-Bush sentiment into the White House with control of the House and Senate to boot.

At the state level, it translated in a Democratic governor who crashed in the flames of a sex scandal followed by Gov. David Paterson, who seems to be trying hard as he can to work his way out of office. The anti-Bush fervor was strong enough to cost Republicans control of the state Senate after decades in the majority. That makes it easy to deny responsibility and assess blame.

So now you have one party control in Washington and Albany and the party that’s on the outside — right now the Republicans — taking every opportunity to chop on opposition — right now the Democrats.

If the state budget is late, blame the Democrats, they say. If spending is out of control, don’t blame us. But what about all the years when Republicans had the upper hand and the budget didn’t get done on time?

Obama is spending like a madman, they say. But what about Bush driving the deficit through the ceiling and looking the other way while the nation’s economic system came unglued?

That’s not to say the Democrats didn’t do the same.

And that’s precisely the problem. Everyone takes advantage of any position of strength rather than sharing the load and pulling in the same direction for the good of the country or the state.