Thursday, May 23, 2013
Tourism commissioner says rental market is healthy.
Though immense devastation from Superstorm Sandy remains visible up and down the New Jersey coastline, beaches, boardwalks and even rental homes are ready for the annual influx of summer tourists that will begin this weekend, officials said Thursday at the annual "State of the Shore" event in Belmar. The State of the Shore report is presented by state officials and the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium every year before Memorial Day weekend kicks off, but this year it evolved to mark the unofficial reopening of the Shore area following Sandy. With emergency repairs to state and local infrastructure damaged by the storm now complete, work has started on the state's long term recovery, said Bob Martin, commissioner of the state Department of …
DEP officials say the handicap ramp at Graydon Pool in Ridgewood won't be ready for summer.
With work on a handicap ramp at Graydon Pool not expected to begin until at least the fall, Fair Lawn officials have opened up the borough's sand bottom pool to Ridgewood residents with physical disabilities this summer. Mayor John Cosgrove emailed Ridgewood Mayor Paul Aronsohn Wednesday to inform him that Ridgewood residents with disabilities will still have the option to spend a day at a beach in Bergen County after Fair Lawn's council decided Tuesday to offer Villagers with special needs non-resident rates at Memorial Pool. "The Council discussed the fact that the accessible ramp at Ridgewood’s Graydon Pool has been delayed, and I am happy to report that there was unanimous consensus to allow disabled residents from Ridgewood and their…
This will be Obama's first visit to Shore since just after Sandy.
President Obama and Gov. Christie will visit the Jersey Shore on Tuesday, according to The Record in Bergen County. This will be Obama's first visit to the area since Oct. 31, just after the storm struck. A full itinerary of the visit was not available. More information can be found here.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Group hopes to heighten awareness of 10 sites in need of preservation funding.
A state historic preservation advocacy group released its list of the most endangered New Jersey sites Wednesday, detailing damage, some Superstorm-Sandy related, that has put 10 landmarks at risk for demolition. Properties that were classified as the "most endangered" have architectural and historic integrity with an identified threat and Preservation New Jersey, the organization that compiled the list, felt their inclusion could potentially help legislators realize the importance in preserving them. Included on the list is Morris County's Glen Alpin property in Harding Township. The Gothic Revival mansion is threatened by a need for sustainable use, according to Preservation New Jersey. The Morris Canal Rockaway River Aqueduct, in …
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Former Congressman has filed paperwork to run against the Republican incumbent.
It sure seems like former Congressman Andy Maguire is looking to reclaim his old seat. The Democrat from Ridgewood is making the rounds and raising a warchest to take on well-funded, name-brand conservative incumbent, Scott Garrett. While Maguire – who was a congressman from 1974-1980 before Marge Roukema ousted him – claims the campaign is still "exploratory" at this point, his spokesman told northjersey.com that the 5th district seat is "certainly winnable." Maguire, 75, has been at party events in recent months, most recently introducing two Democratic Glen Rock council candidates. Politickernj.com reported he has filed the paperwork to take on Garrett in 2014. While the 5th district still favors Republicans, new voting lines now bring …
Monday, May 20, 2013
Federal government had the program closed last year after higher-than-anticipated death rates and reports of kidney failure, according to northjersey.com
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Monday, May 20
A year after the federal government shut it down, Hackensack University Medical Center has reopened its kidney transplant center. Medicare shut the kidney center down last year after higher-than-anticipated rates of death and kidney failure. According to a report on northjersey.com, the hospital has brought aboard a new head of surgery, additional surgeons, and upgraded its evaluation systems to spot potential problems. Some staff will also have backgrounds in cardiology and endocrinology, the report noted. Per the report, the first-year survival rate for patients who received a transplant between Jan. 1, 2009 and June 30, 2011 was 90.5 percent, under the 96 percent rate expected. Hackensack University Medical Center is the only hospital …
Thursday, May 16, 2013
New Jersey's only female governor spoke at the Bergen County Women's Republican Club's 90th anniversary celebration.
Former Gov. Christie Todd Whitman urged attendees at the Bergen County Women's Republican Club's 90th anniversary celebration Wednesday to vote for minorities, women and Gov. Chris Christie. "We need people with different life experiences, with different ways of thinking, to be at that [decision-making] table," Whitman said during her keynote address at Seasons in Washington Township. Whitman, New Jersey's first and only female governor, said she supported more women and citizens from minority groups running for office and also voiced support for Governor Christie in his run for re-election against Democrat Sen. Barbara Buono. Whitman pointed to Christie’s willingness to work across party lines. "We really can set the pace for the nation…
Fair Lawn borough council adopted a $46.8 million municipal budget Tuesday that will increase taxes $32 on the average assessed homeowner.
Fair Lawn borough council adopted a $46.8 million municipal budget Tuesday that sacrifices a zero tax increase to build surplus. The council's Republican majority supported the budget, which raises taxes 1.37 percent — $32.37 on a home assessed at $323,679 (the borough average) — but uses a smaller percentage of surplus than any budget since 2007. Democrats Lisa Swain and Kurt Peluso opposed the budget, arguing that council could afford to take an additional $400,000 to $500,000 from the borough's remaining $3,541,900 surplus to keep taxes flat for residents. "After going through this line by line, I think there’s sufficient cushion in many areas of the budget and that would have allowed us to take a little bit more out of surplus," Swain …
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan says sheriff's officers "jeopardized" public safety by not following protocol on handling "live explosives" at the Bergen County gun buyback in April.
The ongoing feud between Sheriff Michael Saudino and County Executive Kathleen Donovan intensified again this weekend, with Donovan calling for the attorney general to investigate claims the sheriff's department jeopardized the public's safety in handling "live mortar rounds". In a statement released to the press on Saturday, Donovan said the sheriff's department failed to turn live mortar rounds to Bergen County Bomb Squad members during the April 13-14 county gun buyback, as is protocol. "We applaud the Sheriff for a successful and worthwhile program, but we are concerned about the inappropriate and potentially dangerous way live mortar rounds were dealt with," Donovan said. "My concern is that the safety of the citizens of Bergen County…
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Money to go to balancing the general state budget rather than building houses for low- and middle-income residents
Defying several attempts at killing it off, the New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing met for the first time in more than two years last week to begin the process of taking at least $142 million in funds dedicated to low- and moderate-income housing to help balance the state budget. COAH, which has few friends in the Legislature, was reorganized out of existence in 2011 by Gov. Chris Christie. The council voted 4-1 to ask municipalities to send proof of their plans to spend any money that had been dormant in their affordable housing trust funds for four years as of July 17, 2012 and transfer the remaining, unspent money to the council by May 22, according to the resolution. The resolution also gave its acting director approval to inform…
recallbethmason
8:23 pm on Thursday, May 23, 2013
sorry bob martin but i have no respect for anything you say or do as you were the idiot who approved the monarch project to built in Hoboken NJ. do you remember the project bob? two 12 story towers to be built on a platform over the hudson river...you know the area that is considered by FEMA to be to dangerous to build on because of superstorm sandy severely flooded the area! nice going schmuck… more ›